How a Vegetarian South Tabor Food Chemist Enjoys Portland’s Bounty

Hi, {{first__name | reader}},

Welcome back to Rose City Receipts, a feature offering a peek into how Portland-area residents manage their grocery shopping.

Today's receipt comes from Savers Club member Jake S. As a recent transplant to Portland, he's been finding the membership incredibly valuable for getting his footing in the local food scene. In fact, he called the members-only Summer produce guide "excellent" for figuring out our unique seasons. (The fall guide just dropped!) He's already putting that knowledge to good use, as you can see below.

Who are you? Hi, I’m Jake! My partner, Alexis, and I moved from Columbus, Ohio, to Portland in early May along with our dog Gomez and our cats Moshi and Maggie. I am an analytical food chemist by trade and still looking for work post-move, while Alexis works as an attorney in the public sector. We are both lacto-ovo vegetarians.
Where do you live? South Tabor
What’s your weekly grocery budget (roughly)?: Once a week, I do a big shop for staples at Safeway that runs $80-$150. We also make a few weekly stops at specialty shops or the Montavilla Farmers Market for another $25-$100, depending on the season and our vibes.
How many people are you shopping for?: Two adults, both at home most of the time.
What are your favorite stores?: Safeway is close, cheap, and has 95% of what I’m looking for on a weekly basis. Hong Phat and El Campesino PDX for Asian and Latin specialties, and New Seasons if I’m feeling bougie. Montavilla is our closest farmer’s market, and we’ve been going every other week or so all summer.  My partner works very close to a Trader Joe’s and likes to stop in for their fun snacks, drinks and frozen meals which are great for her work lunches. Costco for a handful of high volume items, non-perishable snacks and wine.
What’s your top priority when it comes to grocery shopping?: For my big shop, it’s convenience and being sure they’ll have what I’m looking for. It’s a pet peeve of mine to have to go to a second location for one thing. For farmer’s markets and specialty shops, it’s 100% quality and freshness.

For meal planning and grocery buying, my motto is “Do less than you think you need”. My ADHD homies out there can relate, I’m sure, as I tend to over-plan and under-deliver if I don’t check myself. There’s no better way to spend too much on groceries than to throw out half of them. 

Besides that I try to cook and shop locally and seasonally as much as I can, but I’ll throw any of those ideals out in a heartbeat if a good deal or a craving comes my way, however. I’d definitely describe us as foodies, but as I’m sure you’ll see in the diary entries we like to mix and match delicious, expensive and/or complex meals in with easy comforts. I try to keep plenty of reasonably tasty ready to eat or simple to prepare snacks and meals stocked up for those times when you might otherwise be tempted to order out.

Weekly total: $513
Eating out total: $175
Groceries total: $338
Most-expensive line item: $69 for 5 gallons of U-pick peaches
Least-expensive line item: $0.40 for a tiny handful of chilis from the Indian market
Number of grocery trips: 2 plus a few farm stand stops
Number of meals out: 1 full meal, 3 snacks / dessert
Stores visited: 6

I headed for the gym early to lift before it got too hot. Thanks to a couple of Stumptown Savings hot tips, this is shaping up to be a spud-heavy week. I picked up a 10-lb. bag of russet potatoes for ~$4, and after the gym, I got to work turning a bag of roasted Hatch chilis into pepper jam. Lunch for myself was some leftover loubye bzeit and assorted snacks. 

To prep for a recipe I’m making later this week, I pressure steamed 1-lb. of potatoes in my Instant Pot. Monday is trivia night at a nearby brewery with great pan pizza ($77), and afterward, we dropped into a little bakery nearby for some dessert and breakfast pastries ($11).

Monday total: $88

I had an errand to run down in Clackamas, so I stopped by the Costco there for our roughly monthly trip there. Besides our must-haves like Diet Coke and the Motor City cheesy garlic bread (it’s so good with some jarred marinara!), the major highlights were veggie spring rolls and a few bottles of Kirkland prosecco.

A new-found Costco addiction: hard-boiled salted duck eggs! These little fellas are so savory, the yolk legitimately reminds me of bacon. I love to eat them just over plain rice with a little chili oil. The Costco trip set us back $155 all told.

For afternoon snack time, I baked up a tray of the veggie spring rolls. In the late afternoon, we made the impromptu decision to run to the neighborhood pool and swim for the last hour to cool off and unwind. We got home around 8 and grilled up some veggie hot dogs and Alexis whipped up a box of mac and cheese. One of our favorite hot dog toppers is a dollop of mayo and a sprinkling of fermented leeks from the farmer’s market. 

