Day 3

Day 3 of the challenge was a strange day. We took the weekend off since DH was out of town on Saturday and we were gone all day Sunday doing family pictures. It was tough to get back into the routine of cooking-especially on time change day!

Breakfast:

Breakfast today was sausage, scrambled eggs, toast and juice-a very traditional American breakfast!

DH was up early cooking-we got a ton of food! He makes the BEST scrambled eggs, but the healthy eating plan didn't let us use cheese in our eggs :( They were good, but not nearly as good as they would have been with cheese in them.

Breakfast this morning was delicious, but too much food! I was already tired from the time change and not sleeping-the heavy breakfast didn't help! I felt so full-all I wanted to do was go back to bed! I don't know how people eat such huge breakfasts every day!

Total cost: 1.23 per serving (2.46 for the both of us)

Lunch:

Lunch creatively used the spaghetti leftovers. We added a side salad, toast and milk to make it a complete meal. I know it's important to eat your grains, but the reliance on buttered toast is getting a little bit boring! I would like to see some other ways to get grains-are there other options?

I wasn't really hungry for lunch at all. I eat breakfast around 6:20 each morning and my lunch is at 11:15. After such a big breakfast I wasn't in the mood to eat another big meal-and lunch was pretty sizable. I divided the leftover spaghetti in half, but I think I was more than a serving. 

I did manage to eat most of it though so I must have been hungrier than I thought. It was a yummy lunch and it kept well in the fridge. I'm even developing a new affinity for salads! They are pretty tasty with the right dressing and veggies added to the lettuce they are actually good. I might be eating more salads in the future.

Total cost: 1.79 per serving (3.58 for both)

Dinner:

Dinner was polenta with beans and cheese, green beans and some of the tasty yogurt cookies. We didn't buy any polenta since the recipe indicated that corn meal would be an acceptable substitute. 

While we were looking through the cabinets we realized that the beans had never made it onto our shopping list. Instead of driving into town we just skipped the beans.

You can't really get the full picture of how disgusting it looked. You boiled water and added the cornmeal to it. It was super lumpy and looked gross. I was already mentally planning back up dinners since I was sure this one wasn't going to turn out.

Next step was to add a can of corn and a canof green chilis. You waited until the cornmeal had thickened into a paste-it only took about 5 minutes.

Once the cheese was added it looked a bit better-I'm a firm believer that a little cheese can make everything better! The heat was turned down to low and you stirred occasionally until everything was well mixed. The total prep time was about 10 minutes-It was a quick and easy dinner! 

Completed dinners! The green beans were simply frozen veggies heated up. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the taste of the polenta. It tasted like creamed corn. DH put it best when he said it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. It was edible and definitely tasted better than it looked-but it probably isn't something we'll be making on a regular basis. I do think the beans might have added some more flavor. The cookies were still yummy even a few days later-they were the best part of the meal!

Total cost: 2.23 per serving (4.46 for both of us)

Overall, today was a very easy and practical day. I felt like today was probably the best day so far-not it terms of taste but it terms of practicality. Dinner was something that could be made even if you did have skills or a lot of equipment.