Week ending 1/17 round-up

Fitness round-up: Ran once. In there I did run a mile at 10 minutes, surrounded on either side by some walking (and some gasping for breath, not going to lie). Going to do better next week.

Food round-up: This was a good food week—the menu worked really well. On Sunday, Food Guy and I spent a few hours in and out of the kitchen, making Potato-Leek Soup for Sunday dinner and Monday lunch.



Since I’m rarely home to help with the cooking, I asked if there was anything I could prep for the next few days. He doesn’t like to chop veggies too far in advance, so there isn’t usually anything, but instead we started making the tomato sauce for Monday’s dinner. We had two big pots simmering and cooking, and once the set up was complete it was mostly the occasional stir. And with two of us in the kitchen, we could wash dishes as whoever was at the stove finished with them. This prep helped Monday be not nearly as crazy.



We had two healthy meat free nights on Wednesday and Thursday, and Friday night we ended up having friends over and just serving various dips and cheese and snack foods that we all ate as we felt like it, so we still have our fish in the freezer for this week. The Tortilla Stoup was lunch two days, and I love it—I’d never had tomatillos before this recipe and I love the way they taste in here (although Food Guy had to go to three stores to find them, so I have to limit how often I put them on our menu! And despite his Italian heritage he’d never made meatballs himself before, so that was a fun project. We have plenty of leftovers for today’s lunch and dinner and will not have to leave the house in the terrible cold here and can have a long, lazy day at home cleaning up after our impromptu party and reading.

Frugal round-up: Suddenly having people over on Friday changed our budget for the week a bit. We bought two bottles of wine and chips and cheese, and ice cream although everything else we had on hand. (I like to keep the makings of my mom’s amazing artichoke dip on hand—three ingredients, 30 mins in the oven, and everyone always loves it. Not health food though.)

We did manage to save about $60 with the gift certificate my mom gave us. I put half into our Dream Fund, and half into our new Vacation Fund for the weddings we’re planning to attend.

Fit, Fed, Frugal Round-up

Fitness round-up:
Week one: I ran only twice this week, and one was much more of a walk because I was sick. But I still did get on the treadmill two times. We were talking with friends who are trying to get us to sign up for a 5K, and that sounds like a reachable goal. These friends say that they run about 10 minute miles, which I have not done since high school. So I think that’s my nebulous new goal: be able to run 3.1ish miles at a time, and trying to see if I can inch that time down to 10 minute miles. I don’t think I’ll do a strict training program, as those get boring and I fall off the wagon when I don’t have time to do an exercise as dictated. But maybe I should lest I give up altogether.

Food round up:
Two nights of leftovers this week, which is great. I also brought lunch every day from what we had in the fridge left over from dinners this week and last, so that was frugal as well. We had two nights without meat, one of which was Big Salad night (lettuce, blueberries, peppers, tomatoes, homemade dressing, sprinkle of goat cheese). I love big salad night, but it doesn’t make for a good lunch the next day. My body refuses to acknowledge that a salad is enough food for the hours it has to last me, regardless of what I put in it. The other was Pasta a la Food Guy, which is a pasta he creates out of whatever we have—this week peppers, tomatoes, tomato paste, red pepper flakes, and probably a few other things. It was delicious.

We also had Loaded Baked Potato night (and lunch the next day), with topping choices of butter, sour cream, cheddar cheese, baked beans, scallions, and bacon bits. (Bacon made it non-veg but oh so tasty. Not a healthy meal, although we could make it so with fewer high fat additions.) Guinness Beef Stew (a la Jamie Oliver’s new cookbook) is awesome, with a few Food Guy tweaks (the bottom layer of crust isn’t necessary, we decided), Chicken Piccata was a fun late lunch made with friends, and Leftover Night. All good! Not as many greens during the week as we should, though, other than salad night, so I’ll keep that in mind when making the next menu.

Frugal:
Thanks to a Trader Joe’s gift cert from my parents for Christmas, I think we’ll save some money this week on food and be able to put a little extra into the Dream Fund. I had the thought of splitting any extra money we save or make between the Dream Fund and a yet-unmade Vacation Fund, so we have a short-term goal as well as the much longer term goal. But I also hate feeling like a house recedes farther and farther into the distance.

My 401K: This will automatically be bumped to 11% this year unless I unbump it, which I may do. I don’t get a match until I’ve worked at the company for a year, and unless they change it, that’s a match up to 6%. But with the other things to which I’d like to allocate my money, that extra percent makes too much of a difference. I think that auto-bump is really for people who are either getting a raise (and raises in publishing are pretty much frozen right now) or who aren’t paying close attention. I like the idea of helping people to save who might not otherwise, but since I am paying attention I don’t think I’ll feel guilty for not taking advantage.

Goals for 2009, Part 3

Health

Exercise regularly: A yearly goal that I never quite hit. In high school I was on three teams and was very active, and in college I took an athletic course each term (or was sure to arrange a gym buddy) so that I had something fun going on that would get me moving (and out of the library). But in the real world, it’s been a lot harder. The things I’d like to do cost money or need a partner, and it’s hard to find motivation. This year I think I should pick a goal to work towards. A Five K in a certain amount of time, or committing to a karate class, or going to yoga once a week. I haven’t decided which…or any…because I’d like my goal to be something I can actually make myself hit.

Eat healthily and yummily: Food Guy is the godsend here, as he loves to cook and gets home at a reasonable enough hour that it’s feasible for him to do so. This would be a fun place to document some of the food we eat and recipes that we use, and to get ideas on how to do things cheaper. Also, Food Guy is a big meat fan, and I’m trying to move towards a more veggie filled diet. We’ve made some strides here this year but still have a ways to go to get more balanced meals.

Grow some of my own food: Food Guy is a big gardener when he can, but this year we’re in an apartment that doesn’t have a plot of land we can use. We did a bit in containers a few years ago, but he ends up doing most of the work. I’d like to pick some things to grow myself with minimal help from him.

Also, to maintain well-being. I have a few health issues that implementing the above will keep under control, hereditary high cholesterol being one of the biggest. I should also get this checked sometime soon so that I can see if my efforts make a difference.