ah, tuesday. what shall i do with you?

Twice a week the cafeteria at work serves up black beans and rice. I think it's a concession both to the vegetarians and to the large Latino population we serve. It's inexpensive (less than $2.00) and yummy, if you like black beans and rice--some guy in the elevator turned up his nose at my lunch. As most people who are aware of such things know, inexpensive food tends to be processed, fried, or otherwise devoid of all nutritional value. I'm not saying my beans and rice lunch is the well-balanced diet i'm striving for, but its better than endless grilled cheese (read: butter, bread and velveeta).

Speaking of grilled cheese, until i was in my teens and due to the southern accent that i so wisely hide, i thought it was girled cheese, because little girls ate them. i can't remember when the lightbulb moment was exactly, but i do remember the feeling, of OH GOD---Seriously? have i gotten that wrong this WHOLE time??

Anyways, back to the beans and rice thing...i'm attempting to learn to budget better. Since my other half doesn't budget at all, i'm mostly doing it for the two of us. I bought this book:

and am working on using coupons and planning meals in advance. If you have cheap dinner suggestions we can make at home, let me know. I did discover today that i can go to safeway's web site and upload coupons onto my club card...i was wondering how coupons worked now a days. I remember, back in the girled cheese days, that we would sit around the table on sunday's with my mom cutting coupons out of the circulars from the Sunday paper. I don't get a Sunday paper now, being a grownup in the electronic age...so this load the coupons electronically thing sounds pretty sweet.

Also, now that the weather is better, it will be easier to go to the farmer's markets around town to pick up fresh inexpensive produce to go with the things that are easy to buy in bulk and freeze/stockpile form the grocery store. YAY.