What I ate this week

First things first: I am DONE WITH MY JOB! BYE BYE, CRAZYTOWN! I start full-time at my new company next week, and I am so over the top excited about it. However, I’m going to have to get serious about packing lunches because I won’t be close enough to come home for lunch anymore. That’s literally the only thing I will miss about my old job.

I might start doing regular posts showing you what my packed lunches (and snacks, and probably breakfasts) look like. Because that’s exciting and fun? Maybe I’ll just do that once a week, because I tend to make a bunch of something over the weekend and then eat the same thing every day. Case in point:

Quinoa salad with shredded carrots, grape tomatoes, garlic, and parsley. Dressed with meyer lemon juice and olive oil. I made a gigantic bowl of this and ate it all week (with lentil hummus leftover from last week). I realize that sort of repetition could drive some people crazy, but I find it sort of comforting to have something prepped ahead of time. I like making one burst of effort and then being done with it for a few days.

The tomatoes were a gift from my mom, and the lemons were picked from my neighbor’s tree. I never realized how much free food I manage to acquire until I started documenting it.

Breakfast was another loaf of whole wheat quick bread made with almond milk yogurt (same as last week). With peanut butter! Plus my usual iced coffee with walnut milk.

I also ate a couple of PB&J sandwiches with (frozen) bread from last week.

The budget:

Restaurant meal at El Papagayo	$6.00
Dijon mustard	$1.00
Lettuce	$4.00
Carrots	$2.00
Onions	$1.00
White cornmeal	$1.00
Chickpeas (dry)	$2.00
Navy beans (dry)	$1.00
Triscuits	$1.00
Dried figs	$1.00
Raspberry preserves	$1.00
Apricot jam	$1.00
Gum	$2.50
Parsley	$0.50
Cocoa powder	$1.99
Total	$26.99
Remaining	$10.34

I ate out again on Friday. Since it was my last day of work, I went out for Mexican food with the girl I’ve been training as my replacement. Her friend works at the restaurant (which happens to be one of my favorites because they have a separate vegan menu!), and he kindly comped our meal. Awesome. I failed to photograph my tofu tacos, but I assure you they were beautiful and delicious. The $6 I spent was for the tip.

I didn’t go shopping until yesterday, so all of this should easily last me through the end of the month. I don’t know if I’ll spend that last $10.