Rejoice! I Haz A Kitchen!

Clear Water? Yep.

Isla Mujeres was great, but without a kitchen it was way too expensive. Maybe in October or November I'll go back and stay, or maybe next January, and do work exchange, or work in a tourist bar. For now, though, it was time to get away from the craziness.

So yesterday at about 7am I got up and started packing. I nommed the free breakfast (tea or coffee plus toast w/ sweet toppings), checked out, and was on my way by 8:30.

Mujeres from the ferry dock.

8 hours later I was in my new home. I may have to stay forever. I'm honestly not sure I should tell you where I am. So far it's mostly sport-fishermen, backpackers, and hard-core marine biologist-types who come here (whale sharks, you know). Though I doubt many people reading this would want a 3.5 hour bus ride each way just for a relaxing bit of perfection. Not even for *cheap* perfection.

Anyway, for m$100 a night (about us$250/month) I have a bed in a (girls only) dorm, hot and cold running water, a private balcony, kitchen access, wifi, all the hammocks I care to rock in, and one heck of a view. Did I mention that my bed is less than 100 feet from the beach?

Room with a view.

Anyway, with a kitchen it's time to shop! No receipts today, the tiny shops don't really hand them out. But I hit 3 different shops and got everything I need for m$58.50 ($4.87, xe.com tells me).

At the first shop, generously called the grocery store (there are 3 on the island, I think, each about the size of a (small) convenience store) I got 900g of rice, 210ml of tomato sauce (like crushed tomatoes, not ketchup), 450g of lentils, and 200g of pasta (I think that was it) for m$35.50. The tomatoes were 5 pesos, and I might get them again, I don't know yet. Fresh ones are m$12/kg, and may be a better deal.

Roof View, too. Hammocks behind me.

Right across the street is a small... tortillarilla? Tortilla shop. By the kg- 8 pesos per. I'm playing "don't ask, don't tell" with the tortillas. I'm just pretending that there's vegetable oil in them, and I don't want anyone telling me otherwise. They don't keep large animals on the island, there's no beef at all, and I think all the non-fish meat is brought over by boat, so it's entirely possible that they *are* made with vegetable oil. Or that's what I'm gonna keep telling myself.

So yeah, 1kg of (*really, really*) fresh tortillas for m$8. I'll probably finish them in the next couple days, before they go weird.

Then off to hunt down the veggie guy. 1 head of garlic, 1 white onion, 1 (decent sized) zucchini, m$15. I'm told there is an actual veggie market here somewhere, I'll have to hunt it down tomorrow.

Veggie Tacos

So with that I made veggie "tacos". This is probably going to start sounding like a really familiar recipe.

• 1/2 medium zucchini, sliced/ chopped into 1/4th rounds (2.5 pesos, .21us)
• 1/5 white onion, chopped (1 peso, .08us)
• 1 clove garlic, diced (.5? peso, ~.04us)
• 5 tortillas, small, fresh (~1 peso, .08us)
• oil (from the free bin), (.02us?)
• 1/4 tsp salt (also from the free bin) (<.01us)

Fry up the veggies in the oil and salt, stuff into tortillas, eat. Total cost, about m$5, or... 42 cents US.

I think picking up veggies ever day or every other day, if I can figure out what's cheap and in season, I can probably eat pretty good *here* on $1us a day. Heck, that's 12 whole pesos, and I only spent 5 on lunch.

I guess it makes up for the *really* good US$15 dinner I had last night.

Day 337- More Fried Rice

While I *really* need to hunt down a more flavorful soy sauce, fried rice seems to still be my go-to meal.

If I don't use too many different veggies, I can get them all peeled, chopped, and cooked while the rice is cooking away in its' little cooker. Yesterday, of course, I used about twice as many veggies as any sane person. You can use as few or as many as you want, even mushrooms if you'd like.

Yesterday I used:

• 1 small beet
• 1 medium sweet potato
• 4/5 of a large-ish onion
• 1 small turnip
• 1 large carrot
• ~8 oz green cabbage
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1C frozen green peas
• 1 (heaping) Tablespoon pickled ginger

so as you can, I'm sure, imagine it took a while to get everything chopped. You can reduce cooking time (a little) by nuking the (chopped) hard veggies while you chop the onion, cabbage, and garlic. I never bother, 'cause I'm silly, but I bet it would speed things up a lot. Nothing quite as texturally off-putting as biting into something yummy crispy/squishy and having it go crunch half way through. 

