Free Range...cookie

"There's a rumbly in my tummy!" said Pooh Bear.



Not to redirect to the thoughtful age of being 4 years old, but Winnie the Pooh definitely had it verbatim when describing his hunger pangs. I've been on a mission to bring my lunch every single work day, and to make each lunch meal super interesting. Well, FAIL big time on that one. So, since memory didn't serve me right, I got to hit up the "nooner" at Houlihan's restaurant. Yes, I said the Nooner- if you don't have your food in 15 mins. or less- it's free. They even give you a timer to prove it. And yes, it's a chain restaurant. But I am a devoted fan of the salads at Houlihan's. They have tons of different fresh veggies, with sushi additions, caramelized bananas, and non-fire breath inducing red onions. (Score!).

I also happened to learn on this lucky day, that if you order an entree for lunch instead of a regular ol' special- they bring you a cookie! By true standards, the server will ask you if you are ready to order dessert, but then, they bring you a "100% free-range cookie" of chocolate chip delight and a mighty impressive size (it's sharable if you're one of those). Free-range as in wheat and gluten and dairy free! Instantly, my FAIL was turned into Awesomeness, so I can't knock all chain restaurants.

Easy Breezy Empanadas

Totally inspired by my need for both easy, and low-cost tasty fare, I turned to a college student inspired book.

I know- who reads a book for college students when they are not a college student anymore? The lame outrage. But no, really, I have found a ton of great vegetarian ideas - all simple, and easily altered to better suit my specific vegetable tastes. To start with, empanadas have never been that exciting to me- until I made my own. It's a bunch of foods stuffed in warm, clever, half-circle pocket.

Pick your veggies, simmer than via stovetop- usually add some diced tomatoes so your veggies don't end up too dry. Then stuff into a doughy pocket and bake until light golden brown, a little crispy, and presto!, your dinner is served.

Now, the College version includes chopping some zucchini, potatoes, and onion. Throw them in a pan and saute with a teaspoon of oil for about 10 mins. Add a drained can of diced tomatoes, whatever seasonings you love (plus salt and pepper to taste), simmer another 5 mins. Bust out the rolled-up pie crusts (refrigerated, then sat at room temps for about 15 mins), cut them in half. Or totally attempt making your own easy pie-crusts! Stuff the pie-crusts with your cooked mixture, press the edges closed (a fork helps), cut a slit in the top for aeration, and back in the oven at 350ish for about 20-30 minutes.

*If pie-crusts are too sweet of a flavoring for your hearty veggies, I've experimented with buying those big Pillsbury Grands (buttery version!) biscuits and rolling them out to desired size.

I also experimented with adding chopped sweet potato in the veggie mix, and a good dose of turmeric and cilantro. Onions and turmeric marry together well. If you don't have time for potatoes, or don't usually keep many in the house, substituting a 3/4 cup of frozen potatoes o'brien has worked for my recipes a few times and give it some added pizazz with small bits of red and green bell peppers.

When they're all baked and golden brown, your dinner is done. Plus, these pockets reheat well for tomorrow's lunch. If you have some leftover filling, it makes a great topper over rice.

Tabbouleh This, Tabbouleh That

On my never-ending quest for quick, easy, and tastefully scrumptious lunches (i.e. Not microwavable plastic-wrapped particles), I realized Tabbouleh was the treasure I had yet to discover. Sure, most people make this as an appetizer, or a side item to a dinner. It can fulfill many other niches in your lunching life.

But the time is now, to reclaim your vegetarian taste-buds (yes, that includes sans fake-bacon). Quite a few people have been appalled at the sad fact that most dehydrated bacon toppings are in fact made of soy (ahem, Betty Crocker's Bac-os). Which technically makes them vegan, right? I, myself, am appalled because the mere flavor of bacon conjures to mind an image of "Zuckerman's Famous Pig" Wilbur.

