October: Go the Distance

Sep 13, 2010

21 Dollar Challenge – Day 7

The last day.

Eating was kind of chaotic today. For starters, my overnight oats did not turn out as planned. The ginger in it was WAY too strong and it was so incredibly gingery that despite my attempts to eat it anyway, I simply could not. Better luck next time.

What I did next, not wanting to waste the oats, was blend my oats into my green smoothie. I have done this before with pearled barley I didn’t want to waste, and I don’t even taste a difference. I added some collards and some apple juice and water/ice and it mellowed out the ginger taste a bit (thought it was still pretty strong).

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It was niiiice and green (usually my smoothies turn out brown and don’t look very appetizing)

My date with my exercise buddy went well! We walked two miles around the track at my college, and jogged one lap. We’ll do a lot more jogging if I have any say in it ;) Same time, same place, bright an early tomorrow morning!

Also, if you care, I added a neat little widget on the side of my blog that says how many miles total I have gone, starting today! I Thought it was cute!

Breakfast:

  • A cup of oats: $0.36
  • Some ginger and stuff: included in spice deduction
  • Molasses: Including with the oil/spice deduction because I very very rarely purchase molasses.
  • Some almond milk: $0.37
  • Collards: Like $0.20
  • Apple juice: $0.30

Breakfast Total: $1.23

I also ate breakfast twice (before and after my run) and snacked on the smoothie leftovers all day. :)

Lunch was fun! I was craving cheese and had to use up the last of the tofu, tomatoes and some spinach so I made the BLT casserole from La Dolce Vegan, except I changed it a little bit.

First I scrambled the last of my tofu with spices and spinach. Then I made the nutritional yeast cheese sauce (it tasted legit!), sliced tomatoes, and toasted some bread.

I layered toasted bread slathered with vegenaise on the bottom of the casserole dish, half of the cheese sauce on top, then tofu scramble, then tomatoes, and then more cheese sauce! Baked in the oven at 325 for 15 minutes. It was just what I was hungry for!

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I forgot until I put the picture in there, but I guess I had some cantaloupe too :)

Lunch:

  • 2 Roma Tomatoes: $0.26
  • Tofu: $0.63
  • Spinach: $0.10
  • Nut. Yeast: $0.05
  • Spices: in spice deduction
  • 4 Pieces of Bread: $0.16
  • Vegenaise: $0.05
  • Cantaloupe: $0.18

I think that’s everything…

Lunch Total: $1.43

Dinner was simple. The second half of the casserole I made and a piece of toast:

Toast with Earth Balance: $0.10

Dinner Total: $0.10

Day 7 Total: $2.76

The Grande Total: $18.76

My thoughts on the week:

I really liked this challenge. For one reason, I hope it shows a good example of how you can spend a mere $80 a month on groceries and still be a vegan. Sure, it CAN be expensive if you splurge on vegan convenience foods and fake meats and cheeses, but you can have a healthy and tasty diet on real produce and be perfectly happy (and your wallet will be happy too). I also liked it because I really like numbers. It was fun to see where the money went and what kinds of food really blew my budget (like skittles, even though they looked all innocent at just $0.69). I encourage more people to try out this challenge. Even if you aren’t really a blogger, knowing what you spend your money on is the first step in finding where you need to cut back, so you can save money! And we all love doing that, right? :) It was fun, but it will be nice not to have to do all those calculations!

Ever messed up a recipe (or didn’t like it) and ended up transforming it into something else, so you didn’t waste it? :)

5 comments:

  1. Hey! That BLT casserole looks outta-this-world! Mmmmmmmmmmmm :). I've got to see if I can put that same widget up. That is so cool! I enjoyed reading about your challenge and it was pretty inspiring to try out some vegan dishes!

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  2. Thanks!
    It looks even better with the "bacon" bits in it (I didn't have any on hand)
    :)

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  3. I agree!! YUMM!! By the way, this 21 dollar challenge is awesome. I'll need to try it.

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  4. YUM! Your casserole looks fantastic! BY the way, brownies I made almost 2 weeks ago on someones recommendation and they were theBEST vegan brownies ever. Check them out! http://www.singerskitchen.com/2010/08/ultra-fudgy-moist-brownies.html

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  5. Thanks Noelle :D
    I would try them right away but it looks like I am currently lacking in some of those ingredients.
    They do look realllllly tasty though.

    I've got one more brownie recipe to try and if it doesn't work I'm moving on to yours.

    In fact I will probably make yours even if these ones do turn out good ;)

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