With 6 cups of cooked rice (about a pound raw), 2-ish T oil, a splash of vinegar and all the soy sauce you care to use the fried rice is about 2400 to 2800 calories. Guestimating from fitday, so I can't be exact. That's basically dinner for 4. Veggies could always add diced, saute'd tofu, egg eaters could add an egg (check elsewhere for how that works), and meat-eating types could add about a pound of 49 cent chicken "quarter" either in the rice or on the side. That drives the cost up a bit, of course.

The way I cooked it yesterday, it was about $2.25 for the veggies (ginger, garlic, and peas had the highest package cost), 50 cents for the rice (3lbs @ $1.49), and about another 30 cents for oil, vinegar, soy sauce, and whatnot.

So growing your own veggies this would * definitely* be an under $1 dish. Buying veggies, though (and going a bit crazy with using them...) it was $3.05. So my meal-sized serving cost was about $0.76, and side-dish sized serving cost (enough to fill half a plate) is about 38 cents. Using fewer veggies or leaving out the spendier ones would (obviously) drop the price a bit- enough that you could make up the rest of the day's calories with bread and beans and still stay under $1 per person per day. 

Is it just me, or does this whole cheap diet thing work better when there are more people to split the costs with?

Starting to think I should have braved the wilds of the back yard and planted some forking veggies last year....

Day 296- Pea and Potato Curry

I really like curries, and after Sunday, have been thinking about them pretty seriously. Pea and Potato Curry isn't normally made with cilantro, but I had some left over that needed to be used up, so I tossed it in for a fast, affordable dish that could easily feed 4 with rice.

Pea and Potato Curry-

• 1lb potatoes, chopped
• 1C onion, chopped
• 1lb peas, frozen
• 3C water
• 2T oil, or to taste
• 1/2 sm jar tomato paste
• 2T curry powder
• salt to taste
• Cilantro, chopped (optional)

I like to cook the potatoes about half-way in the microwave before chopping and adding them to the pot, so do that first. Then while the potato is cooling, start frying the onion in oil. Add the potato and fry just a bit. Add everything else to the pan, stirring the curry powder in really well. Simmer on medium until the peas are soft, potatoes cooked, and the sauce thickens up, about 15 minutes.

The most expensive ingredient is the peas, crazy enough. All together, with a pot of rice, this recipe costs me about $2. It's $1 for the peas, then about 20 cents each for the potatoes, tomato paste, and rice. Another 40 cents covers the onion and all the spices. Really not bad. 

I, of course, ate the whole thing in one day. The only other thing I had yesterday, though, were a couple cookies. Not bad, over all. I wish I hadn't eaten the cookies, but I've been feeling blah and thought the sugar would help. What a silly thought. Sugar makes nothing better. I was just wired and exhaused, instead of only tired. Meh.

I have plenty of peas and potatoes, though, to make another batch. With rice, this time, so maybe it lasts more than 2 hours. Just need another onion. Good thing they're on sale.

Day 291- Black Bean Salad

Sorry about posting late so much lately. Between shiny new medicine that makes it tough to *get* to sleep but easy to *stay * asleep, and a generally forked schedule, I've pushed this back farther than I wanted to. I'll be back on schedule next week.

Yesterday, though, I nommed black bean salad.

See, the oatmeal (pleh, I know) from the day before was, well, a big bowl of carbs with nice simple sugar carbs mixed in. Great if you're a suicidal diabetic, not so much if you're someone who likes the idea of nice, steady blood sugar. The pizza wasn't much different- white flour, sweet veggies, only a little cheese and oil for a slight protein and fat boost.

So by the time I was ready to eat yesterday morning, I was *really* ready to eat.

Lucky for me I had a couple cups of black beans still ready in the fridge. I think I made this once before. Th only rule is that it has to contain black beans. Yesterday my black bean salad/ salsa had:

• black beans
• diced onion
• 2 tiny cloves diced garlic
• 1/4 tomato, diced
• splash vinegar
• splash oil
• salt
• pepper

All mixed up and nommed on leftover chips.

