Kalbi Meat

Monday

Yesterday, I went to H-Mart at Diamond Jamboree in Irvine to shop for meat. I bought 1.5lbs kalbi beef, 1lb ground beef and 2lbs chicken breast. I also ended up buying 1 cayote and 2 peaches. It cost me an even $13. For lunch I had left overs and for dinner, I had a business mtg so I didn't spend anything there. It was more small plate type things like calamari, ham & cheese squares and hummus but I got full off it. It was at Andrei's Conscious Cuisine & Cocktails. This is a new place but I love it! I heard that Tuesdays(Reggae) and Fridays have live music from 5-8pm. Happy hour is also everyday from 3-6pm. Awesome place you need to check out if you haven't already.

So my budget remains:

What was left from last time: $32.35 - $13

Remaining = $19.35

Tuesday

I had my usual Special K cereal for breakfast (my fave is the fruits and yogurt flavor) and had left overs for lunch. For dinner I cooked the kalbi beef with sweet onions and made a cucumber salad with tomatoes, peaches and raisins.

Kalbi Beef & Sweet Onions

1. Heat olive oil in pan

2. Add half of 1 sweet onion sliced in rings or cut the rings in half. Cook in the oil

3. Add kalbi beef (the one I bought it pre-marinated)

4. I like to add more black pepper, garlic salt and oyster sauce

5. Cover with lid to cook on medium-high heat (always watch it because it'll cook fast)

6. Remove lid and cook beef until it thickens a bit

1st Weekend of the Food Experiment

Saturday

Weekends are probably the hardest times of the week to stay within budget, especially right now since it's summertime. You're out and about and having a good time. You want to just eat, drink and be merry. I decided to check out the Irvine Farmer's Market (Saturdays only, 8am-12pm). I forgot to take pictures but I will next time I go. I have been wanting to go for a while and I read from another blogger that the best time to go is towards the end of the Farmer's Market to get the best deals. You can negotiate the prices down remarkably. I thought I did a pretty good job but I will be much better next week. Now I know which vendor stands to go to first for which produce items.

For $6.40 I got a pretty good amount of fruits and veggies.

- 2 large sweet onions

- 1 huge cucumber

- a bag of green string beans

- 1 cantaloupe

- 2 peaches

- 1 nectarine

Later on that day I went to Huntington Beach with a friend and ended up eating a late lunch at an Irish pub. We shared Irish fries and I got a beer. I'm not counting alcoholic beverages in this budget by the way. That has a budget of its own. So I spent around $7 for food there. Dinner was at my cousins house for a little get together so I didn't spend anything for that meal.

Sunday

I had cereal and milk for breakfast and cooked chicken with green string beans for a late lunch. The chicken was something I already had in the freezer and the string beans were the ones I bought yesterday from the Farmer's Market. I totally forgot to take a picture. =( I'm not in the habit of taking pictures of what I cook, but for the purposes of this project I need to. I ate the peaches and nectarine for snacks. My bf eats with me quite frequently so I have to account for his share of food in my budget. So for the two of us, our budget is $100. However, he won't be here for half of the week so we only have about $75 to spend. We went to an Angels baseball game early and I forgot to bring my water bottle that I told myself to bring to the game. Duh! I was mad at myself for forgetting it in the car. It was so hot that I ended up buying a bottle at the game. $4.25 for water! What a rip off! =(

Total for the weekend:

$6.40 - Farmer's Market

$7 - Lunch @ Huntington Beach

$4.25 - Rip off water @ Angels game

Total = $17.65

Remaining = $32.35

This week will be tough because I have scheduled lunches and dinners with a few friends throughout the week. Having a social life is tough on a budget. *sigh*

Week 1: Getting started

For this experiment, the $50/wk budget will be used for all new groceries I buy. I won't count things I already have. I have a lot of food that I don't cook so it's about time I stop wasting.

I was really excited to start this experiment today. I decided that I should start by cooking dinner. I had leftovers so I decided to combine some to create something new. I had leftover white rice, leftover chicken adobo (Filipino dish) and I had a few eggs. So what did I make? Fried rice!

1. Sautee garlic

2. Add leftover rice

3. Scramble eggs (used 2 eggs)

4. Cut up the chicken in tiny pieces and tossed it in

5. Add black pepper, garlic salt and a little teriyaki sauce

Spent: $0 - Used ingredients I already had

The $50/wk Food Experiment

So a little background on this experiment I'm trying out. I follow @Time on Twitter and ended up on The Cheapskate Blog. A lot of the blogs really interested me but the one blog that really caught my eye was about these 3 bloggers who lived in different parts of the US and were trying to live off $50/wk per person.

So I thought, I should try this. The past few weeks I've had a major reality check. I spend waaaay too much money on food, especially eating out. It's to the point that this along with irresponsible spending (I shop too much), have gotten me in a not so pleasant financial state.

There are many reasons why I decided to try this out.

1. I spend too much eating out and I end up throwing away leftovers.

2. I buy groceries and end up throwing a lot out because they go bad.

3. I want to be more aware of the things I eat.

4. I love to cook! This will really bring me back to cooking and trying out new recipes.

5. The money I spend on one or two meals, I can buy groceries for a week's worht of meals.

I know this will be difficult because I work all day and by the time I get home I don't feel like cooking. I'm tired and I just want to eat. I have to really plan my meals and schedule times to cook it. I need to make food for lunch the next day too so I don't eat out for lunch. There will be days that I meet people for lunches or dinners, I'll have to try to make it up during the week. I'll adjust and try to stick to this experiment as much as I can.

Wish me luck! Hopefully I get through a week doing this. =)