Numbers for November

Happy Last Day of November!!!!!

Here are a few interesting numbers for November:

# of days in November: 30

# of Members in my family: 5 

# of homemade breakfasts: 29 days x 5 people= 145

# of homemade lunches for 5 people ( minus the  days school provided ones)=91

# of homemade dinners minus  the 5 that hubby was away a few days and 1 meal eaten out as a family- 141

# of servings of meals eaten out of the house- 20 ( my husband had 4 required company shingdings, I ate one lunch out with a friend and  last Sunday we went on an excursion for the day that required all meals eaten out)

# of snacks= I never recorded all the snacks but just say one a day= 150

Total of snacks and meals from home: 527

Grocery total for ALL of November= 30,000 yen ( just think around 300 bucks, if you are a forex junkie you can scream at me about the current exchange rate)

Yup, 1000 yen ( 10 bucks a day).

This is not the norm for me. We eat out so much that I could have just easily started a restaurant blog. I just decided that we wouldn't eat out in November and I rediscovered my joy in menu planning ( I use to LOVE menu planning but after my third son was born I went  into survival mode and getting out of bed was my biggest accomplishment).

But the figure is remarkably low don't you think? 5 people ( 2 adults and 3 boys 4,6 and 9). We ate incredibly well too. During a week we had lots of fruit and veggies, dinner with meat a few times a few times, fish a couple of times and 1-2 vegetarian meals...remember each WEEK.

Curious?

We ate exceptionally well. Healthy, balanced meals with treats too.

Here is a peek: 

Breakfast varied day to day. Some examples are : cereal, oatmeal, egg/ toast, rice with meat and veggies, muffins, cheese toast, fruit and homemade yogurt...

Lunch- pretty much leftovers or I set aside meat pieces when prepping dinner to create a whole new lunch for my husband with it. 

Dinner is where the fun is! During the course of last week for example we had:  meatloaf, vegetarian doria using spiced lentils, Japanese meat and potatoes, vegetarian curry, Seafood Japanese noodle bowl, Indian Prantha ( filled roti, pictured above), salmon burgers. Plus all the side stuff and add in the carbs like rice and bread. 

I was lucky in that we were given some veggies and fruit so that certainly kept the grocery bill low.

I THINK though, regardless of what was given to us, it still would have been remarkably cheap. The upside of being an Indo- Canadian living in Japan is that I suffer from no functional fixedness when it comes to food. Common food spans cuisines for me so when I see a potato I can do a million and 1 things with it. I am not a good cook but a flexible one. 

So my friends, lesson learned from November, instead of opening the pocket book, thinking there is nothing to eat at home, open the fridge! Open-minded cooking equals happy body and happy wallet. You would be surprised what can be created with a bit of life experience and a bit of ingredients. 

PS

I found that I actually saved time too, getting kids out the door, ordering, waiting, eating is an hour hand chewer. The boys are getting older so many cooking/ bonding times were had this month and I sure appreciate them for peeling and chopping with the blunt kiddie knife for me. It ( briefly) kept them productively busy and out of trouble.

PSS

The date shows up as November 29 but it is in fact the 30th in Japan.