21 Dollar Challenge – Day 4

Today was crazy. I woke up with a killer headache that decided to stick around all day. We had a plumber come out and re-do our pipes (or something) because apparently pipes only last 40 years, which is how old our house is, so they were decaying from the inside out. Sounds scary, huh?
That being the case, the water was off ALL day (until dinner). And me with no real leftovers! I pretty much ate toast whenever I was hungry. But I also was really bad and got some skittles at the store. I don’t know for sure if skittles are vegan, but I did not see any non-vegan ingredients on the package so I happily ate them while watching The Last Song. I was strangely hungry ALL day, so instead of meals my day consisted of constant snackage.

Breakfast was the remaining two servings of my leftover green monster and half of a banana:

• Green Monster: Included in yesterday’s total
• Half of a banana: $0.10

Breakfast Total: $0.10
I am going to include everything else that wasn’t dinner in the ‘lunch’ category, just to keep things simple.

• 4 pieces of bread: $0.16
• Some earth balance, peanut butter, and tofu cream cheese: $0.20
• A tomato: $0.13
• Skittles: $0.69
• Some Spinach: $0.06
• Half a can of beans: $0.33

I think that is everything. It probably seemed like more food because I kept getting up to grab something else!
Lunch Total: $1.57
Here, I would like to point something out. If I had NOT gotten the skittles, my lunch total would be just $0.88. Just sayin.
Dinner was simple: Quinoa with lemon juice and some spices, accompanied by some sweet potato chips. I had leftovers from both. Hello, tomorrow’s lunch! I used this recipe at allrecipes.com and it was really good. I just improvised for the sweet potato chips. My previous experiences with quinoa have not really been noteworthy, but this was! I can count on this to be my go-to meal when I’m short on time (There’s no picture, but to be honest it just looked like cooked quinoa in a dish).

• Quinoa: $1.20
• Sweet Potato: $1.60 (Note to self: Sweet potatoes, while delicious, are kind of pricey!)

Dinner, including leftovers: $2.80
Total for Day 4: $4.47 (Without the skittles: $3.78)
Money left: $1.41
I think it is safe to say that I will not come in under $15. So far I have learned that Sweet Potatoes, Candy, Avocados, and Tofu are kind of spendy! Even though that tempting bag of skittles is only $0.69, think of the beans and veggies you could buy for that same amount! Quinoa is pretty pricey too. I also learned that bread (if chosen carefully) can be VERY cheap, along with greens, beans, and bananas. Even though I will most definitely go over, I am going to keep on trucking until day 7 to see what the week total is. I might not be able to reach my goal with the $6.00 deducted for spices and oils, but I am certain I can stay under $21.00, and maybe even under $18.00.
What do you find yourself snacking on when you can’t (or don’t want to) prepare a meal? Mine’s toast!

21 Dollar Challenge – Day 3

Today was day 3. I woke up excited again, because I had been hearing about banana soft serve ALL over the interwebz lately today was the day to make it! I then spent the rest of the day super-cleaning my kitchen.Took everything off the counters and shelves, wiped down every surface possible, and put everything back in a very organized manner. It took ALL DAY but it was so worth it. I would show you before and after pictures, but I am sure my mother wouldn’t like it if I showed our kitchen to the world in a dirty state :P
Anyways, on to the breakdown!

For breakfast, banana soft serve (Just two frozen bananas pulverized) and the last of my French Toast! My blender was having trouble with the bananas, so I did end up adding a little water to thin it out.

• French Toast: included in yesterday’s breakfast
  
• Banana Soft Serve: $0.40

Breakfast Total: $0.40
For lunch I had leftover Cauliflower Rice and a glass of tasty apple juice:

• Cauliflower Rice: included in yesterday’s total
  
• Apple Juice: $0.33

Lunch total: $0.33
Finally, for dinner… Let me say it was spectacular. I made a tofu scramble. I didn’t follow any recipe to the letter, it was a lot of improv, but this is the recipe that I used as a guideline: at the post punk kitchen.
It consisted of tofu (obviously), onion, celery, cumin, thyme, paprika, lemon juice, salt, turmeric, spinach, and avocado.


I REALLY love avocados, and ended up eating a good bit of mine so I had less in the recipe than I intended, but its okay! It was SO good. I will definitely make this again. I had a side of steamed kale with olive oil with my meal.

• 1/2 block of tofu: $0.63
  
• a stalk of celery: $0.12
  
• 1/6 of my huge onion: $0.19
  
• 1 avocado: $0.78
  
• Spinach: $0.10
  
• Spice and lemon juice: included in spice deduction
  
• Kale: $0.05

Dinner Total: $1.80
I also made a green monster before work that made 3 servings, so it will last for breakfast tomorrow :)

• half a banana: $0.10
  
• a nectarine: I don’t know for sure, but I would venture a guess at $0.45
  
• a slice of cantaloupe: $0.11
  
• Some Kale: $0.06
  
• Some Spinach: $0.08
  
• water/ice: free

Total for Day 3: $3.33
Money left: $5.88
Ouch. Now that I think of it, the tofu and avocado were pretty pricey. Lesson I learned today: keep it simple. I think my scramble with tofu and avocado sucked up all my cash. This leaves me about $1.47 per day from here on out.
Do you keep your kitchen spotless, or does it fluctuate between clean and dirty constantly like mine does?

