Project Food Budget: Week 7, Getting Healthy

I haven't been eating too much this week because I wasn't feeling good. But really, that's all the more reason to eat balanced meals every day. This week, I'm going to make a shopping list for nutrients and weight loss. I haven't run out of any staples, so I decided that I'm going to buy $15 worth of vegetables and a box of $4 flax seed cereal. Then I'm going to go through some awesome vegan blogs, cookbooks, and recipe sites, and make the healthiest, easiest meals I can find.

I've got Veganomicon and a couple of whole foods cookbooks, as well as tons of pretty good recipe blogs favorited.

There's not much I can say for this past week, but I'll try to post another update before next Thursday.

Other participating blogs:
Reluctant Vegetarian
Maria Marz
Veggie Converter
Ashley's Dairy Free Cooking Blog
Motor City Girl In the Steel City
Veggie Burgher
Baked Beans and Broccoli...Vegetarian Budgeting
Sweet Rehab
The Happy Cactus
The Vegetarian Salmon
Test Kitchen Tuesday
Newly Vegan
Always Sick and Tired
Veggie on the Cheap
MeloMeals: Vegan For $3.33 A Day

Project Food Budget: Week 6, Free Week!

Okay, late again. Next week I'll write my entry when I go to school. I'm kind of in the process of overhauling my life, so I've gotta get back into the swing of things.

This week, I didn't have to buy anything! Everyone should try to do this one week. I bet everyone can plan a week's worth of meals one Sunday (or Thursday) using things you already have on hand.

I didn't make anything fancy this week, but I just mixed together what I had on hand: frozen vegetables; some fruit; rice; pasta; bread; and plenty of condiments, sauces and spreads, including my leftover peanut sauce and garlic sauce.

It made for some pretty good meals. Some meals I just ate a PB&J bagel or a bowl of garlic rice. Other days I made a whole pasta dish with veggies and sauce. There are also a lot of good sandwich options in there. It all depended on my mood. But it was really a decent menu and I didn't have to spend anything. So clean out your pantry!

I'm sure these people are doing better than I am!
Reluctant Vegetarian
Maria Marz
Veggie Converter
Ashley's Dairy Free Cooking Blog
Motor City Girl In the Steel City
Veggie Burgher
Baked Beans and Broccoli...Vegetarian Budgeting
Sweet Rehab
The Happy Cactus
The Vegetarian Salmon
Test Kitchen Tuesday
Newly Vegan
Always Sick and Tired
Veggie on the Cheap
MeloMeals: Vegan For $3.33 A Day

Project Food Budget: Week 5, Better Late Than Never?

Well, I'm about a day late for this blog post, and it's not going to be a very good one. I'm so busy lately.

Anyway, my goal is $20 and I spent $26 today! Pretty good. I've been eating: bagels with Earth Balance or peanut butter and jelly; Subway sandwiches (okay, that added $10); Smart dogs; and some odd snacks and frozen meals I had on hand.

Today, Dave and I picked out some new recipes and bought ingredients. He made some (Daiya) cheesy garlic bread, and I made broccoli and garlic sauce from VegWeb. It was pretty good, but a little too spicy, and that's with half as much garlic as the recipe suggested. Then we made homemade peanut butter cups with semisweet chocolate chips and natural peanut butter. Yuuummm. I know those things don't go together, but it's what we were craving.

Some other things we wanted to try are Mexican rice, cheesy potato bake, spring rolls, cinnamon rolls, and tofu scramble. I want to replicate the Vegan Popeye (spinach and mushroom) from the Rutherford Pancake House... and we really wanted some kind of creamy potato soup recipe, but I couldn't find one.

Tomorrow, after my Saturday morning class (UGH), we're off to Asbury Park for the weekend to see the Bouncing Souls tomorrow night. I'm thinking Subway sandwiches for the train ride, and then I have to get a vegan sandwich from the Twisted Tree Cafe and a triple decker, deep-fried PB&J from the pub. It just comes with the territory. So that might set back my budget a bit.

My goal for next week is to write a real entry, on time!

Other budgeteers:
Reluctant Vegetarian
Maria Marz
Veggie Converter
Ashley's Dairy Free Cooking Blog
Beauty, Fitness, and Health...Oh My!
Motor City Girl In the Steel City
Veggie Burgher
Baked Beans and Broccoli...Vegetarian Budgeting
Sweet Rehab
The Happy Cactus
The Vegetarian Salmon
Test Kitchen Tuesday
Newly Vegan
Always Sick and Tired
Veggie on the Cheap

Project Food Budget: Week 4, Major Slacking

Well, my eating healthier and cooking more goals were not achieved. I would probably have tried harder if it were not for school starting up again. I happened to get a terrible schedule that couldn't be avoided: 3 night classes (3 hours each!), one day time class twice a week, and a 3-hour Saturday morning class! So between doing homework, staying up late, and spending so much time on campus... I haven't had much time to think about eating right, much less actually do it.

The good news is that I'll be under budget this week. When I "cooked," I only ate my famous lazy pasta dishes... all I needed was my leftover peanut sauce, and the pasta, marinara sauce, and nutritional yeast that I already had. Today, I was desperate enough to buy a footlong Veggie Delite from Subway ($5). If I go shopping tomorrow or this weekend, which I hopefully will, it will only be for some fresh produce for recipes, not totaling more than another $5. That's $10 less than, or half of, my $20 budget. Awesome!

Now, I know the lack of time is just an excuse. There are lots of blogs, websites and books out there devoted to telling someone how to live who has a low budget and little time. And I already know that I have plenty of supplies on hand to make sandwiches or wraps... besides that, I can make anything that tastes good cold, pack it in my old insulated lunchbox, and be set for the day.

