Food Challenge: Week 5

The last week of our no-restaurant-eating-out food challenge was quite eventful. In fact, we were only able to sneak in a few home cooked meals. Sorry for the lack of food pictures, but I'll make up for it with pictures of fun events. Many thanks to the friends who fed us during this week!

Sunday
Last week, our good friends hosted an early Halloween party. Husband and I found a lion costume for Lola at a nearby pet supply store, and then we realized that we ourselves were attending a costume party costume-less.

Roar.

We agreed to sort through our closet to come up with the closest cholo/chola outfits that we could put together. It was nothing fancy, but I think we look a little gangsta. No?

Our wonderful hosts.

Monday

Fried okra with brown rice.
Husband has been itching to make something okra-based. After some google searching we found this recipe for fried okra with soy dipping sauce. In line with my attempt to lead a dairy-free lifestyle (have I mentioned that yet? Yeah, digestive issues...), I substituted Tofutti sour cream instead of regular sour cream. While I honestly don't think it comes close to tasting like real sour cream, it wasn't all that bad! It's different. The fried okra was good too!

Tuesday

Bruschetta with shrimp, tarragon, and arugula - a Giada recipe - served with greens. We picked up some honey champagne mustard last week at a local food fair and used it to make dressing. It was excellent! We threw sliced pears on the greens for fun.

Wednesday

Fried tilapia with lemon vinaigrette served over a bed of radicchio and cannellini beans - another Giada recipe. The radicchio was a first for us. It was a lot more bitter than we expected, but the vinaigrette really helped tone it down.

Thursday
See above. We made enough for leftovers on Thursday. Nothing exciting here.

Friday

Party time!
Our friends hosted a masquerade themed party in celebration of their birthdays.

Birthday boys; the birthday boy and I.

Catching up with girlfriends. We don't see each other enough nowadays, so we def take advantage of these opportunities.

Saturday
It was homecoming game day for USC. Husband and I finally got our act together and organized that tailgate we've been telling ourselves we'd throw one day.

Although we ate leftovers the Thursday before, we in fact spent most of the evening preparing food for the tailgate. With our friends' party on Friday evening, Thursday was the only time available to get things ready. We ended up with a good selection for Saturday: beef empanadas, pasta salad, roasted potato salad, and bruschetta (sorry for the lack of pictures).

We gathered a good group of friends and had a great time!

Sunday

October 31 - we did it!

Celebration meal: baked salmon with carrot, fennel, leeks, and snow peas with a side of shredded carrot and beet salad.

I'm happy to report that we successfully completed our October food challenge! While I'm pretty sure that this experience isn't going to keep us from stalking our favorite restaurants every now and then, it was a real eye opener as to how much money we can save (and how much better we can eat!) by not eating out so often. I do have to say that the one thing that helped us stay on track - and something I'll be keeping as a take-home lesson - is the importance of serious meal planning. That was truly imperative to following through with this challenge.

Aside from all that, it really tested our creativity in the kitchen. It's funny looking back at all the posts from this month and realizing that there isn't one meal that we made twice. That was totally not intentional. I feel like the challenge encouraged us to try our hand at new recipes. It kept things exciting!

So what's next? Well, we're still in "challenge" mode and not exactly ready to give up yet. Stay tuned for updates on our November challenge. That's right, we're doing it big and going unprocessed for an entire month. Eeek.