Vacation via food

We visited two local restaurants for the first time. Posted on my web site, angelackerman.com: http://bit.ly/1J76Lp8

George's Pizzeria, penne with vodka sauce

Full of Crêpe, Triple S

Armchair traveling via ethnic food

It's no secret that I love food. Part of the reason you haven't seen much activity on this blog recently is because I'm trying to break some bad winter habits, primarily too much eating, too much eating calorie high and nutrient low and practically no exercise except walking the kid to school...

So I've lost about 10 lbs and starting biking, walking, doing yoga, punching the Everlast bag, and lifting weights.

Meanwhile, my daughter went to Girl Scout camp. 

While she was gone, I really wanted Turkish food so we went to Aci Halal in Allentown. 

First course was a spicy vegetable dip that tasted primarily of red pepper. And Turkish pita.

My husband and I both got lamb dishes. Mine turned out to be like a meatloaf.

And can I just tell you how much I love that little bit of lettuce with cilantro and spices? I could eat a pound of it.

But I was really dying for good coffee.

Enter Turkish coffee, "medium." And a bubble gum soda to take home for the child.

Dinner (without tip) was $39. 

But I didn't stop spending. I bought a couple things in the grocery dept.

Pressed dates for baking. Plain halva, which the Mediterranean Deli calls halawa. It's a sugared sesame paste almost like fudge. But lighter.

The pretty jar is "crushing nuts with honey." It's a combination of various nuts with honey so dense that the calorie counts resemble candy. I put a little in my plain yogurt.

My husband picked out the cookies-- light chocolate wafers with marshmallows between layers dipped in chocolate.

Now today I finally stopped at the Mediterranean Deli. I needed my imported cold pressed extra virgin olive oil from Beirut.

Bought half the store.

Fig & nut jam. Dried cherries. Big bag of sesame sticks. Dried strawberries. Dried kiwi. Dried cantaloupe. Medjool dates. (I plan on making homemade fruit & nut bars before school starts.) hummus. Three bags of zaatar bread. One bag of mini pita. One pound kalamata olives. One pound Bulgarian feta. A big hunk of Armenian string cheese. A soft homemade cheese in olive oil and zaatar spice. Cucumber and yogurt dip.

I think that was the whole $85.

Budget contemplating on pizza night

My jaw feels almost perfect these days, despite the obvious exposed bone in my gum line. I have even chewed some food on that side of my mouth, and I can say that the healing where #29 was is in better shape than the last bottom molar on the other side of my mouth.

I go in to my regular dentist Tuesday to have that tooth tackled, so this weekend may be a storing-up-calories pig out in case I am reduced to pudding and yogurt once again.

We delivered girl scout cookies tonight, ones that had not been paid for. Our family pooled our funds and decided to stop at Dario's for pizza on the way home.

I had $14, my husband had $16 and the cookies yielded $14.

Large white with fresh ricotta, chopped tomatoes, broccoli and spinach = $15. Add a drink for the child, a 2-liter of coke for Mom and Dad, some fried zucchini sticks and French fries and the bill was just under $25 before tip.

This got me thinking about our budget:

DECEMBER:
- We spent $460 on medical expenses.
- $271 on groceries (and some of that was 'extra' food storing up for when I'd be traveling for two weeks in January)
- $236 on dining out (bad us: Target café, Target Starbucks, Five Guys, Wawa, MexTex Trio, Dario's, Forks Mediterranean Deli and China Fun. But in our defense, that $236 covered 17 transactions)
- our spending for the month was $1,000 more than our income, so we visited and depleted the savings account. Those medical expenses and our quarterly bills (water, sewer, garbage, life insurance) snuck up on us

JANUARY
- Overall spending was $300 more than income, which considering I was out of work for almost a month is reasonable
- groceries amounted to $136
- dining was $157, this included seven transactions. Two visits to Tic Toc diner, a trip to Friendly's on the way home from Girl Scout camp, MexTex Trio.

FEBRUARY
- This month our spending is on track to match our income
- I've spent $127 on groceries, but that doesn't include the $81 at Wegmans where I used gift cards
- dining: $89, including tonight's pizza, Chinese to celebrate daughter's report card, Joe's Steaks and several coffee runs.

Must curb spending. I can do better.