Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Our Week of Eating Dangerously - Day 1: Shopping Without a Net

Our Week of Eating Dangerously really has its roots in yesterday, or as I like to call it, D minus 1.  I finally talked myself into getting a new phone, which was something I had wanted to do for sometime but could just not justify it.  Finally though, I did justify it (to myself; Mr EA has been telling me to "just get one" for months now).   Anyway, the result of this was that last night, when I should have been planning for the coming week's meals, I was playing with my new phone well into the night.  So when I finally started thinking about my chores, it was 10:30, which was too late to start as it is an hours long process. 
     Normally, I open up my Living Cookbook software and plan the menu using the calendar, then use that to create our shopping list, which I then adjust according to what we already have on hand or need that isn't related to a menu item.  Then I print out the shopping list, then I go through the coupons to have the ones we will probably need together.  Then the list and coupons go with us the next night for shopping.  I have friends who think that is the craziest thing they ever heard.  They just stop to pick up a few things every night, or get what's on sale, or get bunches of packaged food from Costco or something.  Then of course I think that's crazy.  But what a boring world it would be if we were all the same! 
     So anyway.  Because of various other things going on this week, if we did not shop tonight, it would probably not be until this weekend some time.  So we decided to just wing it.  As we wandered through the aisles of Fred Meyer's, randomly picking up and putting down various items, this seemed kind of like a bad idea already.  Like Dr. Henry Jones, I recorded all my important information so I wouldn't have to remember it.    A good percentage of our favorite meals are a bit involved, so I put them in the software.  "Think," I said "What do we like to eat that isn't too involved?"
 "Pizza" said Mr EA.  So we got stuff for French bread pizza (which is what we had to eat tonight).
"OK, pizza."  I said, "What else?"
 "..,.Different pizza?" said Mr EA.  "Spam!  Some kind of meat!"
 "No, seriously"  I said.
     He was serious.  So we wandered around a bit more, picked up some things we vaguely thought might go with some other things we were pretty sure we already had at home and wandered back out.  After paying, of course.  The grocery bill was about on par with what it normally is, so we didn't go absolutely berserk, which was what I would have predicted would happen.  So that was a surprise!  Wonder what else we will discover on this wacky, menu-free adventure we are on?

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