What I Eat as a 28-Year-Old Film/TV Development Assistant Making $28/Hour in LA

Illustration by Maggie Cowles

Welcome to The Receipt, a series documenting how Bon Appétit readers eat and what they spend doing it. Each food diary follows one anonymous reader’s week of expenses related to groceries, restaurant meals, coffee runs, and every bite in between. In this time of rising food costs, The Receipt reveals how folks—from different cities, with different incomes, on different schedules—are figuring out their food budgets.

In today’s Receipt, we follow a 28-year-old programming coordinator working in film/TV development in Los Angeles. Keep reading for her receipts.

The finances

What are your pronouns? She/her

What is your occupation? Programming coordinator. I support two execs who work in development for a network and a streaming service, respectively. It’s standard administrative assistant stuff—phones, calendars, emails—but I’m also able to go to table reads, set visits, and live audience tape nights.

How old are you? 28

What city and state do you live in? Los Angeles, CA

What is your annual salary, if you have one? $28 an hour or about $58,000 a year before overtime. In a job like this, it’s all but guaranteed that you’ll work at least three to five extra hours a week.

How much is one paycheck, after taxes? $1,850, give or take $150 in either direction.

How often are you paid? (e.g., weekly) Every other week.

What are your approximate fixed monthly expenses beyond food? (i.e., rent, subscriptions, bills)

• Rent: $1,560 for my half of a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment.

• Water/trash: $90 for my half

• Electricity: $75 to $130 for my half every two months.

• Gas: $4 to $6 for my half.

• Wi-Fi: $45 for my half.

• Car payment: $267. I cover about $175 to $225 and my mom helps with the rest.

• Subscriptions (Netflix, two online video game services, Lemonade rental insurance, iCloud storage): $30

• Phone: $50, paid back to my mom. I truly would be doomed without my mom.

• Credit card: $500

• Total: $2,529 to $2,636

The diet

Do you follow a certain diet or have dietary restrictions? I’ve always been a bit of a picky eater—I don’t like mushrooms, most eggs, cooked seafood, organ meats, bell peppers, olives, pickles, or tofu. Yes, I have tried to. I’m not happy about it either. I can’t help it when my body decides to reject food—I was really excited to try a snow crab roll, but the second it hit my tongue, I physically could not swallow. Sometimes textures will really bother me, but there are also certain textures I adore. I’ll have a safe food or meal for weeks or even months until suddenly, one day, I don’t want it anymore.

I was diagnosed with ADHD four years ago and currently take 20 mg of extended release Adderall in the mornings, which has the side effect of suppressing my appetite for most of the day. I still get hungry, but I don’t have any actual desire for food, which makes it easy for me to get overwhelmed by decision paralysis: There are too many options, and I don’t want any one more than the others. It’s also easy for me to get too focused on work and forget to eat for hours. I cope by imagining a three year old is in charge of my brain. What does the toddler want to eat today?

What are the grocery staples you always buy, if any? At Trader Joe’s, I always buy frozen strawberries, strawberry vanilla Greek yogurt, and bananas for my favorite breakfast smoothie. Also, fresh pizza dough. I go through a jar of Jif natural creamy peanut butter, the final component of my smoothie, about once a month. I’m also currently obsessed with Froot Loops Jumbo Snax, which are just slightly bigger Froot Loops, but they really hit the spot lately.

How often in a week do you dine out versus cook at home? I ordered delivery way too often during my job’s COVID lockdown, so I’ve really tried to cut back. Now, I order dinner once or twice a week and buy lunch at work two or three times a week. I don’t love meal prepping because I can’t guarantee that I’ll want to eat what I made.

How often in a week did you dine out while growing up? We dined out or ordered delivery two or three times a week. My high school was right by a mall, so by junior and senior years I spent a lot more time eating lunch in the food court. When we visited our hometown, we’d spend a big part of the trip hitting all of the restaurants we missed the most.

How often in a week did your parents or guardians cook at home? My mom was the main cook in our house and made at least one meal every day. My grandma and my mom both own prolific cookbook libraries; my grandma is an incredible cook and baker who even made wedding cakes for a time. Our diet was a mix between Mexican staples (rice and beans, calabacitas, enchiladas) and eclectic dishes (chicken Diane, fondue, fresh pasta and homemade meatballs).

