Random Bits of Silliness

Since moving Matthew and I have been struggling to find balance in a few areas. The first area is our grocery budget. We knew that in moving, our cost of living would go up, but every time we adjust our grocery budget we still end up spending too much. This is something we are frustrated with. Well, in some random conversation Matthew had with our Bishop and his wife, we discovered that there is a WinCo in the area and according to the calculations of our Bishop, the amount of money we spend in driving to the grocery store would be small compared to the money we would save in groceries, so we decided to give it a go.

This month we have recommitted to keeping our grocery budget and the first thing we did was take a field trip to WinCo. There, we made many discoveries: 1)The produce at WinCo is not quality enough for us, even with the savings, 2)Going to WinCo when you are in a hurry is not worth it, 3) Although WinCo isn't a "bulk" store like Costco or Sam's Club, you can find BIG things there, the following pictures are good examples:

Above Left: I don't know if you can tell, but those are giant marshmallows. Matthew and I love to have roasted/toasted marshmallows year round. In Salt Lake we toasted them in our toaster oven. Here in Seattle we have been broiling them in the oven. In order for these guys to be soft all the way through we have to toast both sides.

Above Right: This is a 10lb tube of beef. It takes up the entire shelf of our fridge! We aren't planning on buying any more beef for a few more months!

Above: One more thing Matthew can threaten me with. (He would never)

We will see if the trip to WinCo really saves us money!

The other thing that Matthew and I have been struggling with is our menu (I find it interesting that both of these struggles have to do with food). Lately, we have not been able to come up with anything creative to eat and we are getting pretty sick of the same old things. Well, Matthew was trying to figure out what to make for dinner and he was talking to his sister Jen. She suggested twice baked potatoes and gave Matthew an idea of how to make them. They turned out fantastic and Matthew told me I had to take a picture of his masterpiece.

Above: The twice baked potatoes. They included sour cream, bacon, cheddar cheese and some of the dry ranch mix. We also had roasted red peppers seasoned with Italian dressing and sauteed zucchini (the zucchini was a recipe from our Bishop's wife, they give us lots of good advice!)