A life where arts & crafts meets food & fitness

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Sunday, September 12, 2010

Is it chili in here or is it just me?

The last few days have been busy to the point where I get home do very little on the computer and then zone out to the television. While it may not be as productive as I'd like, it was needed.

I've decided today what I am putting myself in a food budget challenge. I have seen others do that before with a set amount. The actual amount I am unsure of at the moment and so I figure to try to do as much as possible with as little as possible and go from there. The plan to move to more bulk good, esp rice and beans has already started. Now it's figuring out what works in larger scale.

Today I made chili using a large can of pinto beans and a regular sized can of kidney beans. Usually I'd use at least 2-3 cans of beans. Technically it could be counted as three but in terms of actual can waste it was one two. (We have a giant rolling recycling bin like our garbage can and so we do what we can to recycle as much as possible.) This also saves me room in the pantry since I have one main shelf set for canned goods, jarred sauces and pasta.

I am lucky to have a deep pantry. One of the people who lived here prior to us altered a bedroom into a dining room/front room (living room if you prefer) and cut the bedroom closet in half. The other half is our appliances we don't use constantly or are really bulky like the food processor and misc serving dishes overflow. It really helps so that we're not stuck with tons of stuff on the counter or overloading our kitchen cabinets. I can't keep too much out as well with the cats. Bond likes to sleep on the top of the fridge and in turn would sleep on whatever is up there (now basically the phone book and the Transformers Bumblebee folder - yes we are THAT cool - that holds the takeout menus and misc food coupons) and Frankie likes to knock stuff over. He once pushed my Foreman grill off the top of the fridge when he was a older kitten. Luckily it still works but the front handle falls out. Oh well. It still cooks.

I have recently started boxing. It's not officially boxing but rather Hubs got one of those heavyweight punching bags. He had wanted one for awhile and got a good deal on one online. I used his gloves and we have handwraps coming in the mail. I have smallish hands so the gloves won't be used all the time since I don't want to do something wrong. I am hoping the wraps work best. I'll end up getting my own gloves but I need to save up money right now.

The saving is due to my wanting to run the Hot Chocolate 5k here in Chicago this year. It's November 6th, which is a Saturday. I am excited and terrified and slightly embarrassed at myself for being terrified. Overall, I hope that I can get together the money in time. It's not a huge amount of money but I hadn't anticipated the actual costs of races. It makes sense esp with this being for a charity - The Ronald McDonald house which has one in the suburb next to mine so I know secondhand about how great it is for families.

1 comment:

  1. Dude, don't be embarassed about being terrified. My friend Sarah had to all but FORCE me to sign up for my first race because I was so scared. It pretty much came down to sign up on your own or I'm signing you up.

    Even if you don't run the entire 5K it doesn't matter. You got out there and you did it. You conquered that fear. That's what's really important.

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