1.15.09

Breakfast
Today is the first day of school. I only have one class today, and then the rest start next week...so at least I get to ease back into it. As a back-to-school gift to myself, I got a brand new computer yesterday! My old computer has been acting a little run-down lately, and I've been using Matt's laptop. This is the first laptop I have ever owned, and I really like it so far. Plus, it's portable so I will be able to bring it to school with me. How exciting! Now Matt gets to use his computer once in awhile :)
I made oatmeal for breakfast this morning. This time, I cooked it with milk instead of water. I don't know why I never tried this before, because it allows me to get more milk in without making the oatmeal too watery. I mixed 3/4 cup of skim milk with 1/4 cup of quick oats, then added a packet of Equal, a sliced medium banana, and 2 tablespoons of walnuts. The texture of the oatmeal was much creamier, since I used the milk. I will definitely continue to employ this tactic!

All together, this meal provided:
Grains: 1 oz whole (oatmeal)
Fruits: 3/4 cup (banana)
Vegetables: 0
Milk: 3/4 cup (skim milk)
Meats & beans: 1 oz (walnuts)
Oils: 1 teaspoon (walnuts)

The cost of this meal was approximately: $0.73

Lunch-all about the leftovers
I finished off the rest of my leftovers for lunch today. I had the rest of the breaded chicken (about 3 oz) and broccoli (1/2 cup). I also heated up the rest of the vegetable soup from other day (Progresso garden vegetable-about 1/2 of the can, or 1 cup) and had a slice of whole wheat french bread with a teaspoon of Smart Balance Light. It was a good lunch-and freed up some space in my fridge, too!

All together, this meal provided:
Grains: 1 oz whole (bread/breading on chicken)
Fruits: 0
Vegetables: 1 cup (broccoli and vegetable soup)
Milk: 0
Meats & beans: 3 oz (chicken)
Oils: 1 teaspoon (Smart Balance)

The cost of this meal was approximately: $1.77

Afternoon Snack-images of the upcoming semester of biochem dancing in my head...

The first day of school is always pretty laid back-we didn't even get into the actual coursework yet! It was nice to see my classmates though, and dish about our respective practicum sites :) I had lunch kind of early, so I made a snack when I got home from class. I had a few slices of mozzarella cheese with 9 All-Bran crackers and 1/4 cup (6) dried apricots.


All together, this meal provided:
Grains: 1/2 oz whole (All-Bran crackers)
Fruits: 1/2 cup (dried apricots)
Vegetables: 0
Milk: 3/4 cup (mozzarella cheese)
Meats & beans: 0
Oils: 0

The cost of this meal was approximately: $0.79

Dinner
I decided to make pizza tonight, using my whole wheat pizza crust recipe. I prepared a sauce using no salt added tomato paste-I added enough water to form a thick sauce, then threw in some garlic powder, basil and Mrs. Dash garlic and herb seasoning blend. I don't really know how much I added-I usually just taste it until it's good! I topped the pizza with the sauce, steamed spinach, mozzarella cheese and a sliced chicken sausage from Trader Joes (I like the spinach, garlic and fontina variety-but any kind works). It was very good, except for another malfunction with my pizza baking stone. I oiled it up really well, but forgot that I heard you are supposed to use cornmeal or flour over it to really keep it from sticking. So, it took me about 15 minutes to get the pizza loose from the stone again. For that reason, I have only shown the picture of the pretty pizza, still affixed to the stone, rather than the slightly mutilated slices that came off of it. Next time I'm going to do it right, I swear! I had 4 small pieces, which wasn't really half of the pizza since the slices were so messed up...it was probably more like 1/3. I also had a 6 oz glass of Old Orchard Blueberry/pomegranate juice (all that was left in the bottle) with my meal.

All together, this meal provided:
Grains: 4 oz whole (pizza crust)
Fruits: 3/4 cup (juice)
Vegetables: 1 3/4 cups (spinach and tomato sauce)
Milk: 1 1/4 cups (mozzarella cheese)
Meats & beans: 1 1/2 oz (turkey sausage)
Oils: 2 tsp (oil used on dough)

The cost of this meal was approximately: $2.56


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

Total cost for the day: $5.85