Breakfast
I made a sugar free caramel latte with a cup of skim milk to start the morning today. The sugar free syrup is good, but I've learned to use it in very small amounts-otherwise, it's too overpowering. I really enjoyed my fruit and yogurt snack yesterday, so I made it again this morning but added some granola cereal (store brand-honey & oats) to the mix. I used a cup of fat free vanilla yogurt, 1/2 cup of granola cereal, 1/2 cup of frozen (thawed) blueberries, and 11 almonds. It was so good! I really like the Dannon yogurt-I'm so glad I tried it.

All together, this meal provided:

Grains: 1 oz whole (cereal)

Fruits: 1/2 cup (blueberries)

Vegetables: 0

Milk: 2 cup (milk in latte and yogurt)

Meats & beans: 1 oz (almonds)

Oils: 1 teaspoon (almonds)

The cost of this meal was approximately: $2.05

Snack
I had Fiber One bar as a snack about an hour before I went on my lunch break. This time, I tried the Oats, Almonds and Strawberries variety...so good! It even had a chocolate drizzle over the top. What a delicious way to get your fiber!

All together, this meal provided:

Grains: 1/2 oz whole

The cost of this meal was approximately: $0.50

Lunch
Leftover pasta, once again. I had about a cup of pasta with pesto, peas and carrots left, so I decided to bring that for lunch today and finish it off. I added about another cup of veggies, because there weren't many left in the container. I also made a mixed fruit salad (about 1 1/2 cups) of red and greeen grapes, frozen strawberries and blueberries. The grapes were on sale and the quality didn't look too bad so I picked up about a pound of them. By the time I got around to eating my lunch, the frozen fruit had thawed so it worked out perfectly. It was a pretty light lunch, but I ate late so I should be good until dinner without a snack.

All together, this meal provided:

Grains: 2 oz (pasta)

Fruits: 1 1/2 cups (mixed fruit)

Vegetables: 1 cup (peas and carrots)

Milk: 0

Meats & beans: 0

Oils: 2 teaspoon (pesto)

The cost of this meal was approximately: $1.58

Dinner
I did not have a plan for dinner tonight, and I spent the last half hour of work mentally scanning what I had at home that might be made into a meal. I couldn't come up with a thing, so I went by the store and picked up a few items to make "breakfast for dinner" with. I ended up making scrambled eggs with hash browns and soy sausage, topped with reduced fat cheddar and salsa, with whole wheat toast. I bought real eggs this time instead of the egg substitute, inspired by an article I read today that said eggs are no longer considered to contain bad cholesterol. I have heard mixed views on this for awhile now, but seeing it in print was helpful to sort it out. Eggs do have many additional vitamins and minerals that are not found in egg substitute, which is essentially just egg whites. All the good stuff is in the yolk. I will probably still continue to use the substitute for some things, but I realized that whole eggs are much more economical price-wise. I got 12 servings for $1.99, where I only get 8 servings of the Better n'eggs for $2.39. Sounds like a deal to me! My serving contained 2 eggs, about 1/2 cup of hash browned potatoes, 2 Morningstar Farms soy sausage patties (1 oz each), 1/4 cup of reduced fat cheddar, 1/4 cup of salsa, and two slices of toast with a teaspoon of Smart Balance Light. I took a picture of it looking pretty before I mashed it all up together! Yum!

All together, this meal provided:

Grains: 2 oz (toast)

Fruits: 0

Vegetables: 1 cup (hash browns and salsa)

Milk: 1 cup (cheddar cheese)

Meats & beans: 4 oz (eggs and "sausage" patties)

Oils: 1 teaspoon (Smart Balance)

The cost of this meal was approximately: $2.78

How did I do today?
Grains: 5 1/2 oz out of 6 oz (3 1/2 were whole)
Fruits: 2 cups out of 2 cups
Vegetables: 1 3/4 cups out of 2 ½ cups
Milk: 3 cups out of 3 cups
Meats & beans: 5 oz out of 5 ½ oz
Oils: 3 tsp out of 6 tsp

Total cost for the day: $6.91