Tuesday total: $158

I got to work making a gratin recipe from “Good Eats” for dinner. This is my favorite type of recipe, as it’s really more of a process than a fixed set of instructions or ingredients. I happened to have some leftover portobellos, so I roasted those up, and a block of Gouda became the cheese base. Some Parmesan and frozen corn kicking around the refrigerator completed the filling.  

I made it ahead of time because we had a Lindy Hop dance class through PCC tonight! After class, we stopped by Cheese & Crack for a sundae. Dinner was gratin.

Wednesday total: $9

Tonight’s dinner was a project: Impossible meatloaf and mashed potatoes. The meatloaf recipe is from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s “The Food Lab” (💰 affiliate link), one of my favorite cookbooks. It takes something like 2.5 hours to make from start to finish, but it’s so good it’s worth it.

Thursday total: $5

I ran some errands and hit up an Indian grocery store, Namaste, up by Gateway. I mainly came because I needed pav buns and chickpea flour for tonight’s dinner but also stocked up on some chutneys, paratha, other snacks and spicy green mango achaar.  This is one of my favorite condiments, it’s a heavily spiced pickled unripe mango packed in a fiery oil.  It’s great for a lot of stuff, but especially some slightly bland Indian home cooking recipes like Khichidi.

For lunch, we had leftover meatloaf sandwiches. I just fried up some thinnish slices of loaf until hot and brown and melted a little cheese on top. These were excellent, sort of like a mix between a smash burger and a meatloaf.  Dinner was Vada Pav, an Indian street food classic consisting of a mashed potato ball coated in a chickpea batter and fried, called a batata vada.  These are served on a fluffy toasted bun called pav, think a super light fluffy dinner roll that’s not sweet, with some chutneys. 

Honestly, one of the biggest food scene shocks I’ve felt during the move is the scarcity of South Asian food and groceries. In Columbus, and especially some of the suburbs, you can drive about five minutes and hit literally a half dozen Indian restaurants and markets! Some even specialized to specific states or regions. Similar to Vietnamese and Thai food out here.

Friday total: $44

Saturday:

After hitting the PDX Adult Soapbox Derby, Saturday was all about grazing on leftovers and snacks. We had vegan ham sandwiches using ham from DC Vegetarian, spicy Maggi noodles from Friday's grocery run, and finished out the day with a movie night, featuring Costco macarons and Ben & Jerry's. 

Saturday total $0

Sunday:

Our big plan for today was to head out to the Hood River Fruit Loop! At Draper Girls Country Farm, Hood Lavender Farm, and Packer Orchards bakery and farm stand, we loaded up on U-pick peaches ($69), cider slushies, huckleberry empanadas, and various jams and pears ($85 total).

We hit the Gorge White House on the way out of town hoping to get lunch at the little café, but the wait was far too long for us. At the farm stand we grabbed a handful of Starkrimson pears, 12 oz. of honey, and a couple of heirloom tomatoes for $25. 

As soon as we got home, I had a donut peach since I was eager to try them. Extremely tasty, sorta like a cross between a lychee and a peach? I also made myself a tomato and mayonnaise sandwich, a late summer classic in my family. I made some rice and Trader Joe’s frozen vegan bulgogi for Alexis for lunch, since she’s not a big raw tomato person. Alexis went to yoga in the evening and for a night cap we hit up a little bar near our house. We had a few drinks and a basket of fries for $55 altogether.

Sunday total: $209

One of my biggest kitchen hacks is buying big bags of lemons and limes and juicing them all at once! I keep them in squeeze bottles in the refrigerator, and they last for weeks to months.  If I buy another for zest or for a super fresh flavor, any leftover juice just goes into the bottle. This makes adjusting acid in most recipes effortless. I also always have a squeeze bottle of homemade vinaigrette on hand for quick salads.

These all tie in to my more general way of life to have a lot of very stable sauces and flavorings on hand all the time. I try to keep a variety of sauces, salsas, oils and other condiments around at all times to make it easy to turn a vegetable, green or grain into a flavorful dish with minimal effort.

This gratin recipe turned out excellent. I love that it’s so easily customizable. I’m pretty sure it would turn out great with just about any dairy, herbs, cheese and any number of filling combinations as long as you keep the ratios roughly consistent. Great for cleaning out your fridge of leftover veggies, mushrooms, cheeses etc.

I met Jake and Alexis a few weeks after they moved to Portland at the Stumptown Savings Potluck in the Park in May. Fun fact: I also grew up in Columbus. I love Jake’s take on keeping sauces, condiments and favor enhancers on hand. Some added acid or spice can be the tweak that makes a bland dish sing. I buy bottles of lemon and lime juice, but Jake has me thinking it’s time to try juicing my own citrus!

Also, Hatch chile pepper jam? I’m going to need Jake to give me some, STAT!

Happy saving!
Bryan,
Founder/Publisher,
Stumptown Savings