Every other weekend, my parents would grill, which meant my dad would sit outside with a beer, listen to his music, and turn the steaks while my mom, sister, and I did all of the other prep and cleanup.

The expenses

• Week’s total: $738.66

• Restaurants and cafés total: $161.36

• Groceries total: $575.35

• Most-expensive meal or purchase: Dinner at Melody Wine Bar, $50

• Least-expensive meal or purchase: Trader Joe’s banana, $0.29

• Number of restaurant and café meals: 8

• Number of grocery trips: 7

The diary

Monday

8:40 a.m. It’s a work from home day, so I lounge in bed for a little. Eventually I get so hungry that my stomach cramps and my mouth waters up.

In the kitchen, I assemble my usual smoothie: one sliced banana, about a quarter cup of oat milk (Good & Gather, the big perishable carton), one Trader Joe’s strawberry vanilla Greek yogurt, and enough Trader Joe’s frozen strawberries to fill the rest of the Magic Bullet. I blend and pour a little into my cup, then scoop in a few tablespoons of Jif peanut butter. I blend again, then voilà. It hits the spot every time—I consider it one of my safe foods that I can easily eat over and over again. The day that I get tired of it will be the day my entire morning routine is ruined. I read online that protein may help the effectiveness of ADHD meds, so the peanut butter serves the purpose. I should finish it within an hour, so it’ll actually make me feel full, but I get distracted by chores around the apartment and work tasks and don’t finish until 11-ish a.m.

11:30 a.m. I made some mini tarts last night using Trader Joe’s frozen puff pastry, a package of Boursin, caramelized onion and shallot, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Today, I warm up the remaining four tarts in the toaster oven and give two to my roommate. S has been one of my best friends for a decade and we’ve lived together for eight of those years. We’re not quite Rachel and Monica—more like two Monicas.

1 p.m. Today is a leftovers day. Yesterday, I cubed a can of Spam and pan fried it, then cooked it with a simple musubi glaze (soy sauce, brown sugar, bit of mirin). I also made a batch of Calrose rice in the rice cooker and put it all together in a Spam musubi bowl.

I have the other half of the rice and Spam as a bowl for lunch today. In terms of safe foods, rice-based dishes are reliable for me. I sit at my desk in my room and scroll TikTok. Then I get full after about two thirds of the bowl and throw the rest away.

3:30 p.m. I’m fidgety but I never developed a taste for coffee because it makes me sleepy, so I grab an A&W root beer out of the fridge. The bubbles and sweetness give me a jolt but I only finish half before I’m sucked back into the zone. By the time I finish work at 6:30 p.m., the root beer is getting flat and warm, so the rest goes down the drain and the can goes into the recycling.

8 p.m. Our friend K is visiting. We talked nonstop for half an hour before we remembered to order food, so the delivery is just now showing up. K has various dietary restrictions, including celiac and a dairy allergy, so we picked Tender Greens, which has something that works for all of us. I get the salt and pepper chicken plate with romaine hearts and Caesar dressing and a side of mashed potatoes and gravy. The gravy is a little heavy on the red wine, but I’m not complaining and easily finish the entire thing. S ordered, so I Venmo her $25 for my portion of the delivery bill, including the fees.

Monday total: $25

Tuesday

5:55 a.m. I’m up at the crack of dawn so I can shower and do my hair before work. I’m already a little hungry, so I grab a bag of Froot Loops Jumbo Snax and eat it while I scroll on my phone and wake up.

8:55 a.m. I’m running a little late, but I still make my usual smoothie: yogurt, banana, frozen strawberries, peanut butter, oat milk. The strawberries in this batch have weirdly dark seeds, so it almost looks like I put chia seeds in there. The Trader Joe’s frozen strawberries are a bit inconsistent in quality, but that’s the price of eating fruit out of season. I sip my smoothie on the drive to work, and once I get in, take my meds and hit the ground running.

11:35 a.m. I have over two thirds of my smoothie left. Why do I do this to myself.

12:03 p.m. Lunch is here. We have meetings back-to-back today, so I join the team order. Our boss picked Goop Kitchen, a ghost kitchen in Studio City with meals approved by Gwyneth herself. I ordered the Little Gem Caesar salad and add shredded chicken and half an avocado ($20.15, but not on my tab). I still haven’t finished my smoothie, so I stash the salad in my mini fridge for now.