Wilbur aside, tabbouleh is a great dish that you can rework in hundreds of ways. Tabbouleh is pretty much a salad, usually encompassing a variety of *Fresh* herbs and/or lettuces, veggies, and pretty commonly tossed with quinoa (a protein rich rice slash pasta). Cookbook photographs I've seen usually include the all-American salad ingredients: tomato and cucumber, and usually without the freshly chopped herbs. But I've learned some fresh chopped mint leaves, cilantro, and basil, can make crunchier veggies all the more appetizing.

Cook your couscous, squeeze in some fresh lemon juice and toss with some colorful chopped veggies. Viola! It's awesome. It can be stored in the fridge for a couple of days and provides a hearty side, or work-day meal without reheating per the microwave. Oh, and don't forget the chick peas (aka garbanzo beans) either, they marry well with the quinoa and lemon juice.

Pennies for Lunch

One tried and true budgeting tool is to completely let go of eating out. Forget having your meal prepared, served, and cleaned up after. You have to get down to the nitty-gritty of things to save those dollars when it comes to food.

If you think about the money you're paying for a meal out, you have to factor in the produce and meats that were prepared (cleaned/chopped/seasoned) before they were cooked (hopefully to order), then presented to you for consumption. You avoid cleaning the preparation dishes, meal dishes/glasses/silverware, the table, the stove top. While I am definitely one to relish in the happiness of having an empty sink, sometimes the cost doesn't justify the means.

Most people are heavy hitters in the saving on lunch dept., when it comes to lunches too- because you have a short time to cook/microwave your food, consume it, and get a piece of mind back before getting back to work. Every article on saving money will tell you to bring your lunch to work- the trick is staying creative so you don't lose motivation.

I am that person, losing motivation. Having chips/pretzels/sliced veggies with sandwiches every single day got boring. Re-heated leftovers lose their flavor. I know several college students who saved mucho dollars, by living on ramen noodles for two meals a day. Every day. For months. I tried it for a week and am done with it. (And I'm the biggest fan of noodles on the planet).

For $1.80, I bought a 6-pack of those 'cup-o-noodles' and for about $3 a bag of apples. That's only $4.80 for a week of lunches at work (Yes, I ate two one day, they're actually not so filling)- quick, easy, but SO NOT satisfying. Looking at the numbers gives me a little excitement, I mean, that's a cheap work week of lunches. CHEAP. I kind of get now- why lower classes have more health problems, because they have to buy cheaper food and coat it with salt. I totally get it. I had a two hour conversation with an academic about why organic food will never make it to the lower class because of salt. But I digress.

I googled ideas for better and cost-effective lunches. I can pair everything with bread and top it with mustard (my favorite) and it still gets boring. VegFamily says to try everything with hummus. Luckily it's super-easy to make your own hummus, but hard to not reach for the salt. Black pepper and mustard are my lunch buddies now. I compared my lunch ideas to school (cafeteria) lunches and didn't come up with many more ideas. This is a rut. WebMD has a few more ideas. I am so proud of my cheap non-lunch-spending habits, that I finally treat myself to one good restaurant lunch every other week to re-motivate myself on this quest. A $5 budget for a week of lunches is leaving me hungry.

Leave the Latte Factor

The 'latte factor' has been on my budget-weary mind for a couple of weeks now. With the holiday expenses slamming into tax season woes for the new year, and being the intense coffee addict that I am, it has a new meaning. The latte factor is a game plan- an idea really, that by skipping your favorite morning pick-me-up, and pocketing the average $5 a day- you can save a chunk of cash at the end of the year. Except for the unsavvy budgeter, this usually just means holding onto another $5 bill that will inevitably burn a hole through your pocket and come out on the other end in the form of a breakfast scone or a couple of sodas from the office vending machine. I even tried physically depositing the money, daily, into a ceramic piggy bank. This thought was more of an opposite "out of sight, out of mind" tactic. It didn't work.

Forget the latte factor. While redesigning my daily spending habits in a slow form, I actually figured out another method of saving at least one chunk of cash: my hair.

As far as extravagant purchases for a person like me, visiting the beauty salon and the same hip stylist for a number of years, is like a mini-vacation every other month. I make an appt., and when I arrive, my coat is hung by the desk staff, and I'm seated in an airy, pleasant-smelling, and indubitably clean booth.

