Hey y’all! Welcome to the series Weekly Eating.

Here is where I’ll talk about the week’s meal plan versus reality, what we ate for the week, and how we did budget-wise. I hope it gives readers a behind-the-scenes look into our life through the lens of food, and it’s also a way to keep us on track with meal planning and grocery budgeting.

Feel free to share your wins and lessons in the comments below!

The weekend was a good mix of relaxing and productivity and fun. I spent some time on Saturday whipping up a batch of hot sauce in green and red, along with some pumpkin cookies for this month’s food swap. I ended up with enough hot sauce that I kept plenty for us and also a bottle of each to swap.

I also finally got around to pulling up all the dead and dying summer plants from the garden. The tomatoes had been sadly neglected, as evidenced by several (at least 4) enormous hornworms I found. Like, these suckers were the size of my ring finger for sure. It was fascinating and terrifying and gross.

And did you know they are a favorite host for parasitic wasps? Yeah… Nature, you creepy.

In better news, we also attended the Eleventh Annual Pepper Fest! Held in Briar Chapel, between Chapel Hill and Pittsboro, it is a wonderful day filled with music, dancing, acrobatics, and all the pepper flavored culinary delights.

Hosting everything from cayenne popcorn to ghost chili honey to pepper steeped beers and sodas, this festival will light up your taste bud and set your face on fire. If you want it to. The extra-hot stuff is clearly marked!

From their website:

Monday:

Breakfast – Peach oatmeal. I need ALL the peaches before the season is over. way too soon, as always.

Lunch – I made a triple batch again of this cauliflower barley bowl, it is so dang good.

Dinner – Tonight’s dinner got muy fan-say. I had king oysters and enoki left over from a stop at my favorite asian grocery, so I made King Oyster scallops with rice noodles & enoki base, and a vegan cashew cream sauce. Too legit to quit, the boy even said it was awesome. I could charge $60 a plate for this ish.

I also had several passion fruits from a vine I found, and tried my hand at a coulis, which turned out divine when mixed with soda water. Homemade soda this week homies!

Tuesday:

Breakfast – more oatmeal!

Lunch – more Cauliflower Barley Bowls!

Dinner – This was the Food Swap, so I mostly nibbled on samples.

But when I got home the boy let me have a half a burrito he hadn’t eaten with his dinner 🙂

Wednesday:

Breakfast – Cocoa puffs lol at least I used homemade cashew milk…

Lunch – red lentil dal with rice, hot sauce, crème fraîche, and a garlic curry sauce from the swap. YUM.

And passionfruit soda!

Dinner –Baked cod with red potatoes and asparagus. Super simple, healthy, and tasty a.f. Also the writer of the recipe is freaking hilarious and I’m now a confirmed follower of her blog.

Thursday:

Breakfast – Smoothie. I got a cherry berry mix from the store, and it has cocoa nibs… I hate that. They are chalky and crunchy and I don’t want to chew my drink thank you very much. Now I know.

Lunch – Cauli Cashew bowl! Last one.

Dinner – Thursday Night Co-op! Today was BBQ pulled pork with slaw and chips, and dang was it good!

Friday:

Breakfast – breakfast burrito w peppers, onions, mushrooms, and tomato + hot sauce. nom. nom.

Lunch – Leftover mushroom scallops & last of the seaweed salad

Dinner – well, this turned into one of the most frustrating days of all time when my car smelled like smoke and just stopped running… and after the third tow didn’t show up I said forget it I’m just dealing with this later, and the hubs was sweet enough to take me to dinner, where I could drown my sorrows in a fishbowl margarita! The day got much better after that…

Also the tacos al pastor were DELISH. I was in pain for hours afterwards because I was so full, but, #worth.

The Weekend

I’ll spend a big part of the weekend trying hard to stay off Twitter due to all the things I’m missing by not being at FinCon!

But there is plenty to keep me busy. Like planting all my remaining cold weather goodies like broccoli, cabbage, kale, beets, and radish.

And pulling weeds. And planting oodles of bulbs now so our yard is a riot of color in the spring. And some garlic. And cleaning, which never ends. And turning this bumper crop of Carolina Reapers into delicious, face-melting salsa.

Food Total: $28.61 + 10.81 + 31.57 = $70.99

Not bad overall. One trip to the co-op for bulk barley and more canned pumpkin, one trip to Harris Teeter for cheese and other stuff, and a Produce Box delivery.

Lessons Learned

I enjoy eating the same meals over and over (see, 3 days of cauliflower and barley!) but I also really enjoy trying new recipes (mushrooms as pasta and scallops in the same dish? why not). Both of these things help me save money in the long run, as it keeps cooking at home interesting.

But, going out sometimes is ok too. The experience, not having to do dishes, and eating foods you probably wouldn’t take the time to make yourself all make it worth it. As an occasional treat though, not a daily ritual.

Also gardening is an immensely  satisfying hobby. Even when nothing grows. Even when the only thing you’re feeding is the bugs this year. Even when it rains too much, or not at all. The feeling of kneeling in soft dirt, smelling like compost and rain and Earth, digging holes and tenderly laying baby plantlings in there with the hopes and dreams of their leafy future… there is nothing else like it.

How about you guys? Did you have a learning week or an awesome week of wins?