Friday, January 20, 2006
Bargains
I am not an efficient shopper. I like a bargain, and I have a deeply-ingrained need to research each purchase fully, so whether it's groceries or a new countertop, it takes me FOREVER to decide on a purchase. What's worse, at least from my husband's perspective, is that the purchase, no matter how small, becomes my major preoccupation and the topic of endless discussion. What's more, the time invested in the process makes me feel CERTAIN that I've made the best purchase possible, and I am always eager, and actually feel a duty (much to my friends' chagrin) to share my hard-earned knowledge whenever possible.
My latest quarry is a food processor. I got two new cookbooks for Christmas, The Essential Eating Well Cookbook and The Eating Well Healthy in a Hurry Cookbook, both compilations from my favorite food magazine, Eating Well. As part of my New Year's Resolution mentioned below, I've been trying to cook more often, and I need quick, easy, healthful, vegetarian meals that are low in refined carbs -- not easy to come by. Eating Well and, occasionally, Cooking Light, have proven to be my best bets. "What?" you wonder -- "A vegetarian who doesn't sleep with one of the Moosewood cookbooks under her pillow?" Well, I do own several of the Moosewood cookbooks (The New Moosewood Cookbook , The Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest), and I especially love their comfort foods, but my husband often finds them to be too bland, and my obsession with "good" carbs limits the options. Anyway, whatever the source of the recipe, I find myself chopping, chopping, chopping vegetables with not-so-good knives and even worse technique. So I spend much more time cooking than I need to. And I'm hoping that a food processor (yes, we have returned to the primary topic!) will help me cut my cooking time.
After doing some (ok, LOTS) of research, I've decided that the Cuisinart DLC-5, a basic 7-cup processor with a couple of blades, is for me. And I've found that I can get it from anywhere from $79.99 to $139.99, depending on where I look. The bargain shopper in me purrrrrrrrrs! I can actually get this food processor for almost HALF of what someone else will pay for it!! (I'm sorry to show this sad, sad side of myself). So, I order it for $79.99 (and free shipping!) from Amazon although it is backordered because the satisfaction of the bargain will ease the pain of the chopping that will take place during the month or two before it's shipped.
All of this takes place while I should be grading papers. Or planning classes. Or planning menus.
But what a bargain!
My latest quarry is a food processor. I got two new cookbooks for Christmas, The Essential Eating Well Cookbook and The Eating Well Healthy in a Hurry Cookbook, both compilations from my favorite food magazine, Eating Well. As part of my New Year's Resolution mentioned below, I've been trying to cook more often, and I need quick, easy, healthful, vegetarian meals that are low in refined carbs -- not easy to come by. Eating Well and, occasionally, Cooking Light, have proven to be my best bets. "What?" you wonder -- "A vegetarian who doesn't sleep with one of the Moosewood cookbooks under her pillow?" Well, I do own several of the Moosewood cookbooks (The New Moosewood Cookbook , The Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest), and I especially love their comfort foods, but my husband often finds them to be too bland, and my obsession with "good" carbs limits the options. Anyway, whatever the source of the recipe, I find myself chopping, chopping, chopping vegetables with not-so-good knives and even worse technique. So I spend much more time cooking than I need to. And I'm hoping that a food processor (yes, we have returned to the primary topic!) will help me cut my cooking time.
After doing some (ok, LOTS) of research, I've decided that the Cuisinart DLC-5, a basic 7-cup processor with a couple of blades, is for me. And I've found that I can get it from anywhere from $79.99 to $139.99, depending on where I look. The bargain shopper in me purrrrrrrrrs! I can actually get this food processor for almost HALF of what someone else will pay for it!! (I'm sorry to show this sad, sad side of myself). So, I order it for $79.99 (and free shipping!) from Amazon although it is backordered because the satisfaction of the bargain will ease the pain of the chopping that will take place during the month or two before it's shipped.
All of this takes place while I should be grading papers. Or planning classes. Or planning menus.
But what a bargain!
