Ravioli with Peas and Shallots

Last weekend my sister was home to look at places to have her wedding. She was over at my apartment for a bit while she was here and she saw How to Cook Everything Vegetarian on my counter.

"Are you a vegetarian now?" she asked.

The answer is no. But I understand why she might think that. Looking back on this blog for the past few weeks, I see I haven't eaten a lot of meat lately. I try to keep a tight budget so I'm saving a lot per month. I've heard some people claiming to the same grocery budget (maybe $20 more a week) for a family of four, and like me, they claim also includes laundry detergent, cleaners, shampoo, etc. But they have to be lying. Unless, of course, they're secretly eating nothing but rice and beans. Or, they're eating out several meals per week.

If people are eating a diet rich in whole grains, plenty of produce and lots of lean protein sources and their budgeted allotment for three meals a day, 7 days a week plus snacks and includes more than food and is within $20 of mine per week — I'd like to know how they do it. I'm single and cook for one. I eat a new dinner each night and eat leftovers for lunch the next day plus a bowl of oatmeal with fruit for breakfast and a couple of snacks (usually yogurt and/or fruit and a homemade cookie or something similar) per day and honestly, $60 a week is kind of hard. Maybe I'm a poor bargain hunter. I do use coupons for what I can, but most of the coupons for food items are for heavily-processed crap.

How much do you all spend per week, and does that include more than just food items?

Now on to dinner. Tonight's dinner, while not the most diet-friendly in the world, is budget-friendly and ready in practically 5 minutes. No joke. It doesn't get much simpler and easier than Ravioli with Peas and Shallots.

It says it's more than 600 calories, but I don't think my version was. I just find that hard to believe. I used whatever the bag said was one serving and that came out to 310 calories. So 1/2 tbsp of butter and 2.5 ounces of peas is more than 300 calories? That doesn't seem right. So this was probably at least a little healthier than the recipe claims. 1.5 pounds of ravioli for four people seems like a lot anyhow.

And this wasn't too bad. I don't think it was amazing or life changing. But it was quick and fairly tasty. I have to admit peas aren't my favorite vegetable, but alongside the ravioli they were tolerable. I would get a quality ravioli because with a recipe with so few ingredients all of them really need to be top-notch.