So what's new ? MORE VEGGIES and MORE RUNNING

So, we have a new box.  There's a local CSA that decided to try and expand to schools.  So, they have partnered with several schools around town.  Families sign up.  The boxes are delivered once/ week and they are $25.  The school gets a $3 donation.  You can "add on" other things like extra fruits and veggies, bread, etc., and the school gets a cut of that too.

It's great!  If you remember, I get a box from the farmer's market on Saturdays (we switched to this when our CSA stopped being a CSA).  But I find that we run out of fruit and veg by Thursday.  Conveniently, box delivery is Wednesday. 

This is awesome!  And...this sucks.  The first few weeks I was plagued with sick family members and traveling husband.  Oh. My. God.  So much washing and chopping and cooking.  I'm trying to get into a good rhythm that isn't "just spend every waking moment not at work or helping kids with homework washing and prepping vegetables."

As an example, this is what we got this week:

Saturday box:
Apples - 1 lb
Oranges - 2 lb
Broccoli - 1 large bunch
Cherry tomatoes - 1 basket
Carrots - 1 bunch
Lettuce - 1 head
Radishes - 1 bunch
Baby mixed greens - 1 bag
Kale - one bunch
Plums - 1 lb (about 5)
Peppers, baby - 1 basket

Wednesday box:
Strawberries - 1 basket
Cantaloupe - 1
Celery - 1 bunch
Carrots - 1 bunch
Zucchini - 1.5 lb
Apples - 2
Cherry tomatoes - 1 basket
Broccolini - 1 bunch
Avocado - 1

Sigh.
It's Saturday again.
The hardest thing is the fruit.  My kids eat free lunch at school - we got 30-40 servings of fruit between the two boxes.  Not counting the bananas I buy.  It's WORK.  I'm eating 4 pieces a day and shoving it at everyone.

My lunch today was zucchini cashew soup and a gluten free bagel with 1/2 avocado and roasted cherry tomatoes with garlic.  Dinner is going to be a massive chicken stew (carrots, celery, onion, and probably potatoes from today's box, if it comes in time!)


On to the running.  I've run 2 half marathons this year. The next one is in two weeks.  It's my therapy with the fucking political climate right now.  It's healthier than wine, which I love but messes with my sleep.  My May 1/2 was a 2:28 something finish. My September half was 3:23 (this one is all uphill with a 4000 ft elevation gain, so it's not the same!)

My goal for this one?  Have fun, beat 2:28.  I'm going to try and line up with the 2:15 pacer, but that's a bit of a stretch goal.  My very first 1/2 ever was November 2009, and I finished in 2:17 something.  My all time PR was 2010 with 2:11:04.  Maybe I'll hit that someday?  I did break a 10:00 mile recently on a 10k, so yay me!

Crafty - type accomplishments

So.  Remember those 2017 goals?  Yeah, me neither.  One of them was related to making blankets though.  I found that sitting down with some crocheting is very relaxing.  I'm trying my best to figure out how to get better sleep.  Stress is an issue for me. I'm actually reading a book about sleep, and right now I'm in the chapter where he talks about how bad sleeping pills are.  Um...I think I'm in trouble.

Here's a little string of pictures of things that I've made in the last year or two.

I'm BORED!! HELP!

So, I have this new position (started in December) at work.  It means that several times a week (2-5), I end up working late with late night meetings/ phone calls.  This leaves spouse to pick up the kids and make dinner.

So...since I do the shopping, and his method of cooking is different, I've adjusted by... cooking up 2 big meals on the weekend.

Saturday's dinner feeds us Sat, Mon, Wed
Sunday's dinner feeds us Sun, Tue, Thu
Friday is frozen pizza night, and I just make grilled cheese on gluten free bread

I eat salad for lunch every day.
Hubs eats sandwiches or homemade burritos every day.

If we run out earlier, we have other emergency type foods - quesadillas, veggie burgers, curried lentils, grilled salmon, etc.

Our produce box runs out on Weds, so the rest of the week we eat frozen stir fry veg, and I go to Sprouts on Weds or Thurs and buy broccoli, cucumbers, and brussels sprouts.  Every. Single. Week.  I wander through all the produce and just stare...because it's my lunch break and I'm tired.

The kids are tired of eating the same two things every week.
I don't mind it so much.

But I'm running out of ideas of things to cook that will last a long time (aka, three full meals).

Here's what I've been making:
Vegetarian/ vegan:
- Lentil soup
- Mac and cheese
- Fried rice
- Curried lentils
- Beans and rice

With meat
- spaghetti and meatballs
- chicken soup
- chicken enchiladas
- chili

Each weekend I make one veg meal and one meat meal.

