October: Go the Distance

Sep 8, 2010

21 Dollar Challenge – Day 2

Today is the second day of the 21 dollar challenge and I woke up to some AWFUL news. I had an email on my phone that said my World of Warcraft account was ‘locked’ due to “suspicious activity.” Another email stated that my password had been changed (and I was not the one who changed it).
I’d been hacked.
To those of you who don’t play WoW, when your account gets hacked, it usually means all of the items you worked hard to acquire get sold for game gold, your game gold gets sold to idiots who buy it with real money, and occasionally your characters get transferred to another server, costing 15 dollars and a month of waiting to get them back. And usually, getting Blizzard (The game company) to restore your items usually takes about 3 hours on hold or 2 weeks waiting by email.
My characters, account, and items were restored in ten minutes. It was glorious. I am so thankful to Blizzard for resolving it so quickly.
After the flush of relief swam through me, the rest of my day went as planned. I made Vegan French Toast for breakfast, which I found at The Raw Cure, a blog that I happen to frequent.
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It took me a few slices of bread before I got the temperature right, and I burned one to a crisp, but in  the end I made a pretty tasty stack of French Toast:
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I topped it with a little bit of earth balance and some blueberries
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It was SO GOOD. I liked it better than regular French Toast by a LONG shot. I will definitely make this again!
Breakfast:
  • 2 bananas: $0.40
  • 3/4 cup of soymilk: $0.26
  • Cinnamon: included in spices deduction
  • Earth Balance: $0.10
  • Blueberries: $0.33
  • 9 slices of bread: $0.40
So for 9 slices of French toast + toppings for 3 pieces(Yay leftovers!): $1.49
For lunch, I took the cauliflower rice recipe found at Master of Her Romaine (another great blog) and tweaked it a little bit. I did everything the same, but added a little bit of curry, a diced tomato, and half a can of pinto beans right into the mix.
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It was really good. Mom had a bite and she liked it too. I really liked Sonia’s creativity when inventing this dish so I thought I’d try it out too :) This made quite a bit of leftovers, as well!
Lunch:
  • 1/2 of a head of cauliflower: $1.38
  • 1 Tomato: $0.13
  • 1/6 of my monster onion: $0.19
  • 1/2 a can of pinto beans: $0.35
  • various spices
So the cauliflower dish cost: $1.85 and made at least another meal!
I packed dinner to take to work, and that consisted of 2 slices of leftover French toast and 2 slices of cantaloupe.
  • French Toast: included in breakfast
  • Cantaloupe: estimated at $0.23
I also had my leftover curried rice after work and some apple juice
  • Curried rice: In yesterday’s total
  • Apple Juice: $0.33
Dinner + After Work Snack: $0.56
Day Two’s Grand Total: $3.90
If that seems really high, think of all the leftovers I have!
Money left: $9.19
Its getting tight, but I think I can make it.
Have you ever ‘invented’ your own recipe? Was it good or a flop?

6 comments:

  1. Aww thanks for the mention :D
    You are doing so great with the challenge- isn't it fun?! The french toast looks super- It is one of the things I miss from when I ate egg. I need to try that recipe!

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  2. That looks like some yummy french toast! Wow, I haven't had french toast in 4-ever....! I typically invent my own recipes when I am trying to go through all the miscellaneous things in my pantry....For example, last night I made the best sweet potato fry-thingies out of a can of yams. It's usually small things like that. Not sure if I am creative enough to come up with my own big complicated recipe....in time tho!

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  3. Sonia:
    Thank *you* for the excellent recipe! And the french toast was excellent. I never actually liked regular egg-french-toast, but I LOVED this version :)

    Journey to Body Zen (I think your name is Maria but I don't know for sure? :P):
    I just took a peek at those "Sweet potato fries" that you made from a can! That is pretty impressive :)I don't venture into oven cooking usually unless I have a recipe. I'm not that brave yet!

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  4. a) my husband plays that game! i know he would know what you are talking about. that cracks me up.

    b) your challenge is hardcore! i disgust myself with the $ i spend on food sometimes . . . oh well.

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  5. Hey! Thanks so much for the shout out and link. & so sweet to find out that you frequent my blog. So glad you loved the french toast as much as I do. :)

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  6. Therawcure: Oh you're welcome :) Thank you for the excellent recipe.

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