The one person in my family that really knows how to cook is my dad.  Unfortunately, he doesn't get home from work until at least 8:00 every night, so my mom normally cooks dinner.  The worst part about it is that she truly believes she’s a great cook, but in reality her food isn't that good and she’s constantly cooking the same meals.  My sisters and I have learned to tolerate it, but I try to avoid being home for dinner during the school week as much as possible.  Luckily, we order in quite often; Italian on Wednesdays when my mom works late, and Chinese or sushi at least once a week. My family normally spends at least $150 on food made at home a week and about another $100-$150 spent when going out or ordering in.

            Since my dad works so late, we rarely eat dinner as a family during the week.  On Sundays, my dad either spends all day cooking or we go out to dinner.   Every Saturday morning, my mom takes my little sister to piano lessons so my dad and I go out to breakfast, always to different places.  My dad loves cooking huge breakfasts on Sunday mornings, normally consisting of french toast, eggs, and bacon.

            Although we don’t eat together as often as we should, we mom loves nothing more than when we are all home for dinner.  Even if we are being forced to eat my mom’s cooking, these meals bring us closer together as a family.

                The Brown family, living in Riverview, Australia, can have a pretty lengthy grocery list especially if their daughter and her four children are living with them.  They spend the most money, $117.99, on meat, fish, and eggs. Buying 11 pounds of smoked ham, 10 pounds of silverside, or corned beef, and between 4-7 pounds each of minced meat, pork chops, sausages, steakettes, and chicken, this seems to be the biggest part of their diet.  They also bought rissoles, a typical Australian food, which is a mixture of meat and spices that are coated in breadcrumbs and then fried.  The family seemed to have a wide variety of grains and other starchy items, including 8.8 pounds of potatoes, three different types of bread, three types of cereal  two types of pasta, flour, and basmati rice.

                Almost all of the food they consume is fresh, which is why they purchased an extensive amount of fruits and vegetables. They seemed to buy a large amount of bananas, nectarines, and pumpkin.  The family also bought a wide variety of vegetables including carrots, onions, tomatoes, celery, and bell peppers.  They only spent $4.28 on prepared foods, which included Maggi instant beef noodles and Gravox gravy.  The only frozen foods the family bought were beef patties and fish fingers.

                Their diet seemed to be pretty healthy, except for the McDonalds the kids ate during the week.  Also, they bought several different types of soda and other unhealthy beverages. However, the only desserts and snacks the family bought were Smiths Chips, and rich tea biscuits, which are traditional English cookies. 

I have been watching the humans and found that they eat in a place they call the "dinning commons."  Everyday they come up with new meals, normally consisting of a grain that they refer to as "pasta."  It always has a different type of sauce on it, but it is always cold, and never all that appetizing.  There is also a large counter space where you can make salads, which consists of a green leaf called "lettuce" and other healthy looking foods are placed on top, however i am not sure what they are called.  They have a large selection of grimy looks meats as well, that they put on top of something that they call "bread" and grill it in a large hot contraption.

While this food may not look or taste all that good, the male species seem to devour it.  The female species, on the other hand, seem to stick smaller portions and mostly eat salad.  Occasionally some people will have a hot bowl of liquid called "soup."  When the students come into school in the morning, many of them have hot drinks called "Dunkin' Donuts" or "Starbucks."  I decided to try this drink and found that it was incredibly delicious and comes in a wide variety of flavors.  Even though I did not enjoy the food all that much, if we were to live here, I could probably live off the Dunkin' Donuts.