the predicament of food

so we gerbickians love food. both wes & i enjoy cooking & i also like to bake, meaning there's usually something fairly tasty to eat here as far as leftovers go. & we gerbickians are on a tight budget. it's not like we're headed to the poor house or anything, but with one income we can't be extravagant & thoughtless with our spending. we often scrutinize what we are buying each month to keep ourselves in check, but not in a bad way, right? just to make sure we aren't over spending.

these two things cause great distress in our home, the love of good food plus the need to stay on a budget. since food costs are rising & annual raises aren't necessarily keeping up with inflation...well, let's just say we are trying to find ways to buy less of some things. over the past year we've done well in other areas, except food! & i'm not talking about eating out, we are consistently stay within our budgeted amount for that--which i find amazing. the problem is that we're sort of food snobs; we just really enjoy eating yummy food. ya know?! what's wrong with that, right? unfortunately, friends, there is something wrong with that & it's the cost of that yummy food.

so the past month wes & i have been toying around with cutting our grocery bill, again--somehow! i'm just going to put it out there for everyone to judge, we spend about $150 a week (that is from adding all the food purchases including costco, grocery stores, toiletries from target/costco, trader joe's, farmer's markets, etc & then dividing by 52). {btw: this does include formula, folks!} we think this is a lot to spend on groceries & toiletries...but we have tried to cut this down & have discovered that it means lowering our food quality. plain & simple, it means eating more processed foods & less made-at-home or more natural food yumminess.

& i can't do it. i just can't eat fake mac n cheese from a box when i know what real mac n cheese taste like made with scrumptious emmentaler swiss & white sharp cheddar. or it means having noodles & marinara sauce at least once a week...ya know, i did that in college for 5 years, i'm not ready to return to that monotonous cycle!

now some things are cheaper to make, such as marinara sauce & even chicken broth & desserts for sure (bread pudding, come on! very cheap. strawberry shortcakes, cheap for sure) & on good weeks, we are really great about making the dinners & planning the meal out throughout the day {ie: making pizza dough at 2:30 for dinner that night, or defrosting some of our beef or chicken & marinating, or making noodles/pasta--which is wes' specialty). but we try to incorporate fresh produce into every meal & this is what skyrockets our bill (& i'm defining fresh produce as purchased at the grocer during the winter & early spring, then if we don't grow it in the summer, at a farmer's market). so where is the subsided for that? yea, we get frozen veggies & they're great & it works for some things like peas & green beans & corn...but when i taste steamed broccoli from the produce section & compare it to steamed frozen broccoli, there's a difference to me. so, really, is there a substitute? is there a way to lower our budget line?

but what would the girls eat if they didn't have that apple or bowl of berries or pear? fruit snacks? i just can't make that decision for them...i mean, i prefer fresh fruit over fruit snacks (although they do have their place in my mouth at times, don't think i have banished them or anything). & i feel it to be my duty to provide my kids with healthy options that are available to us...i don't want to force them into bad eating, basically. & now that they know what a fresh strawberry tastes like, will they even want fruit snacks? (addy says no).

i'm telling you folks, we are food snobs...& just this week wes & i have decided to embrace that. i don't mean go overboard & insist that our girls have organic everything & never let a pre-packaged food choice pass their lips! i just mean embracing that we enjoy a nice dinner that we took the time to prepare. good food takes time & it is the one thing that i place above cleaning, exercising, & sometimes socializing...if we are on a time crunch & it's the choice between making a dessert for a special dinner or just someone i think needs it (or dinner for my family), i will nearly always choose to cook or bake.

i'm not sure if wes & i get this from our own parents & families or whether this is something that we both happen to enjoy. really, both of our families have excellent cooks throughout...we both grew up eating canned food from the backyard garden (i guess me more than wes, but he has experienced it whereas some folks our age haven't) & then having dinner with our family each night (well, for my family, if it was basketball season, this wasn't so much the case, lol). i dunno, we are foodies, as one of our friends put it...& i think i am done trying to make excuses to myself & just accept that we will have very high grocery bills, meaning i might not get to take that trip to europe or venezuela or hawaii--or anywhere out of ohio--as soon as i wanted to, but it does mean that we spend time together as a family preparing & eating & even shopping for the food, which makes things very exciting (i do NOT recommend taking two kids 2 years & under to a grocery store with you. do not).

