DigsMagazine.com | nourish: $50, TWO BELLIES, ONE WEEK part 2: the meal diary page2

make your stomach happy

what's for dinner?

take the poll

a home + living guide for the post-college, pre-parenthood, quasi-adult generation

10.23.2000

home
editor's note
_____________

DEPARTMENTS
o lounge
o nourish
o host
o laze
_____________

o BOARDS
_____________

about
contact
submit your ideas
search

what are you making for dinner tonight? jump to the discussion boards to get or share great recipes, cooking tips, and other kitchen advice.

other recent NOURISH articles:
o picky eaters: Get the Milk Out
o $50, Two Bellies, One Week
o Leftover Makeovers
o Cooking without Cookbooks
o Use What's in the Fridge #2:Braising!
o Use What's in the Fridge: Series Intro
o The Lazy Shopper's Kitchen Essentials
o Grilling 101
o When it's Too Hot in the Kitchen
o Cooking for One
o Dumplings for Dummies

$50, two bellies, One week
part two: the meal diary | 1 2 3 4 5
continued from page 1

Lunch for two –
Grilled Cheddar Cheese Sandwich for me [cheddar cheese, 2 slices Italian bread]
Tuna Melt for my boyfriend [remaining tuna salad, cheddar cheese, 2 slices Italian bread]
Growing up in my family, a "grilled cheese" meant a slab of pre-packaged American cheese slapped between two slices of white sandwich bread, popped into the toaster oven and set to cook on "medium-dark." This, I later realized, is a far cry from the delicious (though not terribly healthy) diner classic that is the authentic grilled cheese. True grilled cheese – smothered in butter, cooked on the stove -- is one of my boyfriend’s two (edible) cooking specialties. (He also has a "talent" for a black bean/cream of corn/ramen concoction, though no other human on this planet seems to be in agreement with him on the tastiness of that invention). Today, we’ve got a little bit of leftover tuna salad, so he makes a tuna melt for himself. Because I find the thought of warm tuna salad revolting, I’m quite happy to get a basic grilled cheese. Again, we use the Italian loaf rather than sandwich bread.

Dinner for two –
Mediterranean Veggie Stew with Garlic Bread [8 plum tomatoes, 1 ½ zucchini, 1 bell pepper, 1 russet potato, 1 red-skinned potato, 1 onion, 2 cloves garlic, remaining Italian bread]
A girl I became friends with while traveling in Italy made this dish for me one evening. It was something her southern Italian grandmother used to make, and which she not-so-poetically dubbed "Spicy Tomato Mush." It’s the sort of dish you find in many Mediterranean cuisines, a hearty vegetable stew that makes a good one-pot meal, especially when served with good bread. Since we’re lacking in fresh bread at the moment, I use the remainder of the two-day-old bread to make garlic toast. I skimp on the zucchini and potato, since I’m saving some of my supply for later in the week; as a result, there’s not as much leftover as usual.

Late night Snack ($6):
Oh, this is not good. Two days into the experiment and already, we’re breaking from protocol. My ectomorphic, high-metabolism-blessed boyfriend decides, sometime around 11pm, that he’s ready for another meal. And of course, he doesn’t want anything in the house. Since we live in Tucson, where restaurants close promptly at the early hour of 9 pm, we’ve got two choices: fast food or IHOP. He drags me to the latter; orders pancakes and three eggs. When the waitress turns to me, I say I’ll just have some water, since I’m determined to do at least my part in sticking to our food budget.

I steal a few bites of his buttermilk pancakes. I’m so weak.

DAY 3
Breakfast – Granola bars
Today, for some reason, I wake up ravenous. Our cereal pickings don’t appeal to me (currently, we have Life and Grape Nuts, the former my boyfriend’s selection, the latter leftover from when his sister visited. My cereal tastes are embarrassingly juvenile – I like ‘em sweet and crunchy.) I grab a granola bar, and offer my boyfriend one as well.

keep walking

---------------------------> lounge . nourish . host . laze . home.