Day 1 - A Busy Day

In addition to my Dollar A Day Challenge, I'm also reorganizing my house.  I've been so busy preparing for craft shows, that it's become a house of craft clutter and I want to change that.  So, I'm pretty busy doing these two projects in tandem.

There's a lot of preparation and cooking that needs to be done in the first few days, but after that, food prep should be streamlined.  I'll be cooking brown rice and oatmeal in batches so that I just need to microwave them instead of getting the pots and pans out everyday.  I need to make a big batch of chicken soup.  It's on the stove right now simmering away.  This is going to take hours because I want the meat to fall off the bones and the broth to have a rich flavor.  But again, once this is done the servings will be put in the freezer for future dinners.  I need to make some hard boiled eggs for snacking on.  Last night I cooked up a pot of red beans and put some in the freezer.

In the morning, I cleaned out my clothes closet of old clothes and donated it and some other stuff to the Salvation Army.  Then I worked the garden and picked a lot of cauliflower and zucchini.  I also picked some green beans, a daikon radish and a handful of strawberries.

But look at these daikon greens!  This is something you can't buy in the supermarket.  The greens are usually chopped off and discarded, but they are a nutritious green.  I decided to have them with my lunch. 

When I got home from the garden, the rice that I put on in the morning was hot and waiting for me.  So I made an over-easy egg with 1/2 tsp olive oil, and then sauteed the daikon greens in the same pan.  Added a few slices of avocado and a big glass of ice cold water with a slice of lemon.  I added a splash of soy sauce, but it really didn't need it.

Here is what I ate today.  Surprisingly, at dinner time I wasn't hungry and didn't eat until 9PM.  I switched up my menu and just had a bowl of chicken soup and vegetables on brown rice.

Day 1 Menu

Breakfast
1 slice of Milton's Squaw Bread
2 T peanut butter
Hot water

Lunch
1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1 extra large egg cooked over-easy
1/2 tsp olive oil
1/4 sliced avocado
sauteed daikon greens
ice water with lemon

Snacks
loquats
orange

Dinner
Chicken soup (with red beans and vegetables)
1/2 cup brown rice

Calorie Count: 1158
Cost: 91 cents