January 2016 Food Report

Groceries: $143.42
Unnecessary Outside Foods and Snacks: $121.38

Total Spent for January 2016: $264.80 (up 9.88%)

Ugh. A $23.80 increase from December’s already high number of 241. And I think $121.38 is the most I’ve spent on outside food since I started tracking it. $60 of that was spent in one weekend, when I had weekend training at the bank job and didn’t have time to make weekend food. If it wasn’t for that, I had a shot at… WOAH!

I just figured something out. This is my winter pattern, isn’t it? Once the weather gets cold, I buy more outside food. It’s what I did last year, right? Yes, and I made sure to document that pattern in two posts: The Sad Return of Outside Food, and Winter Weight Eliminated. Ha! I knew documenting my eating patterns would pay off in more than financial ways. Now that I know the underlying cause for my outside food intake, I can attack the problem and end this winter right. That should be a lot easier than year, as my homemade food tastes much better:

Ground chicken with fresh SALSA, onions, and fresh mozzarella on whole wheat pita bread

I put them in the George foreman grill like a quesadilla to melt the mozzarella and harden the pita

Those grilled tacos/quesadillas tasted awesome, and I plan to have them at least once a month. I was extremely proud of myself for continuing my quest to add more variety to my culinary repertoire. (Yeah, I know it’s about the same as my tacos except adding mozzarella cheese and grilling the taco, but I’ll still call it different.)

My old rice cooker, made by Aroma. Too small to hold my weekend rice, which usually lead to overflow

Biggest problem was the flaking of the non-stick pot. The chemicals in the pot that flake off can cause a host of health problems, including cancer.  It seems that every innovation made for convenience is usually linked to some kind of risk, leading me to believe that our iron pot and fire caveman ancestors had it right in the first place to keep it simple.

Aroma, for some godforsaken reason, does not sell replacement stainless steel pots, so I had to buy a brand new rice cooker. Hence my new rice cooker, with stainless steel everything

I bought a new rice cooker, the Oyama something. It’s much bigger than my old Aroma cooker, but I didn’t buy it for the size. Aroma has non-stick pots that begin to flake after a few months. That opens the door to a whole list of health issues from the chemicals used to make the non-stick substance. I'd rather soak and scrub for an extra 8 seconds than increase my chances of getting a life-threatening disease. So, along with a healthier rice, the clean-up is a lot easier to do since the bigger pot means no more overflow.

My pride and joy. The key to flavor for my weekend rice was the Goya Sazon and adding 1 or 2 tablespoons of seasoned salt. I'm still looking for alternatives to the salt

My rice has gone from being bearable to very delicious. VERY delicious. With my weekend rice wreaking havoc on my taste buds, the chances of my ordering outside food during those days are very low. Along with chicken, I also want to make salmon to go with my weekend rice. Sooner or later, I’ll have to find more meats to make with my rice, as I’m sure this pattern will get redundant after a few months.  

February should be a great month for food. Now that I know I’m deep into my winter pattern, I can keep a lookout for my usual excuses around this time of year. Next month’s food report should have a drastic decrease of outside food spending.

P.S.: I start my grocery budget on the last week of the month instead of the first week. This is to avoid all the welfare bums with EBT/Benefit cards that clog up the grocery stores on the 1st of the month. So I've already gone a week into February's food budget, and there's been no outside food. Looking good!.