I could seriously live off this stuff. If you make it like I did yesterday, it's even pretty affordable- maybe 20 cents for the beans, 20 to 40 cents for the chips, 10 for the onion, 15 or 20 for the tomato. salt, oil, vinegar are maybe 5 cents together. With chips it's probably *not* in a $1 a day budget, but it's close.

Also, I'm pretty sure those cost guesstimates would make about twice what I did. For another dollar you could add an avocado and make it *really* yummy.

Then, in the late evening (after baking my squash so I can use it later) I mixed up a nice big batch of twisty roll things and some red sauce.

I am really loving having a bottle of wine to flavor stuff with. I used up the last of the Italian seasoning on the twists, and would have only had onion and salt to flavor the sauce, when I realised that i could fry the onion bits really quickly, simmer them in wine, and mix *that* into the sauce while the rolls finished baking. It was totally perfect. Even tasted good.

Hmm, I think i need to cook some more black beans. Wonder if they'd make eatable gnocchi...?

OBD 18- Chili, Finally

Yesterday I finally got the chili made.

I know, I know, I was talking about it for a long time, and I should have made it waaaay before now, but meh.

Anyway, World's Cheapest Chili (maybe)

• 1lb black beans, dry
• 1/2 large onion
• 1/2 small can tomato paste
• 1T chili powder (I used cayenne and something I got at the Mexican grocery)
• 1T salt (est, to taste)
• 1T oil
• water

Rinse and cook the black beans according to your preferred method. Drain off some of the water, until the beans are *just* covered. Chop the onion and fry it until soft in the oil. Add everything to the beans and stir. simmer overnight for best flavor.

As written, this recipe uses about $1.50 worth of ingredients (my local prices). Some ideas for more tasty (and pricier) chili are:

• a couple handfuls frozen corn
• more onion
• add some ground up, roasted Hatch chilies (if you can get your hands on them)
• 1 chipotle pepper, plus the adobo sauce they come in, chopped fine (can be very hot)
• 1/2 lb ground meat, browned and added
• 1C chunked chicken flavored seitan or left over chicken
• 1C leftover *any* meat
• 2-4 cloves garlic
• more tomato paste
• chopped bell pepper
• sliced black olives
• vinegar (I like malt, but plain white vinegar works)
• different beans

Did I forget anything? I'm sure I did. Just about any of those "extras" will add $0.50 to $2 to the total cost. It's not bad as written, though. Just don't forget the salt.

I had a couple scoops over broken tortilla chips, and a couple more over rice. I'm bringing about a cup over rice for lunch today at "work". I should get about 6 (big) servings out of the lb of beans, so the per-serving cost is about 25 cents, before rice or extras. If you have nothing in the house but salt, total cost to buy everything (1lb beans, oil and spices from $ store) is less than $6, including a bag of rice. Cost for me would be about $6, getting a big bottle of oil ($2) 1lb of beans ($1), and a 3lb bag of rice ($1.50). For an extra dollar I could make a double batch of beans, twice as much chili, and eat this for a week. Oh, and have oil, spices, and rice left over.

Day 189- My Week For Tasty Pasta

I decided to do it. I went crazy and bought ingredients for exactly 1 meal, all week. Now, I still have most of the food I bought for last week- I'm just out of potatoes...

So I hit Save-a-lot for onions, and picked up 2, sure they were a pound between them, but no, only .61lbs. I guess their "estimating" scale is off. That was 63 cents- super nice, and with the 1/2 onion from the day before, I was plenty onioned for anything this week.

Then I swung over to Publix (after trying to go to a small local Asian market, which was closed, sigh) for the main part of the "meal"- pasta and sauce.

They didn't have my preferred pasta shape in the on-sale brand (medium shells, yum) so I got rotini instead. Then they didn't have anything really interesting in the "with wine" pasta sauces, so I got my booze-free near favorite, garlic and onion. $1.29 for 2lbs of pasta, and $2.69 for the 24oz jar of sauce.

