Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Crabby


My husband had a senior awards banquet to attend tonight and so I had the kiddos all to myself.

I was desperate to get some planting done at my big garden out at my friends' farm, so I picked my son up from school and we all headed out there. I brought a huge container of grape tomatoes and a quart of soaked, dehydrated walnuts since I knew the kids would complain of hunger if I didn't have food along. We also brought our brand new library books to read. Unfortunately, they polished off the food and read the books in record time. Bored, they began to systematically demolish the inside of my car. Well, o.k., that's an exaggeration. My car is a glorified compost heap with a failing muffler, leaks in the windows and dashboard, a broken side mirror, an engine badly in need of a tune-up, one working radio speaker, and a great big pile of junk in the back (it's an '85 Celebrity Wagon). So, there isn't much more damage that can be done to it. But they dumped out seed packets, spilled water bottles and walnuts, tore some paper into little confetti bits, turned on the windshield wipers to squeak horribly, adjusted all the speaker levels, moved all of the mirrors out of whack and generally created havoc.

We had to make two bathroom trips and take one extended nursing break and they pretty much whined and complained nonstop, so after less than two hours, I had had it! At least I got 48 square feet more of lettuce planted. I hate wasting the gas and the trip out there, though.

We tried to dumpster dive again at Aldi on the way home...man, we need fruit!...but an employee was out back taking a smoke break, so we were out of luck.

For dinner, I had about 4 cups of romaine, a stalk of celery, 1/2 C. grated carrot, 1/3 C. broccoli sprouts, and more of that creamy nut dressing.

Tonight I started making some dehydrator sweet potato chips marinated in lime and olive oil. To one batch, I also added chili powder and sea salt. I am interested to see how they turn out. I know they probably aren't the greatest--basically raw junk food. But I can't let those sweet potatoes go to waste.

Now it is almost 1 a.m., definitely too late for me to be up! I have to volunteer all day tomorrow at my son's school, so I should be in bed.

2 comments:

Jennifer C. said...

Greenmama, I love your blog! You've inspired me to try to get my food bill down even more than I already have. I've been spending about $100/week, me eating 100% raw and my DH about 40% raw and 60% SAD. A while ago I read a great book, The Art & Science of Dumpster Diving, and I think it's time I took another look at it. I can't believe what you've found so far! Good for you!

greenmama! said...

Thanks so much, Jennifer! And thanks for visiting my blog.

You sound like you are really dedicated to sticking to your budget. We would be better off if we followed your example, but instead, we tend to go through periods of feast and famine.

I am pretty new to diving, so I'm sure I'll have more adventures with it. Try it. It's a thrill!