2020: Week 9

February 24, 2020 – March 1, 2020

Bucket List Items Accomplished

• Leave a note in a library book. I left a secret in a PostSecret book at my local library. PostSecret, and it’s vast variety of anonymous secrets has always helped me feel a little less lost, and a little less alone.

Things I Enjoyed this Week

• I started my SNAP/Food Stamps Challenge Week 1 of 4. The goal is to live on $40 CAD (rounded down from $31.50 USD) a week for my total food budget for a month. This is loosely based on the paltry amount that folks living in America can get for the SNAP program, which is the current version of food stamps. This of course does not address other issues to do with the practicalities of eating nutritious food when living in poverty, such as living in a food desert, time, higher caloric need if working a more physical job, and access to transportation. I was inspired by reading about the time Budget Bytes undertook the SNAP challenge. I have started this challenge many times, but never quite make it to the end. I’m posting for accountability. See what I made below.
• I bought the following groceries for a total of $22.44. Grocery prices are quite high in my area. I usually try to check flyers for a few local grocery stores each week.
  • Ground pork, $3.41
  • Brown mushrooms, $0.63
  • Green onion, $0.99
  • Eggplant, $1.35
  • Green pepper, $1.18
  • Two carrots, $0.41
  • Lettuce, $1.99
  • Canned corn, $0.99
  • Two Roma tomatoes, $1.06
  • Bag of gala apples, $3.85
  • One dozen eggs, $3.09
  • Silk unsweetened vanilla cashew milk, $3.49
• I used the following from my pantry and fridge, but accounted for very approximate costs ($17.50). I did not want to purchase anything new for my pantry. If I was living on a budget this low for the long term, I would try and set aside a few dollars each week to buy a new spice or condiment. Eventually, I would hope to build up enough staples for lots of recipe variety.
  • Medium firm tofu, $2.50
  • Mapo tofu sauce, $3
  • Mapo chuzu sauce, $3
  • Rice. I used half brown rice and half mixed wild rice, $4
  • Soy sauce, $1
  • Ponzu, $1
  • Sesame oil, $1
  • Sesame seeds, $1
  • Wakame seaweed, $1
• My total was $39.94. I am a bit of a cheat, and didn’t count my coffee or tea budget. I get free coffee at work, which is all I drink during the week. I did just buy beans for my weekend caffeine, but didn’t count this towards my weekly food cost. I used some premade sauces, which added extra cost to my week. They’ve been sitting on my pantry shelf for a while though, and I felt like eating them.

• I bought a fantastic espresso blend of organic dark coffee beans for my french press from Yoka’s Coffee, Tea & Honey. They are a local roaster I have been meaning to check out for a while. Their shop has a great cozy and easygoing atmosphere, and the staff were very helpful and kind. The prices were super reasonable. I also picked up some decaf to try. I love the taste of coffee, and want to be able to keep drinking it through the evening. Having my bag filled with coffee was such a pleasure while I did errands. I kept smelling the fragrant beans throughout my day. It was the best.

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• I started day one of the C25K (Couch to 5 km) running program. I have always greatly admired people that can run. Learning to run has been on my mental bucket list for a very long time. I hope to stick with it for the next eight weeks and be able to run 5 km without stopping. I am referencing the timing/program using this app.
• I made a post about wanting to watch more Oscar best picture winners for my bucket list. I watched Annie Hall and Shakespeare in Love this week. I didn’t hugely enjoy either, but felt like watching some romance/relationship drama, and they fit the bill well enough. I also watched Driving Miss Daisy, which was my favourite of the three.
• My dad treated me to a delicious brunch at Agrius. I had the black pudding with chantrelles, parsnip, and sunny egg. I enjoyed watching 1917 with him at the theatre. I spent some time studying inside, while the weather outside was unhinged. It was rainy but sunny, and hailed in other areas of town. I had a pleasantly spicy jerk chicken roti from Stir It Up for dinner.

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• Downtown Victoria looks so good in the right sunset lighting.

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Meal Prep and New Recipes Tried

Here’s what I made over the weekend for the upcoming week.

• I made mapo tofu with pork, mushrooms, and green onion. I love the convenience of these packaged sauces. I’ll eat this over rice.
• I also made mapo chuzu with pork, eggplant, green pepper, and carrot. I’ll eat this over rice as well, and maybe add a sunny egg.
• I made Just One Cookbook’s Tofu Salad with Sesame Ponzu Dressing. I ended up making my ponzu sauce from scratch with her Homemade Ponzu recipe, but it’s usually easy to purchase a bottle at grocery stores with a Japanese import section.
• I will probably hardboil some of my eggs or make tamago kake gohan (raw egg on hot rice with soy sauce) and also eat a couple of apples each day.

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Updates

• I crossed nine things off of my bucket list in February. Two more than January, and still feeling good about this year.
  1. Learn to surf
  2. Leave a note in a library book
  3. Visit a distillery again
  4. Bake a savoury pie
  5. Make wagashi
  6. Make fresh pasta
  7. Make Irish soda bread
  8. Eat seitan
  9. Eat water buffalo ice cream
• In the month of Febuary I read and listened to five books. I listened to audiobooks for four of them and read only one. I still aspire to read more with my eyes, but I’m happy to still be ahead of my pace to finish 50 in a year.
  1. Little Women
  2. Daring Greatly
  3. Over the Top
  4. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
  5. Anne of Green Gables
• I’m continuing my seiza challenge, but am not near the 30 day or 30 minute mark yet. I hit 20 minutes though, and that’s some good progress.
• I’m happily continuing my reduction of added sugar in my diet.