Week 11: Budgeting Assignment

For my three course meal I have decided to make Porcini Risotto with Crispy Sage and Brie with Garlic Butter Butternut Squash Steaks and Spelt Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies.


Ingredients for Risotto

Dried Porcini Mushrooms- $5.99

Vegetable Stock- In Pantry

Olive Oil- In Pantry

Shallots- $0.49 each

Sea Salt and Black Pepper- In Pantry

Arborio Rice- In Pantry

Grated Parmesan- In Pantry

Sage Leaves- $2.50

Triple Cream Brie- $3.99

Ingredients for Squash Steaks

• Butternut Squash- In Pantry
• Olive Oil- In Pantry
• Butter- In Pantry
• Oregano- $2.99
• Garlic- $2.99
• Lemon Juice- In Pantry
• Salt and Pepper- In Pantry

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

• Butter- In Pantry
• Brown Sugar- $3.50
• White Sugar- $2.19
• All-purpose Flour- In Pantry
• Spelt Flour- $6.39
• Baking Soda- In Pantry
• Baking Powder- $2.59
• Salt- In Pantry
• Egg- $2.99
• Vanilla Extract- In Pantry
• Dark Chocolate- In Pantry
• Salt for Sprinkling- In Pantry

• Do you think your food budget is adequate to purchase food to support a nutritionally balanced diet? 

I do believe that my food budget is adequate to purchase a diet that is balanced. I often buy produce that is on sale, or that I can make go far. I also like to shop in the bulk section and buy my plant proteins dry so that I can get more for my money. Additionally, I don't purchase a ton of meat, which helps to keep my grocery bills low. The one thing that hinders me from making my budget go further is lack of storage space in my apartment. This leads me to making more trips to the store and often times I could make the food I have work, but since I'm at the store for one ingredient, I often end up buying more than I need. This is more of a habitual issue than a budget issue, but it does impact my budget. 
 

• Have you made any changes since the beginning of class to either your food budgeting or food purchasing habits?  If so, what were they? 

One thing that has changed is that I buy a little more meat than I typically did, which is opposite of the purpose of the class! My purchasing doubled from around once a semester to twice this semester. When I do buy though its for the purpose of broth so I buy the scrap cuts of meat and use those for my bone and vegetable broth. Lately I've been enjoying having a cup a day in the evenings when I'm doing my homework. 

• Has your cooking and/or eating changed?  If so, how?  

I've really tried to do more mise en place in my cooking. In my family I'm known for being in the kitchen a lot and even more so making a mess in the kitchen. Mise en place has helped me to cut down on the amount of clean up that I face at the end of a project. At the beginning of the semester I was pretty conscientious of the amount of food waste that I produced, but watching the documentary Wasted really piqued my interest and has lead me to making more of an effort to reduce the amount of food waste that I'm making in the kitchen. One thing that I would like to work on even more though is the amount of packaging waste that I produce.