This coming week is a Big Shop week, but we’re fairly well stocked up for the time being, so it will be interesting to see what and how much we buy. Our shopping is so different now that we’re not buying meat. We’re still constrained by our small refrigerator/freezer (and can’t stuff the fridge, for example, because then things starts to freeze), but these days we’re on a constant look out for basic vegetarian ingredients we can use to create tasty meals. Hopefully Costco will have their six-packs of organic tofu back in stock, but the truth is we never know what we’ll find there. When we stopped in last Wednesday though we saw lots and lots of fresh produce again, so that will give us some more choices.
We enjoyed our dessert fling with the Costco apple pie and might do that again some day, but we’re otherwise tired of baked oatmeal and looked for some other options last week. I don’t want to go back to baking cakes again as they take up so much room in the refrigerator, and since we’re avoiding dairy as much as possible these days (except for cheese) ice cream is not a dessert option either (and non-dairy ice cream is unfortunately too expensive here). We checked out some different dessert things at Costco last week as they are the most cost effective but they didn’t have anything that worked for us – everything was either too high calorie or too much dairy (or both, like their cheesecakes), and the only pie they had available was pumpkin and it’s too early for that – maybe next month. We got luckier at Times Market and came home with a Pepperidge Farm coconut cake (one of the best cakes ever) and a Japanese matcha Swiss roll cake, another favorite. Costco used to make and sell haupia (coconut cream) cakes – so good – but we haven’t seem them since we arrived last year. Cookies would be a nice option except we know we’d eat too many too quickly. We love having a little bit of something sweet in the evening, but it’s getting a bit more challenging these days.
We ate well last week – the enchiladas and stuffed peppers were delicious as was the kabocha risotto. I love that by measuring and being careful about the amount we eat we can quite literally have our cake and eat it too!
Sunday: California roll salad
Monday: Kabocha pumpkin risotto; roasted zucchini
Tuesday: Stacked chicken & zucchini enchiladas
Wednesday: Mexican quinoa stuffed peppers; pickled cucumbers
Thursday: Mini pizzas with meat sauce
Friday: Cheese board
Saturday: Vegan orange chick’n & fried rice
We finished up the lemon-blueberry baked oatmeal on Monday and Tuesday, enjoyed a s’more on Tuesday, and Wednesday through Saturday ate a slice of Pepperidge Farm coconut cake for our dessert. It was every bit as delicious as we hoped.
The only things I see us needing to buy for this coming week are peppers, and feta cheese for the salad (and cheese boards). The pork chop I’ll use for the stir fry is the last piece of meat in our freezer! There was also a small bag of meat sauce but we used it up on the pizzas last week. Going forward, other than eating fish occasionally, it will be vegetarian/vegan all the time. We made it.
- Coconut & squash dal with brown rice
- Chick’n patty sandwiches
- Pork & pepper stir fry
- Cheese board
- Mini pizzas
- Chick’n nuggets with zucchini fries
- Quinoa salad with feta cheese
Walking was sort of hit or miss for me this week. We did our regular perimeter walks on Monday and Tuesday, but I fell on Tuesday at the end of our walk when we went down a bit into the gully to look for balls. Actually, I slipped on a hillside, the branch I was hanging onto snapped, and I lost my footing which sent me tumbling. A couple of bushes thankfully stopped my fall, because there was another slope down just a few inches below the bushes. I was able to get back up the hill without any problems (and found four more golf balls!), but boy was I sore and more scratched up than I knew when I woke up on Wednesday. I stayed home that day – just didn’t feel good and was still too sore to walk – but Brett headed out and got in a good walk and found lots of balls. Thursday we went to Barking Sands and walked the Waiokapua Trail before spending a few hours out on the beach. Friday was quite rainy but it had mostly cleared in the afternoon so we headed up to the park. It was misting up there but not too wet to walk and we got in a full perimeter walk before the rain really started coming down. Saturday was lovely and I dared myself to go backing into the gully, although with an increased respect for its dangers.
We found a total of 77 lost balls last week. I’m still feeling somewhat sore from my tumble, but have added a regimen of Aleve to my daily meds along with stretching, and that’s been helping (and am picking up a softball this week per Anele’s suggestion). Brett got fairly scratched up on Saturday as well, and we commented on our way back to the car that our kids would be horrified to see what we’re doing these days. They approve the walking, but climbing down into a gully going after golf balls, no so much we think.
