Feeling virtuous

I spent a bit of time writing out a response to someone about ways to keep grocery costs low. The extremely short version? 

• Don't shop at expensive stores
• Don't buy prepackaged food
• Stick to ingredients 
• Make a plan and shop with a list
• Use meat sparingly 
• Don't waste the food you buy

I can still feed nine people for a little under $200 week with this plan. It is doable and no one goes hungry. In thinking about it all, I realized tonight's dinner was a perfect example. 

I had bought a lot of food for the holidays (definitely going over my $200/week budget.) I also admit to overestimating what we needed, though half the family being sick probably played into that. As a result, I had a refrigerator full of random vegetables that were going to rot if I didn't do something with them. Yesterday we had green chicken curry which took care of the two bags of green beans and tonight we had millet grain bowls.

I love a good grain bowl because they just need little bits of various things which makes them perfect for when little bits of things is what is in the refrigerator. I'll share my recipe, but really, you can put anything in them. Tonight's grain bowl ended up being a bit of an homage to BiBimBop, though without any kimchi to put on it which was disappointing to some. 

First you cook your grain of choice. Most of us like millet, so I'll often use that. It's pretty easy to cook. Boil 1-3/4 cups water with a little salt in an oven proof pan. Add 1 cup of millet to the boiling water, stir, put a lid on and place in a 350° oven for ~25 minutes. Fluff with a fork. I then put the pot on the back of the stove to keep warm. 

While the millet was cooking I chopped vegetables and J. made the quick pickled radishes. (Not throwing out half a bag of radishes really aided my sense of virtuous was.) These are easy and I like them better than plain radishes. Boil 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup white vinegar, and 1/4 cup sugar then pour over 1 cup of sliced radishes and let them sit while you cook everything else.

The other vegetables were oven roasted carrots, sauteed onion and zucchini, and sauteed spinach. Once the carrots were done I kept adding the other cooked vegetables to the carrot pan in the oven to keep them warm. 

Finally, we made a big pan of fried eggs to go on top. 

To serve, you place some millet then a spoonful of each vegetable topped with an egg. On the table we passed hoisin sauce and Sriracha. 

To feed nine people I made two cups of millet and that pan in the picture is a 9x13. There were a few leftovers so no one left the table hungry. 

I think I have just about taken care of the over-abundance of vegetables. I might still have a little lettuce left, but I have salads planned to go along with dinner over the weekend.