Tuesday 4 May 2010

Mesmerizing State Of The Art Caffeine

My shameful coffee secret and a successful resolution.

My April resolution was to stop buying coffeeshop coffee and I am happy to report that I won. I crushed my April resolution. It was no small feat, either. I was a daily coffeeshop patron. My name and drink were known at my coffeeshop. I honestly didn't think that I could make it through an entire month without buying coffee.

In order to explain how proud I am of successfully completing my April resolution, I need to confess my shameful coffee secret: I was a daily coffeeshop patron even though I have a perfectly good coffeemaker at home. Not only do I have a coffeemaker, I have an espresso machine. I have an espresso machine that sat, unused, on my counter for over two years while I paid $4 every day for a latte. Shameful! I was really intimidated by the espresso machine; I was afraid that I would break it if I used it. So I didn't use it. I'm not proud.

I am, however, proud that I conquered my fear of the espresso machine. Every day I make a frothy, caffeinated mug of magic and every day I feel happy that my shameful coffee secret is a thing of the past. I'm so happy with my April resolution that I'm making it part of my May resolution. I'm worried that I'll resort back to my lazy, coffeeshop ways if I don't have the power of the internet to shame me.

The other part of my May resolution is to give up pop and fast food completely. I don't consume a lot of either but I do enjoy a frosty Coke and a dirty cheeseburger every once in a while. Lately I've been using fast food as my go-to meal when I'm tired or cranky, which is so stupid because it only makes me more tired and much more cranky. I feel like removing fast food from my diet for a month will force me into being more organized about my meals. I do the majority of the cooking because Shawn hates it, which makes me a bit resentful during the week when we get home from work at the same time and I have to start making dinner while he gets to relax. Our plan is to work together to plan our meals so I feel less stressed about mid-week cooking. I love to cook when I have time to enjoy it but mid-week cooking is a chore. May is about making a positive change in our kitchen.

11 comments:

  1. Oh go you!! :) We JUST bought a new coffee maker and figured out how to use it (these things have TIMERS these days!!) so I don't have to keep spending on coffee shop coffee either :) Cooking mid week can definitely be a chore but it can also be FUN if you plan on Sundays :)

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  2. I love that April was a success and your May challenge sounds like a really good follow-up to April. Maybe you can cook one or two bigger things over the weekend and save left overs for during the week. Another idea? Trader Joe's actually has some wonderful frozen options. We like their seafood mix (we throw it in some lemon olive oil and then combine it with pasta - in about 10 minutes).

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  3. Maybe you should try what we do. I do all of the meal planning and the big shopping trip. I plan 5-7 meals with some back-ups (quick stuff from Trader Joe's like Nilsa mentions or spaghetti). Bryan then does 80% of the cooking. He gets home before I do usually, so he gets dinner ready.

    Meal planning and shopping is a LOT of work. B also hates shopping, so having me do those things is a win to him. It's a win for me when he has dinner ready when I walk in the door. In your case, Shawn would do the meal planning and you'd do the cooking.

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  4. That is awesome!! Congrats on beating your goal and conquering your coffee maker.

    My friend has a GORGEOUS EXPENSIVE BUILT-IN espresso/coffee maker - gorgeous. I am so jealous. She has no clue how to use it and is terrified of it. ARGH!

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  5. You win! Congratulations! You conquered a fear and you saved money! You're caffeinatedly empowered! I wonder if maybe you should stick those $4/day into a big jar and at the end of the month, buy something with it. That would keep me from going back to the coffee shop.

    I have to start learning to cook. I hate to cook. We eat take-out or hastily thrown together things or eggs or cereal too many weeknights.

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  6. I'm seriously loving your monthly challenges. Go YOU!

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  7. I'd spend some time on the weekend and make a big batch of a meal and freeze it - that way you always have something to pull out on those nights you reallllllly don't want to cook.

    Or else those Knorr chicken pasta things are super yummy and take 10 minutes to make and you could always just add tons more frozen veggies (but of course watch the sodium, fat, calories in anything pre-packaged, yadda yadda).

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  8. Blogger just deleted my comment. How irritating.

    I said something along the lines of:

    Yay for smashing the April goal! Hope May goes as well. I always find that planning on sunday and making a grocery list from my plans helps. Then I have all the ingredients to make 5 or 6 meals and then I'm much less likely to go out because I don't want to waste my ingredients. I'm all about the guilt. :)

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  9. You are an honest, brave person.

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  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  11. Way to kick ass!

    The best thing that we've ever done (for both our health and our budget) is to plan out our weekly meals. Get a piece of paper, write down all your meals for the week, and put it on the fridge. Go shopping and get everything you need for the week. That way, when you get home at the end of the day, exhausted, you can look at the fridge, and it will tell you what to make. And everything you need will be at hand. Then all you need is someone to do the dishes!

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