Foooood

I did all the shopping, chopping, and simmering of Rachel Ray's soup, and it was GROSS. Kale, I'm not a fan of yours. No offense, it's just a texture thing. Think hot, chewy lettuce. The recipe said to get baking potatoes but they never really broke down into starchy goodness, no matter how much I simmered. They just sort of sat there in grainy slices. Also, I'm not a big fan of cooked tomato chunks. Ewwwwwwwww. (Seriously, I have to blend up my tomato sauce so there are no distinguishable tomato pieces in it- so I knew this going in.) I ate about half a bowl of this monstrosity. Then, not wanting to throw it out since I'd dumped a jar of roasted red peppers in there that cost almost $4 (more than any other ingredient in this soup I might add) (also, it had to be pureed and it looked like I had committed murder in my kitchen and I was just not going to give up that easy), I got creative. I picked out all the kale and potatoes with some tongs, hauled out my hand blender, and blended it all up. And now I have some mighty fancy roasted red pepper and tomato soup. YUM! This I like, and I'll probably make it again.

I never realized until the moment how odd I am about food textures. Hunh.

I'm trying to eat cheaper. A couple of weeks ago I went to Costco and almost swooned at how low their prices were on bread, bagels, steak, and cheese. I mean, I know they're cheap but it just sort of hit me all over again. So I stocked up. The steaks were excellent, there were 4 to the pack so I froze two and cooked two. One steak can easily stretch over 3 meals- they are that huge- especially if I make stir fry or fried rice with beef. So that has turned out to be a really great bargain at $13 for a pack. I am trying to work more beans and rice into my diet. I was buying the Trader Joe's frozen microwavable rice, but then found the exact same thing at Kroger. Kroger is closer. Kroger wins. I bring my breakfast and lunch to work every day, so I plan ahead and make extra of whatever dinner is so I can throw it in my lunch bag in the morning. Today is... you guessed it! Roasted Tomato Pepper Soup! With a Costco cheese sandwich on Costco bread. And a bunch of Clementines because they are my favorite citrus fruit for eating. (This is a texture thing AGAIN- I hate peeling oranges because I'm a little OCD about the pith and I have to perfectly remove any white parts before I'll eat it. And that's just not worth the work. Maybe I should start cutting them up like grapefruits.)