It's possible that I could make sauce for that amount, but it wouldn't be as good- a can of whole peeled tomatoes is about $2 by itself, I'm out of olive oil, and dried basil just isn't the same. If I'd found the "vineyard" type sauce I like, I'd have also saved the cost of wine. Making your own sauce is cheap if you cost it by actual use, but not so much when you have to buy everything that goes in it.

So, having had no luck with the local Asian market, I wandered the whole 10 miles to the H&L supermarket. I managed to not buy tasty sweet chili sauce (no $), and got the largest package of tofu I could find for less than $1.50.

Prices-

It's important, I think, to find the best place to buy something. Tofu is a great example of that. At the grocery store by my house a 14oz package of tofu is $3. At the Vegetable Bin the same size is $1.79. The Asian market? Same size, 12 varieties, $1.39. I got 1lb, 8oz of soft (almost silken) tofu for $1.49. I probably saved more on the food than I spent on the gas, and I got to have an adventure.

Right, back on topic-

Total spent for the week before tax- $5.89

Total spent for the week with tax- $5.99

So I have $1.01 left from this week and about $0.50 left over from last week. Plenty for onions and other extras if I need them. And plenty of stuff from last week I still haven't even touched.

So yesterday, I dunno if I said or not, but I nommed some peas and potatoes. I think I might have mentioned it, since I was, in fact, nomming it while writing. After shopping I made my first (big) batch of pasta.

ZOMG, it was yummy.

I need to work on the tofu-sticking thing, but it worked out ok.

So I made 1/2 box of pasta, used 1/4 of the total tofu, a bunch of oil, 1/4 of an onion, some salt, and about 1/3rd of the jar of sauce. Then I mixed it all up and nommed it. Wow, was I full after.

I'm going to make the same thing again today, but probably add some of the (rapidly disappearing) balsamic vinegar to the sauce. The soft tofu has a different texture than what i usually use, so rather than firming up and adding a solid texture to the dish, it was more like melted, lightly browned cheese, or egg whites. Different, but still good. I went with the larger package of softer tofu because I make this based on volume, not servings. I'll use the same 1/2 a slab of tofu no matter what- it's the amount that gets into the dish, having some for every fork-full that matters, not protein or calorie, or even calcium amounts.

Of course, the price for this tasty item is probably over $1 for the (huge) serving...

• .325 for the pasta,
• .06 for the onion
• .375 for the tofu
• .04 for the oil
• .90 for the sauce

Yep, more than a dollar. But sooo tasty! The biggest place to make a difference would be the sauce, of course, but without growing my own, that's not coming down much. After that it gets into make-your-own pasta and tofu, which are both a bit more than I was interested in this week. Oh well.

Day 163- Fried Rice

So I made a huge vat of fried rice. And then I eated it. All of it.

When I say huge, I guess I need to be a bit more specific. I started with about 6 cups of cooked rice and around the same amount of raw veggies. I filled my bowl 4 or 5 times. Very very full.

Of course, I cooked it at like 8am. And I ate it all day. So it wasn't j. with the wok in the bedroom, scarfing down rice and veggies.

But I'm still thinking that maybe eating all my fried rice in one day wasn't the smartest move ever. Mainly because it means I now have to cook again. I was kinda planning on the fried rice covering lunches for about a week. Instead it covered a halfling's collection of meals including a final bowl right before I fell asleep.

Good news from that is I got plenty of protein yesterday. And oodles of calories, too. Maybe not as many as I should (veggies and soy sauce are surprisingly low-cal) but since I only cooked once yesterday, I'm still calling it win. I probably could have topped off my day with a bowl of oatmeal, but I just can't face it yet.

Bad news is that the vat of fried rice probably cost more than a dollar to make. I think. The .25 for half an onion is what pushes it over, I think. The oil, cabbage, garlic, rice, carrots, and soy sauce all fit under $1 without the seriously spendy onions. I think. But if it was over a dollar, at least it wasn't by much. It was probably about $0.25 per ~1 pint serving. And I doubt it costs much more for a restaurant to make it (well, other than about 20 cents each worth of egg and meat)

I totally need to go back to my desert plan. Wonder if I can make any cookies with what I already have... I'm thinking probably not. Anyone know of a cookie recipe that doesn't need eggs, juice, abba sauce, or "butter"? I've got oil and vanilla, and I can make "milk" but after that it's pretty basic in my pantry.

