I Think We're Becoming Foodies!

Us? Foodies on a budget? I have to laugh at this. :-) We love shows like Top Chef, Chopped, Iron Chef America, if nothing else but to see what weird culinary preparations they come up with. Now 95% of the time, we'd never even think of eating the dishes these chefs prepare, but we are becoming more adventurous (for us) in trying different meals.

We did the bi-weekly grocery shopping last night. Having both kids with me ensured that I would blow the budget right out of the water, and that I did. I can't be too upset, though, because the majority of the overage was spent on different fruits that they wanted to try. Candy and junk food I can say "no" to quite easily; fruits and veggies, I can't. Papayas are new to us, and I'm going to attempt guacamole for the first time with fresh avocado. Not too outrageous but a little more variety than the usual strawberries and bananas. (I did buy those; only the bananas actually made it home - DS ate 16 oz of strawberries in the time it took us to drive 1/4 mile from Aldi's to Wal-Mart. Not that he's a growing boy or anything!)

But what really convinced me that we are becoming foodies is when I picked up a bottle of balsamic vinegar and calculated in my head that this is the 6th variety of vinegar I now have in my pantry - white, red wine, white wine, cider, fish and chips and now balsamic. Five years ago, I'd only used white, cider and fish and chips vinegars and probably never even heard of balsamic! I also bought fresh basil leaves and pearl onions. These are definitely not ingredients that my mom would have used. Makes me wonder what ingredients my kids will cook with in 20 years. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll have to go google a recipe to make and use a balsamic reduction. haha!