The $25 Food Project: Day 1

It’s Day 1 of the $25 Food Project! I’m excited! Husband-Elect’s excited! This is gonna be a good time! However…

Already I’m about $0.40 off. Yikes. This isn’t insurmountable, but I don’t like starting behind the curve. Fun fact: if I was feeding myself (with a 2020 calorie requirement) instead of Husband-Elect, I’d be right on target.

So here’s what happened. I made a few major tactical errors right off the bat. Well, it was actually just one mistake made several times, like so:

• Instead of buying a bag or two of dried beans, I figured I could use canned beans from my stash. (Er ... pantry.) They’re not expensive in the grand scheme of things, but for this experiment, compared to bagged beans, they may as well be caviar.
• Same thing went for cheese; I got really great deals on Cracker Barrel a few weeks ago, but it’s still pricey compared to generic cheddar.
• Oatmeal … same. I could have had the store brand but … moving on.

Essentially, I got cocky. It wasn’t catastrophic, though, especially since Husband-Elect "feels that I have been sated." (He's a peach, that one.) I think I can make up the slack through the rest of the week, too. (Woot!)

That said, here’s the breakdown from today:

DAILY TOTAL: 2739 calories, 67.6 g fat, 57.1 g fiber, $3.96

BREAKFAST
2 servings Gingersnap Oatmeal: 526 calories, 6.4 g fat, 9 g fiber, $0.84
1 apple: 77 calories, 0.3 g fat, 3.6 g fiber, $0.17
TOTAL: 604 calories, 6.7 g fat, 12.6 g fiber, $1.01
PREP TIME: 9 minutes

LUNCH & SNACK
PB&J on whole grain bread: 510 calories, 19 g fat, 8 g fiber, $0.46
10 Triscuit Thins: 103 calories, 3 g fat, 2 g fiber, $0.20
4 ounces carrots: 44 calories, 0.2 g fat, 3 g fiber, $0.22
1 apple: 77 calories, 0.3 g fat, 3.6 g fiber, $0.17
1/2 cup White Bean Dip: 230 calories, 9 g fat, 8.1 g fiber, $0.56
TOTAL: 964 calories, 30.5 g fat, 24.7 g fiber, $1.61
PREP TIME: 0 minutes (made it while breakfast cooked)

DINNER
1 serving Easy Bean Chili: 243 calories, 6.6 g fat, 9.1 g fiber, $0.70
2 med. baked potatoes (14.1 oz): 388 calories, 0.4 g fat, 9.2 g fiber, $0.22
1/2 grated cheddar: 45 calories, 3 g fat, 0 g fiber, $0.12
TOTAL: 721 calories, 10 g fat, 18.3 g fiber, $1.04
PREP TIME: 30 minutes active prep, 20 minutes waiting for it to cook

DESSERT
3 Snickerdoodles: 450 calories, 20.4 g fat, 1.5 g fiber, $0.30

NOTES

• Oven Stuffer Roasters and pork shoulder were on sale this week, both for $0.79/lb. I went with the pork, because I did chicken once before and wanted to challenge myself.
• I started prepping last night for today. I made an adapted version of Ellie Krieger’s White Bean Dip and skinned and chopped a pound of carrots. All told, this took me 13 minutes, with another 5 added for dishes. BAM, yo.
• For a treat, I made the cheapest cookies I could think of: Snickerdoodles. It took probably 30 minutes prep time (mixing & rolling), plus another 15 minutes for baking and storage. They're really good! The recipe (from Recipe Zaar) is highly suggested