Umm...you'll see that the list has 9 meals.  And every month I need at least 8 of them.  I'm kind of stumped.  I really should go back into this blog's 10 year history and come up with "other things" to make.  I kind of miss being able to make something for one or two nights only ... but I never know when there's going to be TIME mid-week!  Things like Thai curry, roasted curry cauliflower and potatoes...??  For sure, the gluten free thing has thrown a wrench into things.  And the not buying much  meat is another issue.

Plus, ya know, I'm tired!  It's hard to come up with things to make.  When I sit and relax and look at cookbooks, it's not during meal planning.  When I grocery shop, I haven't meal planned yet.  I might find something that looks good but I'm missing an ingredient or it's not on sale.  I hate defrosting meat so I'd rather not bother with that.  I have this awesome Instant Pot that I use for great vegan meals but I haven't figured out any meat meals.

UGGGGHHH

2018 Grocery budget

So last year, I squeaked it under the wire!  Goal of $7000, came in at $6997.16.

But what to do this year.  Increase it for sure.  These kids can EAT.  And, I'm focusing on reducing my use of plastic - meaning more bulk bins, less large bags - even though bulk bins are often more expensive per pound.

So I was thinking of inching it up a few hundred bucks.  But I think I have to go with $150 a week, or $7800.  That's a big jump, and we are already averaging $160 a week - so not sure how realistic.  Something to shoot for anyway.

2017 Exercise Goals update

I've done the math.  Here's the good news bad news:

1. Run - Goal 300 miles - actual 390.54 miles, with a significant number of those being UP HILL.

2.  Bike - Goal 500 miles - actual 48.44 miles.  Even though the boys were in the same school, we couldn't get out butts in gear.  Spring = allergy season.  Summer = summer camps.  December = fires.  Very little biking, that's essentially 5 one way trips to work.  In a year.

3.  Swim - Goal 50 miles - actual 19.94 miles. I did a lot of running.  And had a lot of rest days because running supplanted my swim days.

4.  Walk - Goal 150 miles - actual 245.59 miles.  So, at least I walked if I didn't bike or swim!

5.  Weights/ yoga - Goal 1560 minutes - actual 894 minutes.  Ya know, I like sleeping in instead of firing up the TV in the morning with a workout.

6.  Hiking - no goal, wasn't on the list - Actual 17.7 miles.  Much of my running group in the fall was partly a hiking group (trails were too hard to run on).

So there you are.  Haven't set goals for 2018 yet.  Not sure if I will! 

2017 Goals Recap - Grocery Budget - How did I do?

I'm going to start here and recap my 2017 goals, one at a time!  Because it's been months since I've looked at them, really.

I'm going to start with Goal #2, because it's the easiest!

Goal #2: Grocery bill annual total $7000.

Actual spent: $6,997.16

Wahoo!

Now, it's important to note that this is FOOD ONLY.

it's not wine
it's not paper towels or TP or toothpaste
it's not food gifts we sent for Christmas
it's not food at restaurants
it might even be missing a receipt or two from vacation, if my husband bought something at a grocery store.  But, we did it!  It was hard, and it was a nail biter.

Some graphs, because you know I'm into that:

Monthly grocery totals (by month)

Feb: traveled for long weekend

June: ? I have no idea why it was low

December: Traveling during fires and eating up the freezer

Pie Chart of where our money goes:

Mostly Costco, Local Harvest Produce Delivery, Trader Joe's

Things that helped/ hurt this year:
Helped: kids started getting free lunch in August at school.  It's a school wide thing, not an eligibility thing.

Hurt: I went gluten free in late July.  At first, it wasn't expensive, because I was testing it out.  Rather than mess with gluten free bread or stuff like that, I just started subbing oats, rice, corn tortillas, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes for the carbs that I was eating.  Which wasn't many, to be honest.

Helped: I started working on reducing plastic even more.  I read "Zero Waste Home" by Bea Johnson and it pushed me stop buying bread and start baking it (for the family).

Helped: I bought a new cookbook called "The New Fast Food" by Jill Nussinow.  She's vegan, it's a pressure cooker cookbook.  Everything I've made in my instant pot with it is fab.

Hurt/Helped: The fires.  We were eating on the run which helped as we ate out more but hurt because we bought food wherever.

So how have we been doing in the last few years of tracking?  Not bad, considering my boys are GROWING:

Groceries 2014		$10,261.00
Groceries 2015		$5,706.05
Groceries 2016		$6,864.21
Groceries 2017		$6,997.16

2014 was the "lose the baby weight" year and "to heck what it costs". 

2015 was "OMG that was expensive, let's get a handle on this budget".

2016 was "That budget was too hard.  Live a little."

So there you are, grocery budget Frugal Healthy Simple Style, family of 4 that eats a lot of produce, in Southern California.