Food Truck Fabulous! {Plouf Plouf}

Yesterday I finally got to cross something off of my food-bucket-list.  Visiting a gourmet food truck!

My blog has been empty for awhile, yes.  That is because I have been here, there, and everywhere.  Shoot -- I still am.  And so the cooking has been kicked to the curb.  It is pretty hard to cook when you don't have a kitchen...

But this no-kitchen thing has allowed me to find food sources in other places.  Restaurants primarily.  Until yesterday when a friend I stumbled upon this food truck.  Which looked FABULOUS.

We had already had a big meal that day, but hand-cut frites with parmesan, parsley, and truffle oil?  Yeah, we couldn't pass that up.

A spot on a park bench was found, green all around with beautiful brick buildings popping up here and there... no, this was not a California taco truck experience.  This was the real deal.  And now I am hooked.  Any food truck I find like this must be visited.  It is decided.

Visit the Plouf Plouf Gastronomie page here and then let me know about YOUR experiences with food trucks :)

The time has begun. Goodbye dinners out, hello super planning!

What did I do this weekend?  I ate out. 

Of course, there was a whole bunch of other stuff thrown in (trip to the beach, visiting new places, so on and so forth), but when you are on a mini-vacation/three day weekend trip, that is what you do.

It is one of the joys of taking a trip -- although I am enjoying my new hobby of cooking, I also enjoy taking a break from it! 

But today IT started.  This morning I woke up, realized I had nothing in my cupboards (due to the long weekend out of town) while simultaneously realizing that, no, I cannot just grab a bite on my way to work.  Digging back a little further in the empty cereal cupboard I found some instant oatmeal -- fruit flavored.  The only problem was I have already eaten all the flavors I already like.  Which is why the box was shoved back into the abyss in the first place.  Oh well.  Strawberry oatmeal it was.  It wasn't as bad as I expected (although it can't hold a candle to peaches and cream). 

I still have no food in my cupboards (well, NO FOOD would be an exaggeration, but the right stuff to make a meal?  Yeah, not so much...) and I am tired and it is rainy and all I want to do is sleep.  But I will not!  It is only Day 1.  I will succeed!

Besides, I don't really have the option to fail.  Over 80 people read my post about my super plan.  Eighty.  Accountability -- it is the thing that will make this work for me.  Failing in front of myself is one thing; failing in front of 80 people, not going to happen.  (It also helps that Heidi and Fam are joining me.  Thank you, Friend, for stepping up to the challenge!)

Thirty days without spending money on anything extra food-wise?  Bring it on.

Thirty Day Challenge: Are you brave enough?

I am going to skip any great intro and just come out and say it:  We are going to give up eating out for a month.  Completely and totally, for thirty days we are not going to have any food that does not come from our own kitchen.

It is not that we are going on some organic hippy movement, or we have lost a job and therefore cannot afford to do it.  Rather, we have some extra expenses (expected and not expected) coming up in the next two months and we want to avoid that feeling of, "Where did all of our money go?!"  You all know this feeling I speak of, and it does not feel good.  So we decided to be proactive... what could we do to cut back on this right now so when we get to the end we are not left in a state of shock?  Where does our money go, anyway?

Well...

There are detours on trips...

... and lunch dates with my love...

Celebratory dinners

Fun with the girls

Sushi (It gets a class of its own)

Snacks

Picnics with friends

Late night snacks with "family"

and finding coffee to wake this Brazilian man up in the morning.

Did you know that the average American spends more than 5% of their paycheck on eating out?  The average.  But I know a lot of you (no, surely not YOU!) would probably be able to raise your hand if I asked who falls into the ABOVE average category.  We are American, it's what we do. 

But what if we didn't?  Five percent, that is a lot of money.  If you spend more than five percent... that is a lot more money.  Think of what that could go toward. 

So here is my plan:  Starting next Monday, May 16, I am dining-out-free for thirty days.  No dinners out, no oatmeal from McDonald's when I am running late, no snacks.  Nada.  But that also means one other thing: Nothing extra being spent.  Nada, as well.  All of that extra money can go towards the other things, and leave me a little happier at the end of this heavy month.  I don't think I have ever in my entire life gone that long without grabbing at least a small bite to eat, so it will probably be a little tough, but tough things make us tougher, right?  And hopefully will keep our wallets a little more full.

Now comes the question... who's in?  Who thinks they have what it takes?  Come on, you know you wanna!  And besides, misery loves company, right? ;)