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.

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:

I topped it with a little bit of earth balance and some blueberries

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.

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?

21 Dollar Challenge – Day 1

I woke up this morning completely psyched for the challenge. I had my grocery list in hand and got up at 7 am.
Turns out my mom (who buys my food, thanks mom!) didn’t want to go grocery shopping until around ten. So I whipped up a green monster for breakfast. I made three cups’ worth, intending it to last for a few breakfasts, but I ended up drinking them in one day, with each meal.
Here is what my triple Green Monster consisted of:

• a big handful of collard greens: estimated at $0.36
  
• a leaf or two of kale: $0.05
  
• a leaf or two of spinach: $0.05
  
• about 3/4 cup of blueberries: estimated at $0.20
  
• one banana: $0.20
  
• a drizzle of agave nectar: Included in oil/spice deduction
  
• water: free

So my 3-serving green monster cost: $0.86
For lunch:

Sorry, all the pretty bowls were in the dishwasher!
This is curried rice, the recipe found here. A note about the recipe: there is a LOT of spice in this recipe. Not “hot” spice, but very, very strong spice. It was delicious, and better than I expected, but next time I will use probably 1/3 of the spice, maybe less!
It included:

• 1 cup of brown rice: $0.34
• various spices: included in spice deduction
• Vegetable Bouillon: $0.15
• Olive oil: Included in oil deduction
• A piece of toast with earth balance: $0.16

Total for lunch: $0.65
For dinner:

a DELICIOUS sandwich and my last helping of smoothie. Tomato and cream cheese is the BEST combination ever, and leafy greens only make it better. If you haven’t tried a tomato and “cream cheese” sandwich, I  recommend you go hunt down some vegan cream cheese and try it right this moment!
It had:

• 1 Roma tomato, sliced: $0.13
• a big shredded spinach leaf: $0.05
• Two pieces of toasted bread: $0.12
• a dollop of tofutti cream cheese: leftover from last week, est. at $0.10
• Made with lots of love: Priceless.

Dinner: $0.40
Total for day 1: $1.91
That leaves me with: $13.09 and leftover curried rice!
Tomorrow I’m planning on:

Vegan French Toast Beans and Rice with Avocado! Yum! Leftover Curried Rice

Stay tuned!
Something for you to think about: What is your favorite sandwich ever?

21 Dollar Vegan Challenge

Some of you I know have heard about Vegan Hope’s 21 dollars per week challenge. The rules basically are to live for a week on just 21 dollars. Using your own spices? Subtract 3 dollars. Using your own oil? Subtract another 3 dollars. This leaves most of us with $15 to eat for the week. Another rule is that you cannot use kitchen gadgets/appliances that cost more than $15 besides your oven and microwave. I do not know how much a  blender costs, but I am sure that you can get a used/older one out there for really cheap, so I will continue using our blender.
I plan on completing this challenge during the week, and I will post everything I eat, breaking it down so you know just where each penny went. It will be fun!
I made up a rough meal plan and already went grocery shopping and this is what I purchased:

• Bag of collard greens : $2.28 (Mom bought this before we went shopping)
• A bunch of spinach: $0.89
• 6 Bananas: $1.19
• A loaf of wheat bread: $0.89
• A head of cauliflower: $2.35
• A Couple Roma tomatoes: $0.50
• Blueberries: $1.75 (This is an estimate, mom bought them previously and froze them)
• Soymilk: $2.79
• Block of Tofu: $1.25
• A huge onion: $1.16
• Celery: $0.93
• A sweet potato: $2.16
• Quinoa: $1.25
• Lemon Juice: Including in Spice/Oil Discount because it was last longer than this one week
• Better than Bouillon: Including in Spice/Oil discount
• 2 Cans of Pinto Beans: 1.38
• Box of Pasta: $1.05
• Can of Corn: $0.59
• 2 Avocados: $1.56
• 10 Tortillas: $1.99
• Apple Juice: $1.99

If you do the math, this comes out to more than 15 dollars. It comes out to a grand total of:
$27.95
However, there are a few things to take into account.
1. I will not eat all of this food by myself. I will not use all the celery, bananas, blueberries, tortillas, apple juice, avocados, etc. I live with my mother and sister, so some of the food will go to them.
2. I think I underestimated the leftovers I should have, so there is a good chance some of this food will roll over to next week.
That being said, that is what I spend on groceries,
I will further break down the cost of each meal to figure out how much money I am ACTUALLY eating.
I may go over the limit in the end, but this is still a valuable learning experience and  should be fun! :D
Do you think you could live on $21 a week? I definitely think it is possible. What strategy would you use to make your money stretch across 21 meals (plus snacks)?