Trying new things.

Yesterday I went out to lunch with a friend. She suggested a couple of things and I decided on Thai food! I always get the same two things though, so I decided to change it up a bit.



I ordered Cashew Chicken.



It came with one crispy & crunchy eggroll. I love eggrolls!



And a rice heart. This won me over. I was going to avoid the white rice but how could I resist this?



I mixed it all together like "londy-londy wanna go down." (Yes, I am listening to Fergie's-London Bridge right now.)

After lunch and an impromptu shopping trip at Tar-jay, I came home and busted out my 30 day shred video. I haven't been running since I hurt my knee. Luckily 20 minutes of the Shred video + 20 minutes of pilates burns the same amount of calories. (Keep it mind, I wasn't running very fast or far.)

Jillian Michaels is intense. I barely made it through this one. I also did side planks. Why didn't anyone warn me? Side planks are officially the devil. My body hates me today.

I'm sticking with planks though. They get the job done. And my abs are purely flab. I could use some strong muscle under there.



Dinner last night was sushi.



I don't really love sushi, so I ordered tempura for Andy and I to share and some veggie rolls.



These asparagus and shrimp rolls were out of this world good. I actually ate them!!! I split this with a friend.



mmm tempura asparagus. These rolls are good because it's just a tiny piece of tempura. And it's surprisingly not too greasy.



Andy got spicy tuna.



An eel roll. Which he tried to convince me to try, but I refuse to have any of it!



I'll stick to my veggie rolls thank you very much!

Challenge total so far- $70.34. Not too bad. Not too good. I still have tons of samples and a few celebratory meals left but still. I have made quite a few excuses-"oh this doesn't count because (insert lame excuse here.)"

Overall, I have learned a lot from the challenge. Restricting my spending forces me to be creative with dinner. I've learned to try new things and to keep an open mind. Next month I'll probably cap our spending at $300. Keep in mind we were spending up to $500-$600 a month on meals out, coffee and groceries. I know we won't get back there. I enjoy cooking way too much and making dinner at home is SO much cheaper than going out.

I'm not disappointed in how we are doing with the challenge because it was designed to teach us to make due with what we have. I think the point of the challenge was not to focus on the number so much but to limit the spending. I can't even tell you how many times I used to impulse shop. We still have way too much in our pantry and we are going to use it all!

$29.66 for 12 days? Yeah, not gonna happen. Should I raise the number from $100 to $150? Or should I just see how we do?

Also I miss greek yogurt. I had some coupons which were great but now I have none! SAD. Guess I'll have to wait to December.

ugh!

Sorry for the lack of posting. I don't have any good food pictures for you because;

1. Due to the Challenge I have been eating a lot of leftovers. Yesterday's eats included an apple, white chocolate wonderful, some hummus, some crackers, pom arils and later dinner out with friends.

2. The dinner out is one of the dinners that I'm not counting towards the $100 total.

3. Andy and I aren't going to grocery shop until after we return from The Foodbuzz Festival

4. I hurt my knee running again. It's not so bad where I can't run but it does need to be iced often. I have been icing 3x a day.

5. I am taking the day off running today.

6. I lost 1.8 lbs at my weigh in last night!!!!!!!! I have 1.4 lbs to go until I reach my first goal of 10 lbs. Woohoo!!!

I will update later. For now I am icing my dang knee. I have a test in an hour, wish me luck!

November Challenge

Giving credit where it’s due, this is an idea I got from two different blogs. This morning I read this post on Emily's blog over at Eatventures and I remember reading about this challenge on Kath's blog last year. Read Kath's post here

The Thanksgiving Challenge is twofold – you limit your grocery spending for one month, flexing your economic muscles and you use the opportunity for reflection. What better month (Thanksgiving) to give thanks for what we have? I also love this idea because Andy and I have been meaning to cut back for awhile and a challenge like this is perfect. I need to save for Christmas!

The “challenge” is to limit your food budget to $100 for the month of November. We are a two-person household, you may want to move this number depending on the size of your own family.

Here are the rules Andy and I will be following -

1. Track your food purchases for 1 month, spending no more than $100
2. Non-food grocery items (toilet paper, shampoo, etc) do not count
3. You start with whatever you happen to have in the fridge/pantry
4. Birthday dinners with friends are not going to count but we are going to try to spend less on them. (In November we have 3 birthdays to celebrate including Andy's on the 21st. He'll be 27!)
5. Andy goes to Starbucks 2-3 times a week to write lesson plans and grade papers. He doesn't spend much on coffee since he prefers "just coffee" so we'll only count coffees that cost more than $3.

Andy and I spend about $500 a month on food currently. Which is totally disgusting and appalling to me. We go out to eat way too often and buy way too many groceries. Luckily we have quite a bit in the fridge, freezer and pantry and I am looking forward to eating that down. December we will start fresh! For us, this challenge is more about awareness and not about strict rules and starving to make the challenge work. And I love Top Ramen (guilty pleasure!) but I will not eat it nightly to save money. We'll still strive for healthy living!

I would love it if my readers, bloggers or not, would join me in this challenge. Are you game? Please leave a comment if you want to participate!