Next Month's Challenge

Next month my fiance and I are going to try to eat on $4 per day. Since I have started making everything from scratch this won't be too difficult but there will be some difficult things. When something goes wrong with my lunch (which seems to happen with some regularity unfortunately) I won't be able to go out and just buy a fast food replacement. I will have to subsist on free food from the office snack cabinet until I get home. We have apple chips and 100 calorie packs in the office for everyone so I won't be unfed, just not eating what I want. Those things will not count towards my $4 since they are free. The other problem is that my fiance is convinced that this will leave him starving to death by the end of the month. I explained that lots of people on the internet are managing to live on $1 per day but I upped our daily budget because we are not vegetarians and we are living in NYC so things tend to be more expensive for us. He still thinks this will leave him desperate for food but I am going to aim to keep him on about a 2500 calorie per day diet which isn't enough to starve anyone. I am going to aim to keep myself on a 1900 calorie per day diet which is less than I am eating now but plenty for a 27 year old woman.

As for today I think I am going to make rice and something else for dinner. We are going to walk to Zabars so we will get plenty of cheese and some of my favorite sodas (they are super low sugar) and some coffee for Ben. It is about a 70 block walk so it will take a while but we need the exercise so we are happy to do it. And because it is sunny out I have an excuse to wear my new hat with the wide brim! Hooray!

Leftovers

Today was leftovers day. I had leftover brisket with some BBQ sauce on a bun for lunch, a bagel for breakfast and leftover home made pizza for dinner. Everything (except the bagel) was home made and low sodium. I had some bread dough left over from the pizza so I made some rolls that will be super tasty tomorrow. Yum!

I'm Back

Wow...I have been gone for a while! My computer was being repaired so I couldn't really update the blog but I didn't abandon my goal. So far in the past week I made goulash, brownies, cornbread, pizza dough, dinner rolls, and pasta sauce from scratch. I am not going to post recipes because I am a lazy, lazy person but rest assured it was fairly simple and tasty!

I have decided that this is a change that will be a forever thing, not just a month long goal. I feel so much better! My blood pressure has gone down and my weight has dropped a bit since making my own food, not to mention the peace of mind that comes from knowing exactly what I am putting in my body.

Tacos

Last night I made tacos...yum! I made the taco seasoning myself with sodium-free boullion and I cut the salt amount in half. It was really tasty and made perfect tacos. You use 2 tablespoons of the following mixture:


1/4 cup dried minced onion
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tablespoon salt
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon dried minced garlic
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano

ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS:
1 pound ground beef
1/3 cup water

Chicken

I have defrosted a chicken in the fridge and tonight we are baking it. I will stuff it so that my fiance can enjoy the stuffing but since it is coming out of a box I won't be having any of it. I figure we can get at least 4 meals a piece out of this bird and then I can boil down the extra bits to make stock out of it. Chicken stock is an important part of my baked potato soup recipe so I need to have some before I can make it again.

I took leftover steak and rice for lunch today. It was tasty! Right now I am eating grapes at my desk. I like fruit but it doesn't satisfy me the way a snickers bar would and that makes dieting and cooking from scratch very difficult.

Pizza

2 days ago I made a tasty pizza all from scratch! Well, I didn't make the pepperoni or cheese but I made the rest of it myself. I made the following dough:

2.5 c flour
1 c. warm water
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp honey
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt (this is the halved amount because I am trying to keep my salt intake low)
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp basil

Mix the water, honey, oil and yeast in a big bowl. Let sit for about 10 minutes to activate the yeast. Mix salt, flour and other seasonings together and then add half a cup at a time to the water, mixing between half cups. Knead and leave in oiled bowl to rise for about 90 minutes. Spread on pizza pan and cover in sauce (see sauce recipe earlier) and other tastiness and bake for 13-15 minutes.

Because this came out so good I made a double batch of the dough yesterday and made tasty italian rolls out of it and then saved half to make another pizza tonight! Last night we did steak and mashed potatoes for dinner with a side of veggies and we took the rolls to much on today at work. Tasty!

Sneaky Fiance

For the past 2 days I haven't stuck to my goal because my fiance encourages me to eat out or eat prepackaged things. He finally made a huge deal out of this yesterday because he wanted to let me know he isn't happy with this choice of goal. He does the dishes in our house and thinks that this puts undue strain on him. I made a deal with him that I will help with dishes if he will just shut up about my dietary choices this month so it all works out for the best. I am making my own pizza with the leftover sauce from spaghetti a few days ago. Yum!