Day 162- Brussels Sprouts are Yummy

Yesterday was pretty quiet. Well, during the day, anyway. Oatmeal for breakfast (fast regaining full pleh! status), then I decided I wanted the Brussels sprouts.

For some reason this one tasty vegetable is the bane of childhood dinners. I dunno why. I wouldn't eat them until I was about 26, but I think that has more to do with texture and finding the right way to cook them. Boiled sprouts are, after all, about as tasty as boiled cabbage. And I try to avoid that, too.

But broiled or grilled, or even sautéd, something tasty happens. I won't call it magic, 'cause it isn't, but it is tasty.

Garlicky Brussels Sprouts-

• Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved or quartered through the base (~4 oz per person)
• 2 Cloves of garlic per person (give or take)Whole for grilling, otherwise chopped
• 1tsp kosher salt per serving (or to taste)
• Veggie oil
• white vinegar (optional)
• Cheese (optional)

For broiling-

Toss sprouts, garlic, veggie oil, and salt together in a bowl. Spread in foil on baking sheet or in casserole. Cook under broiler 10-20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until the sprouts are soft in the middle, crispy and browned on the outside. don't let the garlic burn. Can add cheese for the last minute or two for cheese lovers.

For grilling-

Prepare the sprouts the same as for broiling (leave the garlic peeled but whole). Put in vegetable grill basketand grill with other food. Toss or stir after 5 or 10 minutes to ensure even cooking.

For sautéing-

Put sprouts in wok or pan. Add 1/2-1C water. Cook on med-high to high until the water evaporates, moving the sprouts constantly. When the water is gone, add oil, salt, and garlic. Mix well. When sprouts and garlic are nicely browned either remove and serve, or toss just a bit of vinegar in the bottom of the pan to pull the little bits of cooked on garlic and sprouts up. The sprouts can also be cooked this way without oil, but need to be watched more closely, and the pan needs to be very non-stick.

As written this will serve one sprout loving person one big serving. Normal people might get two out of it, people trying to feed sprout haters will have enough for everyone. Sauté and grill methods would probably also work with baby bok choy. I know they work with broccoli.

Costs-

• 1/3 lb brux, .49
• 1/8 head garlic .04
• 1 T oil .02
• 1 tsp salt .02 (est.)
• 1T vinegar .03

total cost- $0.60

No more food yesterday, I'm sad to say. When I got home from doing my night-time stuff I was going to make fried rice, but I falled asleep instead.

Anyone else like a "hated" veggie? Do you have a good way to cook it, one that wouldn't scare off a noob? If there can be gateway drugs, I don't see why there can't be gateway veggie cooking methods.

Day 142- Food, Money, and Math

So, 2200 calories a day. For a quick visual, that's almost 3 full sticks of butter. It's cups of pure oil. It's maintenance if I don't exercise at all. It's also a bit of a problem.

Finding 2200 calories is easy- it's about 1.25 cups of oil. Finding 2200 calories in a balanced, healthy, cheap way is a bit more of a challenge. I'm not totally sure it's possible. You see, when I first ran the numbers for this crazy eating thing, I was hoping for lower prices, and planning to make up for shortfalls with things like potatoes that count as vegetables (sort of) while providing a chunk of calories. Which I think, by now, we all know didn't happen.

So how could the numbers really work out? It's what I've been thinking about for the last week or two. I'm coming up (in about 40 days) on the second half of this thing, and I want a real plan this time. One that actually allows for enough calories. That's where things go wonky shaped.

The least expensive source of calories from grain I can regularly find is the cheap flour at Save-A-Lot, for 30 cents a pound, give or take. A pound of white flour is about 1600 calories- most dry white carbs are- like rice, but that's 50 cents a pound, and more bulky when cooked.

Least expensive source of protein would be beans, of course. There's some selection there, from black beans for $1 a pound, to the recent find of 25lbs of pintos for $14.99- around 60 cents a pound. There are about 1400 calories per pound of dried beans, and about 4 days worth of servings.

Oil is regularly $2 for a 48 oz bottle, about 96 servings, or a month's worth at three 100 calorie servings a day. Say 6 cents a day.

