Sometimes the food is just too good--I eat it all before I think to take a picture. This happened when I first cooked this meal, and again with the leftovers. It was peanut sauce with shrimp and freegan pasta, spinach, red pepper, broccoli, and onion. I hope to show you more of it next time.
Final day of Frugan February meals
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, grape tomatoes, spinach, pepper, and Cholula.
Lunch: Quinoa (made with organic chicken broth) with green peas and pink beans, dressed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, cumin, dijon, and soy sauce.
Dinner: Curried tilapia on coconut rice with curried onions, broccoli, and pineapple, with toasted flat bread.
Freegan items: Grape tomatoes, German dark wheat bread, quinoa, green peas, balsamic vinegar, cumin, olive oil, broccoli, pineapple, coconut milk, flat bread, curry, all plates and cutlery pictured, as well and pots, pans, and utensils used in cooking.
Purchased items: 2 eggs (38¢), a dash of hot sauce (2¢), 1/10 of a bag of frozen spinach (17¢), 1/2 can of pink beans (54¢), 1/2 onion (35¢), 1/2 filet of tilapia ($1.07) = $2.53
These were three particularly tasty meals, I anxiously await that day I rediscover the leftovers in the freezer!
Olympic sustenance
If you're allowed a leave of absence from the food pyramid for the Superbowl, then it's only fair to grant the Olympics similar treatment. In that vein, I have prepared myself a glass of boxed red wine from New Hampshire, a mug of freegan potato soup with frozen corn and spinach, freegan flatbread with melted cheddar, freegan spaghetti with freegan marinara, freegan Lifesaver gummy candies, and a freegan soy milk frappé with freegan Nesquick, all conveniently placed on a 99¢ tray from the Christmas Tree Shop and afront the visage of one Apolo Ohno. A night of pleasures.
Produce produce, and people will partake
Freegan produce, tortillas, rice, and beans yield Mexican feast. The formula for simultaneously satisfying the Mother Teresa and the Ebenezer Scrooge inside of you is so simple.
Lost in the food court
This is what I wanted.
I watched the woman place her shopping bags on the floor, slip onto the red naugahyde stool, swallow a few bites of her cheeseburger, nibble on her onion rings, crumple her napkin, slide a few bucks under the salt shaker, and shuffle off. What was left was really exactly what I wanted--half a cheeseburger, half an order of onion rings--and just because it was, for free...and about to go to waste.
This is what I got.
I had a little angel-devil dialog with myself as I waited my turn in line, peering over at the site posted above. Dispute settled, I paid $14 for a cheeseburger with grilled onions, an order of onions rings, and a peppermint oreo shake. In the wake of some user or technical error, what actually turned upon my tray were two cheeseburgers with grilled onions, two orders of onions rings, and two peppermint oreo shakes (I gave one away to a teen boy).
There I sat, alone in the food court of a shopping mall with $14 less than I wanted and some 3,000 calories more than I wanted. All because I had a bit of silly tact ingrained in me a little too strongly.
Sharing is caring
One of the niceties of urban hunting and gathering is the generous stockpile that it generates in the pantry. When my brother comes over to study, I can make him a snack. I rest easy knowing there is always something to whip up, and I don't think twice about the cost (in fact, there is always plenty of food solely because it is free, otherwise I think my cabinets would be quite barren). On this day, I had hamburger buns, onions, and sloppy joe sauce all from the trash, so I paired them with some ground chuck in the freezer, and in minutes I had a hearty delicious dish to fill the belly of the brother.
Life after a UPC
This is a nice find, because while I don't rely on frozen meals day to day, and would rarely spend the money on them, they are convenient, and these being Amy's pretty near delicious and not horrendously life-reducing. I took plenty, but left behind plenty more. Each had been stripped of its UPC code. I presume this has something to do with audits from the distributor or whomever regarding what did and didn't sell. This practice doesn't affect the edibility of a product like these frozen meals, which contain an inner plastic sheath, but that's not true of everything. Milk for example is a liquid and liquids don't remain within the bounds of a container once a 1.5" x 1" rectangle has been cut from it. Needless to say, the milk is poured down the drain before the jugs make it out to the street. I find milk to be a most divine drink, and it saddens me terribly to come upon piles of drained containers, each with a matching puncture wound.
Cupcakes and cupcakes and cupcakes
What a welcome treat en route from one bar to another on a Friday night! And it wasn't even my idea, it was that of my wise disciple pictured here. Cupcake Shop + Garbage Bags = Bounty. The formula just came to her. That's what happens when you start thinking right.