The Occasional Nomads 
If you ever see the Fairlife ice cream (it’s lactose free, so not sure if that meets your needs) on sale, it’s amazing. I love the cookie dough flavor. I’ve found it on the rare sale here, and stocked up. The small containers (Ben & Jerry’s size) can sometimes be found for $3, and they often have an iBotta rebate. Just an idea for future dessert, if a sale pops up.
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The only store on the island that *might* have Fairlife is Safeway, and now I’m going to look for it. We’re trying to outright avoid dairy (well, except for cheese) though for the most part. Brett and I were both commenting the other day how much better we feel these days without having so much dairy or so much gluten in our diets. Neither of them is forbidden though. We did pick up some Bubbies mochi ice cream the other day. They only have a tiny bit of ice cream in them and were a fun treat. Love their flavors as well.
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Maybe, just maybe, the return in the golf balls isn’t worth injury? Though it does add to a good tale.
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Brett has told me I cannot go into the gully any more – I slipped and fell again on Saturday, although in a less dramatic fashion. We’ve decided that he will make a once a week trip (Sundays) on his own to the gully, but otherwise we’ll stay out of there. It’s so tempting though – we always find so many golf balls, and so many in near-mint condition.
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Probably sound decision making by Brett. Except for his solo trip to the gully.
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I’m not crazy about the solo trips either as he’s no spring chicken any more, but he’ll wear shoes with lugged sole, long pants and shirt with long sleeves, and carry a walking stick as well for better balance (although I was carrying a walking stick the other day and still tripped). I will probably go to the park with him but walk the perimeter instead while he heads into the gully. We heard about an old guy that goes into the gully every few months and comes out with a backpack full of balls that he uses for the driving range.
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I just want to say that I’m so glad you decided to keep blogging. I love hearing about your life and your posts motivate and inspire me to set and accomplish goals. I’ve started doing my own version of the task cards to help keep my daily goals on track. Plus I love seeing the foods that you buy and meals you make. It would be fun to do another farmer’s market haul price guessing game. Your pictures are always so beautiful and seeing the flowers and landscape is a fun way to live vicariously through you. I hope to get to Hawaii some day!
I am shocked at how many golf balls you find! I can’t wait to hear about the sale of them. What a fun side hustle.
I would love the recipe Kabocha pumpkin risotto. It looks delicious!
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Those activity cards really do help make sure daily tasks get accomplished. And, for some reason they seem to make the time go by quickly – I am ALWAYS surprised when I find myself on the last card of six weeks – “wow, that went fast!”
We have not been to the farmers’ market in months – still too many people milling around for us to feel comfortable. Maybe in a couple of months. We’ve had good luck though finding affordable, local (Hawaii-grown) produce at Costco lately.
I just sort of winged the squash risotto recipe – I used this recipe for InstantPit chicken risotto from AllRecipes as a started and substituted squash for the chicken, and vegetable broth for the chicken broth and it turned out OK. We look forward to having it again.
We listed our first of golf balls but realized immediately it’s going to be slow going and probably not the money-maker many think it is. There are hundreds of sellers on eBay, many of them pros (at selling golf balls) and we are very small potatoes compared to them.
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How about homemade granitas for dessert options? I have a Cuisinart ice cream maker, which I realize won’t work with your small freezer, and have been experimenting with sorbets. Nectarine is my new fav.
However, granitas can be made without any machine. They are more labor intensive in that they need to be raked with a fork every 30 minutes until the mixture is fully frozen. Can be made with fruit juices, coffee, really any liquid that will freeze and you can have total control over the amount of sugar.
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The granitas are a good idea, although lately I seem to be all about lessening the amount of labor I do LOL. The Pepperidge Farm coconut cake was a great option both for the cost and taste, and the matcha cake we found was a winner as well. We are going to try having a couple of mochi ice cream balls. They have only a small amount of dairy but are fun and delicious to eat. Locally made Bubbies come in some wild flavors too, especially for the holidays (I love the gingerbread and eggnog ones). The big thing with desserts for us is managing the portion size – we honestly can eat anything as long as the portion is not too big.
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