Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Saving Money and Eating Good

by Meghann on October 28, 2009

*Sorry for the poor quality of photos. This will be my last post using Blogo. Eww.*

Each week I spend roughly $30 on groceries.

Keep in mind I am only one person and I eat the majority of my meals during the week at home. Still to some this may seem like a little and to some it may be a lot. I grew up in a family of 6 where a weekly trip to the grocery store typically ran about $250 so to me $30 a week is chump change.

I get a lot of e-mails from readers who ask for tips on keeping grocery bills low. I think tonight’s dinner is a good example on how I accomplish this on a weekly basis.


I purchased an Acorn Squash onSunday for $2. That night I cut the squash in three pieces – one half and two quarters – saved two pieces in the fridge and roasted a piece with other veggies for dinner. On Monday those veggies were turned into a pizza that then became lunch for the next twodays. On Tuesday the other quartered piece was sliced then topped with tofu & beets. And finally today the last half was pulled out for a creative stuffed squash.

Basically that $2 acorn squash was stretched through 6 meals!

The trick to keeping grocery bills low when eating fresh, healthy food is to find a few ingredients for the week and then get creative with it. I would have been bored eating just plain acorn squash every night, but since each meal was unique I never got bored of it and enjoyed every bite. :)

Stuffed acorn squash is a seasonal favorite of mine I haven’t been able to enjoy since last fall.



For tonight’s version I simply roasted half of an acorn squash at 420 for 25 minutes.

While the squash was baking I worked on the stuffing

  • 1/4 cup Cous Cous
  • 1/4 Honey Crisp Apple
  • 1/2 Chicken Sausage
  • 1 T Pumpkin Butter
  • Cinnamon
  • Pepper

Everything was mixed in a bowl then stuffed in the acorn squash before going back in the oven for another 25 minutes.


The top got nice and crispy - Yum!

It was actually a bit too much food. I saved about 1/4 of the squash for lunch tomorrow which would bring the total number of meals that were created from the squash to 7. ;)

Dessert was a serving of Pumpkin Ice Cream ( Can you believe I’m almost at the bottom of the container?!?!) with Chocolate Teddy Grahams.


I invented the BEST snack this afternoon.


Brown Rice Cake + Barney Butter + Dried Apricot = A-MA-ZING!


I finished reading the Time Traveler’s Wife after work. Such a great book that I highly recommend! I haven’t seen the movie yet, but its saved in my Netflix queue when it gets released on DVD.

Now I am looking for a new book to sink my teeth in to. Any suggestions?


{ 66 comments }

All Gone

by Meghann on October 28, 2009

My batch of muffins went from this:

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To this:

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In less than an hour. ;)

I was told to make more next time so everyone could have a chance to try them.

I managed to steal a Pumpkin Muffin before they were all gone and nibbled on it after a 2 hour meeting this morning.

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I’ve decided to save my next baking adventure for Friday morning and am going to attempt a batch of Vegan Pumpkin Scones. Wish me luck with that one!

I was boring again for lunch.

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I still had pizza left over from Monday night and what can I say? I like pizza!

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Soup was on my mind as a side for the pizza instead of the usual salad. I dug into the depths of my cabinets and found this lovely can of Healthy Choice Italian Wedding Soup.

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Who knows where that soup came from or how long it has been there, but it sounded decent enough. I had a one cup serving alongside the pizza.

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After one slurp I realized I would have been better off with a salad. The soup was very bland and very forgettable.

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Window Parallels..

After a year of fighting with Ecto, a few days of struggling with Blogo, and endless hours researching every blogging software out there compatible with Mac – I have come to the conclusion that software made for Macs just isn’t going to cut it anymore.

My solution? First I plan to purchase more RAM to improve the speed of my Mac. Second I want to download or purchase Window Virtualization software that will allow me to blog through Windows Live Writer in that setting. I believe this will save my sanity.

I tweeted about my realization earlier and had a couple suggestions of purchasing Windows Parallels for what I need. I’m in the process of researching that software and hopefully I will be a happier blogger in the end.

Does anyone use Window Parallels? Any good or bad feedback?

{ 32 comments }

My Turn

October 28, 2009

This morning it was my turn to send out one of those annoying ‘treats in the kitchen’ e-mails. Mini Pumpkin Muffins in the Main Kitchen Enjoy! I think its more fun to be the one sending than the one receiving. Best part is I already got a couple of responses! I tried them and they more »

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