Today's Brunch: September 28, 2014

I know that I'm so, so behind on my food posting so I'm going to try to breeze through what we ate the last few days.  (I wanted to post about my dresser facelift because I was really pleased with the outcome, but that took me three days to write because I didn't have time.)  I don't want to just skip our meals because we tried some new things.  Such as today!  Last night Nick wasn't feeling well at our family dinner so he skipped his competition in Sacramento and camped out in front of the TV.  I was super productive and went to the grocery store early so that I could make a nice brunch.  For the first time, I made waffles.  I've never even made them at complimentary breakfasts in hotels.  Our friend gave us a waffle iron back when we were still living in the condo because she had gotten a couple as wedding gifts and couldn't return them.  I finally decided to try it out.  So easy!  I can see why people love them so much.

I got a small pack of Bob's Red Mills Buttermilk Pancake Mix and got to work.  Now, let me tell you.  This week's shopping trip to Sprouts was not monetarily successful.  I spent $70.00 for the two of us and the only meat that I bought was a ham steak.  I usually only spend between $40.00-50.00.  After our BBQ with Nick's coworkers, we had a ton of sausage left over.  Nick grilled them up and was planning on bringing them into the office, but totally forgot.  I worked my entire menu off of these sausages.  There was a lot of sausage and I didn't want it to go to waste, but since we were making dishes that I normally wouldn't make, my grocery tab came out higher.  I've actually been finding that I spend less if I simply buy four proteins and four main veggies and figure it out when I get home.  It makes me more creative and I don't buy extra food that we don't need.  Usually we only cook four times a week and eat leftovers on the fifth day.  So having to work around these sausages put a kink in my budget.  I had to buy things that I normally could do without, such as all natural biscuits and organic milk.  I love Sprouts, but cheaper, less healthy options like Bisquick and Pillsbury aren't available and undoubtably more costly.  Anyway, after all of that, I ended up spending about $5 on my pancake/waffle mix and another $5 on my milk.  Both items that I normally wouldn't purchase. They were delicious waffles and I comforted myself in the fact that I had enough dry mix for many, many more batches of healthy waffles or pancakes.  I already was grumbly about breaking the budget and Nick had the audacity to ask if there was maple syrup. It's like a game to me to get our grocery bill as low as possible so no, I didn't buy any because I knew he could use honey, which we already had and is healthier.  Sheesh.  See if I make him waffles when he's sick again.

After much ado, our brunch:

Sausage is included, of course.