$100 challenge - week 2

Week 1

Spent $8.97 of the remaining $10.59 from week 1 on bacon and cheese so that I could make these courgettes that Laura from the blog of worldly delights posted for breakfast. I think the courgettes coupled with egg "muffins" will make for a decent breakfast that's not sugary cereal and will hopefully keep me fuller. Two packets of oatmeal and a couple hours later I'm starving.

I cheated Wednesday night and ordered a sandwich from Jimmy John's. I got called into work and was more tired than normal when I got home AND craving a slim 3 with cheese. I think it might be lady time. In my initial post my goal was to eat out less, so maybe it really isn't cheating. I never mentioned how eating out would fit in to this challenge because you can't use SNAP benefits to eat out.

For the week I cooked and ate 16 Bean Soup (which resulted in many 16 bean farts), Pioneer Women's Vegetable Lasagna, vegetable tacos, corn beef hash, potatoes and sauteed veggies and dark chocolate cupcakes w/ peanut butter frosting. No specific recipes for the veggie tacos or potatoes and veggies. All I did was saute onions, bell peppers and mushrooms in olive oil and then sprinkled some cayenne and garlic powder on them. Threw them in tortillas with sour cream and cheese for tacos or saute with potatoes for a hearty breakfast.

Not very exciting meals. I should also mention I gave a slice of lasagna to a friend, so really I fed TWO people this week. Ha!

$14.41 + $8.97 = $23.38

• dozen eggs
• larger container or pre-cut pineapple
• 6 bananas
• Greek yogurt
• can of corn beef hash
• can of great northern beans
• can of chili style tomatoes
• sage sausage roll  
• 2 bell peppers
• 2 onions
• bag of frozen sweet corn
• large package of mushrooms
• CLIF bar (not pictured, I got hungry before I got home)

Total: $27.88

Week 2

Yes, I went over and it's just the beginning of the week. I would've probably come just under if I'd gotten the smaller container of pineapple, not gotten the CLIF bar and shopped at my regular grocery store. I also didn't pick up milk which was on my list. It was the one thing on my list that I will eventually need. I have a $10 buffer for the month so going over isn't a big deal, but I'd like to stay under $100 if I can.

I ate the corn beef hash during week 1. I had a craving and had to have it. I'm okay with this because I have about 3 servings of vegetable lasagna left as well as a serving of 16 bean soup that I will eat at some point during week 2.

This week will be more sauteed veggies, probably with yaki soba. I will also be making chili (the weather is getting colder, so I'm looking forward to chili), fajitas, smoothies and the courgettes I posted about above (which mean week 1 creeps into week 2 for breakfast). Last week little to no meat and this week...lots of meat.

Other than going over my budget for week 2, I think I'm doing pretty well. I'm more aware of what I'm eating and it's nice to be doing more cooking even if it's pretty much the same stuff every day.

reading - Darius & Twig by Walter Dean Myers This post brought to you in part by: