Wow, I’m thrilled that you guys are as into this “project” as I am. I wasn’t sure if it would interest you, but it is fascinating to me and I’m so glad I can share it all with you! Thank you for the cheap snack and meal ideas (I’m looking forward to grilled cheese and popcorn)!

I’ve been feeling like I made a lot of mistakes on my first shopping trip, despite all of the planning, and feel I could have made some “healthier, less processed” choices. However, I’ve always been realistic when it comes to food and nutrition and I don’t think its feasible to eat brown rice and beans for every meal. Would it be healthier than ramen noodles or packaged rice mixtures? Of course! But there are times when dinner needs to be on the table in minutes and when you simply can’t stomach more beans.

With that said, I’m about halfway through the week and there are a few things I plan on doing differently. One  is having eggs every day, for one meal or snacks. I think it would help me feel more satisfied throughout the day. (I’m not sure if I would get sick of having eggs every day after a few weeks…something to consider but I’m going to try it for the rest of the week.) Here we go – day 3!

Workout: this is the first day I’ve been able to get in a formal workout. I took a 45 minute spin class.

Beverages: coffee + milk at work! (2 cups today, I needed it!)

Breakfast: that same pb sandwich. It could be worse, but I’ll be adding some eggs and fruit to the mix the rest of the week.

Lunch: that same bowl of rice, beans, frozen spinach, tofu, and onion sauce. Delicious but not as filling as it should be.

After work, I stopped by the Korean market on the hunt for cheap produce. I left with fresh veggies, two pieces of fruit and a treat! I’ll break all of my groceries down at the end – how much I spent, what I got for it, etc. Side note: the Korean market has an entire aisle of frozen dumplings. I’ll be heading back after the SNAP Challenge for kimchee dumplings.

Snack: 1 oz cheese + 2 carrots

Dinner: was a nice hearty meal that was also delicious and probably Richie’s favorite so far. I browned our second package of (99 cent!) ground bison with onion, one bunch of spinach and a can of diced tomatoes served over spaghetti. I wished I could have used more sauce over my pasta, but it needed to be portioned into 4 servings right away. I think normally, we would have eaten 3/4 (or maybe more?) of the sauce mixture but it is hard to say as we usually eat the amount we want, not the amount we can have.

 Dessert: Was kind of an impulse buy at the market…I probably shouldn’t have bought them but I needed a little something sweet! (They reminded me of Pokey sticks and totally hit the spot.)

Nutrition Stats: About 1,980 calories, 70 grams of fat, 260 grams of carbohydrates, 86 grams protein)

Two down, 5 to go! I was wondering last night if I could count wine as a condiment…

Beverages:

milk + coffee at work!

Breakfast:

peanut butter sandwich (again)

Lunch: More bread… Lunch was delicious but I was still hungry after eating it. Overall, it contained protein, healthy fats and vegetables but if I were to have something similar normally, I would change a few things. I would normally use the entire can of tuna over a huge bowl of salad greens and other raw vegetables with some whole grain crackers on the side. I’m not sure if it is the lack of volume from the vegetables in these meals that isn’t filling me up or smaller amounts of protein and fiber…maybe both?

1/2 can tuna + 1/2 avocado sandwich + 2 carrots

Snack: 10 saltine crackers (only thing I had at work!)

I wanted to stop by the grocery store to pick up a few more vegetables, possibly fruit and SNACKS but I was running late and needed to get home to the dog (we are dog sitting)…is this what it is like to be responsible for someone or something else?!

I had a few more crackers with some cheese as it was my only snack option. (Originally I mixed some beans with a bit of cheese, but I couldn’t do it, so bad.)

Dinner: Has an interesting story. We were at the meat counter shopping the other day and I noticed a yellow sticker that read “$.99 special!” and found a pound of ground bison a day away from the use or freeze by date, so they had marked it down to 99 cents! I originally picked up one of them and was going to use it instead of the chicken sausage I had planned on. It turns out that the one pound of chicken drumsticks that I was planning on getting ($1.48/pound) were only available in a value pack so they were way out of the budget. I ran back to the meat/fish counter and they had one more pack of the ground bison left so I grabbed it! We totally lucked out, I have no idea how often you can find these sort of deals, but I would doubt very often.

bison patty (about 3 oz) + lettuce + tomato (from the garden) + mushroom rice (packaged)

 I was still a bit hungry after dinner so I had 4 more saltines with some peanut butter. I know that yesterday I said the saltines were tasty, but I’m kind of getting sick of them now…

Nutrition Stats: About 1,860 calories, 83 grams of fat, 205 grams of carbohydrates, 19 grams of fiber, 30 grams of sugar, 82 grams of protein. 

Would you guys like to see another day or two of the SNAP Challenge meals? I don’t want to bore you, so let me know! I would also LOVE your suggestions for cheap, filling snacks!