Sequestration Meal #617

 

I found a recipe for an easy 20-minute pasta at Delish Knowledge and added some veggie sausage to it. With that, I had some steamed broccoli and yellow squash tossed in a little vegan butter and seasoning salt.

This was good! I hadn't really planned to make this, but I had the stuff and it looked like it would require little investment in time and energy. (Both of those things are really important to me right now.)

It's been a while since I deliberately focused on using what I have and avoided buying much at the store, but that's what you're going to see a lot of in August, along with an embrace of more frozen fruits and veggies (though there is nothing frozen here). This is a hard season and I need to buy a laptop soon, along with my annual cost-of-living raise not coming remotely close to covering the increase in my cost of living for the third year in a row. Something has to give. But I also believe this doesn't have to be at all something that makes me feel deprived or makes me spend hours in the kitchen.

(It could. I mean, I feel a bit sad in the produce section when I make myself stick very strictly to my list. But at home, I feel perfectly happy just working with what I have. So: Discipline! Or something.)

That being said, I am trying to teach myself moderation, so I am not going to avoid the grocery store altogether as long as humanly possible or never buy fresh berries or something. I am going to try to embrace a more reasonable path. Wish me luck. And if things go well, this level of budget consciousness will only be for the month of August.

These posts are scheduled in advance, so you'll be seeing my proper August adventures soon. Wish me luck!