Thirsty? They bring you coffee (with cream), cranberry juice, hot tea, or bottled water. Need a snack? Several granola bars or other healthy miniature bites await. Then you're greeted by your stylist, chatting about everything, starting at what you've been up to over the last 6 weeks, the condition of your hair, and the direction all things are going today. Life, looks, and any tidbits of goss you happen to collect over your 3 hour visit is layered into your brain- so that you forget the outside world. You forget the countless errands- pick up, drop off, oil change, post office, grocery store, and making lunch. You enter into a bubble of bliss and come out refreshed, and gorgeous. All this, for a tag price of about $125. What's not to love?

Hmmm..., looking at this way, 52 weeks a year, divided into 6 week visits is about 9 visits total at $125 each equals $1,125. HOLY SMOKES! I spend that much on my hair? (not withstanding any shampoo, conditioner, mouse, brushes, hair dryers, de-frizz spray, and the list, unfortunately, goes on). I've FOUND my Latte Factor. Like a therapeutic quickie, I realized I need that daily coffee fix to get me through the day, more than the 3 hour escape. It was a tough decision.

I say HELLO to DIY beauty-in-a-box now, which I've done so many times I've mastered my technique to a minimal mess fest and pretty good outcome. For only $7 a month, or $84 a year- my color is glossy. Plus, with an 8 week trim cycle at the local mall, there's an additional $150 a year. This is a grand total of $234.

$1125-234= $891 LESS spent than last year.

There's my latte factor in a nutshell. Another step to being a millionaire, possibly. What's yours?

Fast Foward To: Here

Oh darling, there's nothing like turning another year older and remembering all the things forgotten, put aside, piled up, and put out of mind. Like this blog. Like my attempts at painting actual hangable art, and creating a budget to actually follow, and follow successfully.

Well now, the lady of lunching is currently on a hiatus from habitual noontime, downtown lunching. And evening dining and drinking debauchery. And also seemingly gone are the $150 salon trips, morning coffee jaunts, with memorable vintage shopping sprees. But all is not lost.

Enter email account number 3- used solely for online mailing lists, coupons, "what's happening" mailing list updates, and sample/freebie giftcard tryouts. The Panera coffee punch card is extinct, as is the local drive-up coffee window, and those pesky credit cards. Holding back on some fabulous things does cause a new found appreciation for the new adventures when you take them.

Now enter new adventure: dining with sushi. Even though the lady is Asian- she's never had sushi. She's not that kind of Asian. So for the big birthday celebration, some sushi veterans took me out to for sake and new foods. The caterpillar roll looked like a real caterpillar but tasted delicioso with a mixed sake martini- and nothing can compare to the 'big O' roll- a favorite with everyone at our cushy sofa sectional in the front of the restaurant.

I now dream about my next sushi trip.

Flat Branch Pub & Brewing it up

Beer, scotch, bourbon, veggie burgers, and cream sodas you say? Around and about the downtown District area for the last 15 years, and the first brewery in over a hundred years, Flat Branch Pub & Brewing has earned a hearty reputation. They brew their own locally named-for beers, along with a super tasty sarsaparilla-esque root beer and cream soda that you will never be able to drink enough of! Starting off with beverages that are different in name and flavor (in the "good way" of course), there's the Green Chili Beer- which one of my great friends quotes as tasting "like beer and nachos had a baby" and is definitely on the spot. Esquire online gives Flat Branch a 76% rating as a "Best Bar."
For the meat-eating crowd, the burgers here are thick, juicy, and heartily flavorful (that's what I've heard again and again at least). And for the rest of the fanfare of non-meat eaters, Flat Branch has an awesome, super filling, hearty, tasty veggie burger. When you normally think of veggie burgers, something with soy comes to mind, maybe with a dash of pepper. But just wait. Their version of the veggie burger has dirty rice, oats, red pepper, tofu, portabello mushrooms (mmmm...), which you can add a slice of pepperjack cheese to and douse in a basil pesto. Grab a side of their homemade garlicky smashers and into veggie bliss you go. Really, it's hard to get enough of their ruby red cream soda, so go check it out.