One way to tell that you have been on vacation: an empty fridge. Thankfully the commissary was open today. We hit up a farmer's market on our way and found some goodies. I got strawberries, two types of cherries, two types of peaches (one was a donut peach), spinach, romaine, zucchini, cucumber, yellow squash, red/yellow/green pepper, and carrots. Our favorite farmer had a new type of lettuce so we tried that too.
My pre-challenge weekly average at the commissary was $175. Today I spent $24.21 on toiletries/cleaners. I spent $2.49 on impulse items. We decided to try a fake chicken patty for on a sandwich. I spent $106.89 on food. Ugh. We needed a ton plus I had to get a big bottle of vanilla because they were out of the small ones and that alone was $7. I spent $7.98 on gossip magazines. After adding in their surcharge and taking out my coupons, I spent $143.81 out of pocket. This is a savings of only $31.19. My pre-challenge weekly average at restaurants was $80. However, I decided to pay for our food expenses during our vacation (10 days) with my challenge savings so restaurant totals will not be counting against (or for) us this week. Seeing as the kids are out of school and can't pack lunches, that means our only savings for this week is the commissary savings. This brings our grand total savings to $3,986.90 in 266 days!
I told my hubby to look in the freezer and pick one of our fake out meals for tonight. He decided on vegetarian bacon strips. I have been missing having blt's so my fingers were crossed hoping this turned out well! I also grabbed a pack of stuffed mushrooms. We normally make these ourselves but I saw them today and thought it would be great for an easy side. The mushrooms were stuffed with mozzarella and parmesan cheese and spices including garlic, sage, and basil.
My hubby cooked up the facon (ha, fake bacon) while I got the veggies ready. We topped our sandwiches with the new lettuce, spinach, red onion, cucumber, cilantro, avocado, and tomato. My hubby sniffed the facon when he opened the package. "That smells like bacon". Whew. Test number one passed. He cooked up about 8 slices. We all taste tested a small bite. "That tastes bacony". No way. Is it really passing the taste test? Don't get me wrong. You can tell the difference between pork bacon and facon. However, it is a very doable substitute. How can you tell if it is a good substitute? The entire plate disappeared while I was chopping and my hubby was getting the toast ready. Ha. He had to grab more out of the freezer and make another pan full. I asked everyone what they thought. My son said two thumbs up. My daughter said that facon is less crispy but otherwise she really liked it (she stole most of the first plate). My hubby. Oh boy. The man who loves bacon more than most things. More than sunshine. Is there any chance for him to like this? Yep! He said "huh, not too bad being a vegetarian; we'll make this again". Then we listed all the things that we can now add facon to.
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