Now, I could eat that- a pound of flour cooked into plain pasta, 3 servings of beans, with three servings of oil, and spend between 51 and 61 cents a say, getting all my calories with plenty of money left for spices or (a bit of) veggies. Of course, most of the veggie money would be eaten by onions and garlic, and the rest would have to be sweet potatoes or stolen.

Not very healthy though, is it? Plus, even I can't eat a pound of flour a day, every day. I don't care what you do to it, I'd be on constant sugar high.

I could use less flour- 11 or 12 oz would save me 10 cents a day, but it also leaves me with 4-500 calories to make up- instead of being 50 over, I'd be about 400 short. And in my world the tasty veggies are pretty much devoid of calories.

Anyway, even I can't eat sweet potatoes every single day.

Somewhere in there is the mix of numbers and foods that keeps me both full *and* happy. Honestly, though? I don't know how long I can follow that kind of diet before it drives me bonkers. More bonkers?

Kinda funny, actually- everyone talks about beans and rice being what you eat when you're broke. I'm not going to say I don't have rice. I'm not even saying it isn't available for less than I paid. But really? Homemade pasta and beans wins. If only it weren't so expensive to make it taste good.

Oh well, at least my summer cold is going well- for the cold. I love Luden's wild cherry throat drops. I don't want to know about anything in them that might be bad, either. They're about the only thing I'm managing to eat. I probably should make soup and drink hot tea, but I'm seriously crap at taking care of myself.

Right, so- Any ideas on manipulating my numbers? I know there's a balance in there somewhere, I'm just not sure where. It's not cool to keep making up calories with junk, either.

Hope everyone had a better holiday weekend than I seem to have.

Day 97- Out Of Soda

I actually ran out the night before last, but couldn't be bothered to hunt down alternate liquids. That continued through most of the day until about 4pm. That's when I finally broke out the water filter/ pitcher and got it set up. Fired up the electric kettle, too.

For anyone who's never lived in a place where they drink tea instead of coffee, this is a magic device that boils water in like 2 minutes. I love the electric kettle. I bet people with huge old bathtubs and tiny water heaters would love the electric kettle, too- just maybe not now....

So anyway, water filter/ pitcher, electric kettle, and some of the tea I moved from Wyoming. I didn't bring my whole stash, and I've been storing what I do have in the freezer, which may or may not be good for it. I have about one and a quarter sandwich baggies full of tea bags.

Before I go any farther with this story, I have to confess to being a huge tea snob. If I had $85 million, I would buy out one of those fancy online tea emporia- you know, the ones with tea that opens in the pot like a flower? And drink nothing but super expensive, hand picked (and tied) teas forever.

Alas, I has no $85 million. So I drink what I've got. Right now I'm down to about 5 bags of lipton (blech), around 20 of Tazo chai (spicy), half a dozen or so of goodearth vanilla chai, and about 15 packets of what might or might not be roobios chai from gypsy... it has no caffeine, so I don't think I'll be drinking it any time soon. I had 5 cups of tea, though, with a tablespoon of sugar in each, re-using two of the teabags twice. Lesson I learned from this? Nice tea bags can be reused. Lipton needs to be doubled first. It was like drinking hot sweet water. Again, Blegh.

For breakfast (long before I got around to cleaning stuff out) I finished off the cupcakes. I don't think I've had this much straight sugar in months. My mouth feels all gross, and no matter how much I brush, my teeth still feel gross.

But up until "dinner" my only non-leftover food cost was sugar for tea- 5T at 3t/T, and about 500 t servings in the bag means... um... what, 5 or 10 cents for sugar? That sounds low, somehow.

For dinner, I decided to go somewhat healthier. Well, and I needed to cook more beans. I rinsed (a lot) 1.5C black beans and dumped them in the crock pot, filling it most of the way with water. Turned it on high and left it for about 5 hours. When that time was up I tested a couple beans, and they were just about done, so I diced up 2 large garlic cloves, tossed them in the pot, and stired it up before letting it go again.