as usual, i'm not sure if this all makes sense to everyone else reading it. but its my blog & i'll ramble when i see fit, *smile*

so, you many wonder, what's on the menu for the gerbickians this week? well, today for lunch we had grilled chicken with lemon-pepper seasoning, sided with gorgonzola-spinach (trader joe's frozen) gnocchi & peas (b/c our girls love peas...i force them down my throat my hiding them in the gnocchi. i gag at peas usually, but i have to eat them if i expect my kids to, eh?). then tonight for dinner it was grilled italian sausages with (home canned) heirloom tomatoes, a green pepper & a vadalia onion & also sweet corn (& stone ground mustard on the side, yumminy yumminy). tomorrow is a 'breakfast-for-dinner night' & we are having a sausage-egg-potato skillet scramble that also includes onion & garlic & a wee bit of gravy-cheese mix (the gravy being made by yours truly & the cheese being probably a sharp white cheddar that is amazing & even more amazingly cheap from trader joe's). i also plan on making strawberry shortcakes & if i get around to it, i'll post this recipe i have that will make you--if you like bread--eat the shortcakes even without strawberries or cream. i am very guilty of this. then tuesday night is wes' night to shine by making a cheese & mushroom ravioli & marinara sauce from scratch (i love this man). wednesday is an easy night: frozen (trader joe's ...i love this store!) honey glazed asian chicken stir fry w/ jasmine rice. thursday has the cheeseburgers on tap (when made with this beef we have, it is a sublime burger, i tell ya) & if we get crazy, some home made french fries. if we don't get crazy, purchased & frozen fries & steamed broccoli (smothered in cheese if you are addy & okay, me too). friday is usually pizza night, but since wes & i will be gone (christine's bachelorette party! yea!!!!!! & wes is a designated driver for the ladies), so my mother in law will be here with the girlies for the evening, so we are putting a roast in the crock pot & then sweet potatoes in the oven for them to enjoy. saturday will be goat cheese, caramelized onion, & roasted red pepper pizzas on the grill (pizzas rock on the grill, folks). sunday dinner will be sirloin steaks & baked potatoes with fresh garden chives & broccoli. i just think we like food, lol.

what do you think? really, is this a normal menu for a week? or are we really over the top? i mean, we don't know, we've only cooked together. do other people have pbj's 3 times a week? as you can gather, there is a reason we spend $150 a week. i just can't eat pbj's that often.

on a sidenote: the ENTIRE time i've been typing this i have listened to an ice cream truck's music in our neighborhood. come one, dude, it's almost 9:30pm. give it a rest! do you know how annoying that music is after, oh 1 minute? ggggaaaahhhhhh! (yea, just shut the window, heidi, doi!)

the ZAC's

yesterday was the gerwig family monthly meal, this time at my brother's house. we were surprised with a new couch & a new flat screen tv; lucky them! (but they work hard & deserve it, for sure). as for the title of this post, for those who don't know, the ZAC's are zoe, adeline, & chloe (my brother & his wife have the twin girls). we are trying to come up with a name to include amelia: zaac's? azac? zaca? hhmm.
anyway, chloe & zoe are twins & are 21 months old, adeline is just 8 months older, then amelia is 15 months younger than the twins. i wasn't sure when the time would come that they would be in the same age range for playing...but this month was it. they all were excited to see each other (i'm not including amelia here, but zoe & chloe were very excited to have millie around) & immediately started playing with each other. they actually got along really well. we have speculated that chloe & adeline may team up on zoe, the more quiet & reserved one of the 3...that sort of happened a few times, but zoe seems to be able to handle her own (us shy girls learn how to combat those 'other' girls at an early age, go zoe!). i have a feeling that in a few years, zoe & amelia may learn to team up on adeline & chloe...let the girl wars begin! anyway, i am really happy that they get along so well & have each other to hang out with & play with for the rest of their days.

we are sort of planning a first over-nighter with the three girls maybe this summer. my parents don't know this yet, but i think i have chosen their house to start the cousin overnight parties. i think that night i will be sleeping in my own bed ;o) i guess now the cats out of the bag. i think by that time, hopefully adeline will have some more words in her vocabulary & i'm guessing chloe & zoe will be zippy runners as well (right now adeline has the dexterity & speed, while chloe & zoe have the vocabulary...they all seem to have the devious toddler minds, though). i just smiled most of the drive home thinking about how much fun they will have together over the next decade...

some pictures from yesterday: gram mum & pop-pop getting their exercise sitting down with the girls.

