E-MEALZZZ

Viesa's morning...not quite sure if she was ready to commit to starting the day...

I have to say that one of the more difficult things for us about having a "household" is budgeting...namely food. It's not difficult to put aside money for your rent/utilities/normal monthly expenses, but food is kind of tricky. First of all, it's amazing. We really enjoy food (maybe a little too much sometimes), and moving to Phoenix has given us the rough task of exploring an entire city worth of new restaurants! And I won't lie...it's been awesome for our bellies, not so awesome for our waistlines or bank account.

Our other big issue: meal planning. I know a lot of you bloggies are iron chef status but this lady, not so much. I mean, I can navigate my way around the kitchen and if you give me a recipe I can follow it without royally screwing it up. However, I'm not super creative in that aspect and I don't know a lot of different recipes. Luckily, Christian is a wiz in the kitchen but he's also a super busy dude and can't be the chef all the time.  We also have a hard time making food for only two people! We find food gets wasted and there is nothing I hate like WASTING. Hate hate hate to waste.

So we've been looking for a way to budget and meal plan without breaking the bank or causing me to lose my mind. It was a lucky day that I was scrolling through one of my fave blogs, Offbeat Home (sister site to Offbeat Mama and Offbeat Bride, my go-to wedding website during wedding planning). The editor mentioned that she used a service for meal planning that really helped her cook a different variety of foods and stay on budget. Bingo.

E-mealz (by the way, I firmly believe in spicing up words by exchanging S's for Z's) is a meal planning service that provides priced out meal plans one week at a time based on where you shop, how many people you need to feed and dietary preferences (general, low-carb, low-fat, portion control, gluten-free). Also usually includes at least one slow cooker meal a weak. For $5 a month (GANGA!) you get meal plans, a grocery list with prices based on what store you chose, and recipes for each meal. Click here to see a sample of our weekly plan (the low-carb Wal-Mart plan).

So this was week one for us, starting on Tuesday. Grocery shopping was a lot more straightforward with the list and we came in $20 under grocery budget for the week! Win. First night was a simple but yummy spinach salad. Nothing too complicated, but plenty to fill our bellies (took about 10 minutes to whip up). I knew today was going to be my first challenge. Don't get me wrong; challenge is good! Variety and new cooking skills were part of the reason we signed up. But there's something intimidating about cooking a large piece of meat! And tonight I tackled my first pork roast.

Ahhh! Pork roast! I'm so scared of you!

I followed the instructions this morning (easy peasy, season the thing with salt/pepper/whatever else is lying around, cut a slit in the top, and stuff garlic inside). Seemed simple, but still scary...especially the thought of cooking it for seven hours and it turning out badly. [Note: I may or may not have called my mom to ask her why my roast was tied up in strings and if I should free the poor fellow before cooking...noob status.]

It started to smell amazing soon enough and by the time Christian got home from studying and my online class was wrapping up, I was feeling optimistic. I put him on veggie duty and soon enough we were ready to rock and roll.

Success!!!

It was actually soooo good! Super easy and super delish. We're pretty excited about our new meal plan and so far it's been really easy. The leftover pork roast will be used for tomorrow night's meal (quesadillas!) and planning meals this way helps ensure there is nothing wasted. I think it will be well worth the $5 a month. Viesa thinks so...

Refusing to take her eyes off the pork roast...

Since the beginning of October we've been having friends over one night a week to watch Halloween movies. Because our apartment is a historic duplex, it's long and skinny and the hang out space is sparse. To improvise  we've been pulling out the bedding we use on the futon for guests (egg carton foam, two comforters), moving the coffee table out of the living room, and making a pallet! Were we the only ones whose moms made us pallets when we were little?! Anyway, we realized it's actually really nice/fun to have sleepovers on the floor with our doggy, watch movies, and study...so we decided to leave it out for the week. :)

Viesa loves it.

Sooo....test week this week for Chris, which always means Crazy-town USA. He's been gone studying all day, came home to devour my amazing pork roast, and took off again to study until midnight. Then he's off to ACEP (American College of Emergency Physicians) Scientific Assembly in San Francisco for the weekend, learnin' and doing awesome doctor-like things. My darling Lacey from nursing school is visiting from Ft. Worth, Texas and I'm hoping to spend some quality time with her while Chris is gone. He's back Monday, and we're back at it again.

Oh, and that whole MOVING thing is still looming. Step 1: boxes. I'm still on the hunt.

Ahhhh!

Happy hump day.