Food porn

I started a mint.com account, and I've been shamed with my spending habits. My worst spending habit is at the grocery store. I spend more at the grocery store than some really large families. It's a weakness, and I'm working on it. 

The main reason I've been spending so much at the store has been because lately I've been making almost all of my meals at home. I used to eat at the cafeteria at work almost every day, and eat out or eat some kind of frozen meal the rest of the time. This month I haven't been to the cafeteria once. Nice! But the grocery bill is still pretty shameful. I'm going to make it a goal for February to come up with more budget-friendly meals to make ahead. 

Vegetarian chili

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. I made two things tonight. One was a reasonably caloried french toast casserole.  That's in the fridge and will be baking tomorrow morning. Yum!

The other was a sort of improvised vegetarian chili. I wanted something I could freeze and take to work during the week. This clocks in at 250 calories, including the cheese. It's basically canned tomatoes, tofu, cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, green peppers, red peppers, onions, zucchini and one can each of chick peas and kidney beans. I used the small cans of beans. I wanted this to be more about vegetables (fewer calories) and less about the beans. It's actually delicious. It came to 189 calories before the cheese, so I added half an ounce of low-fat cheddar, and it's actually 234 calories, but we'll call it 250 just to be safe.
I froze this and another low-cal breakfast casserole in individual portions. I'll do the same with the french toast bake. It's nice to have a freezer full of ready-to-go stuff that's healthy. I usually use Smart Ones or Lean Cuisines to help me with portion control, but I like making my own good and knowing what's in it.