Justifying Vices

Everyone's got vices that they find ways to justify. Smoking, drinking, gambling at tiny gas station casinos...we tell ourselves hundreds of little stories to justify our vices, to make them sound, if not ok, at least understandable.

Dave and I are trying to manage our money better lately, and one of the main tenants of Operation: Save is to Stick To The Budget. I'm pretty good with not making unplanned purchases when it comes to clothing, electronics, or bike gear *sigh.* But my vice is definitely food. Let's look over some recent purchases this weekend.

Purchase:   Cupcakes

Justification: My Blog
I seriously thought to myself, "I can blog about this, that means I can buy these!" So I better milk this one for all it's worth. These cupcakes came from the one and only cupcake bakery in Sioux Falls, Oh My Cupcakes. I HAVE been planning to go here for the past month. Does that count as budgeting? Also, I shared them, so that means its an event.

The flavors above are Smores and Triple Chocolate Meltdown. I recommend. I've also heard their Root Beer Float Cupcake is quite good. The cake was a little dry, but it held together well, which is important for cupcakes. The cupcakes also came in adorable little personal containers

They protected the cupcakes pretty well---unless you dropped the containers upside down. But I suppose that's my "bad."


Purchase: Coffee

Justification: Change in my purse
It was early; I was tired...and I figured that if I could pay for it with change, then it was ok. Also again, blog of course, since I said I'd search out the local coffee....this cup of Joe was made by the Cherrybean Coffee Company, a local roaster of Fair Trade/Organic beans that distributes to grocery stores and a local restaurant, the Whisk and Chop Cafe. It was definitely decent, but I've had better here (more on that later).

Purchase: Farmer's Market Spinach

Justification: Preemptive meal planning
I have a thing for Farmer's Markets---if I could buy all my food there, I would. Unfortunately, they don't always coincide with when I NEED food, or what I was planning to make in the first place. Mostly, its buy ingredients, find something to do with them later. Sometimes this doesn't work out so well. Sometimes, it works out great. I knew instantly what I wanted to make when I saw this leafy, toothsome looking spinach (that's right, I use that word).

Tuscan Chicken.

We make this from a recipe we got out of an issue of Bon Appetit a year or so back. It's basically a breaded chicken fillet, pan-fried and served over a bed of spinach, with lemon aioli, capers, and toasted homemade ciabatta bread with a tomato confit. It's very good, but we hardly ever make it unless we have guests (which we did) because its a decent amount of work. Great excuse for spinach though! If you'd like to make this yourself, you can find the recipe here on Chowhound: Tuscan Chicken 

The recipe for Ciabatta that I use comes from the Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. As bread recipes go, its a lot of time, if not work, for not a large amount if bread, but there is nothing more perfect for this meal.

So see? It's all justified in the end...