Breakfast
For breakfast today, I had my coffee along with 1 1/2 cups of Raisin Bran cereal (Market Pantry brand) with a cup of skim milk. I can already tell today is going to be a hectic day. I have to attend a meeting at my practicum site, and then come home and prepare for having people over tonight. We're expecting at least 20 people to show up...it might get kind of crazy!

All together, this meal provided:
Grains: 2 oz whole (cereal)
Fruits: 1/4 cup (raisins in cereal)
Vegetables: 0
Milk: 1 cup (skim milk)
Meats & beans: 0
Oils: 0

The cost of this meal was approximately: $0.66

Lunch
I wanted to have a little something to eat before I left for the meeting, because #1 I wasn't 100% sure they would be serving food, and #2, I wasn't sure if it would be something I'd want to eat. I had a can of Progresso low sodium vegetable soup (about 2 cups total-somehow I forgot to take a picture of it with all that was on my mind), and figured that it would at least hold me over until after the meeting if I didn't eat there. It turned out that what they were serving was samples of all the new menu items for next month, so I felt obligated to at least try a few of them. They were all meat entrees, so I sampled a few. I had to estimate how much I had, which wasn't too hard to do while it was all on the plate in front of me. Since it was all meat, I tried to imagine it in comparison to the size of a deck of playing cards, which is equal to about 3 ounces. It was a little smaller than that, do I'm going with about 2 ounces total. All of the samples I tried were great-it was nice to get a "taste of things to come"!

All together, this meal provided:
Grains: 0
Fruits: 0
Vegetables: 1 cup (vegetables in soup)
Milk: 0
Meats & beans: 2 oz
Oils: 0

The cost of this meal (if I had prepared the meat at home) was approximately: $1.75

Dinner
By the time I had everything ready for the party tonight, I did not want to make another mess in the kitchen by cooking in it. Matt went to Crazy Bowls and Wraps and got me a grilled pesto chicken wrap with brown rice. This was, in fact, my inspiration for the fake chicken pesto wraps I made the other night...I guess I've been craving one! Besides pesto, chicken, cheese and brown rice, this wrap also has a pretty good amount of fresh spinach in it, which makes it one of my favorite choices when I eat at CBW. The cost is kind of high (I think this item is about 6.50), but again, to keep things "neater" I am costing it out as if it were prepared at home. Along with my wrap, I had an 8 oz glass of Old Orchard blueberry pomegranate 100% juice blend.

All together, this meal provided:
Grains: 2 1/2 oz (1 1/2 from tortilla, and 1 whole from brown rice in wrap)
Fruits: 1 cup (juice)
Vegetables: 1/2 cup (spinach in wrap)
Milk: 1/4 cup (Parmesan cheese in wrap)
Meats & beans: 3 oz (chicken in wrap)
Oils: 2 teaspoons (pesto sauce in wrap)

The cost of this meal (if I had prepared it at home) was approximately: $1.63

Party Snacks!
As snacks for the party, I made spinach artichoke dip and served that along with (store bought) hummus and salsa with tortilla chips, Triscuit crackers and honey wheat pretzel sticks to dip with. I didn't think to take pictures of it all (alcohol might have been involved) but I do have an idea of what I ate throughout the night. I had about 6 tortilla chips, 8 pretzels, about 2 tablespoons each of the hummus and salsa, and 1/4 cup of the spinach/artichoke dip. Overall, the party was a huge success! Everyone had a great time (and partied like it was 1999, as per our theme), nothing got broken, and the cops didn't show up...what more could I ask for?

All together, this meal provided:
Grains: 2 oz whole (corn tortilla chips and pretzels)
Fruits: 0
Vegetables: 3/4 cup (hummus, spin/artichoke dip and salsa)
Milk: 1/2 cup (cheese in dip)
Meats & beans: 0
Oils: 1 teaspoon (corn tortilla chips were fried)

The cost of this meal was approximately: $1.63

How did I do today?
Grains: 6 1/2 oz out of 6 oz (5 were whole)
Fruits: 1 1/4 cups out of 2 cups
Vegetables: 2 1/4 cups out of 2 1/2 cups
Milk: 1 3/4 cups out of 3 cups
Meats & Beans: 5 1/2 oz out of 5 1/2 oz
Oils: 3 teaspoons out of 6 teaspoons

Total cost for the day: $4.94

This was an unusual day, for many reasons. I had a lot going on, so I didn't have much time to think about how I would fulfill all of my nutritional requirements. I still did okay, all things considered, but I did fall short in a few areas. I will try and make it up tomorrow...hopefully it will all even out!