12:30 p.m. I successfully finish the last bit of my smoothie, but at this point, it does nothing but prompt another hunger cramp from my stomach.

2 p.m. I used my actual lunch to run an errand, so now I sit down at my desk (pretending to tell myself that I’m going to get some work done) and eat my salad. It’s decent. It’s missing the little crunchies and I miss the texture.

3:40 p.m. I’ve been tapping away at my keyboard, and as a result, I’ve finished maybe a third of my salad. I pick out the rest of the avocado and chicken and toss the remains into the communal kitchen compost bin.

5:50 p.m. TGITN (thank God it’s tape night). For live audience tape nights, the executive greenroom gets a catered dinner, and I absolutely adore our caterer. Tonight the hors d’oeuvres are mini lobster rolls and pigs in a blanket, along with a charcuterie spread of cheeses, fruits, and crackers. There’s wine and beer, but I’m still not used to casually drinking around superiors, even at my age; I take a San Pellegrino instead. I nibble on a few of the pigs in a blanket, but I don’t love the sausages, so I end up picking the puff pastry off and eating only that. From the charcuterie board, I take a handful of red grapes and a couple slices of Manchego. The caterer also brings out focaccia and some olive oil and balsamic.

6:15 p.m. I serve myself dinner from the buffet: pot roast, crispy gnocchi, brussels sprouts with Parmesan and pesto, shrimp scampi, grilled artichokes, and steakhouse wedge salads with blue cheese. I take the pot roast and root vegetables, along with some gnocchi and brussels sprouts, as well as a couple of slices of focaccia to sop up some of the pot roast gravy. As per usual, it’s delicious. We’re all able to take plenty of leftovers home, so I fill up containers of shrimp scampi and artichokes for S.

6:55 p.m. For dessert, we have olive oil lemon cake with whipped cream and figs from the caterer’s own tree. I don’t love figs, but the cake is light and has the perfect hint of lemon, and the whipped cream is a nice touch. I still only finish half the slice.

7:20 p.m. I snack on a few more red grapes from the charcuterie table, and since we’re nearing the end of the evening, I swipe the rest of them into another take-out container. Whatever food we don’t finish or take home at tape night, either the caterer’s crew takes or donates to a local charity that redistributes leftover catering to the unhoused.

8:32 p.m. If I’m being honest, I let the shrimp scampi sit a little too long in the take-out container, so that gets thrown away as soon as I get home. But S whips up some melted garlic butter to polish off the artichokes and I make myself a root beer float using my good Tillamook vanilla bean ice cream. We half-watch cooking videos on YouTube and doomscroll.

Tuesday total: $0

Wednesday

5:45 a.m. Why am I awake so early? I can’t get myself back to sleep, so I look at my phone and eat a bag of Froot Loops Jumbo Snax.

8:58 a.m. Smoothie time: banana, oat milk, strawberry yogurt, frozen strawberries, peanut butter. I use the last of the jar, so I add peanut butter to the grocery list in my phone. Our dog anxiously paces at my feet and I give her the empty yogurt cup to lick clean. I’m running late, so I save the empty peanut butter jar for later—the dog will go crazy for it.

10:59 a.m. I have to leave for a table read in 10 minutes and I’ve only finished one third of my smoothie. It’s always been easy for me to get distracted mid-meal. I gulp the rest down and rinse out my cup before stashing it in my mini fridge.

1:20 p.m. One of my managers has a business lunch and the other brought his lunch from home, so I’m on my own today. I go to Jersey Mike’s so often that my friend J got me a gift card for my birthday, and it’s time to use the last of it. I order a regular #3, ham and provolone. I ask for Mike’s Way dry, which means I get lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and oregano without the olive oil and red wine vinegar. Instead, I ask for extra mayo, but the sandwich wizard gets distracted while we talk and adds “the juice” on top. He offers to remake my sandwich, but I’ll be fine. With the rest of my gift card, I only pay $1.95 out of pocket.

1:40 p.m. I should’ve let him remake my sandwich. It’s still delicious, just messy and threatening to leak through the paper. I finish one half, pick the tomatoes off of the now-soggy other half, and toss the rest.

5:05 p.m. I’m getting fidgety as we approach the end of the workday, and, even worse, we’re out of my favorite Popcorners in the snack closet. I take a little bag of Mott’s fruit snacks instead—these are much tackier and chewier than other fruit snacks, so I get an extra enrichment activity as I pick them out of my molars.

