Today was basically an organization day and it didn’t begin on the right foot. Knowing that I would be leaving the house sitting job tomorrow, I needed to start packing up all of my stuff, cleaning up the house and bathroom, doing laundry and making sure everything was in order when the owners returned. The late hours and not enough sleep caught up to me and I ended up waking much later in the morning than I anticipated which threw my planned organizational schedule completely off. I was hoping to get an early start on it, but didn’t end up beginning until afternoon since I also had more computer work that anticipated to take care of. This meant that I basically spent the entire day running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
I did make myself a morning smoothie (this time with some cherry plums that I gathered on the morning walk), but since I did so while also cleaning the kitchen, I forgot to take photos of it. In my continuing effort to reduce as much of the food that I have on hand as possible, I also had a bowl of the Apple Cinnamon Cheerios at the same time to finish off the box (one less thing to pack).
Grilled Bacon Cheese Sandwich
Since I now have plenty of cheese (thank you to all that commented that I should freeze some of it since I had no idea that it would likely mold quickly if I didn’t), a grilled cheese sandwich seemed like a quick and convenient meal to make that could be done around the cleaning and organizing. In an attempt to make my bacon last as long as possible, I opted to place only one strip on the sandwich. The sandwich was wonderful (I had a side bowl of cantaloupe as well), but scrimping on the bacon was a mistake.
Roasted Stuffed Green Pepper
For dinner, I decided to use up the remaining green peppers that I had and went for a stuffed pepper challenge. I boiled the bell peepers for 5 minutes to soften them up a bit, then added a bit of cheese in the bottom:
I had quite a bit of the veggie bacon chicken rice medley left over, so I then spooned this into the peppers to fill them:
Then topped the pepper with cheese:
Once done, I placed a bit of vegetable oil on the outside so they wouldn’t stick and then placed them in the oven for 20 minutes. This is what they looked like when they came out:
I was actually pretty apprehensive trying this as I was sure that I would manage to make a disaster out of it, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well they tuned out. I probably could have seasoned the rice medley filling a bit more and added a bit more cheese on the inside, but overall it was quite good and I will definitely make it again given the chance.
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: $53.67
Money Left to Spend: $46.33 ($6.17 must be spent at CVS, $1.50 must be spent at Safeway)
Retail Value of Everything Purchased: $1424.08
The Beginning ::: Day 88: Sometimes It’s Worth Missing A Morning Smoothie
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I love stuffed peppers and your combination with bacon sounds yummy. Great job. I really look forward to your post.
Your meals really are not bad at all! Great job and oh the bacon grilled cheese!! ummmm
I hope you haven’t let any box tops go to waste! I collect them for my nephews throughout the year as well as getting my friends and coworkers in on the fun. You must have gotten some box tops during the last 87 days. Do you know if your nieces’ school collects them? It is a great resources of funds for education. I would encourage you to keep on eye out on it.
My name will take you to the website.
P.S. I love your blog! Your cooking has very much improved along the way. Keep up the good work!
I found your website through this post on Sunday:
http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/frugality/the-challenge-eating-for-31-days-on-31-122783
and I was intrigued so I read all your posts from Day 1 onwards.
It’s great that you’re not only succeeding in the challenge of eating well on $1 a day, you’re also improving your cooking skills dramatically, and you’re proving that anyone can help the food banks! 🙂
I live in the Netherlands, Europe, where coupons for groceries barely exist. Also, the coupons we do have always state that they cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotions. It’s impossible to get free items here, let alone to make money on the transaction!
I would love to live in the USA just for couponing alone, I’d have so much fun figuring out the best way to beat the system. 🙂
Keep up the good work!
Next time you make the stuffed peppers, if you mix cheese into the rice while cold you will get better flavor. You are doing great, cant wait to see what you do next.
What a creative idea with the peppers! I would have never thought of that, but it looks good. I’ll bet a Spanish rice stuffed pepper would be delicious as well, especially with some chicken or ground beef added to the rice and cheese.
Thinking about the Celsius tea that you had a few days ago… would you be able to work in a box of tea bags into your budget? You could probably get one cheaply/free at CVS with your ECBs and then would could make yourself iced tea to have on occasion, sweetened with whatever juice you have on hand.
Good job with the oven!!! You really impressed me, way to go!
Stuffed peppers, as well as calzone, are Italian peasant food created to make use of leftovers and scraps on the verge of being inedible. Some of the best calzones I’ve ever had were from a restaurant that boldly stated that “we stuff them with whatever is leftover from yesterday.”
Personally, I prefer a bread stuffed pepper to rice or meat. My grandmother made the BEST stuffed peppers. She kept a bag in the freezer and added bread ends and bits going stale. When she had a full bag, she’d take them out, make crumbs and get stuffing. The superiority of her crumbs, which is what made the peppers awesome, was in that they weren’t all the same kind of bread. Little rye, little wheat, sour dough, whatever she’d managed to accummulate, it was all in there.
I love to make stuffed peppers with rice-a-roni and a bit of ground beef if you have it. Yours look tasty with all the cheese!
great job with the peppers – they look delicious!!!
BTW, stuffed bell peppers are also awesome on the grill, if you get a chance.
I am VERY impressed with your newbie cook culinary skills Ben Affleck look-a-like!!