Meatless Monday!

The other day, I read in a Glamour article that San Francisco is declaring "Meatless Mondays" to promote better health; so being the bandwagon-whore that I am, I attempted said declaration today! :D

One of my favorite-st meals ever (despite being somewhat allergic to soy!) is fried tofu sautéed in tomatoes, served with rice. As mommy is not down here to make it for me, I tried making it myself! :) This is actually attempt #2: tried making it over the weekend and blahh, I still get goosebumps when I think about how tragic of a meal that was. Stopped by Ralph's today and bought canola oil (which actually has more good-for-you cholesterol than olive oil and is tons cheaper) and juicy tomatoes to make the dish saucier, and here was the product:
I made the huge mistake last time of using butter, which gave it this sickeningly overpowering smell; using canola oil made it much better this time around! And instead of dunking in more oil to make it saucier, I opted for plain-ol' drinking water. Also used a tablespoon of fish sauce and Tung Chun Plum Sauce, which I bought to do stir-fry, so the dish could actually have some taste this time. -__- AND HOLY COW, WHO KNEW GARLIC MAKES FOOD SMELL SO GOOD?

I'm so proud it came out okay! But while I was grabbing ingredients from my fridge, noticed that the noodles I bought for stir fry two weeks ago went bad, so had to chuck that out; then realized the white nectarine I had so perfectly chopped up also went bad, and chucked that out (bought two, and after eating the first, realized I might be allergic anyway); and then saw that the cucumber I bought also went really bad, so that went out as well. Probably $5 I lost from those purchases! :( Should really remember to buy only stuff I'm going to cook within the week, but I think the problem is more my fridge's weird temperature fluctuations than my forgetfulness.

Actually was over at Trader Joe's today before I stopped by Ralph's and bought cilantro-jalapeno hummus on another shopper's recommendation (people at Joe's are so nice and talkative!), mushrooms for some pita-bread-pizza concoction I want to attempt, and strips of baked chicken for sandwiches/fried rice. Oh! Also bought a bottle of Joe's Thai Yellow Curry Sauce, which I hope would give a nice kick to the fried rice I'm planning to make later this week. I usually don't go there, but I think I'm going to make it a weekly stop from now on. The prices weren't as high as I expected, and the health selections made me want to scream with school-girl glee.

All in all, only spent around $15 on groceries today! I try to make meals that last at least 2 days, so averaging it out, meals per day is so much cheaper than when I was eating at Subway/Tapioca Express.

This dinner is actually not filling me up much; tofu, soup, and salads never make me feel full, no matter how big of a serving I eat. I think I'll try the hummus with my pita crackers after this, hee. :)

- Jeanne