Day Five

Its the last day of the challenge and although I felt like I slipped last night I'm impressed with the amount of food I still have.  I think a I did a pretty good job of balancing protein, fruits, veggies and whole grains to create a filling, although not varied menu.

For breakfast I scrambled a few eggs with the leftover Italian pork sausage for a protein packed breakfast.  I was out of fruit and out of money so I just washed it down with a cup of green tea.  At lunch I was able to eat my long cooked and awaited chicken soup from the previous night.  It was filling and warm, just what I needed.  And for dinner I had some broccoli and chicken breast left over from the first night.  Nothing special but defintely enough of the nutrients my body needed.

Day Four

Where do I begin.  Day four I was feeling pretty confident I would be able to accomplish what I had set out to do.  I woke up.  Eggs on toast for breakfast, fixed a sandwich of shredded chicken, Greek yogurt, lettuce and a little salt and pepper to go and headed up to Stevens Pass for an afternoon of hitting the slopes.  The day was gorgeous and I realized that if I was truly living on $7/day I would not be escaping city life for a fun day in the mountains.  My time, energy and money would be put towards planning what I food I could afford and how I would pay for transportation.

But back to the task at hand...before leaving I made plans for dinner.  Left over chicken bones went into the crock-pot along with onions, water, salt and pepper to begin a flavorful broth to make chicken soup.  In my mind it would be a simple task to toss in left over veggies and shredded chicken and put it all over rice for a toasty warm dinner after an afternoon shushing in the mountains.  The chicken soup worked just fine, however my plans on how the evening would go did not.

On the way home from a lovely blue bird day at the pass I got a call from work.  It was busy and they were short staffed, could I come in and help.  Always willing to help I agreed to work from 7pm-3am.  Given that it was nearing 5pm, the commute time of the greater Seattle area, I calculated that I wouldn't make it home and then back to work in time.  I would have to go straight to work.  My chicken soup would have to wait and I was forced to go over my allotment of $$ to get food for dinner.

As I saw it it was a trade off.   It was more important for me to go into work and I realized that maybe this is a situation that some people face.  Getting food or going to work.  Or having to go to work hungry.  I have a hard time working without eating.  In my first post I mentioned the "hangry" that happens when I can't eat and it only is intensified at work.  Food fuels my body and helps me to think clearly and safely take care of patients.  It also makes me a way nicer person.  On our honeymoon it took my husband only 2 days to realize that packing a bag of almonds and some oranges made touring sites and listening to the history of a country and a people a lot more bearable without me complaining.

Last night I coudln't sacrifice the excellent care I could provide patients because I wasn't able to go home and get food.  And so I stepped outside the challenge, bought food for dinner which put me over my budget by $5.21.

Day Three

After breezing through my day yesterday, hardly thinking about my meals, I was off to a rocky start this morning.  Thinking I had plenty of time to get up and get ready I only allowed my self about 15 minutes to prepare my food.  Working all day I have to make sure to pack snacks, lunch and dinner.  I got the water boiling for my usual--poached eggs, and cursed that I hadn't included something like PAM in my budget.  Even a small packet of olive oil like they sell in Italy to put on a loaf of bread would have served to coat the pan to fry the eggs so I could put it between 2 slices of toast as I ran out the door.  Instead, I got the eggs going, then chopped some broccoli to steam for lunch.  Being short on time I decided a little mintue rice, with the broccoli and some leftover pork italian sausage would serve as a rice bowl lunch.  In it all went to the only container I had clean (an old yogurt container)---not sutable for microwaving but good for holding things.  Next I patched together a salad for dinner. Lettuce, half a tomato, 3 strawberries and tuna.  Hmmm, not as appetizing as it would sound.  I also had forgotten to create any sort of dressing and resorted to 1 packet of Italian dressing from the cafeteria (0.35).

I scarfed down my eggs, cut a grapefruit up for when I got to work, packed up the remainder of my daily allotment and headed in for my last 12 hour shift of the week.  I felt pretty perky with the eggs and grapefruit on board.  It wasn't until late afternoon that I started feeling the exhaustion that comes after 5 shifts in a row.  Usually I make a trip to Starbucks for a yummy latte or chai tea.  Today I had to settle for a walk.  I set out on a brisk tour, down the Burke-Gilman and back up to the hospital before popping open my tuna salad for dinner.  One packet of dressing was not enough to make this salad good in anyway.  The tomato was a little over ripe and the tuna--well it wasn't the delicious albacore you get from Costco.  It did fill my belly and for this I was thankful.

3 days down, 2 to go.  $4.09 left after brown rice, Italian dressing and green tea.

