food budget

Yeah, I know, boring title.  Still, it pretty much describes what’s happening on the home front at the moment.  Basically, I’m becoming much more aware 1) of the food I’m buying, and 2) of the food I’m eating.

I have an awful tendency to buy beautiful, fresh, organic produce, then let it rot in my crisper drawer of the fridge until it’s a slimy, unrecognisable mess.  I don’t like cooking, and while I buy food with the best of intentions, I rarely actually convert it into meals.  However, I do like fresh food.  And I love my fruit and vegies.

I also really resent paying a lot of money to buy something I know would cost a fraction to actually make.  Not a good combination with the whole ‘hate cooking’ thing, I know.

So, as I do periodically, I’m reforming myself.  I came up with a cold pasta salad thing, which I made tonight, and which I’ll take to work for lunch for this week.  I’ll team it with actual salad, so I can ward off the threat of scurvy.

Anyhow, the recipe is:

PETRONA’S COLD PASTA SALAD

Cook approx. 350g short pasta (I used penne) for recommended time, and drain.  While it’s cooking, chop up 100g semi-dried tomatoes.  Add tomatoes, the oil they came in, and a small can of corn kernels to cooked pasta, and mix well.

Voila!  I’ll have mesclun with mushrooms and snow peas with it as well.  It can all go in the one container, and the remaining oil from the SD tomatoes will give everything a bit of flavour. 

I’m also being good when it comes to the home front.  I bought ham and the smallest piece of silverside available on the weekend.  So on Saturday we had ham and cheese toasted sandwiches, and last night we had roast silverside and vegies.  Tonight we’ll have the rest of the ham, and tomorrow night we’ll have the rest of the silverside.  Boring I know, but it’s cheap and relatively healthy.  And SO is just happy at this point if I stand in the kitchen, let alone actually do anything like prepare foodstuffs.