Recovering From Cooking Rebellion – Day 77: Eating Well On $1 A Day
I woke up without much motivation to cook, but at least with a bit more sleep. What I did know was that eating junk food all day wasn’t going to cut it for a second day in a row.
One thing that I have learned about myself is although I don’t care what I eat, if there is something lying around, I will eat it. Having all those snacks around just wasn’t going to end well when I know I am like that. Therefore I am donating the other 5 Ritz Bits packages to the local food bank (along with 12 other bags I had picked up during the week on my walks, but knew I wouldn’t be eating myself and would be going to the food bank). It will be a challenge to have enough snacks around so that I don’t feel deprived while not having too many so that I feel it is OK to binge on them…
Cherry Plum Smoothie
I did get myself motivated enough to make myself a morning smoothie with the rest of the cherry plums I had. I also took the advice from a number of readers saying the smoothies were likely thicker here because I was now using frozen bananas instead of fresh ones. To compensate for this, I added a bit of the blueberry pomegranate juice I had and it made all the difference – and we are back to perfect smoothies again:
Peanut Butter Celery & Cream Cheese Carrots
I knew that the only way to stay away from the snacks today was to limit the amount I was going to allow myself (I usually don’t like doing this because it usually makes me feel deprived and wanting more, but I needed to lay down some parameters for at least the next couple of days) to one granola bar per day. That meant that I was going to need to find another snack for when those cravings came and I opted for peanut butter celery and cream cheese carrots:
In addition, I ate the last of my Fiber One Strawberry yogurt.
Combining these snacks with the old reliable peanut butter and banana sandwich kept me from craving the junk food.
Chicken & Veggies Over Rice
I began to look for recipes and as soon as I did, my head started to hurt. While I had managed to suppress the cooking rebellion, it was still there. I decided to forget about following any recipe and just throw together some stuff I had since I felt at this point cooking, no matter how badly it turned out, was better than letting the rebellion come back in full force. I started off by cooking one of the chicken breasts I still had in Italian salad dressing:
Once the chicken breast was cooked, I took it out but left the remains of the Italian dressing in the pan. I then threw in a bunch of veggies I had on hand: green pepper, onion, broccoli and tomato. I added a bit of salt, pepper and garlic powder. After cooking those awhile, I took one strip from the chicken breast, cut it into small pieces and added it in with the veggies:
I then took the rest of the rice I had leftover, placed that in a bowl and put the chicken veggies on top:
It turned out darn pretty well and I would have no problem making it again. More importantly, it got me back onto the cooking horse which I hope to stay on for a long while…
This is the current list of food I still have
This is the current list of what I have purchased:
Goal: 100 days eating on $1 a day
Current Money Spent: $49.15
Money Left to Spend: $50.85 ($5.83 must be spent at CVS, $1.50 must be spent at Safeway)
Retail Value of Everything Purchased: $1370.97
The Beginning :::
Day 78: The Plastic Bag Omelet
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You have now gotten the basics of cooking a dish without a recipe! That’s how alot of good cooks do it. I know now what will taste good in certain combinations and when I have a need for a speedy dinner I can count on those things for a tasty meal! Good for you!