I Have Buyer’s Remorse… And It’s Making Me Hungry

Have you ever had buyer’s remorse before… from buying groceries???

Me neither. Until recently..

Jim was out of town for the past 2 weeks with the racing biz. And usually whenever he leaves, I use that time to “try something new”.

Sometimes it’s things like:

• clean out every closet
• walk the dog every day
• take long bubble baths
• frame some new photographs
• or go to the Caribbean!

This time, it was: buy groceries. Enough to actually make some serious dishes that will last us several weeks — if not months.

 

The question is:

Can you buy too many groceries?

I guess the answer is:

Yes.

I spent close to $600 on everything from pork loins to potatoes — chuck roast to cherry tomatoes — and all of the necessary spices, sauces, and sides to make meals for a lifetime (…or so it seemed).

In fact, when I got home, I quickly learned that our pantry, fridge, and freezer were nowhere near large enough to hold all of these goodies. Trauma!

Somehow, it all worked out. Part of the thanks goes to my trusty ‘ol Foodsaver. The process of vacuum sealing meats and other foods for storage in compressed freezer bags makes a world of difference in terms of how much you can stack close together in the freezer and fridge.

But still… my “buyer’s remorse” did not subside.

 

Why In The World???

So, why did I feel compelled to spend so much money on so many groceries anyway, you ask?

Well, Jim and I have been talking about it for awhile. We eat out sooooo much. And when we’re not eating out, we’re eating quick-serve processed foods. So I was trying to gear-up for cooking more and eating out less. (And maybe eating a little healthier at the same time.)

I figured while Jim was gone, I’d have a ball experimenting with a bunch of different recipes that I’d been saving up. You know, try lots of ’em out, and then make “the best of the best ones” for Jim when he returned from his trip in a couple weeks.

Wrong. Cooking a total of about 10 dishes completely wore me out! The reward just wasn’t worth the work. While it was kinda fun to dabble around in the kitchen, and watch some interesting dishes come together… hardly any of them were tasty enough to make me say, “I wanna do this all the time!”

And that’s only half of the story…

 
Listen to Bud Light’s Real Men of Genius ”Mr. Supermarket Produce Putter Outer”:

 

Fresh Groceries Go Bad… Fast!

I guess I still have a lot to learn when it comes to food storage and how to prolong the life of things like fruits & vegetables, and breads.

I bought (in bulk of course) fresh strawberries, huge oversized mushrooms, brussel sprouts, lots of green/yellow/red peppers, parsley, cilantro… even fresh loaves of bread. Most of those things… gone! In a matter of days.

At the “final hours” I remembered the FoodSaver… so I managed to chop up and vacuum seal a few of those things like all the peppers (whew! I got a great deal on a combo bag of various shapes, sizes and colors of peppers at Costco and I hated to see them go to waste) and the parsley & cilantro.

But things like the strawberries, fresh loaves of bread, and jumbo mushrooms that I bought (and stored “properly” in brown paper bags in a cool dry place) didn’t last more than 2 days! By the time I pulled out the recipe to make stuffed mushrooms, I realized they were starting to get all fuzzy and slimy. I didn’t want to mess with ’em, so into the garbage they went.

 

Costco To The Rescue!

The best part of all this… I managed to find most of the good deals at Costco. (Of course, that just means that I had larger quantities of things to toss out all at once, too!)

The rest was from Kroger.

Most of the expense came from all the meat and products that I bought in bulk Thankfully, the majority of that was freezable and should withstand the test of time.

But still… the rapid demise of most of the “fresh” stuff really bit me in the butt and made this a not very fun thing to do on a regular basis!

Eating out is just so much easier… and more fun… and for the most part, the food is fresher. Three cheers for our favorite Thai, BBQ and Mexican restaurants! We’ll see you soon…