Day Two

Today proved to be significantly easier.  I had my eggs for breakfast, same style and peeled an orange once I got to work.  Lunch was a simple tuna sandwhich with carrot slices and dinner was my yummy creation that didn't cook in time last night.  I had a chicken breast, a few carrots and sweet potato slices I had roasted with the chicken and big glass of water.  Snacks were Green tea (0.20) and yogurt with strawberry slices.  All in all I felt I had a varied menu that kept me going throughtout my long 12 hour day. Once home however, a nice cool glass of red wine was calling my name.  I skipped it for a warm cup of water before sliding into bed. Almost halfway there!

Day One

I woke up a little discouraged that I had no food for breakfast but quickly regrouped, put myself together and headed to the grocery store. There, I thought I had a good game plan in place but soon realized trying to add up the cost of food in my head was stressful.  My husband, a math whiz, is usually on hand for quick calculations.  But being a 9-5 er and at work I was on my own.  By rounding up on prices I guessed the total cost pretty accurately leaving some room for a stop at the local fruit stand. I noticed recently my favorite Tony's Fruit Stand had opened again for business.  Their fresh produce is always delightful at great prices and within walking distance from our house. Despite this convenience I realized that planning and buying one week of food is challenging.   Lots of the ingredients I normally have on hand to make food for a number of days, such as flour, oil, butter where going to be costly in a budget of $35 and I omitted them from the list.

This left me with eggs ($0.70), a whole chicken at $5.15 (plus tax), a tube of Italian pork  sausage, a head of lettuce, broccoli, 3 carrots, 3 oranges, 1 grapefruit, 1 carton of strawberries, 3 cans of tuna, a russet potato, an onion, a tomato, a loaf of bread, a box of whole wheat pasta shells, and a carton of plain Greek yogurt. I took out 5 bags of green tea at $0.20 cents a bag and that left me $8.19 for the remainder of the week.

Breakfast was an easy start. Not having any oil or Pam I decided to poach my eggs. Lucky for me its my favorite breakfast.  Lunch also was fairly easy. I toasted 2 slices of bread, mixed a can of tuna with a little Greek yogurt, no mayo, added a slice of tomato and some lettuce accompanied by three very ripe strawberries.

Dinner almost put me in a tizzy.  I had planned a recipe that baked a whole chicken thinking I'd have leftovers to add to all my meals going forward.  Unfortunately I read the recipe wrong.  Instead of 30 minute cook time it was 60 minute cook time.  I quickly boiled up some water, cooked up some of the pork sausage, remembering to save half to use later and made a simple meal of pasta, lettuce and sausage.  My husband got to add a touch of Pecorino on top for flavor.  All in all, day one a success.  I felt nervous about not being able to include vegetables, fruit, protein and whole grains into my meals but with a little creativity came out on top. Luckily I had today off and was able to prepare meals for the next 2 days and 12 hour shifts. Time will tell how well my planning will work for the remainder of the week.

A tired beginning

It's just past midnight and I'm arriving home after two grueling days in the ER. My feet HURT and it takes all my concentration to drive safely home. The last thing on my mind is stopping at the grocery store to ready my fridge for this challenge.   And so I arrive home empty handed for tomorrows breakfast. Goal number one will be to get food for breakfast without splurging my entire daily allowance. Step 2 will be calling up my Grandmother to find out where all the hot deals are this week and step 3 will be to map out my plan.  This part I'm hoping won't be too much of a challenge. Growing up 2nd out of six kids my memory is filled with grocery shopping on a budget for a lot of hungry mouths.  We'd walk through the grocery store , my mom with a handheld clicker adding up prices until we hit our weekly limit.  Our meals were planned out and predictable....spaghetti, tacos, chicken and rice, chili.  We got our fruits and veggies in jello, out of cans, steamed from a frozen bag. And always there was homemade bread. Wednesday and Saturday afternoons our house was blessed with the sweet fragrance of our daily staple.  And then there was our favorite meal, breakfast for dinner.  Being good Catholics my father would cook up a meatless Friday dinner of PawPaws pancakes with Southern Steens  syrup drizzled on top.

This brings me back to my present state of no breakfast for the morning...hunger challenge here I come.

3 weeks until...

Its March 2nd.  When I flipped the calendar page I couldn't help but notice the wording, all in caps at the end of the month-- HUNGER CHALLENGE.  Not that its something awful looming in my future I just feel I need to prepare for it, both mentally and well financially.

From years of experience I know how I get when I'm hungry.  My sisters and I call it "hangry".  We all get it.  Grouchy, no patience and the final piece is dizzy and faint (yes I am a fainter). So, anything that brings together hunger and challenge gets me feeling a little antsy.

I talked it over with my grandma who gave me a lot of good advice, and the weekly ads from her Sunday paper to browse through to begin getting ideas and strategies for creating balanced meals that will fill me up.