Day 24: a series of unfortunate events

So our day off was a mixed bag. We had a giant raw salad before we left, so the whole day wasn't too bad. The forbidden food was good, but I felt slightly ill and uncomfortably full after eating. We ordered too much and wound up bringing some home with the intention of freezing it for another day off. But the temptation of having cooked food in the house is just too much for me, so we ate the rest the next day. We're still going to take the occasional day off, but hopefully make some better choices (i.e: not flour and refined sugar).

I think it was later that night that I was putting together another salad when the veggies took revenge. (For the squeamish- aka, you, Madeline- I injured my finger. Now skip to the next paragraph.) We had just purchased a new knife and I was using it to chop. Actually, when it occurred, I was pitting an avocado. You can imagine what happened: knife slipped and found my finger. Luckily it hit my nail, because I think it would have been a lot deeper had it not met that resistance. I think I was more shocked than anything. I had cut through and under my nail (so horizontally from the middle of my nail to the tip of my finger). I washed and bandaged it and consulted with my med school resident neighbor, so no doctor's visit. It actually doesn't even hurt that badly unless I bump it (highly not recommended), and it doesn't impede my knitting, which would drive me insane, but I have a feeling I'm going to be wearing a lot of bandaids until the giant crack in the nail grows out). Mad's taken on avocado pitting duties for the foreseeable future.

On Monday, I went to start the morning right with some fresh juice. We have an old juicer inherited from Madeline's mom that has been sitting in our cabinet for months. I don't know how old exactly, but Mad has no recollection of her parents ever using it when she was growing up (so maybe 25 years old). I painstakingly cleaned it, assembled it, plugged it in and flicked the switch. Excellent, it turned on (although it sounded like a chainsaw). The feed chute was tiny, so I got out my apples and carrots and chopped them all into small pieces. I turned on the machine again and... nothing. Tried one more time: a dull hum and ominous smoke. Thus concluded our adventures in juicing. As old as it was, I wouldn't have minded, but I'd tested the darn thing first, and I could have saved myself plenty of work.

So looking to save the apples, I looked for a recipe to use them in. We could have just eaten them, but I wanted something more. I found this apple pie recipe, which looked easy enough. I have this immersion blender with a canister thing that my mom has bought me (from all of $12) when I first left for college. I'd been using it frequently to coarsely grind nuts and seeds, as well as to mix salad dressing in tiny batches. So long story short, I loaded the thing up with half of the crust ingredients, and it blended a little and then... nothing. Two appliances in a matter of ten minutes! I think that's some sort of record. So breakfast was disappointing.

On the bright side, we ordered a food processor from Amazon last night, specifically this KitchenAid one, which seems to be well reviewed. I like the idea of the mini cup for mincing garlic and ginger, etc, and my fingers like the decrease in manual chopping. I'm hoping it will be a good bridge between now and when-we-can-afford-a-blender.

Yesterday was grocery day. We didn't need many staples (nuts, seeds, olive oil, nama shoyu, etc), so it was a pretty inexpensive week. We also already had carrots, tomatoes, jalapenos, medijool dates, mangoes and onions, most of which are imperative in our kitchen. Let me see if I can remember what we got:

Produce Market
Giant bag of spinach (think plastic grocery bag overstuffed with spinach leaves)
1 bunch kale
3 bunches cilantro (mostly for our rabbit)
1 bag white button mushrooms
1 bag brussel sprouts
2 lbs red bell peppers
2 lbs green bell peppers
6 small zucchini
3 cucumbers
1 large eggplant
3 large broccoli crowns
8 Valencia oranges
2 lb gala apples
3 containers of strawberries
bag of lemons
bag of limes
3 bunches of bananas
Total: $38
(I feel like I might be leaving something out, so I'll double check my list when I get home. I know the total is correct, though)

Trader Joe's
4 avocados (they were out at the produce place)
balsamic vinegar (biiiig bottle)
cinnamon
Total: $11

We usually get a few more produce items on Friday to get us through the last few days, so add $10-15, plus any treats we get during the week (like prepackaged raw treats or crackers). I don't think it's much more than the average grocery bill for two people. Stocking our kitchen was pricey, but I think we have a handle on how much of what we eat. I'm going to keep track.

-Eloise