MY GROCERY BILL IS WAY LESS

Since my previous post had to do with Costco, I thought I'd follow up with this one about shopping, cooking and eating. Grocery shopping has never been a great deal of fun, but now is isn’t fun at all even though I can buy anything I want without having to consider John’s likes and dislikes. Still, I guess about 90% of what I bought at the store was purchased for John because my grocery bill has gone from hundreds of dollars a month to maybe a couple hundred. Still, I am eating well and find I am enjoying being able to cook just for myself because my choices can be of a much wider variety. 

John was always a good eater and ate a lot of fruit. I don’t eat that much fruit, but I do eat way more vegetables than John ever thought about…his idea of a vegetable was green beans out of a can. Salad was one iceberg lettuce leaf with half a bottle of dressing. He liked hamburger patties…me not so much; and I haven’t cooked one since he died. He didn’t want steak, no matter how tender because it was “difficult” to chew; and yet, he loved pork chops and could eat them often. What’s the difference between chewing steak and a pork chop??? 

As an example of what I like, I made my first Thai salmon curry a few weeks ago. This is a dish I discovered a long time ago at a Thai restaurant that went out of business. Since then I’ve found only one other restaurant that offered this spicy and yummy treat. My shopping trip that week included things like red curry paste, Thai fish sauce, Thai basil and bell peppers (John was allergic to bell peppers and just the smell would make him gag.) My first attempt turned out very well although it could have been a bit spicier…next time.