The 1.5C dry is 6 servings of beans. there are 24 in a $2, 2lb bag So I cooked up about 50 cents worth of black beans. I scooped about a cup into my bowl (say 10 cents worth), added a bit of garlic powder, a dash of salt (ok, more than a dash), a drizzle of oil, and a (tiny) splash of vinegar. Mixed up, ZOMG it was good. Creamy and smooth and salty, and not too vinegary, but just enough to bring out the flavors and the salt. Probably 14 cents for the whole bowl, including everything. It was so good I went back for another.

Oh, and I was going to make cornbread, but a sudden lack of motivation killed that one. Maybe today? I even found one that only calls for 1 thing I don't have- and I'm sure I can work around the soy milk thing. Even if I have to make milk from rice.

In other news, near total destitution seems to have killed my junk food cravings. I guess that's what happens, though, when you spend your gas money on junk food, your food money on soda, and your absolute soda hold out money to buy gas.

Hey, I never claimed to have any kinda common sense.

Day 89- Three Months Down

I am 3 months thought this thing. I've probably spent about twice as much on cheating so far this year as I have on real food, but I'm cheating a little less, eating a little more, and getting a bit more into a grove.

So far I've spent about $133, which is right around where I was planning to be at this point. I admit, I've got a lot more rice left then I intended to have at this point. "Cheating" is no doubt to blame for that. Well, and my swiftly developing deep and abiding hatred of rice, but that's just a side thing. Really.

So in three months, what's happened, and what have I learned?

• I've eaten a lot of chips, all off books, like some kinda goofy accounting scam.
• I've worn through the seat in my next to last pair of jeans
• I've made sweet potato gnocchi (once)
• I've whined. A Lot.
• I've changed the rules a couple times
• I've eaten next to no fruit. I still have most of the tangerines (tangelos?) I got back at the start.
• I've lost and regained (to some extent) an interest in food
• I've lost my camera cord, and stopped uploading photos (I think I know where it is, really)
• I'm starting to accept that no matter how tight my budget, I can only change my diet so far before my brain rebels.

That last one, I think, is the big one. I'm coming off living in a place where it can and does *snow* any month of the year. High fat, high calorie foods are kinda necessary in that kinda climate, more so when you insist on keeping the heat low (dude, gas is expensive!). Before that I was on an all takeout all the time diet, which was (surprise) also high in fat and calories. Switching to a (much) healthier diet has caused my brain to rebel.

Ok, bad excuse. But really? My body's used to the high fat diet. It wants the high fat food- like how the dog wants bread, but without the freaky loud panting and sad begging eyes. I've only just yesterday finished the first 90+ serving bottle of veggie oil I bought back in February. That's only one a day, though it seems like I use more.... I'm still not totally clear on how I'm supposed to force that amount of roughage down my throat each day. Healthy food doesn't really have a whole hell of a lot of calories, I'm learning. You have to really pack it away or purposely add high cal items to get to a reasonable count for the day (and almonds don't actually go with *everything*).

So for the next couple months I'm going to try to play to my strengths. I like easy fast food. I've got tofu, noodles, fast to stir-fry veggies. All easy fast foods if I keep them simple. I've got about 17 pounds (yes, really) of good, high quality flour left. I plan to use it with the tofu to make a bunch of ravioli. Frozen between sheets of plastic wrap it'll be just as convenient as the frozen store bought stuff, for about 1/5th the price. Same with some more sweet potato gnocchi, though I need more sweet potatoes for that- the ones I had grew fur and walked away.

I'm going to try to make some more fake fried rice, because it's filling and a good way to get veggies and calories, but I wouldn't hold my breath out there. I still have close to 8 of the 10 pounds I bought two and a half months ago. maybe if I can make it more interesting? Meh, it's still just rice.

Oh, and because I'm bad with the beans, I'm going to try to use my "other" proteins more- TVP and wheat gluten. I have a whole range of stuff packed in the fridge and pantry that I never even touch. Not the best way to keep a budget lean. Drat my food hoarding gene.

Oh, yeah- and I plan to actually *make* the stupid granola. Can't cart it around and eat it if it's just ingredients in the kitchen.

Food yesterday-

• 1600 calories of chips (cheating again. Ungood)
• 1/2 pound of tofu, coated in seasoned flour and pan fried in oil with onions. Better deep fried, but I'm not willing to waste that much oil. A previous roommate tells me it's kinda like "squeaky cheese".
  