$291.05
I tallied the price tags of the non-perishables that I collected from Gristedes the other day.
The total is $291.05.
I only took what I wanted and could carry, which was only about 1/5 of what was there. And the figure doesn't include baked goods or produce. And that was only one store out of so very many on one night out of so very many. Consider how much that all adds up to!
I understand the need for an sell-by labeling system. It's the same with college move-out day--I understand why it happens, I know the feeling of having three hours to pack to move across the country while hungover, with your parents looking over your shoulder, foreseeing no future use for a shower caddy or XL twin sheets. The frustration I have is that because it is foreseen and unfailing, then infrastructure should be in place to comfortably consign the goods to another user. Cambells soup! The most classically non-perishable food item I can imagine, was being thrown out by the dozen. Yes, the sell-by date had come and gone, so fine...the store can't sell it. But value does not have to vaporize along with that store's ability to put it on their shelves.
The granola and nuts were being tossed because their expiration date had passed. The thing is, granola doesn't instantaneously spoil. A cereal moth might nudge it's way in, or the oil might begin to taste past its best, but even then it's a matter of taste--it's nothing biological emetic. That being the case, it would be nice if there were a way for liability to be relaxed so that perfectly edible food could be redistributed.
I don't meant to get preachy, but with 400,000 people in New York City suffering from moderate to severe hunger, and over 1,000 soup kitchens & food pantries in operation, many far over capacity, the framework of food disposal seems to be in need of a major overhaul.
Buns and things
Seasonable for summer barbeques, I discovered quite a load of hot dog and burger buns. Grilled the asparagus, and made a refreshing chilled broccoli and tomato salad. The bagels and croissants were craft services on our film shoot.
...just the daily victuals from the square of sidewalk that never quits giving.
Macro Vegan Galore
Every market in the city seemed to have these out that night. Dumplings, soba, quinoa, lentils, and so much more.
Gleaning Dean and Deluca
To make cauliflower whisk together olive oil, salt, pepper, curry powder, coriander....and guava paste. Spread florets on baking sheet, coat them in the dressing, and roast at 400º for 25 minutes.
Be fancy
Fancy people enjoy wine and hors d'ouevres, so that's what they serve at fancy clan gatherings. Feign interest in 19th c. scagliola tabletops, and get yourself to that gallery opening. Plus it never hurts to brush up on the parlance of the intelligentsia.
Family Gatherings
After a weekend of chip dipping, cheek squeezing, potato peeling, and picture taking in a place where no one in your party lives (say, this rented house in Napa), a lot of food will have been devoured. In expectation of gluttony, the organizers that be are likely to have over-purchased, and in a hurry to vacate much of that surplus will be tossed. Don't let it happen! Fill ziplocs with ice (yet another gift as long as you reuse the bags) and pack it all up for safe transport.
Craft Service
I helped out on a friend's film shoot and kindly volunteered to make the leftovers disappear after we wrapped. I tossed the pizza and bagels in the freezer, put the coffee in a container in the fridge for ice coffee tomorrow, stored the chips for the next time I need some crunch, and threw the sugar packets and cups into the drawer I keep for picnic and party supplies. Inside of five minutes, this craft service was stowed away for the next time I need to service a craft.
Catering
After catering an event, a friend of mine was saddened to see tray after tray of untouched food tossed out, so she brought me approximately 79 pounds of pesto pasta. I froze it in baggies, and have enjoyed a plate of it weekly for going on three months.
Whisky
Get out of the city! The bottle on the right is 1L and was purchased for $41.95 at a well-priced store in the East Village. The bottle on the left is 1.75L and was purchased for $45.99 in the boondocks far outside New York City. That's 37% cheaper! In addition, by pooling the purchase with my friend's liquor, we received an extra $25 off the total order. At the time, I had no dire need for whisky, as the bottle on the right was still quite full. But a frugan must always think ahead, and purchase for the future when the pricetag calls for it.
Coffee
For coffee as a regular fix, don't waste your money at the coffee shop, make it at home. But if you are in the mood for a special treat, or otherwise find yourself whiling away the hours in a coffee shop, refrain from the needless expense of a latte or even a cafe au lait. Instead, order black coffee and pour the milk in yourself. Sure the temperture will drop a couple degrees, but your wallet will remain robust. As an added bonus, fill the mug up with milk once the coffee is gone (or low, then at least it maintains a hint of coffee color, if like me you are concerned about sporting at least a veil of decorum).