My baby is going to band camp tomorrow.  So this week's plan reflects his  favorite dinner tonight, which is Bulgogi.  Since he is our picky eater, the rest of the week (and next) will be things that our happy camper either does not like would never even put on his plate.

Simple Alfredo is one of the things that only my youngest loves.  The thing that makes it for him is being allowed to swipe the fresh nutmeg across the grater.  For those of us who choose not to indulge in the calories or can't indulge in the dairy, I'll open up a nice jar of pasta sauce.

I have half of a pork loin that needs to be put to use, so I'll drop it in the crockpot and make Overnight Pulled Pork Sandwiches.  Oldest child despises anything cooked in the crockpot.  The pork loin was less expensive than the pork chops I needed last week, plus I like being able to ensure that all my chops are the same size.

We're also going to do a Yogurt Marinated Chicken (there is plain yogurt in the 'fridge that needs to go) just because I need some cooked chicken for the Puff Pastry Topped Chicken Pot Pie, and killing two birds (no pun intended) with one stone is always this lazy girl's modus operandi.  The actual recipe calls for frozen vegetables, but I always use whatever is hanging out in the 'fridge.

I think that's plenty, don't you?

Parade magazine had a small article last Sunday about grocery store waste.  It estimated that $20 billion was thrown away every year.  This is disgusting, and undoubtedly true.  I was in charge of buying punch for an event, and what we did not used, and was clearly still sealed, I returned to Meijer.  They cheerfully refunded my money, and then slapped on big orange stickers that said not to restock or resell.  When I asked the clerk why they could not be donated, she said that it was too big of a risk because it might have been contaminated. 

The article went on to say that total American food waste was $48 billion.  So, I pulled out my calculator.  The 2007 census estimated there were  111,162,259 households in the US.  Divide that by the $28 billion left after the grocery store waste, and that means that all of us are pitching out $431 worth of food every year. 

Can this be?  In an earlier post I talked about using up stuff in our freezer (which made the husband uber happy).  We do our best to have a leftover day every week, but some stuff inevitably gets pitched (does it count as waste if the dog eats it?)  Over the weekend my friend and I helped our other friend move, and we probably pitched $100 worth of freezer burned food out of her freezer and half used bottles of lost stuff from the back of her 'fridge.   Hmmm.  Maybe I should plan a week around the contents of my 'fridge....

I"m feeling particularly challenged this week because one of the cool new bikes at the health club has a tv right on it.  I've been watching commercials.  John McEnroe is pushing the 10 day fiber challenge, Jamie Lee Curtis is pushing the 2 week Activa challenge.  And to Food Network every other thing appears to be a challenge. 

In my reality, the challenge is getting out of the grocery store under $100 dollars.  That does not allow for the $5.65 box box of Fiber One, or the Activa 4 pack at $3.25.  It's tough enough to swallow that a whole grain bread costs twice as much as its air and water counterpart, and that the sugar laden and fiber free barely-passes-for-cereal that my kids covet is almost free compared to a serious granola type cereal.  It's the same thing down every aisle, the baked chips are $3.69 compared to the regular chips that can be had for $0.99, you can pick up soda for far less than milk, and the more fat you're willing to accept in your beef the less you pay.

There's the challenge!  Is it possible to buy a week's worth of healthy, whole or organic foods for less than $100?  Let's find out...