• Oh, and a bunch of soda. Trying to switch over to water and tea, but the habit dies hard.

I have a feeling that after this year I'm probably not going to ever eat a whole lot of rice, ever again. Which kinda sucks, 'cause it's one of the easiest things to find and eat in most of the world. Well, rice and pringles. Those things are forking everywhere.

Day 75- Un-Mexican Pizza

I gave in to temptation. I bought one (not quite ripe) avocado and one (seriously overpriced) hot-house, on-vine tomato. $1.63 (including tax) for both, and I only used about 1/4 of each, so really only 40 cents of totally expensive splurgy goodness went onto my pizza. Well, and some of the leftover salsa from cheating a couple weeks ago.

Can you say Om Nom Nom? I sure did.

So what's in/ on this pizza?

• 1/2 pizza dough recipe with added 1/2 tsp each onion, garlic, paprika powders ($0.14?)
• 1.5 C pinto beans, from can (about $0.21 from dried)
• 1/4 small onion (about 10 cents)
• 1/4 tomato ($0.15)
• 1/4 avocado ($0.25)
• 3 T salsa (no idea, maybe 50 cents?)
• 2 leaves lettuce ( $0.08)
• 2 or 3 T oil (about $0.12)
• Salt (neg)
• Lime Juice ($0.05)

I'm sure I've missed something, but I think that's it. All together guessing the cost at right around $1.60 for one. It would be less if:

• I paid less for the Avocado
• I hadn't bought the tomato at Publix, but rather planned and paid less than $2/ lb
• I knew how much the salsa had cost, and how much that amount was of it
• I bothered to blend the beans with extra water rather than just mooshing them in the pan

Those alone would bring the price down almost 40 cents. Big deal for me, Probably not worth it for someone else. This was about 21g of protein just from the beans, though, and somewhere between 1000 and 1500 calories as I cooked it. So reasonably 2 or 3 meals worth of food.

Which could easily explain why I was stuffed 3/4 of the way through it.

Did I mention that it was yummy?

Eating stretched out in front of the computer. The green/ grey/ brown cords at center-top actually have my legs in them, they're not laundry. It's just a strange picture, I promise.

All this meal was missing was cold beer and a smart/ yummy guy to share it with.

Well, ok, and cheese.

Day 43- PIZZA!!!

So I had pizza.

Wait, let me take a step back. First I finished my chips. Not the best breakfast, but full of tasty calories, fat, and salt. Om nom nom.

Ok, *Then* I had pizza.

For price breakdown-

The dough contains

• between 19 and 24 cents in flour
• less than 10 cents in yeast (I use less than suggested)
• less than 1 cent salt
• about 2 cents italian seasoning
• about 1 cent garlic powder
• less than 6 cents oil
• less than 1 cent sugar
• water (included in rent)

So no more than 45 cents a recipe. Most likely less than this, and a recipe can make from 2 to 4 pizzas. I made 2.

Toppings on this one were

• fresh Roma tomato
• 4 stalks asparagus, chopped, fresh
• 1/8 roasted eggplant
• 1/16 red onion
• 1/2 recipe almond cream with garlic and italian seasoning.

The toppings took me over a dollar for the day. The onion was free, but the almond cream sauce was easily 35 cents, the tomato about 25, the asparagus around 15, eggplant (with oil and salt) probably 15. Almond cream sauce was the price for the whole batch, but still.

After making a second pizza for dinner (just cream sauce, onion, eggplant this time) my total food cost for the day was about $1.50.

I don't have a picture of the second pizza. It was ugly.

Each pizza was easily big enough to feed two people. If I'd grown the veggies instead of buying them I could have knocked between 55 and 60 cents off. Now if only I had enough self control to let the dough rise before chunking it out, or to see if I'm full before I eat the other half, I could have lowered the cost for the day.

But if I had lettuces growing, and company for lunch, I could have fed two people pretty well for $1, right? I'm *sure* I could magic up a salad dressing for less than 10 cents.

I think I might need to price out a couple more things as I make them. I don't know if I think pizza is good enough for a day and a half's food cost. Maybe I won't make it again until i have fresh grown stuff to put on it...

Thanks Kim, for the idea of pricing meals. Who'da thought homemade pizza was so expensive?