Farmer's market haul 8/2, stretching food, and moods

Last week, I was surprised at how much food I had left over from the previous week. I was trying to figure it out because it felt like I had been eating my usual diet, for the most part, and I didn't think I'd overbought by that much the week before. In retrospect, I realized that I had changed a few things form what I'd been doing for the weeks before.
For one thing, I made more things that were combinations of foods. For example, I made a ratatouille based on This recipe form Culinate.com, and I made salsa, and I made a pasta sauce. All were tomato based using the second tomatoes I'd bought previously. While they also used other vegetables, they didn't use as much of those as I had.
I realized that before last week, I'd been eating a lot of single foods. For example, I'd roast eggplant or zucchini and I'd slice up a cucumber. When I eat like that, it's easier to keep track of how much is being eaten because I'M aware that I put half the cucumber in the container, and three small eggplants, or whatever.
I guess I was unintentionally doing things that would stretch my vegetables out because I tended to eat more grains and starches with the prepared dishes.

This gets to the other things that was happening for the last couple of weeks: I've been stressed by somethings going on in my family and fighting a mild depression and it's making my diet go off kilter.

My moods are very much affected by what I eat. I know this about myself. I know that eating two much sugar and carbohydrates in the morning without balancing it with protein or fat will make me really cranky by lunch time. I also know that when I"m stressed I have that common reaction of wanting to eat comfort foods that are easy and quick and not generally as well balanced as I try to be.

Because I was having the internal argument of eat what I felt like eating vs eat what I knew I should eat, I wasn't eating as much as I should of anything and that was making me even cranker because I was feeling like I was denying myself things that would make me feel better in the short run. Sometimes, when you argue with yourself, one of you becomes that recalcitrant teenager who sort of knows that the voice of reason is right but refuses to acknowledge it.

So, this week, my goal is to get my diet back on track and spend time investigating moods and food from other people's perspectives.
There are a couple of websites I want to spend some time on:

Mind.org: Food and mood
MoodFoods

I'll also peruse the medical and public health literature (if you don't' already use Pubmed, you should. It's amazing how much of the medical and scientific literature is available and understandable).

From the farmer's market this week:

eggs- $1.75
3 zucchini- $1
3 green peppers $1
2 LB kale $2
1/2 gallon milk $3.50
rhubarb (seems like it's never going to end this year) $3.50
onions $2
Black beans $3 (so much more expensive than buying then canned or dried but worth it)
6 ears corn $2.50
$20.25 total

Not bad. I'm really going to make myself eat it all too!

Farmer's Market 07/26/2009

The Farmer's market had a million things to buy but I didn't need much of anything. Honestly, I'm not sure what I ate last week because it seems like there is still lots of food left in the refrigerator.

So, I pretty much limited myself to eggs, milks, rhubarb (yep, they still had some), cantaloupe and and adorable eggplant. My total was $14 so I splurged and got an iced coffee for $1.50.

Splurging is a funny thing. For a long time, I spent some money every single day. Even if all I bought was a soda or a cup of coffee or tea; pretty much no day went my without spending something. In the last few weeks the number of says that I haven't spent any money at all has outnumbered the days I did spend significantly. I didn't really even notice. But, I was also getting a bit obsessive about not spending anything at all just so that I wouldn't be spending.

Yesterday, I volunteered at a small local festival. It's a fun day and bring sin a very diverse crowd which always makes me happy. There are always a few vendors and I never know how well they do so I usually try to buy a few little things to support them, but I've gotten into such a frugal state of mind that I couldn't convince myself to buy anything yesterday. Now I'm sorry because they had falafel sandwiches from the best place in the city for $5 and I love a good falafel.

I had a similar ambivalence earlier in the week when I went to a donation only performance. I want to support that kind of endeavor and make it worthwhile for all involved but I also don't want to break my own budget. As it happened, I forgot my wallet (hmm, what would Freud have to say about that?) and couldn't pay anyone anything. I was mortified and will find a way to make it up to them.

These events raise an issue I struggle with frequently: supporting events that I think are useful without sacrificing my budget. Volunteering is one way to do it. But many of the events rely on people who need to make something back on their investment (even if it only means breaking even). I make an effort to find inexpensive things that I can buy to show support. but i also don't want to end up with a bunch of things I don't need and, sometimes, the less expensive food items are things I don't eat (soda or high sugar foods).

I suppose that I will continue to struggle with this and will just have to take it on a case by case basis.