& this is our pizza that was very yummy on friday night (we have home made pizza every friday...wes loves it. i am more into our cinnamon rolls on saturday morning!). it is caramelized onion & pear, home made alfredo sauce, with goat, fresh mozzarella, parmesan, & asiago cheese. i TOLD you i have an affair with cheese. during the pinnacle of our income days (read: no kids, double income), we always had about 14 different cheeses in our fridge. oh the glory of it all. adeline usually loves this pizza,but for some reason she refused to eat it on friday. durn child.

this was adeline being sad that this was the pizza of choice.

now i'm going to totally change the subject.

so with wes' office moving to delaware, which is about a 30-35 minute drive (with traffic congestion, ya know), we have thrown around the idea of moving our family to delaware. not now, but in a year or so, once we know this office change is permanent. (lol, it would just be our luck to move & then have the office move BACK to columbus!). when we were moving back to the columbus area from boise, idaho we thought about moving to delaware. i was more for it than wes at the time. but we chose westerville b/c it was so close to wes' office. hardy har har. oh, the irony.

i am sad & a bit happy about this possibility, conflicted. wes & i have often talked about how odd it is that we live so close to this huge shopping mecca: the polaris mall, all the shops & stores & lanes of traffic. we find it incredibly frustrating around the holidays to live & work here; it is impossible to go anywhere on polaris & don't even think about trying to go out to eat...every restaurant is packed & the mall playground has standing room only for the parents. living near this shopping mecca just doesn't fit with us. we don't like to shop, shop, shop & we are more into thrift stores & garage sales than pottery barn kids. we are constantly commenting about how annoying it is...but at the same time, the mall playground in my lifesaver with these little ladies. having 3 starbucks nearby to boost my energy level is also a great perk! we really love to walk to uptown westerville & have at least 4 parks within walking distance. amazing! & we have even come to like our formerly 'ugly' house a bit more...after all, we have put hours & hours of work into this place & have more hours left.

it would seem fitting that now that i'm finally getting around to painting our bedroom & when i have ordered asparagus roots to plant (it will take a year of trimming & waiting for the stalks to be edible)...we will move. this is the third time this will happen; we spend time & money on getting the veggie & flower & herb gardens just the way we want, you know, figure out the sun angles & what works best where & we will be coming upon the third season, when things really start to bloom...& we move. in clintonville, we left behind a stellar compost pile & a wonderful clematis. in boise, oh my, it's hard to remember the 14 rose bushes we dug up from my co-worker's yard & painstakingly replanted successfully in our yard & the stone edged herb garden (the stones i dug up from around the subdivision as houses were being built...i would wheel around our wheelbarrow & haul a hundred pounds of river rock around...i'm sure i looked very odd, but our stone edged gardens were beautiful, i have to say) & oh yes, the again stellar compost pile & dessert plants we learned how to grow after the first year & the finally blooming clematis...& & &...it hurts to remember all of those plants. & it hurts to remember all the hours of painting & decorating & planning. & now we may move again?!

i know a 30 minute commute may not sound very daunting to some...but to us it is. wes loves to come home during the afternoon to hang out with us for his lunch hour. that's just him...he's a very involved daddy & we love that about him. we also like the idea of living & working in the same community & once the bike path is finished, wes was going to start biking to work (i was not about to let him ride his bike on the roads near this shopping mecca...people don't care about bicyclists around here). it bites knowing that he will be using that much fuel & producing that much carbon, etc just to get to work.

but is it worth uprooting our family again? moving & paying moving & realtor costs & packing & explaining to adeline & millie why we are leaving another home & then repainting & replanting. & lets not forget wes' treasured hop hut! he has worked so hard on it & has somehow achieved the near impossible: growing over 9 feet of hops in the ohio climate. we would have so much to re-do. is it worth it? would we find a house with better soil for the veggies & flowers & hops? this would be the 3rd season for my new clematis...it may finally start to bloom. i just don't know if i can do it again, if i can move again. will we be lucky enough to get such wonderful neighbors for the 4th time? i don't know. we just don't know the answers yet.

we could find a new home that has more room for full sun flowers & veggies & maybe a house that fits our style a bit more (country-colonial is not us) or maybe a newer house or even an older one with more character. who knows what we would find. a bigger yard? a larger pantry? smaller rooms?

so this last part of the post was a bit jarbled & not very well organized...i think b/c we are still in the thinking process. only time will be our answer. how will wes do driving at least an hour a day, being away from us, not being able to make it to well baby appointments & seeing his girls only 2 hours a day before they head to bed for the night. that's just not us. damn this economy, ya know?!