Mid Week report

I'm technically $1.59 over budget. I'll take it out of next week's total allowance. Darn olives! However, I think I needed the iron (black olives) badly after the lovely caffeine withdrawal headache. I was not a happy camper on Monday.

Living off of $30 a week for food is not easy but it's not impossible either. I've been having fun using up a lot of my kitchen stock to make various things. Today, I'm making bread (ran out this morning after making a sandwich for work) and vegan brownies. I had to use 1 cup of raw sugar and 1 cup of white sugar rather than a full 2 cups of white sugar because I ran out. Oh well. One of the things to add to the list. The batter for the brownies tasted delicious so I'm very hopeful for how they will come out.

I plan on taking a couple with me to work for my lunch. That plus a sandwich should be fine as well as my thermos of water I've been using. I think the hardest part of limiting myself to only $30 a week has been not being able to grab that soda or juice. Right now, I'm limited to water. I plan on making some iced tea which might help. However, not having the caffeine from the soda was painful this week. Literally.

For the bread, I'm basing it off of this recipe but with a slight bit more water and less flour since I don't have a bread machine. We'll see how it works out. The dough is "resting" on top of the fridge until I decide it's big enough to cook. :-) Then, I'll throw it into the bread pan and cook it up for a half hour or so. Hopefully, this will end up being a good recipe to use! Otherwise, I have no idea what I'll use for a sandwich tomorrow...

EDIT: The brownies? fail. I mean, they are edible - being vegan and all- but rather than gooey - they just aren't cooked. The edges are cooked to the point they are almost burnt but the center remained...doughy. I have been eating them and they taste good so I'm tempted to change up the recipe like a lot of other have and use less oil or use applesauce instead.

The bread? PERFECT! I mean beyond delicious as well. I ate the nub the second it came out of the oven and oh my! I think this might become my favorite go to recipe for now on when I need a loaf of sandwich bread. It tastes great with my simple oil and Italian spices dip as well.