After the craziness that was yesterday (and the day before, and the day before that) I realized this afternoon that I needed to make my (thrice-weekly) trip to Trader Joe’s for some food or I’d be faced with tortilla chips and peanut butter with a side of soy sauce for dinner.

Ok, maybe that’s slightly melodramatic.

But still- I needed food.

Recently I feel like Mr. Dyson has been taking his wind tunnel vacuum to my wallet, so my goal was to spend under $40 on groceries.  Trader Joe’s is a very reasonably priced grocery store, but I tend to get carried away there so I have to concentrate and keep my eyes on the ($40) prize.

Here’s my loot:

Fruits:  Strawberries, raspberries, cherries, a plum and a peach.  (I guess I was feeling the need to feed myself with red fruit exclusively.)

Veggies:  an onion, broccoli, romaine (in the bag- hard to see) and an eggplant.

Proteins:  organic free range chicken breasts, all-natural chicken sausages and tofu.

Miscellaneous: 4 Clif Z bars, Greek yogurt, milk (unpictured) and Thai Red Curry Sauce.

Thai Red Curry Sauce?  What’s your plan for that, Megan??

Just you wait, it’s gonna get good…

And the grand total:  $40 and change!  Not bad, huh?  I’ll say this much- the chicken was a little over $7.  I’m not a promoter of a vegetarian lifestyle per se, but eating meat is definitely pricey!  Especially if you want to get quality meat.  Sigh…

The bottom line is that it’s totally do-able to eat healthfully and wholesomely without breaking the bank.  🙂

On to dinner:

I decided to grill up a bunch of veggies and tofu and make a stir fry with the curry sauce.  I threw slices of eggplant, a red bell pepper (that I already had in my fridge), and some onion on the grill over a medium flame.  While they started, I sliced up the tofu that I had pressed for about 20 minutes.

That’s some strong tofu!

I seasoned it with some salt, pepper, tumeric and soy sauce and threw it on the grill.

Once everything was cooked, I took it off the grill and let it cool enough to chop it up into bite-sized pieces.  Meanwhile, I boiled a small serving of rice noodles.  Once the noodles were soft and the veggies were chopped, I threw everything into a pot and added some of the curry sauce and mixed.

Oh, man.  It was awesome.  The veggies had a TON of flavor from being grilled and I highly recommend the sauce.  I served my noodleness with some roasted broccoli.

Thank you, Trader Joe’s, for being my friend. 🙂