Aishiteru

Ok, so, i'm not much of a poet. But i was thinking a lot about this today, even dreamed about it. 

Red blood on red lips

White skin against white skin

Aishiteru, a whisper and a moan

Red lips on red lips

Dark eyes drowning in the blue of the sky

Blue eyes drowning in the dragon’s void

White moon drowning out the colors of the ragged world

All is monochrome like sea and sky

Hot skin, burning from the blood

Cold dragon hungers

For red blood on red lips

For lust and for blood

Sky and dragon meet in violent embrace

Cannot breath, who cares, don’t need to anyway

Is three a crowd? If so, who said a crowd is bad?

But gently, so the only living thing don’t die in your embrace

Aishiteru, in monochrome and crimson red

Aishiteru, in moonlit day and sunlit night

Aishiteru, in pleasure and in pain

Aishiteru, aishiteru, aishiteru beating in a head

In dead hearts, be still, don’t beat, it hurts

But beat some more, the pain is only love

Love hurts and love heals, even if you’re dead

Be still now, eternity is waiting

A moment short

Dead hearts beating

Aishiteru, each moment waiting

Food Project: Monday, week 1....

Late.... I know.... but that's just me never learning how to manage my time. I promise I'll work on that.

Ok, let's get this show on the road.... see how long it lasts. I did good today, ate all my meals.... which, for me... well, yay! But this is about food costs, so... Here's today's rundown:

Breakfast: Oatmeal mash, served with milk and jam, ray bread with meat spread, juice to drink. Price per person: 8,04 SEK (1,21 USD).

Ugh, i never liked oatmeal. But, i baked the bread myself! Yay! One thing i was thinking about. How much juice did they count on? How big is a glass anyway? i have glasses that are 1,5 dl and I have glasses that are 4 dl. I opted for 2 dl, that felt ok.


Morning Snack: Coffee with milk, 1 crispbread with butter, 1 orange. That's the original version. I don't drink coffee, so I sub it out with 1 dl of hot cocoa. I also subbed out the orange for 100 g of blackberries. I want to eat fruits and veggies that are in season, so to speak. Well, oranges are in season now, but when I started planning for this project it was still September and as i shopped this first Monday in advance, I bought frozen blackberries. Anywho, with my tweaking, this snack cost me 13,35 SEK (2,02 USD).


Lunch: Fish stew, served with potatoes, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, 2 pieces of baguette with butter. This stew apparently calls for saffron, as it says so in the menu. But 1: Saffron is expensive. REALLY expensive, and 2: I couldn't find any good recipe. But i found a recipe using creme fraiche saffron&tomato. I also subbed out the lettuce for baby spinach. As this is is a stew, there is no reason to make less than 4 portions. This means 3 portions in the freezer. Making the stew cost 109,27 SEK (16,56 USD). 1 portion, including veggies and bread; 38,94 SEK (5,90 USD).


Afternoon snack: 1 piece of ray bread, with butter and cucumber. I HATE eating butter like that. At least the bread was warm, so the butter melted. Cost: 2,55 SEK (0,38 USD)


Dinner: Pea soup with pork and mustard, 1 ray bread with butter, 1 carrot (I think), 2 pancakes with jam. Ok, so, a couple of changes here. I skipped the pea soup, as I cannot even look at it without feeling nauseous. I subbed it out for spinach soup with a hard boiled egg. Carrots I'm allergic to, so I just skipped out on veggies. But who doesn't love pancakes? Strawberry jam I love, but take care with, as I'm also allergic to strawberries. Making spinach soup for one is a piece of cake, but i made pancakes batter on 3's (3 eggs, 3 dl of flour, 3 dl of milk), making 15 pancakes at a cost of 15,91 SEK (2,40 USD). 1 portion of Spinach soup and pancakes landed on 19,75 SEK (2,98 USD).

Evening snack: Tea, 1 bread with butter and cheese. Again, subbing things out. I don't drink tea. Never did. I should probably start. I had my mini cup of chocolate instead. And instead of normal yellowish cheese, i had some brown cheese, mesost, that I have never seen anywhere other than Sweden and Norway. Don't ask me to describe it because I can't. I want to say it's a bit vanilla-y... Never mind.. can't do it... anywho, this snack of mine landed on 4,47 SEK (0,67 USD).


So today's shopping list looked like this:

If i had had empty cupboards:                      Actually needed to shop:
Jam                                                             Jam
Sugar                                                          Sugar
Eggs                                                            Eggs
Nutmeg                                                       Nutmeg
Heavy cream                                               Heavy cream
Chicken stock                                             Chicken stock
Yellow Onions                                            Yellow Onions
Frozen Spinach                                           Frozen Spinach
Baguette                                                     Baguette
Baby spinach                                              baby spinach
Tomato                                                       Tomato
Creme fraiche                                             Creme Fraiche
Leeks                                                          Leeks
Black pepper                                               Black pepper
Codfish                                                       Codfish
Blackberries                                                Blackberries
Butter (for bread)                                        Butter (for bread)
Crispbread                                                  Crispbread
Instant chocolate                                          Instant chocolate
Meat spread                                                Meat spread
Wheat flour                                                  Wheat flour
Ray flour                                                       Ray flour
Butter (for cooking)                                      Butter (for cooking)
Yeast                                                           Yeast
Orange juice                                                Orange juice
Milk                                                            Milk
Salt                                                             Salt
Oatmeal                                                      Oatmeal
Cheese                                                        Cheese

