Bulk Living

This was dinner last night. Roasted garlic cashew Alfredo with smoked tofu. I made the Alfredo sauce for a little over one dollar thanks to one of my favorite sections of the grocery store- the BULK BINS! If you are on a budget finding a store with a bulk section is a must! Nuts are much cheaper in the bulk bins, and raw cashew pieces are usually around two dollars cheaper per pound then whole raw cashews, and if you're using them for a sauce it doesn't matter if they're pieces.

These are two pictures of bulk buns at Sprouts that I took awhile ago. Packaged quinoa is almost double that price no matter what brand. It's also nice to be able to buy as much or as little as you'd like. If you need a small amount of something for a recipe, you don't have to spend a huge chunk of your grocery budget.

I also buy my spices in the bulk section. I just save all my little jars and refill them. You would gag when you see what stores charge for the jars. This way saves money and produces less waste!

These are some of the amazing bulk offerings at Winco which has the best bulk section I've ever seen. It's like a wonderland to me.
I know that some smaller grocery stores have small bulk sections too. They're usually somewhere near the organic or natural foods section of the store. You can also usually find great deals on oatmeal and granola as well.

Remember the scoby I was trying to grow? Well look what I grew?! I was getting ready to dump out my failure when I noticed this little buddy sitting right on top! For anyone new here, I attempted to grow my own scoby by brewing a batch of tea, adding one cup of sugar and one cup of GT'S plain kombucha. According to the interwebz the scoby should have grown in seven to ten days, but mine took more like three weeks. I couldn't be happier, and today I'm going to brew my first batch of homemade booch!!!