7 Days of Salads recap

Happy Sunday blog friends (or Monday to those doing their catching up after the weekend...)!

Yesterday I showed you a picture of my pathetic fruit bowl. Well, after a couple hours of grocery shopping (no kidding), we managed to improve the situation.

It was an epic grocery shopping trip. We were out of everything and surviving on leftovers and frozen packets. The receipt was as long as my leg.

I won't even tell you the final cost, but we did manage to save $16.00 with coupons and by recycling a few months worth of soda cans and beer bottles. In Iowa we get a 5 cent deposit return if we recycle any carbonated beverage. We don't drink a lot of soda or beer, so it takes a while to really make an impact on our budgets.

We also save money by buying a few things in bulk. But when we have to buy the bulk items, it gets spendy.

2 Liters of extra virgin olive oil for $15.00. We then aliquot it into the smaller jar on the counter. The big bottle lasts several months.

Over 2 lbs of Smart Balance.

1 lb of Organic baby spinach. This is a perfect example of cost effective bulk purchases. This was on sale for $4.50 and is Organic. The regular bagged spinach was $3.00 for under 1/3 lb. 3x$3.00 is $9.00. As long as we eat it all, we'll come out ahead.

After 1 year, I finally ran out of protein power. This variety is cheap and effective. I'm not vegan, so I don't mind whey protein. It costs $20.00 for a 2lb bag, but a 1 lb bag is $13.00. As long as it gets used, then it's a great purchase.

Enough about groceries. Salad Challege recap. The original challenge was 2 salads/day for 7 days. I did pretty well and started with an 'extra' salad, which I ended up using as a freebee while I was babysitting one day. I then extended the salad challenge 4 extra days, but ended up calling it quits after only 2. Here are the salads we enjoyed.

 Monkfish on Fennel/Orange/Spinach with Orange/Soy Vinagrette

 Tuna Salad on Greens with Balsamic

 Salad topped with crushed tortilla chips and salsa verde

 Gangsta Salad with pickled beets!

 Fennel Apple Salad

 Curried Cauliflower Salad (brown)

 Salad Bar style meal: (clockwise from front) Gangsta Salad, Curried Cauliflower, Risotto, Mini grilled cheeses

 Broccoli Salad

 

 Taco Salad Progression

 Mediterranean Roasted Veg Salad

Crab Cakes on Greens with Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette

There were many renditions with leftovers so I didn't waste food.

Hope you have a good week ahead of you. I have an interview Thurs-Fri and then a fun weekend in Minneapolis with friends. I'm super excited to see friends and have some fun.

What are you looking forward to?