Food Diary: What a 26-Year-Old Pastor Eats on $147,000 in Huntsville, Alabama

The last time my mom visited, she also made some of those Bisquick cheese sausage balls and froze them. I remember we have them and throw them in the air fryer. Paired with a Cutie, they fill me up enough before I head to my weekly grocery trip to Aldi. I try to go to the grocery store full, especially at Aldi where novelty products in that weird unexplainable aisle at the front catch my eye every week.

At Aldi, I stock up for the week on vegetables (green beans, red onions, brussels sprouts, peppers), deli meat, chicken breasts, potstickers, 2% milk, eggs, butter, cream cheese—a bit of everything. I also get a charcuterie snack and Choceur chocolate. ($110.23 total)

6:30 p.m. After we unload the groceries, I take a few minutes in my cold dark room for some Instagram Reels time. I have a headache that won’t go away. Then I accidentally stay in bed for an hour and text my husband that I need some help with dinner prep/getting out of bed. He fires up the speaker with my favorite music, puts on an apron, and starts responding “yes, chef” to every request I ask of him.

We’re having Panang curry tonight—or at least some resemblance of Panang curry. I slice an onion, bell peppers ($2.69, Aldi), and chicken breast ($7.92, Aldi) into thin strips. I also crush some peanuts. My husband starts up the rice cooker with some basmati rice. I open up a can of coconut milk and skim the fat off the top. Into my trusty Lodge blue Dutch oven it goes, along with some red curry paste and the onions. After I let those simmer and build some flavor, I add in the peanuts, the rest of the coconut milk and the sliced chicken, stir, throw on the lid, and let the chicken poach.

My husband and I decide while we wait that it’s a good time to do some fridge cleanout, which mostly means him looking at expiration dates that I claim are “fine to keep” and throwing them out because he does not believe in my system of food safety. We find some real gems in the back of the fridge including two bottles of ginger beer, two different brands of fig jam, and Castelvetrano olives. When we’re done, I add the bell peppers to simmer for a few minutes. Then lime juice and zest ($2.45, Aldi), fish sauce, and sugar, and we have an excellent dinner on our hands. We’ll definitely have this meal as leftovers with fresh rice for a few days.

After dinner, we each eat a mini ice cream pop ($4.49, Aldi) while we finish off the new Percy Jackson show. I don’t like the white chocolate ones, so my husband eats them while I get the dark chocolate almond ones all to myself.

Monday total: $121.49

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Tuesday

8:30 a.m. I meant to get up earlier today. I am supposed to be at work for office hours by 9 a.m., but today it won’t happen. Lucky for me, the people aren’t busting down my office doors so I get in lots of admin work instead.

I really try to get in protein with breakfast every day because I know I will be starving by lunch without it, so today I make a yogurt bowl with full fat whole milk Greek yogurt, honey, protein granola, blackberries ($1.49, Aldi), and blueberries ($2.89, Aldi). I beg the kettle to heat faster so I can get out the door, and then I make our morning Chemex with some terrible emergency-only coffee beans from the back of the cabinet. We are out of good coffee and our local guy delivers our order on Friday. I throw it in my tumbler and rush out the door.