The end of the challenge

Well, I made it through. Even if I didn't keep up with detailed day-by-day, meal-by-meal accounts of what I ate! On Saturday, one month after I started my challenge, I had to go to the store to get some heavy-duty garbage bags (three of which I have filled so far with clothes that don't fit, to be donated to a local thrift shop. How the heck did I get so many clothes to start with?) and while I was there, I told myself that, as a reward for making it through a month without buying food, I could get myself a treat. I considered chocolate, granola bars, ice cream, and other goodies around the store that normally would have been tempting impulse buys. But...I just couldn't see the point of getting any of them. They were a waste of money, and things I really didn't need.

However, today I went grocery shopping (used up the remainder of the $20 gift card and then some), and gave in to the lure of two kinds of cookies, some ice cream, and sour-cream-and-onion potato chips. Clearly, my impulse shopping has not been entirely curbed! But it's good to know that I can set a goal and stick to it. And of the masses of meat in my freezer, I'm down to one bag of chicken legs, three pork chops, and a bag of chicken thighs thawing in the fridge. I still have a lot of beans and pasta, too, but even if I don't use those up, they'll travel well. Next goal: getting rid of all the junk I've been toting from apartment to apartment and never using. But that's not kitchen related, so I won't be discussing it on this blog. (Okay, I've got a lot of kitchen stuff I've been toting from apartment to apartment, but I can't see myself getting rid of even the things I never use.) I'm not entirely abandoning this blog, though, I expect to still post things from time to time, such as recipes I've created or adapted, or other food-related challenges, etc. See you when I see you!

5/4/10--Dinner and musings

I tried making rye bread today. The recipe calls for molasses, which I don't have. A little astute Googling produced a handy list of substitutions which not only gave me a nice option, but will also probably be helpful for other things as my experiment proceeds. I used brown sugar in place of the molasses.

The bread didn't rise as much as I expected, even though I ended up leaving it for longer than originally planned. The result is a bread that is probably denser than it's supposed to be, (and sweeter than I expected,) but that is quite edible.

So for dinner I used the heels of one loaf and made the same broiled cheese sandwiches with basil mayonnaise as last Friday. To go with it, I figured I might as well use up the hard-boiled eggs I had in the fridge. I cooked them last week to use in sandwiches, but I seem to have lost my desire for egg-mayonnaise sandwiches...some tastes come and go. I made them into deviled eggs (which I have not lost my taste for). Dinner came out to 796 calories and 43 g fat.

Dieting is not a part of this personal challenge, but I find that just the act of recording what I eat and being aware of the fat and calories makes me eat more reasonable portions and snack less. But stopping the fast food and impulse buying is tough. It seems like everywhere I drive, all I see are billboards and signs for fast food that makes me want to go get some. And today when I went to a store to get some non-food necessities (deodorant, dish soap, and wiper blades, if you really want to know), the first things I saw as I walked in were Grasshopper cookies and strawberries, both of which were calling to me strongly. I've successfully resisted all the temptations so far, but it has been difficult. Even more difficult has been not getting candy from the vending machine at school. I probably could, even within the bounds of this experiment, because I would be using the money on my student card, which has already been designated for buying food, same as the gift card I got for dairy and produce this month. But I've still decided that it wouldn't be in the spirit of the challenge. And I'm the one who sets the rules for myself.

In other news, as I was fixing dinner tonight, I noticed a box of curry mix in the back of one of my cupboards, and realized that would be an excellent use for my slightly old carrots and potatoes! So I moved some chicken and ground beef to the fridge to thaw--chicken for the curry, and ground beef to be divided up into single serving sizes and used for things like burritos and enchiladas once I get more tortillas made. I also need to make another batch of crackers; I'm running low.

--Edit, 5/5/10--I realized today that I used the wrong quantity in the drop-down menu on www.nutritiondata.com when I was calculating the calories and fat of the deviled eggs. Turns out there's a big difference between '1 large' and '1 cup chopped'. Yeah. Should have noticed what the default was!