6:30 p.m. I pop into Vons to get a new jar of peanut butter as well as a package of pepperoni (Dietz & Watson, $5.99) for S. I have a slight preference for Jif—for no real reason, if we’re being honest—but they’re all out of the natural creamy, so I just take a smaller jar of Skippy’s version ($5.99) for now. I also pick up a container of Land O’Lakes spreadable butter with olive oil ($3.49), two bags of storebrand organic frozen strawberries ($4.49 each), and a Synergy Mystic Mango kombucha ($3.99) for S. I think about grabbing some candy for the drive home—there will definitely be traffic—but I talk myself out of it. It’s just because I’m shopping while hungry. ($28.99 total)

7:30 p.m. Tonight is pizza night! S got home half an hour before I did, so she turned the oven on to 500 and unwrapped our two bags of Trader Joe’s garlic and herb pizza dough ($1.49, previously purchased), leaving them to rest on a wood cutting board dusted with flour. I cover two rimmed sheet pans (one quarter, one half) with olive oil and stretch the dough out into rectangles, using the tops of my knuckles and gravity in conjunction. I top mine with another thin drizzle of olive oil, and S opens a jar of her Carbone sauce for us both to use. She covers her pizza with Trader Joe’s shredded mozzarella, sliced button mushrooms sautéed with red pepper flakes, and the pepperoni, while I use the last of my Trader Joe’s Quattro Formaggi shredded cheese mix and sprinkle on some garlic powder and dried oregano.

Once the pizzas have baked, we slice them into eight pieces each and I eat two, plus S’s crusts. I love the thicker crust—it almost reminds me of focaccia. I make a mental note to buy an extra bag of pizza dough when I next go to Trader Joe’s for this exact experiment. The leftovers go into Ziploc bags in the fridge, and I sit down to play video games online as I finish my root beer.

Wednesday total: $30.94

Thursday

9:15 a.m. I say it every morning, but I’m really actually running late, so no time to make my smoothie. Instead, I take two Chobani yogurt drinks (one Strawberry, one Strawberry Banana, $2.39 each, both previously purchased) and chug the Strawberry Banana like a shot as soon as I get to my desk. I keep reminding myself that the only way these smoothies work is if you drink them all at once instead of sipping over three hours. I also can’t take my meds on an empty stomach or I’ll feel terrible. I am banking on some sort of treats being present at our monthly department meeting—usually, there’s doughnuts or pastries. Once we got breakfast burritos from HomeState, a Tex-Mex restaurant with some of the best flour tortillas in Los Angeles. That was amazing.

10:10 a.m. Our department head forgot to get treats today. I’m absolutely devastated.

12:30 p.m. Not only are we back-to-back all day, we have a 1:30 p.m. meeting on one of the soundstages, so my manager has ordered lunch that I’m able to tag on. We pick Sweetsalt, a local bistro, and I order the Champagne chicken salad with grapes, celery, cucumber, shallots, herbs, Champagne vinegar dressing, and goat cheese. I’m only able to eat half before we have to leave, but it does remind me that I have leftover grapes waiting in the fridge at home. ($17, not on my tab)

Half definitely wasn’t enough, because my stomach grumbles loudly in the middle of the meeting. Super cute.

2:50 p.m. Back at my desk and finishing the remnants of my salad from the mini fridge, but it got a little too cold in there, so the lettuce doesn’t have the best texture. The remaining quarter that I don’t finish goes in the compost bin in the kitchen.

7:30 p.m. I made the mistake of drinking some water, because it wakes up my stomach and reminds me that I’m capital-H hungry. It’s finally below 70 degrees at night again, so I’m craving soup and decide to go to It’s Pho, a strip mall restaurant. I get my usual, beef pho with extra beef. I love that Southeast Asian and Mexican food have limes, cilantro, and green onions in common. I finish almost the entire thing, leaving a pile of sliced white onions and bean sprouts at the bottom of a little pool of broth. With tip, it comes out to $25.90; not bad, considering how much meat I got.

