Much as last year, my tummy is rebelling from the change in diet and lack of fiber relative to what I usually eat. I'm also having flashbacks to this time last year when my dog Gracie was in the process of dying and wouldn't/couldn't eat anything I made for her.
This year my new frustration is my limited connectivity making it hard for me to properly blog the challenge. I've eaten English Muffins with either peanut butter or eggs for protein along with a bit of orange juice and coffee. Lunch has been ramen with a hard boiled egg and green onion. Dinner has been a piece of fish - relatively inexpensive Basa Swai simply pan fried and last night accompanied with a bit of Rice-a-Roni that I got on sale. Most of all I am reminded that food planning with this little money is like having a second job and I totally get why people, especially those feeding families, would get tired and just make what they could and run out of food before the end of the month and go hungry.
I have boatloads of pasta that I got for $0.69 a box that I'll likely use at some point. But for now I'm having soup. Even though it is the middle of a heat wave, I planned for soup and so I'm having soup. Soup is a great choice for inexpensive eating because it is flexible and can be made with whatever you can purchase inexpensively or perhaps get in a food bank package.
Start with an aromatic base - mirepoix which is a mix of celery, carrot and onion is a classic - which can be root veggies, garlic or some mix of spices. Next add liquid like broth, water or cream. Then add the main ingredients such as vegetables like potatoes, broccoli or asparagus; beans; meat or seafood. The soup I made is bean and vegetable and I made it for about $1.25 a bowl.
I used this recipe for Hearty White Bean and Kale Soup. The only substitution I made was using black pepper instead of white. I used canned beans though dry beans from a bulk bin would be cheaper. And my cheap spice resource is the legendary Rockridge Long's Drugstore which I hope will continue to be a source of everything even as it transitions to a CVS.
Onion: $0.36
Carrots: $0.40
Celery: $0.20
Olive Oil: $0.40
Garlic: $0.05
Rosemary: $0.05
Thyme: $0.05
Bay Leaf: $0.01
Beans: $1.25
Kale: $1.54
Total: $4.31
Assuming 4 servings that is ~$1.08/bowl which with 1 Tablespoon of grated parmesan at $0.16 comes in at $1.24 a bowl which fits into the $4.00 a day budget especially since I can get breakfast and lunch in at under a dollar each. The change I would use for a piece of fruit and one day this week I got an apple for free and had an orange for $0.50.
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