Things have been super busy so I haven't had a lot of time to write this post. We ended the challenge last Sunday, February 6th. While we did save money on our groceries (22% compared to the same period of time last year), we spent more on eating out (64%). Ack! The last week of the challenge was particularly busy for us, and we ended up eating out WAY more than we expected.
The Earth Cafe and Deli and
Pepe Delgados we love you and your wonderful vegetarian meals! Both the hubby and I lost weight, he more than I (7 pounds to my 2) - though proportionally it's about the same (2 and 3%). Throughout the experiment I did feel as though I had more energy. And while there were a couple of fun family colds (yay, cold and flu season!), I felt like I recovered quicker and didn't feel as bad.
From here on out we've decided to only eat meat once a week, including all meals. So if we have sausage for breakfast on Sunday morning that's it for the week. Yesterday, we enjoyed wonderful burgers from
Kaiser's, so that's it until next week. We've also decided to take one day a month and make ahead some convenience foods (pizza dough, veggie taquitos, casseroles, etc) for those 'emergency' nights so we don't end up eating out as much.
Our next adventure is
(sub)urban chickens! We'll be posting more about that soon.
I've always thought that making meals in advance would save a lot of time. I vote, YES! Will save you so much money from eating out. You don't think it is that expensive till you add it all up. Can get ugly.
ReplyDeleteYou think having The Earth and Pepe's so close is rough? Try having 35+ vegetarian restaurants or carts around. I've gotten to the point that I just stay home and cook. Veggies are way cheap. Especially when you cut out all the processed "meats."
I stopped getting Tofurky and Morningstar Farms. (expensive!) I still get tempeh and I just got some Seitan. I checked out the ingredients and it "seems" more pure. Not as many additives.
I like your plan!!!
I can't even imagine how much we would eat out if we lived in Portland!
ReplyDeleteYou can make your own seitan. I had hoped to do so during our experiment but never found the time (still haven't). On a meat analog note, we had Quorn for the first time tonight. It was mighty tasty in a delicious stroganoff - though, waaaay expensive!