Grocery Coupon Guide

Jeffrey–I have a suggestion for this phase of the challenge. How about trying to incorporate more whole grains into your diet? I think you use whole wheat bread, but brown rice would be more nutritious than the white rice, and there are also some good whole grain pastas. The whole grains are not only healthier but they keep you full longer. A great gadget to have is a small rice cooker, which can also be used as a steamer. You can add the rice and liquid and turn it on and it turns off automatically when done. It’s nice to have warm rice ready with little effort at the end of the day.

I’ve noticed that you use fewer things to cover up the taste of certain foods. Granted, you use more spices because you can, but you seem to have moved away from using cream cheese or some other dressing/mayonnaise when you eat Wheat Thins. While this may be from your inability to obtain more cream cheese at a reasonable price, your tastes have changed (like the cupcake and only being able to drink half-juice/half-water). It’s really interesting to see how a person’s tastes can change based on what’s available and how people don’t “need” certain flavors.

With what you have I would suggest baking the figs. Prick the outsides with a fork and bake then at 300 with a bit of water in the pan until they are tender. then you can scoop out the filling. or cut them into quarters and sprinkle with crushed cereal from the bottom of a box.

Free sample: http://delibites.johnsonville.com/

Figs are great! Get as many as you can. They are wonderful eaten fresh, alone or with a dab of yoghurt, salty cheese, or even cream cheese.
They are good cut up in salads, or baked. Baked with a chicken or meat, they are wonderful. I once had access to a huge fig tree, and made pickled figs, figs steeped in tea – delicious. Since figs are very perishable, if you get more than you can use immediately you can freeze them and eat them rather like ice cream.

Fresh figs are so delicious. I’m sure you’ve eaten them already since I am a few days behind on reading the posts, but I can’t think of any better way to eat them than right off the tree!

If you come across limes on your foraging trips, and want to try making lime rice, try squeezing the juice into the water, leave the slices in the water as well, then add the rice and cook it how you normally do. You should use at least a couple of limes to get the flavor for this. Lime rice really compliments Mexican-style grilled bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, black beans and maybe some kind of meat, all seasoned with cumin, smoked Spanish paprika, salt, pepper, whatver else you like. If you just throw all the veggies in a pan with the seasoning and a little oil and kind of let them sit on all sides so they get just a little singed they will taste grilled.