Day 14 - BINGE!

I can't believe I ate the whole thing.  I cannot show you a picture of it because it's all gone.

What was it?  Chocolate?  French fries?  A cherry pie?

No.

It was one pound of green beans.

I'm not kidding.  I just ate one pound of green beans.  In one sitting.  Do you remember the roasted green beans I made the other day?

Well, I had another good harvest of green beans so I roasted them this morning and this afternoon I munched on them until they were gone. 

That was after my friend Lisa took me to pick mulberries.  I don't know much about them except that they look like boysenberries, but grow on a tree.  They are fragile and juicy and leave purple stains.  This is what it looks like on the tree:

She tells me that these are the leaves that silk worms like to eat.  We were gleaning the tree at the tail end of the season so there wasn't much left to pick.  But I was glad to see up close and personal...a mulberry tree.


Day 14

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with soy milk and berries

Lunch:
Egg and Avocado sandwich

Snack:
Apricots (picked from a tree)
Roasted green beans

Dinner:
3 oz tofu
takuan (pickled Japanese radish)

Calories: 885
Cost: 83 cents

Weight:  XXX - 4 pounds

Day 13 - Step Into My Garden

It might seem like growing your own vegetables takes a lot of time, and that may be true in the beginning when you are setting up your garden.  But, once you do that and have the basic tools you need, it will get easier and easier.

My garden is not even in my backyard.  I live in a town home complex with a small deck.   To grow vegetables, I need a small plot of land with plenty of sun.   Luckily, my city has a community garden and I can garden there.  It is convenient for me because I have to drive that way a few times a week anyway. 

I don't have the prettiest garden there.  Far from it.  In fact, I may only spend 15 minutes there at a time.  Just enough time to water, harvest and pull a weed or two.  There's plenty of work if I wanted to put the time into it and the time would be pure pleasure.  But I don't have the time for that right now.

So, although I have a request to see more photos of the garden, I hesitate to show my semi-neglected plot.  Even so, it provides more than enough vegetables for me and my husband.

the main gate

central walkway

There are about 125 plots in this community garden which sits in a small public park.  Walk through the main gate and down a wide and clean central walkway.  There are 2 rows of plots on either side of the walkway.

This is my plot, #33.  It is 20 x 20 feet.  My husband built the wind break in the front and the wooden planter boxes to my specifications.  In the corner near the plot number are water spigots and my storage box.  I also have a shade umbrella to rest under on super hot days.

I only have two zucchini plants, but they produce more than I can eat.

I have a tiered planter box for my strawberries which used to fill up these boxes.  Now I just have a few surviving plants that produce enough to top my oatmeal. 

And I have a few broccoli plants that will produce side shoots like these for a few more months.

There's also green beans, daikon, New Zealand spinach, and in a month or so, cucumbers, Japanese eggplant, honeydew melons and corn.

If you live in an apartment and want to grow your own vegetables, look to see where you might find your little plot.  It can be in a community garden, or a relative or friend's back yard.  Work a barter system where you grow the vegetables and pay the land owner with fresh organic vegetables right outside their door. 

Day 13

Breakfast:

Miltons' Squaw Bread and Peanut Butter

Tennis:

Orange Juice

Lunch:

Fried Brown Rice with Egg and Zucchini

Loquats

2 Chocolate Peanut Bars

Dinner:

Chicken Red Bean Soup

Orange

Calories: 1453

Cost: 97 cents

Weight:  XXX - 3.5 pounds

Day 12 - Poor Man's Soup

Do you know the story about "Stone Soup"?   A poor beggar who is rebuffed by the villagers decides to make some soup.  In the middle of the village, with nothing but a pot of water and a large stone, he draws curiosity and persuades the villagers one by one to add something to the pot.  A carrot here, a potato, an onion, and in the end, a nourishing soup is shared by all.

I think of this story as I eat my poor man's soup. 

Soup is nourishing, warm and comforting.  It is as unique as the ingredients around it.  It can be made out of things that may people discard, the bones from meat, the odd ends of vegetables, the greens that are past their prime.  You can make use of all these things and make a wonderful healthy meal.

My soup, is definitely a poor man's soup.  In the beginning of the challenge, I simmered a chicken carcass and added some red beans and caramelized onions.  I froze it in portions so that I could make it stretch throughout the month.  Today I took out one of the portions and added broccoli, green beans, zucchini, spaghetti and little currant tomatoes.  This is what I have on hand today.

Fifteen minutes later, I serve up a steaming bowl of soup.  There's nothing fancy in this soup, and yet, I feel really happy and satisfied right now.

