So on a spur of the moment, as I came back from the bike ride yesterday, I thought I would take up the $1.50/day food challenge. It only could be done if I were spontaneous and acted quickly and did not go shopping for additional foodstuffs. So looking into what would be the best balance of carbs, protein and vitamins, I assembled this:
I included both barley (black and regular) and rice into the mix of things to complement my two choices of dry beans (soldier and navy) and complementary items that were meant to increase the value of each meal – from garlic, to a couple of lemons, bananas, loose leaf green tea, strawberries and blueberries. In all, the items in the picture cost me $20.00. I eliminated chopped tomatoes (in the picture) as it put me over the $20.00 mark. You will argue that the amount used for this challenge puts me way over $1.50/day but I thought I may be able to go longer than 7 days – so I settled on the quality and quantity first and only then worried about the amount I “spent” on it. So at this time, I am over the budget as this came up to $2.85/day equivalent.
I made a decision to cook lunch and dinner protein/carb dishes ahead of Monday so on Sunday evening I pre-cooked the beans, then separated them into two batches, made a roux of onion, garlic and celery and cooked the beans with vegetarian stock. Once the beans were cooking for an hour – I added black barley into one pot and rice and regular barley into another. I tried both dishes and the amount that “cooked up” appears to be enough for 7 days (and perhaps more).
So this morning, I made my oatmeal as I normally do, added some blueberries and strawberries and ate the breakfast with almond milk. I also took one portion each of my rice/bean/barley dishes with me to work with some loose tea to help me stay hydrated through the day.
I plan to do a mid-week check and update on the first three days of it and in the meantime, wish me luck.
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