Saturday, December 20, 2008

Breakfast

I had to be at work early again this morning, so once again, breakfast had to be mobile. I finished off the orange juice (there was about 1 cup left) and had some coffee before leaving the house. Once I was settled at my desk, I mixed together a 6 0z. cup of vanilla yogurt, 1/2 cup of granola cereal (I tried the Schnucks brand-oats, honey and almonds) and 1/4 cup of dried berries. I must say, this was a winning combination! The dried berries were a great addition, as even fruit yogurts don't really have much fruit in them, in spite of their name. This breakfast filled me up (I wasn't even tempted to snack on the free food that's available where I work) all the way through lunch. I even went and walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes! Breakfast choices really do make a big difference.
All together, this meal provided:
Grains: 1 oz whole (granola cereal)
Fruits: 1 1/2 cups (orange juice and dried fruit)
Vegetables: 0
Milk: 3/4 cup (yogurt)
Meats & beans: 0
Oils: o
The cost of this meal was approximately:$1.93


Leftovers for lunch
Another important rule of eating on a budget-use your leftovers! Today I brought along leftover tofu and sweet potato curry from last night (pictured below-this one looked pretty much the same except it was in a tupperware container). I added a fat free peach yogurt on the side, in my attempt to get more milk in my diet.

All together, this meal provided:
Grains: 2 oz whole (brown rice)
Fruits: 0
Vegetables: 1 1/2 cups (sweet potato curry)
Milk: 3/4 cup (yogurt)
Meats & beans: 2 oz (tofu)
Oils: o
The cost of this meal was approximately:$2.57

Afternoon snack
Because I was going out tonight, I knew I had to take a nap when I got home from work or I would never make it through dinner. It’s so hard to get enough sleep when I have to be up a 5 in the morning. I can never fall asleep early enough to get a respectable amount. Luckily I don’t have to work that shift very often (it was unusual that I worked it twice this week). After I closed my eyes for a little while, I had about an ounce of almonds (22 pieces) and a few dried apricots (about 1/8 cup).


All together, this meal provided:
Grains: 0
Fruits: ¼ cup (apricots)
Vegetables: 0
Milk: 0
Meats & beans: 2 oz (almonds)
Oils: 2 tsp (almonds)
The cost of this meal was approximately: $0.48

Dinner
The situation is inevitable-no matter how hard you are trying to stick to a food budget, you will be asked to go somewhere that will break it. Someone will invite you out for coffee/lunch/dinner/drinks for a birthday/anniversary/holiday, or “just because.” You don’t want to be antisocial and refuse to go, or sit and watch as everyone else eats. However, there are some tactics I like to employ to lighten the expense (to my wallet as well as nutrition) as much as possible.
Tonight was my good friend’s birthday celebration, and we went to a restaurant called Revival. Before leaving the house, I had a small meal-about a cup of whole wheat rotini pasta with ½ cup of pasta sauce (pre-made Prego, heart healthy variety-found it on sale at Target and tried it for the first time. Not bad!). I also added about ¼ cup of shredded mozzarella cheese. This small meal served as sort of an “appetizer” to what I would eat at the restaurant.
If available, I always check the restaurant’s menu online so that I can come up with a plan before I arrive. Upon reviewing the menu, I decided that I would have the mixed greens, goat cheese, green apples and spiced peanuts salad. It was moderately priced (at $6.50) and I had a pretty good idea about what to expect from reading the description. Upon receiving the salad, I was able to easily estimate the portion sizes. It was a very good salad, and actually quite filling thanks to the fact that I had secretly (not so secret anymore) eaten something before I got there.
I also ordered a glass of red wine. Because alcoholic beverages don’t count toward any food group (I know, it would be nice, since wine is made from grapes-but it just doesn’t work that way) I considered this an “entertainment” expense rather than a food expense. I usually choose wine when I am ordering alcohol because it is much lower in calories than a lot of mixed drinks. Any alcoholic drink packs quite a punch calorically. When I was younger, I would order fruity vodka mixed drinks quite a bit. Now I realize that these can easily be over 150 calories apiece, and imagine how much I raked up when I had 5 or 6 of them in one night! That was when my metabolism (and brain) could still handle that sort of thing…
I was the designated driver tonight, so I called it quits after 1 glass of wine. Overall, the dinner was good-the restaurant had a nice atmosphere and very high quality food at a moderate price.

All together, this meal provided:
Grains: 2 oz. whole (pasta)
Fruits: ¼ cup (apples on salad)
Vegetables: 1 ½ cup (2 cups mixed salad greens=1 cup, + ½ cup pasta sauce)
Milk: 1 ½ cups (1/4 cup mozzarella on pasta and ¼ cup goat cheese on salad)
Meats & beans: ½ oz (peanuts on salad)
Oils: 2 tsp (peanuts and salad dressing)
The cost of this meal was approximately: $7.22

Late night snack

When I got home, I had a big glass of water and a slice of whole wheat toast with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter. Even though I only had one drink, I wanted to be sure I eliminated any chance of headache or feeling crappy the next day since I had to go to work (not the early shift this time-thankfully).

All together, this meal provided:
Grains: 1 oz whole (bread)
Fruits: 0
Vegetables: 0
Milk: 0
Meats & beans: 1 oz (peanut butter)
Oils:1 tsp (peanut butter)
The cost of this meal was approximately: $0.21

How did I do today?
Grains: 6 oz. out of 6 oz. (all were whole!)
Fruits: 2 cups out of 2 cups
Vegetables: 3 cups out of 2 ½ cups
Milk:2 ¾ cups out of 3 cups
Meats & beans:5 ½ oz out of 5 ½ oz
Oils: 5 tsp out of 6 tsp
Total cost for the day: $12.40

Well, I broke the budget by eating out tonight-but as I said, this situation is bound to occur at some point. For me, the key is to handle it tactfully and plan ahead to make it as cheap, and nutritional, as possible.