Day 130- Strange Food, Tea, and Challenges

Before I get started today I just want to say that I know caffeine isn't heroin, but sometimes the sense of wellbeing I get from ingesting it makes me wonder? Oh, and the headache that ate Manhattan is back, and it's not happy.

Now that's out of the way, on to fun.

Yesterday I had two real meals (and only two cups of tea, not bad, right?)

Breakfast was super easy, just tortillas fried in a bit of butter and some (about) 1:10 cinnamon:sugar mix. Om nom nom. Not really healthy, though.

Dinner was time to get creative. I made a mix that would have been happy stuffed in taco shells, mixed with tomato shells sauce and stuffed on buns, mixed into rice as a meaty side, or just eaten plain (that's what I did), but I've no idea what to call it.

• 1C tvp
• 2T salsa
• 1/8tsp chili powder
• 1/4tsp garlic or onion powder
• approx 1C water

• 1/3 onion, chopped
• 1 small sweet potato, peeled and chopped
• oil
• salt
• juice of 1/8 lime
• 1/4 tomato

Put the first 4 ingredients in a bowl, mixing to spread the spices. Add the water and mix again. Usually I just add enough water to peak through the stuff in the bowl. More is soggy, less is crunchy. It's about 1C.

While the TVP is reconstituting, chop and fry the onion and sweet potato in a frying pan or wok with the oil and salt. when the veggies are mostly cooked and lightly browned, squeeze lime over them and mix it in, then add the TVP mix. Cook about 5 minutes on medium-high, and serve with sliced tomato on top.

Possible changes-

• chopped black olives
• diced fresh garlic
• chopped sundried tomato
• ground meat or lentils instead of TVP (cook first)
• more chopped veggies- carrots, potatoes, etc.
• tomato sauce in the TVP while reconstituting

Otherwise, not bad. It had carbs, protein, fat. Had at least 2 servings of veggies (could have had much more, and after adding catsup it did...). Oh, it'd probably be good with something cheesy melted over it, too, but I'm out.

Challenges-

Mom tells me she thinks she knows what she's doing, and she's going for the "all items less than $1" option, so hopefully I'll get something from her over the weekend. I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing, and it's pretty weird (like my food normally isn't...). If I get motivated I'll do the "less than $1" one too. It depends on if I have a spare $5 this weekend. I'm pretty sure I can afford it in my food budget, I just don't know if I'll be able to get it all for less than $5.

So who out there is done? Have you decided what you're doing? they're due tomorrow, you know. I'll probably post Monday, so I'll let you have the weekend to finish up. The $1 item stuff isn't due 'til Wednesday, so you have time for that. I've got two (I think) so far. Anyone else?

Ok, I think it's getting close to time for the first cup of tea. My brain feels like it's doubled in size in the last 10 minutes and I've had to type this sentence twice.