The Food List

Upon request i am writing a blog about our grocery routine on the JVC budget. Just a reminder we are given 90 dollars each month to pool together for the community groceries. We shop once a week, normally Sundays. For the first 4 months we took the number 16 bus to the nearest grocery store. Now that Lily has brought her car to NOLA the shopping has become a little easier and we are going to a different food store (better produce section). Two or three of us go together normally and we try not to make just one person go. We bring reusable bags and come with an exact list of what we are going to buy (it is very very rare that we buy something spur of the moment). This week the line up of cooks goes like this:

Sunday: HAPPY EASTER! Ordering in Chinese food! (about 5 out of the 11 are with family here in New Orleans or back home and some extra money has been saved so that the meal is bought with the community card)
Monday: Becca's family will be cooking for us. Most weeks there is at least one dinner when we are invited to someones house, we are volunteering at an event with free food, or someone comes over to cook for us.
Tuesday: Portobella Mushroom burgers (Chef Stephanie)
Wednesday: Baba Alice's lentil soup (I am cooking)
Thursday: Lentil Curry (Chef Lily)... Normally we do not do lentils two times in a week--don't want to over kill--but Lily and i both had favorites that we wanted to make, so we went for it.

Here is the receipt for this week and approximate prices:

Flour 2.19
6 yogurts 3.30 total
Chocolate Chips 2.29
2 bags Lentils 3.00 total
1% gl Milk 4.29
Hunny Nut O's 2.99
Shredded wheat 3.15
Parmigiana cheese 2.99
Pasta sauce 1.82
Sugar 2.49
Romaine Lettuce 1.79
2 yellow onions .82 total
4 Bananas 1.02 total (normally we buy at least 10 but this week we got some for free)
4 loaves of bread 6.00ish
2 hamburger bun packs 2.40ish
Green onions .75
Carrots 1.19
4 apples 3.72 total (normally we by at least 12 but this week we got some for free)
Curry powder 3.39
2 red onions 2.31 total
Spinich bag 2.59
1 tomato 1.40
Folgers coffee 8.00ish

Total: 67.00 ish

This will last us for dinners and lunches for the week. Left overs are the usual lunches but we have eggs, butter, tuna, pb&j, pasta, more yogurt, oatmeal, dressings, spices, and other basics around that go on the list every now and then.  Weekends normally you are on your own for meals but there is usually a big batch of pancakes or eggs made on Saturday or Sunday mornings. Not every week is the same and this week was defiantly on the low end. We have a pretty good routine down that makes the food shopping and preparing process pretty easy.

We also LOVE our community dinner time. Its a time for all of us to be together no matter what type of day we had. Sometimes they are long dinners with lots of chatting and sometimes we are eating and running, but either way we are almost always together 5 out of the 7 nights a week. Dinner time is an important and enjoyable time for my community!