Shopping Ninja

Being a Kitchen Ninja is, in large part, about being able to make something delicious out of nothing much at all.

Sometimes, though, it's also about being able to get something delicious for not much money at all.

In the last two days, I've spent what seems to me to be an exorbitant amount of money on groceries. However, looking over the receipts, I'm forced to realise that it's really not very much at all, considering what I've bought. Yes, I've spent around $90 on food in two days, when I can usually go an entire month on perhaps $50. But what food!

Four pounds or a bit more of shrimp
Three pounds of tilapia
Six or so pounds of prime beef
A pound of tuna
A pound of salmon
Two gallons of pomegranate juice
Fifteen pounds of potatoes
Two pounds of kumquats
A pound of red seedless grapes

Not to mention the diet soda, coffee, tonic water, chocolate soda, seltzer, and giant bottle of plonk (so sue me, I like it).

Not a bad haul for $90, even if I'm still out of peppers. It's really quite amazing what you can do with a good shopping list, a buy-one-get-two sale, and some nearly expired beef. Thursdays really are the best days to go shopping for meat, as the truck usually comes in on Friday, so the previous week's packs are about to go out of date and the stores reduce the hell out of them to avoid tossing 'em out.

That, of course, doesn't really matter when you're planning to take the stuff home, split it into 1lb portions, and freeze it anyway.

Tonight will be a night of much freezer-bagging and shelf-shuffling. This weekend will likely involve some serious culinary experimentation, as I have to come up with something to do with all those kumquats, and all that pomegranate juice.

You know, other than have an antioxidant party.