8:15 p.m. On my way home, I stop by It’s Boba Time, a local boba chain, and order my usual: a large strawberry milk tea, which comes with diced strawberry pieces. I love the little cut of salt on top of all the sweetness. I also get S a regular jasmine green tea. I wish boba tea were a little more acceptable as a professional food. Wouldn’t it be fun to network with someone over bright purple and blue and orange drinks? I feel like that would get ego out of the way immediately.

I eat my boba pearls by slicing off the soft bits with my front teeth, then chewing on the centers with my molars; once I’m done, I tear off the plastic lid and use my straw to scrape the rest of the milk foam off the sides of the cup. Since I used the kiosk to order, it wouldn’t let me tip, so I pay $11.25 for the bobas and slip a couple of dollars into the tip jar. I’ve worked both retail and food service, so I sympathize with the teens behind the counter overwhelmed by the evening rush of even more teens. At home, I manage to make it last until nearly 11 p.m., because I immediately start playing video games and can only drink between matches.

Thursday total: $37.15

Friday

7:30 a.m. Work-from-home day, so I have some time to stay in bed to scroll on TikTok. I munch on the last of my Froot Loops Jumbo Snax.

9 a.m. Smoothie time. The organic strawberries I got from Vons are, unfortunately, much better than the Trader Joe’s ones and more consistent in quality. I feel like we should add a real grocery store, not just Target, to our grocery stops. Our dog gets to lick both the empty yogurt cup and the empty peanut butter jar, and it keeps her entertained for half an hour. She almost looks outraged when I finally take it away.

2:55 p.m. Feeding the dog lunch reminds me that I forgot to eat lunch. I pop three slices of my leftover pizza from Wednesday in the toaster oven. I mostly peel off the cheese and eat the crust. I love it.

6:45 p.m. I meet my friend Z at Melody Wine Bar, which has a beautiful patio surrounded by hedges. We both love sitting outside when the weather is nice. Z drinks a Sifer Casi 2023 orange ($17), while I drink a chilled Borachio Show Pony NV red ($17). Since I worked later than I anticipated, I didn’t have a chance to eat dinner at home like Z did, so I order a side of house-made focaccia ($4). This is some of the best focaccia I’ve ever had—it’s very lightly toasted, so there’s just barely some color, and it’s soft and chewy on the inside. Excellent texture. I also go for the kow soi tagliatelle ($20) with braised beef shank, crispy wonton pieces, and Pecorino. The noodles are delicious and chewy, and I love the pile of garnishes on top, including cilantro and shallots, but the broth has one too many warm spices for my taste. A corner of my mind spends the rest of the dinner trying to puzzle out what it is exactly.

We have a long conversation about the state of the industry. For convenience’s sake, I put it all on my card ($76.22) and Z pays me back for her approximate portion in cash ($26). This place has a service fee included, so no need for additional gratuity. With my friends, I feel like we usually all round our totals to the nearest dollar—no one bothers haggling over cents.

9 p.m. On my way home, I pop into a 7-Eleven and buy three bags of 1.9-oz. Tropical Fruit Gushers and three bags of 2.8-oz. Tropical Fruit Gushers. I realize what a ridiculous amount of Gushers this is once I hold the six bags all in my hand. With a “buy two for $5” deal, I pay $15.26 for the whole lot.

9:25 p.m. Not all of the Gushers are for me, to be clear. I give S two of the big bags and keep the remaining one and all three of the small bags for myself. I empty a small bag into a plastic bowl and splash on a little bit of Mega Chamoy and sprinkle on some low-sodium Tajín to make my own chamoy Gushers. I mix and eat them with chopsticks à la Oscar Isaac. We’ve started keeping chamoy and Tajín on hand to add to everything from gummy bears and Sour Punch Bites to real fruit. I love the sweet-spicy-savory combination. There’s a tiny pleasant tang lingering in my mouth when I finish.

Friday total: $91.48

Saturday

9:20 a.m. The usual smoothie with the last of my strawberry yogurt stash in a to-go cup.

10:15 a.m. S and I need maybe three things from Costco but walk out with far more than that. We split a box of canned pumpkin purée ($8.79) to blend into our senior dog’s food, a box of frozen chicken bakes ($13.49), a giant wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano ($17.14), and, obviously, a rotisserie chicken ($4.99). From the bakery, we pick out a bag of ciabatta rolls ($5.99) for the freezer, a container of mini chocolate chip cookies ($9.99), and a container of croissants ($5.99). For myself, I get a two pack of Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter ($10.99), the Tortilla Fresca Organic Pre-Cooked Flour Tortillas ($8.59), a Boursin variety pack ($9.99) to make more of those caramelized onion tarts, and a six-pack of the Kirkland shelf-stable oat milk ($9.89). I also take a chance on Costco’s massive bag of frozen organic strawberries ($9.99). With the rest of our items (paper towels, Tums, OxiClean), it comes out to $264.47. After I itemize the receipt, S pays me back for $102, so my personal portion is really $162.47.