Day 12

Breakfast:

1/2 banana with peanut butter

Lunch:

Hard boiled egg

Orange Juice

Small apple

Snack:

Roasted green beans (they are gone now!)

Loquats

2 chocolate peanut bars

Dinner:

Chicken Soup

Calories:  1180

Cost: 88 cents

Weight:  XXX - 3.5 pounds

Featured in: Frugally Sustainable

Day 11 - So Much Oatmeal

Oatmeal with soy milk and berries

This morning I made oatmeal for breakfast.  I have so much oatmeal that I can even give a bowl to my husband.  I'm making them in batches once a week and keeping it in the fridge.

I'm lucky to have a variety of fresh berries; little strawberries from my garden, blueberries from my brother's house, and mulberries gleaned from a tree.  I can also top my oatmeal this month with chopped apples or bananas.  Each serving ends up to be about 27 cents and that's mostly because of the cost of the soy milk.  I'm using a vanilla flavored soy milk and it gives this bowl a nice flavor.  And yes, I'm embarrassed to say that the earthenware bowl that it's in is from the 80's.

How do you like your oatmeal?  Please don't tell me you eat the ones out of a package.  Those have so much sugar it them and are expensive.  The serving size of the packages are small too.

My oatmeal box says that one serving size is 1/2 cup of dry oatmeal.  There is no way I can eat that much so I am ending up with leftovers.  What to do?  I thought I would try an experiment making them into cookies, so I chopped up a couple of chocolate peanut bars* and mixed them into the oatmeal.

Experimental oatmeal cookies before they were baked.

I baked them but without the fat and flour, they didn't crisp up.  However, I ate them and they were good enough for me.

I read that you can also fry leftover oatmeal on a griddle like a pancake.  I'd really like to make some kind of baked good with them to snack on though.  I'll have to think more about this. 

Yesterday, I had a good harvest of beans so I decided to roast them.  This is about a pound of different varieties.

They were trimmed, tossed with a little olive oil and garlic salt and baked on a cookie sheet for about 50 minutes.  Then, I decided to make them extra crispy, so I left them in the oven after I turned it off so that the beans would dry out more.

You can't tell by the picture, but the big bowl of beans reduced down to a small bowl of roasted beans and they are crispy snacks with lots of flavor.  They are now a savory snack.  I really like them and could eat this in one sitting if I'm not careful.

Day 11

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with soy milk and berries

Tennis:
Orange Juice

Lunch:
Egg & Avocado on Squaw Bread
Grilled zucchini
Loquats

Snack:
Oatmeal Choc Pnut Cookies

Dinner:
Bowl of pinto beans and 2 corn tortillas
Orange

Snack:
Roasted green beans

Calories: 1510
Cost: 87 cents

Weight:  XXX - 3.5 pounds

* The bag of Chocolate Peanut Bars were marked down to $1 and are in my budget.  2 bars cost 6 cents.

Day 10 - Lunch To Go

Lunch To Go

This afternoon I visited a craft fair with my friend Lisa.  We are both crafters and like to visit local fairs in our area.  Today we were at the Patchwork show in the old Helm's Bakery building. 

If there is one thing I like to buy at craft fairs, it's the indie made gourmet food.  It's always a treat to have something special made by a local artisan.  Even though I can't buy it for myself this month, I'm still game to buy it as a gift for someone, or I can save it for next month.  And as always, the vendors urge you to try their samples which are up for grabs in my challenge. 

Chocolates from C Salt Gourmet

Olives from Orgasmo de la Boca

So I indulged myself in a few samples of chocolate and nut brittle, a gourmet olive and a teeny bit of mudslide cupcake.  I enjoyed them all, but not enough to pull out the wallet this time.  Oh, also, on signing in to the show, they gave us a sample bottle of strawberry lemonade.

After enjoying the craft fair, we walked around the Helm's Bakery visiting some of the furniture stores.  Because I'm doing a reorg project in my home, I'm interested in some home office furniture.  I was craving a cup of coffee when we bumped into some free coffee at Room and Board.

Then it was lunch time, and I was able to share my "12 cent lunch to go" with my gluten free diet friend, Lisa.  I ate the hard boiled egg and orange juice, and she snacked on my little apples.  I'm learning that my dollar a day challenge meals are almost the same as her gluten free meals.  Well, not so much today though.


