Tofu troubles. Also I suck at budgeting.

I woke up this morning suuuuper nauseous. Then I went back to sleep.

The last thing I ate was tofu. Consequently my brain has associated tofu with that lovely Oh-my-God-I'm-gonna-hurl feeling.

Tofu will not be touching these lips for quite awhile.

I had to throw the rest of it away.

So when I woke up I had the furthest thing from tofu possible.

Pizza! From Costco. Yummmm.

I got to work and snacked on 1/3 bag of baby carrots. CUZ I AM ALL HEALTHY.

Eventually that wasn't cutting it though and I remembered I had some left over beef stew in the fridge.

Score!

I made this a few days ago. Classic beef stew with some stew meat, celery, carrots and potatoes. With a few twists. I decided I wanted to try turnips. My only prior experience with turnips was playing Harvest Moon games and growing and selling those guys like crazy. I had never actually tasted them.

So I chopped 'em up like taters and just threw 'em in the crock pot with the rest of the stuff. The verdict? They took on the flavor of the soup well, similar to the way the potatoes did. However I could definitely tell the difference. Taters have a "mealy" texture whereas the cooked turnips were similar to the smooth stewed carrots. Another happy difference? Turnips have like 1/3 of the calories that potatoes do. I didn't even know that until today. If I had I probably would have forgone the potatoes entirely. I think I am a fan.

I also stirred in some leftover pumpkin sauce I had made for pasta. Thickened up the stock nicely with no real change to the flavor.

After work I made a trip to the grocery store.

I mentioned I am trying to budget better, especially in the grocery department. My goal this week was to spend $25 or less.

I started out well. Spent $1 on salad greens earlier in the week.

And then... today. *Ahem* I went to the store for two things.

But while I was there I realized I needed a few spices. (A few = seven.) So... that was $20. But now I can create delicious things with caraway, fennel, allspice, cardamom, red pepper flakes, cinnamon and smoked paprika! But not at all at once.. I think.

So those two things I went for? Skim milk and bagels. But I got like 10 other things. Plus the "few" spices. And I didn't get skim milk, I got whole milk. And the bagels were really expensive. But they were PERFECT. Whole wheat, cinnamon flavored, and 100 calories each.

So the total for the week so far is $40. Oooopsy daisy!

I tried a honey crisp apple though! I usually buy gala because they are cheap. Also through a very scientific process I have discerned my favorite kind of apple is the "reddish-yellow" kind. Honey crisps happen to be reddish-yellow and I think the flavor is similar to the gala. Except... better. Both sweeter and tarter at the same time, and with a crisper texture. It's like the gala on steroids that pump up deliciousness.

Problem? I just don't think I love apples that much. The honey crisp was good, I admit. But I still rather would have been having pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, a pear, a kiwi, grapes, blueberries... or pretty much any other fruit that is not an apple.

But I was starving as I left the store so I scarfed that baby. And then I busted open that milk and drank it straight from the jug. LIKE AN ANIMAL.

Actually no, if I was drinking milk like an animal I would have drank it from some fleshy boob jugs.

That was awkward.

So then I ate pizza.

And I drank this.

Delicious! One of those "extras" at the grocery store today. Only it doesn't really taste like pumpkin. It tastes like... eggnog. Weird, right?

Finished the night with two wedges of 2011's last watermelon.

On a totally unrelated note, I now know what WiFi does when I turn my back!

That's my boy!