11:30 a.m. S gets in line at the Costco food court to buy a whole cheese pizza. I’m hungry, so I take a croissant out of the clamshell and snack away while we wait.

12:15 p.m. After a flurry of unpacking and rearranging the freezer and fridge, we finally sit down to enjoy some hard-earned slices of cheese pizza for lunch. I eat fast and take S’s crusts too, then turn around to get ready for my haircut this afternoon.

5:15 p.m. My hairstylist is all the way in Santa Monica, a block from the beach, so it’s a long haul to get there and back (but absolutely worth it). I stop by a 7-Eleven on the way, looking for maybe a snack or a drink, but nothing strikes my fancy.

6:30 p.m. As soon as I get home from my haircut, I hit the ground running on dinner. S has just put a lemon spatchcocked chicken from Trader Joe’s in the oven, so I peel five massive gold potatoes and cube them. Once the potatoes are boiled, I drain them and let them sit in the strainer while I melt almost an entire bar of Trader Joe’s cultured butter in the pot. I dump the potatoes on top of that and mash them up, then cut up the remaining half of a package of cream cheese and let the pieces sit on top with the lid closed to soften them up. I season with salt and pepper and I add a splash of 2% milk to help loosen things up before I fold it all together. I also make a packet of powdered brown gravy, which has weirdly grown on us in the last few months. S makes a kale salad with homemade Caesar dressing, and this time she’s experimenting with crisping some cut-up ciabatta pieces under the chicken, although they don’t fully cook through with the chicken juice that dripped down. It’s a favorite dinner of ours, and it hits the spot every time.

9:30 p.m. I justify my trip to the dispensary with a stop at It’s Boba Time again. Regular strawberry milk tea, boba, milk foam for me, jasmine iced green tea and boba for S. Delicious. $10.50 since I only got a regular-size drink this time.

Saturday total: $274.97

Sunday

10 a.m. I slept in longer than intended. I wanted to go to the farmers market so I can only hope there’s still good stuff left. I’m all out of yogurts, so no smoothie this morning. Instead, I take a croissant from the Costco box, but only finish half before we park.

10:30 a.m. The sun always feels more intense at the farmers market—I think the buildings must block the breeze. My favorite tomato men aren’t at their usual spot, but I insist we keep walking and we find them to our tremendous relief. I buy several pineapple-variety tomatoes and several celebrity-variety tomatoes. The pineapples are fat and green and yellow, and I’ll be able to let these sit for a little while, since they continue to ripen all the way through orange and even to red. The celebrities are a little smaller, bright red and round like tennis balls. All of the tomatoes are $5.50 a lb., and I picked out a little over 5 lb., so my selection costs $28 total.

11 a.m. Next stop is Trader Joe’s, which is still out of green onions and has been for a few weeks now. (While writing this diary, I googled whether there was a green onion shortage and ended up reading market reports on fresh produce for 30 minutes. That’s what it’s like for me on my unmedicated days.)

I pick up six shallots ($4.14 at $.69 each) as the plan is to use one of the Boursins I bought at Costco to make those puff pastry tarts again, this time with more caramelized shallots. The regular bananas look a bit busted, so I take an organic bunch of six ($1.74 at $.29 each). I buy 10 strawberry vanilla yogurts ($.99 each) to replenish my stash and two bags of the Mafalda Corta pasta ($2.49 each). It’s a newer shape and might be one of my favorites. I pick up another bag of fresh garlic and herb pizza dough ($1.49) and a new bag of Quattro Formaggi ($5.49). In the cheese case, I look for the stracciatella, but it’s still out of stock, and I wonder if they’ve stopped carrying it. Instead, I buy a container of burrata ($4.99) to go with the tomatoes. Since I’ll be using the last roll of puff pastry, I pick up another one for the freezer ($4.99) as well as some salted butter quarters ($3.99) and a pint of heavy cream ($4.29). Along with a citrus body wash, a box of lavender laundry bags, and a mini white-and-orange-striped pumpkin, I paid $55.08 for this trip.

