Dieting sucks. This isn't news to anyone. You've got to curb everything to lose weight and get off the damn couch once in a while. Now, dieting does suck. I have to forgo the urge to snack on the chocolate chips and homemade frosting I used for holiday baking. Yes, I snack on frosting...you have a problem with that? But dieting doesn't mean you have to have boiled chicken and frozen green vegetables. You can actually diet without going hungry, or going without flavor. It's all about making the right choices.
Last night, I made something I have never made before. Tilapia. Apart from canned tuna and anchovies, I have never made anything with fish in the house before in my life. Why? Because it scares me. Fish can overcook so quickly and it intimidates me to drop more money on a product that's just going to taste like I'm licking the kitchen floor at a Red Lobster (but the biscuits are good).
So, while I was browsing my local Food Lion, looking for something a little less fatty than the ham Husband made for me last weekend, I came across some tilapia fillets. The package of two was only about $4.50, so I decided to give it a whirl. I seasoned the fish with salt, pepper, garlic powder and tarragon. Then I sauteed it on medium high heat for about 3 minutes on each side and served it on top of a cup of cooked couscous with raisins and squeezed some fresh lemon juice on top. Less than 400 calories for so much stuff.
Since I suck at segues, I'm just going to start with my second topic. So a couple of nights ago, I saw this show come on called Extreme Couponing. Now, Husband is an extreme cheapskate, so I told him he should turn it on. I regret this. The show was about these people who, as a hobby, try and put together manufacturer's and store coupons with store discounts to basically get hundreds of dollars worth of food for a ridiculously low amount of money. Think $600 worth of food and products for under $10.
This got Husband's mind all jacked up. This is the kind of stuff he thrives on. The man loves a bargain more than anything. Immediately, he got to work, at work (such the productive little monkey he is). He, almost instantaneously found out that he could go to Bi-Lo and work his coupon and savings magic and somehow make it so that the store owes him money. Yup. He called me in the middle of the day, so proud of himself that he caused one of Bi-Lo's self-checkout computers to crash because it said it owed him $0.13. He went to four different Bi-Lo stores yesterday, cleaning them out of pasta. He came home with about 40 boxes, all for a grand total of about $1.50. Here's the proof.
He spent most of the evening scheming about his next purchase. I have been attempting to plant a little seed in his head that he needs to only stockpile stuff that we will:
1) Use, and not the "hey, this is different and looks kind of interesting so I'll get 70 of them" kind of use.
2) Will not expire, at least not in this decade.
I don't know how much of that actually sank in, but I have a feeling we're going to need a bigger boat.
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