Pantry ReStock Blow Out...OOOPS. BUT one big benefit to the 2months of eating from the pantry

 So apparently I lack focus (yes, not a surprise to anyone who has met me).  Sometimes it looks like I have focus because the distractions are all inside my head.  My affect free expression may not change.

BUT, distracted get I do (and I don't even LIKE star wars crap, yet the yoda comes out).

So, haven't been in a grocery store or market in AGES.   Haven't even gone through the food bits of salvage stores like Ross Dress For Less.  

My skillz are RUSTY.  I had a list with me.   Divided into "now" stuff and "stock up" stuff.  Well, NO WHERE on there was "cheap maple nut clusters" but they were on sale for 50cents at Ross (or maybe Marhsalls, whatever).  And then I ate them.  10 servings of not good nut candy clusters.  Like gross sweet.  I did plan to buy the Honey Mama chocolates at Grocery Outlet.  DID NOT plan on eating all of them while I drove home.   Did plan on checking out the winter market down in Moscow.  Planned on 1 cookie.  Had 1 normal cookie (excellent).  BUT there was a young super cute couple selling TINY COOKIES and MINIATURE donuts and cinnamon rolls.  So, there you go.  I had to have those.  3$.  Damn.  

I also got quinoa which was the cheap "grain" (yes, it is not a real grain it's a brassica seed yada yada yada).  Made pilaf this AM with some elk steak (from a friend...wow was it good) to have for M, T, W lunches.  BUT ate it for breakfast and lunch today already.

Thank goodness I got distracted and didn't buy the whole wheat sourdough loaf!  I have eaten 4 days of food/calories in 1.5 days.  AND I have a bday to hit this afternoon.  Dammit.

Food is so good!

Still, I have had a breakthrough on the coffee. I was early (yeah, always) and the cheapo grocery wasn't open yet.  AND I had forgotten my coffee on my porch and NOT walked back up the snowy hill to get it.  I have a coffee-out budget this month and used 6$ of it for a coconut milk latte and 1$ for the tip.  Well...won't happen again.  The first time I had this particular latte, a dirty chai with a shot of huckleberry syrup...the "sasquatch" it was amazeballs.  About 50% of the time since then it has been really good.  50% of the time...not great but good.   This time!  BARF!  SO SWEET.  Probably a bit too much huckleberry syrup plus I had had only honey and maple syrup for the past several weeks since running out of sugar.  Also, some stevia.  I have made all but ONE coffee at home.  That other coffee was an americano on a preplanned coffee date with a friend's son (to check up on him in his new town, not a blind date.  No one get their hopes up...talking to you MOM).  That was fine. Strong, dark and bitter...like me. (heh heh).  This time. GROSS.  I respect that the prices have gone up in the 2months I have been out of coffee circulation and I always tip.  However, even at the old price of 4.50$, this would not have been worth it.  I am going to help the coffee huts in the region with their staffing issue by not going there anymore.  Maybe the occassional americano, straight espresso shot, or drip when a social obligation is easier to deal with that way, but mostly just no.  Not good enough.  

Most of the beans I have at home are really good, gifts from the holidays!  Thanks all!! and even the lesser beans/roasts I have now learned how to prepare.  Like today, old fashioned perculator on good beans, boiled until it was tar made an excellent fake espresso.  I added powdered coconut milk and a bit of stevia and vanilla extract.  Whole thing cost me maybe 90cents (most of that was the coconut milk powder...spendy but awesome). $6.10 savings off the poor quality dirty chai...even though I like saying "dirty chai."  I can brew a chai with coconut milk or nut milk (even cheaper when I have nuts (heh heh)), add flavor and stevia if it needs it.  If I am paying for the coffee it is under a quarter a cup (I re-use grounds...more anon on that), like well under.  And I get what I want.  As my taste preferences have shifted to include strong sours and bitters, and less standard sugar sweeteners, and certainly less high fructose corn syrup (which I bet was in the huckleberry syrup) I get less tolerant of the sicky sweet coffee things. David Sedaris (heart emoji here) calls those "liquid snickers bars" and he's right.

I was down to about 10$/month on coffees out on average, including vacations.  I expect that it will start averaging 3$/month.  7x12=84$/year savings.  Not huge, but it is a thing!  1/10th of a window for the future house.  

My tolerance for candy is also less high ...I think we have a term for that...ah yes, "lower."

While I ate all that crap, I didn't like it.  I was distracted.  I made coconut oil coconut fat bombs with peppermint flavor last week with what I had in the pantry and they were FAB!  Fatty, fibery, and good.  NO sweetener in there at all.  Just coconut oil melted, desiccated coconut that was about 2 years beyond the "best by" date but not rancid, and a bit of peppermint emulsion I bought at least 4 years ago.  The "best by" date has faded and I can't read it.  I also binge ate those, but with fewer negative gut and budget repercussions.  Next I am going to try replicating the Honey Mama style chocolate.  Which is really cocoa treats per their information.  No cocoa butter so not officially chocolate.  They use coconut oil, excellent cocoa powder, and some honey along with various flavors and it is ASTOUNDINGLY good.  NOT over sweet.  Tasty, rich and doesn't make one more hungry like sugar/fructose syrup can do.  I'm wondering how it would go with maple syrup thought I did not find any maple syrup in the budget this round.  I will pay more for local or traceable and packed in glass. The only reasonable deal with in plastic and not made by a traceable farm