Total cost:871,90 SEK (131,61 USD)          Total cost: 483,21 SEK (72,94 USD)


Ok, that was the first and last time I calculated the cost of having absolutely nothing. It would have taken almost one third of my increased budget and about half of the calculated budget for one person. Of course some of the things will keep over a longer period, maybe even past this projects time. I mean, who uses a pound of salt in 2 months? If you do, you shouldn't.... Anywho, first day of project done, and here's how we stand, money-wise:

Purchasing budget                          Cooking budget                             Budget per portion
  3000,00 SEK(452,84 USD)        3000,00 SEK (452,84 USD)       1720,00 SEK (259,63 USD)
-   483,21 SEK(72,94 USD)       -   197,12 SEK (-29,75 USD)       -  87,10 SEK  (13,14 USD)
  2516,79 SEK (379,90 USD)        2802,88 SEK (423,09 USD)       1632,90 SEK (246,49 USD)

Suffice it to say, if my purchasing cost is going to keep being this high, I'll run out of money before the week is out. Which would mean it is impossible to follow this menu, at least the first time around. Portion budget, however, seems like it can make it.

Food project preamble

Yeah.... Food... We all eat it. Even Yaoi Anime Characters. Buuut.... this project isn't about that. I have another food project waiting that is ALL about Yaoi. No, this is my own little curiosity crusade. See, this is a glorious country I live in. The government even tell you what to eat. And how much it should cost. Ok, tell you is a little... strong... but both Konsumentverket and SLV actually have a 4 week menu on their websites. It's essentially the same menu, all I really found differing was that SLVs version was more detailed, and some days were switched. Now, granted, I only checked the first week.

So, what am I after? Well, my Hypothesis goes: There is NO WAY you can eat everything on that menu for the allotted coin. According to those two government agencies, you are supposed to be able to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and 2-3 small meals or snacks every day. And a couple of handfuls of candy, crisps and some dessert spread out over the week. Like, dessert one day, chocolate one day and so on. And... hold on to your seats.... 1 glass of wine and 2 light beers a week. Ok, small disclaimer; I'm not sure the sweets and the alcohol is actually in the calculated budget, but I will include the sweets. Not the alcohol, as I don't drink alcohol. Yes, I'm a bore with issues. But as long as you don't try to shove alcohol down my throat, I wont stop you from shoving alcohol down yours. Anywho, the budget for one female in her 20's (that would be me) is 1720 kr (that would be 260 dollars and 73 cent in the US) per month. This include homemade lunch. In Sweden, it's fairly common to bring homemade lunch to work, either specially made lunch boxes or the leftovers from yesterdays dinner. School lunches are free for the little kiddies up to at least 9th grade. Often also our (age-wise) in Swedish equivalent to High School.

I have 3 issues with these menus and their budget. 1: There are no recipes  This creates a problem, as you could go how cheap or expensive as you like. I'm aiming for the cheap-moderate end of the scale. Even with recipes this is a problem, of course, but if you had recipes you'd at least get a hint. 2: Sometimes you HAVE to make food for 4-10 even if you are alone. I intend to solve this by relying on my freezer and let this project run for 8 weeks rather than 4. That should get me some days when food costs cut to 0 week 5-8. 3: There are some things on the menu i CAN NOT EAT. Allergies and some absolutely vile menu items answer for that. But that's easily solved. Subbing out some things might be possible. But I promise to at least present the original menu for each day, and tell what I sub out.

So, here's my thought, or, my plan rather: I will be counting 3 ways: What it costs to purchase the ingredients, what it costs to cook the food, (that is, you don't pour the whole salt package in the food, and you can't really purchase only one teaspoon of salt, can you?) and how much each portion cost. The two first  will have a budget of 3000 kr (454,77 USD) just because I KNOW it's impossible to purchase all the food for the budget for 1. 3000 kr is the budget for 2 adults who eat lunch at work, so 5 lunches are not in that budget, but that is a side note  as I knew I needed a bigger budget. See... already I've busted this hypothesis  Also, I will for the first few days have two "purchase costs". I wanted to go into this with entirely empty cupboards, but 1: that would mean throwing out a lot of stuff, and 2: I think they have not counted on the "staples". Salt, pepper, flour, cooking oil and some other things i cant really think of right now is probably not in the budget. It is in my budget though, as they are actual costs.

Side note, and side effect, on this project is, as with most food projects, health effects. Including weight. I will NOT treat this as some kind of dietary weight loss project, but as my weight is a concern (to my doctor, i don't really care), and my eating habits (eating habits, people, NOT food habits) are kind of dismal, it will be interesting to see where this leads me. I will only note, each Monday,  if I have lost or gained weight, and if so, how much.

So. Let's get on it. With no further ado. BTW, are you sure it's preamble? Not pre-ramble?