11:50 a.m. After Trader Joe’s is Target. I pick up another box of Froot Loops Jumbo Snax as well as a new bottle of Bachan’s Japanese BBQ Sauce; last time we tried the yuzu, but it wasn’t my favorite, so this time we’re trying the miso. I buy two new Chobani yogurt bottles for my home and office fridges ($1.91 each) as well as a Naked Mighty Mango juice ($3.59) to try and fill in for the croissant I didn’t finish. This Target run comes out to $106.27 including some beauty and home items, although I later get refunded $54.74 for an incorrectly labeled set of sheets.

1:30 p.m. About once a month, I go to a Vallarta Supermarket in the Valley. I appreciate how much bigger the specialty markets are outside of the LA city center, and this location in particular just finished a remodel. There’s a custom guacamole counter, a juice bar, and a fruteria for fresh-cut fruit. It’s mostly a comforting experience, although my lack of fluency in Spanish makes me anxious, especially when I don’t have S around as an excuse or shield.

I pick out three strawberry turnovers and four Cuban cheese rolls from the bakery case ($6.93 at $.99 each) and a bag of fresh yellow corn tortillas ($3.99) from the tortilleria and a bag of fresh tortilla chips ($5.75). The premade food section is definitely one of my favorites. I buy containers of Mexican rice ($8.77), refried beans ($9.99), guacamole ($10.89), and salsa verde ($4.99). I forgot a few things at Trader Joe’s, so I also get a brick of cream cheese ($5.29) and a brick of Monterey Jack cheese ($3.89). In the massive produce section, I snag a bunch of cilantro ($.50), at least 10 green limes ($3.98), four bunches of green onions ($3.96 at $.99 each), and three yellow nectarines ($4.37). From the candy section, I take a bag of mini Pelon Rico tamarind candies ($2.99) for my candy dish at work.

Last but not least, I gasp at one of the fresh fruit cases, where they have orange halves with a saladito (a salted dried plum) stuck in the middle. It’s sour and salty and sweet and used to be one of my favorite snacks as a kid, but we had a hard time tracking down saladitos outside of our hometown. I know it's a waste of plastic wrap, but I buy one anyway; it’s only $.99. For this field trip, my total comes out to $77.28.

1:45 p.m. It’s just hot enough that La Michoacana Monarca calls to me and I simply must answer. I order a mangonada with mango and chamoy sorbet, fresh mango chunks, even more chamoy and Tajín on top, and a chewy tamarind candy stick for $12.49 with tax and tip. I sit in my car and nibble some of the fresh mango and get a few spoonfuls of sorbet before I have to drive home with my perishables.

3:30 p.m. Now that I’m finally settled with all of my groceries, it’s time to eat a late lunch. I slice up some celebrity tomatoes and toast three pieces of Orowheat potato bread. I spread on plenty of mayo and lay the tomatoes on top for an open-faced sandwich. I love how heirloom tomatoes taste—so rich and sweet and flavorful.

5 p.m. I want to make enchiladas. My mom traditionally makes this recipe with our turkey leftovers at Thanksgiving, but it’s also perfect with chicken. S already shredded the rotisserie chicken we bought at Costco. and I combine a little over two cups of it with the brick of Monterey Jack, freshly grated, some sliced green onions, and 3 Tbsp. cream cheese. I mix it all together in a knead-like motion to evenly distribute the cream cheese throughout the filling.

The yellow corn tortillas are fresh enough that they don’t need to be refried in oil, so I add a solid spoonful of filling to each and roll them all up, seam side down. I fit about 14 in my largest glass baking dish. The sauce itself is the fresh salsa verde, a can of Cream of Chicken, and about a fourth to a half cup of heavy cream. The remaining Monterey Jack is sprinkled over the top and it all bakes for 25 minutes or until the sauce bubbles. I microwave a bowl of Mexican rice and garnish it all with a few more sliced green onions. S and I both eat seconds and stash the leftovers.

7:30 p.m. Kitchen clean, leftovers put away. I sit in the living room with a handful of Costco’s mini chocolate chip cookies and get my ass kicked by 11-year-olds online.

Sunday total: $279.12

Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit

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