* Read and utilize information on fast, low budget meals.
* Buy nothing but fresh produce, whatever I have to do.
* Do one yoga video from YouTube every day. (Unrelated, but I'm getting out of shape.)

We'll see what happens. Here are the other participants this week:
Reluctant Vegetarian
Maria Marz
Veggie Converter
Ashley's Dairy Free Cooking Blog
Beauty, Fitness, and Health...Oh My!
Motor City Girl In the Steel City
Veggie Burgher
Baked Beans and Broccoli...Vegetarian Budgeting
Sweet Rehab
The Happy Cactus
The Vegetarian Salmon
Test Kitchen Tuesday
Newly Vegan
Always Sick and Tired

Project Food Budget: Week 3, Needs Improvement

I am being very lazy. I ate more convenient, not-so-nutritious foods this week. At least I did eat mostly what was in the house, but I bought unnecessary foods when I went shopping.

My meals included: Amy's Asian Noodle Stir-Fry; more Shells and Chreese with Imagine Creamy Tomato soup; whole grain pasta with marinara sauce and nutritional yeast; pasta with leftover peanut sauce; a premade avacado "chicken" (tofu) wrap; and these brownies.

Budget Goal: $20
Actual: $17
Shopping: Amy's Asian Noodle Stir-Fry; Amy's Soy Baked Ziti Bowl; Shells and Chreese; avacado "chicken" wrap

Again I have stayed under my budget but I'm getting very little for my money. It's just so hard being back in school and worrying about things, to avoid the temptation of convenience. But I have no excuse. I may not need many things now that my pantry is full, but as these foods run out I will be upset with myself that I have no money.

I'm not making specific goals for next week because that hasn't been helping me. I'm just going to say that I want to eat healthier, cook more, and try to spend money only on whole foods.

How is it going with my fellow Project: Food Budget participants?
Reluctant Vegetarian
Maria Marz
Veggie Converter
Ashley's Dairy Free Cooking Blog
Beauty, Fitness, and Health...Oh My!
Motor City Girl In the Steel City
Veggie Burgher
Baked Beans and Broccoli...Vegetarian Budgeting
Sweet Rehab
The Happy Cactus
The Vegetarian Salmon
Test Kitchen Tuesday

Project Food Budget: Week 2, Splurging on Specialty Vegan Foods

This week, I was bad and I didn’t eat a lot. My live-in boyfriend Dave is in the hospital, and he’s okay, but since I was only cooking for myself I ate poorly. I ate boxed macaroni and chreese, a frozen burrito, frozen waffles with ice cream, and several peanut butter and Ricemellow Crème sandwiches. Those foods are all so addicting and simple… it’s hard to resist the temptation.

At least I did make one healthy food yesterday, the whole wheat peanut spaghetti I posted about. I had a lot of time on my hands and I was craving peanut sauce, so that gave me the motivation. Hopefully next week I can cook two healthy meals! Or seven.

Shopping List: Soy milk; Ricemellow Crème; 2 boxes of macaroni and chreese; Daiya mozzarella-style shreds

Budget reminder: $20

Estimated Cost: $20… It’s good that it meets my budget goals, but bad because I am only buying 5 items. I could get several pounds of vegetables for the same price.

I consider soy milk to be a staple. But I will replace the other items for when I get a craving, not for eating regularly, since they won’t go bad for a while.

Goals for next week:
* Meal ideas: Roasted vegetable pizza; simple stir-fry; vegetable soup; butternut squash pasta.
* Plan and cook more nutritious meals.
* Get Dave to eat healthy, vegan meals and like it.
* Actually use the cheap ingredients I already have.

See how the other participants are faring:
Reluctant Vegetarian
Maria Marz
Veggie Converter
Ashley's Dairy Free Cooking Blog
Beauty, Fitness, and Health...Oh My!
Motor City Girl In the Steel City
Veggie Burgher
Baked Beans and Broccoli...Vegetarian Budgeting
Sweet Rehab
The Happy Cactus
The Vegetarian Salmon

Project Food Budget: Week 1, The Food Inventory

Starting this week, I am going to be participating in “Project: Food Budget.” I’ve been wanting to make a budget and save money on food for a while, so I thought it would be a good idea to join some other blogs in a group effort.

I am only cooking for one other person, so I am making my weekly budget $20. It might be a bit ambitious, but I think it’s reasonable. I do most of my shopping at Pathmark and ShopRite, though I sometimes go to the health food store to splurge on specialty vegan ingredients like Daiya cheese.

This week, I decided to do a food inventory. I went through our refrigerator, freezer, and cupboards, and I found 82 ingredients! Here we have been complaining that there is nothing to eat, but we could probably live off this food for a month. I also put everything into categories (condiments, vegetables, etc.) so I can easily create meal ideas.

But the Can-Can Sale is going on at ShopRite! I decided to stock up. I had run out of some basic ingredients, and there are some snacks and ingredients we would like to make our favorite recipes. Other than that, I am going to start creating meals from what I already have.

Total food cost this week: $40

Planned foods this week: veggie quesadillas; veggie pizza; rice pilaf… other simple meals.

Some new goals for this challenge:
* Use the food I have before it expires.
* Eat different meals each week.
* Start looking for coupons, deals and sales.
* Buy a lot more fruits, veggies, and dried beans/grains; and a lot fewer processed foods.

Here are the other blogs involved:
Reluctant Vegetarian
Maria Marz
Veggie Converter
Low Budge Veg
Ashley's Dairy Free Cooking Blog
Beauty, Fitness, and Health...Oh My!
Motor City Girl In the Steel City
Veggie Burgher
Baked Beans and Broccoli...Vegetarian Budgeting
Sweet Rehab