Rabbit holes

I've managed to bring my lunch to work two days in a row now. Please try to hold your applause.

Since we were bad and went to Louie's last night for dinner (didn't end up eating with my parents), I didn't have any leftovers to pick from. So I went with a Michelina's Lean Gourmet, more wheat thins, a pickle, and a pudding pack.

Why do I explain my meals in great detail? Gives me more motivation to keep going.

And that brings us to what Justin likes to call a rabbit hole. A rabbit hole is when I am telling one story and then suddenly launch into another story of added information. I like to think that I'm giving a complete picture. He likes to think I'm crazy.

Anywho, this rabbit hole involves frozen diet meals. I consider myself somewhat of a Lean Cuisine, etc., connoisseur. I was fortunate enough to have the willpower to drop 30 lbs during my last semester of college. Obviously, I've put all of that back on, but I still remember how to do it. And most of it involved pre-portioned frozen diet meals. Note: for this post, if I mention lean cuisine lowercased, I could mean an actual Lean Cuisine, a Smart One, a Healthy Choice expensive so-and-so, or even a Michelina's Lean Gourmet (even though I've only recently given those a chance).

During the great weight drop of ought nine, I ate a lean cuisine for dinner probably 5 or 6 nights a week. I learned which ones tasted good (spaghetti and meatballs and sesame chicken), which ones didn't really save any calories (Salisbury steak, plus dessert), and which ones were so bad they shouldn't have been produced (roast turkey with dressing and chicken fried rice).

As part of a low-calorie diet combined with exercise (a post by itself), these lean cuisines helped me shed pounds. But they're not for everyone. Some people just think they taste bad. And some people should steer clear of them due to sodium content. I was fortunate enough to be blessed with genetically low blood pressure so the amount of sodium in these meals (sometimes alarmingly high amounts), doesn't affect me as much.

So when I moved to Auburn and started making grand plans to drop weight again, I ran into an unforeseen roadblock: Money.

Beginning to see a theme here?

Diet food, or healthy food in general, is really expensive. This fact is nothing new. But paying my own bills and attempting to be self-sufficient has slapped me in the face with it again. Combine that with cooking for two every night, because Justin and I usually eat together.

If I can catch lean cuisines on sale, I stock up (and use coupons when I can). But Justin doesn't want to eat that for dinner. It probably wouldn't fill him up for lunch. I can put a lean cuisine with a big lettuce wedge, a pickle, some celery, a handful of grape tomatoes, and a 60-calorie pudding and I've got a satisfying dinner. It takes much more than that to fill him up. So what do I do?

I have no idea. Lately we've been ignoring healthy eating. Trying to save money and trying to eat healthy are two separate lifestyles that are hard to merge. And I'm trying to do it.

Which brings me to Michelina's Lean Gourmets. They're about $1 regular price and sometimes down to 88 cents on sale. These make perfect lunches because I can build a meal around them that doesn't cost me an arm and a leg. And they're really not bad. Trust me, I know my lean cuisines. The baked ziti, lasagna, and chicken rigatoni with broccoli are all fantastic.

And while that doesn't solve my dinner conundrum, it does solve the lunch problem. And maybe by saving money on lunch, I could reallocate some of that money to dinner? Eating more grilled chicken and fish plus fresh vegetables will help. I just have to save enough money in other places to buy fresh ingredients for more than one or two meals per week. I welcome any and all suggestions.

So that was a rabbit hole. I don't really have a proper conclusion to tie this neatly together. It's really more of a cry for help. How do we eat well while saving money? Is it even possible?

We'll see. I'll keep you updated.