Day 10

Breakfast:
Milton's Squaw Bread and Peanut Butter

Lunch:
Strawberry Lemonade
Samples from vendors
Free coffee
Orange Juice
Hard Boiled Egg

Snack:
small apple

Dinner:
Egg Harvest Salad (Egg, Avocado, Orange, Apple on Romaine with Lemon dressing)


Calories:  1033
Cost:  61 cents

Weight:  XXX - 3.5 pounds



 

Day 9 - My Favorite Ingredient

Fried rice with egg and roasted vegetables

This month, I'm limited to the variety of ingredients I can use when making up meals.  To keep it interesting, instead of having the same dish day after day, I've been reinventing the way I'm preparing them.  I've completely gotten away from my original meal plan and have been cooking up what I feel like eating limited to what I have on hand.

My most favorite ingredient is the egg.  It can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  It cooks fast and has protein and fat to make you feel satisfied.  I can hard boil it and make sandwiches and salads or keep it whole in the refrigerator for a quick protein snack.  I can fry it alone or mix it in with rice or vegetables.

For lunch, I did just that.  I fried up brown rice with egg and leftover roasted vegetables.  It's fast and hot and tasty. 

I've found that it's really important for me to have some things prepared so that I can get a meal ready fast and easy.  This is what helps to keep me on track. 

It's day 9 and finally, I am starting to miss my old haunts.  After working in the garden or coming home from tennis, I usually hit a fast food place and get a burger fix.  The thing that keeps me on track right now is knowing if I get home I can make up lunch in a couple of minutes.  Tomorrow, I'd better have a snack on hand because I'll be out on the road. 

Also this afternoon, I really wanted a salty snack.  I settled for the zucchini chips and they tasted better today than yesterday.

If I'm still feeling hungry, the last resort is to lie down and take a nap.  Many times I'm eating just to feel alert and that's when I crave sugar, snacks and soda.  I've been taking naps and feel better.  Of course, I'm lucky I can do that!

Day 9

Breakfast:
Apple slices with peanut butter

Lunch:
Fried brown rice with egg and roasted vegetables
Avocado slices and red currant tomatoes

Snack:
Dried zucchini chips

Dinner:
Bowl of pinto beans
2 corn tortillas

Dessert:
1/2 roasted banana with 2 small chocolate pnut bars


Calories:  1198
Cost:  77 cents

Weight: XXX - 3 pounds

Day 8 - The Underrated Bean

Who knew?  Who knew I would like eating a plain bowl of pinto beans? 

How did I get to be this old and not know how easy, economical and versatile it is to cook up a pot of dry beans? 

I did the minimum.  I soaked a one pound bag of pinto beans in a bowl of water overnight.  In the morning, the beans had soaked up all the water.  My husband got mad at me because the cat found it and started pulling them out and playing with them. 

I rinsed them out, put them in a big pot and added water 2 inches above the level of the beans.  Then I let them boil for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours or just about when I could smell them from upstairs. 

I went to the garden.

On the way home, I was hungry and decided to just eat the beans straight out of the pot.  So I scooped about 1/2 cup with some of the bean broth and ate it with 2 corn tortillas that I browned on the stove top. 

OMG.  It was good.  It was plain and good.  I meant to make refried beans with these, but why bother?  I put some beans in a corn tortilla and ate it like a taco.  I should have put some avocado in with it, but I didn't think about it until too late.  Also, when those darn tomatoes are ready, they'll be awesome in these bean tacos.  I was quite happy eating these plain, but decided to try a package of Taco Bell hot sauce packets that we have accumulated in the cupboard.  Yes, this is within my rules.  Anyway, it was super good on the bean taco and in the remaining bowl of beans.  I was quite happy with my simple and humble meal.

This was my second pot of beans, by the way.  On day one of this challenge, I made a pot of red beans that I put in my chicken soup.  I stored half of that pot in the freezer for later in the month, and I did the same with the pinto beans cooked today.

I had to make a Trader Joe's run for my husband so while there, I snagged a free cup of java and a sample of a lentil snack. 

This is what I bought for him:

$30 worth of snacks

This is what I bought for me:

38 cents worth of bananas

I have a patch of daikon (Japanese radish) in the garden so I decided to whip up a batch of easy takuan (pickled radish).   It's really just thin slices of daikon in a solution of sugar, salt and vinegar.  Most recipes say to add yellow food coloring which I don't bother with.  I will pack it in a jar and keep it in the refrigerator.  It's eaten like a condiment, so this is enough takuan to feed a small army.  In a few days I'll be eating tofu and brown rice and this takuan will really hit the spot.

    

Day 8

Breakfast:

Oatmeal with Soy Milk and Blueberries

Lunch:

Simmered Pinto Beans with corn tortillas

Orange

Snack:
Sample cup of TJ's coffee
Sample lentil snack from TJ's

Dinner:
Chicken Stir Fry with Pasta

Calories: 1115
Cost: 85 cents

Weight:  XXX - 3.0