Foodie Gifts

My Christmas gifts this year are bought, and to be honest, I don't know that unless I had really planned ahead, that I would have been at all interested in doing homemade gifts. Actually, I don't really like giving people the same things because it seems to denote that I *thought* less about them. Except in the case of me giving all my friends tickets to booze...

$3ADDP: You Can Do It Too!

When talking to people about this project, and in my own experiences, it seems that the most difficult part really is the record keeping. The minutiae of tracking calories and cost is a bit much for most people so I think going forward for the project, I'll be posting recipes instead. You don't really care what I ate for the day, what you probably care about...

$3ADDP: MIA days

I have to apologize, Dear Readers, for being MIA for almost a week! I recently picked up the Event Chair position for American Cancer Society's local Relay For Life and have been attending meetings between having an all out catastrophic work week. As a result of these factors beyond my control, though I have been spending less than $3 a Day on food, actually,...

$3ADDP: Day 10 and 11

Sorry for lagging a bit behind by these updates. Life has gotten in the way of writing but not of the project.I do have to say that I ate out quite a bit the past few days so I'm unclear on calories BUT I can provide you with prices and where to go:Day 10: Skipped breakfast and had a bean and cheese with lettuce burrito from a local Mexican food place. $2.00....

$3ADDP: Day 9.5

Hello Dear Readers, I have been on hiatus since the 26th because of Thanksgiving and my trip to Las Vegas. I am hopping back on this wagon tomorrow.I'm doing a Day 9.5 post today because since taking a break from the $3ADDP I found a few interesting things that carried over into good habits.1. For the drive to Vegas I packed leftovers in the form of sandwiches...

$3ADDP: Day 9

Today I went to volunteer setting up for Thanksgiving dinner at a Church in Long Beach. I was moved by the outpouring of support in the form of volunteers and donations. With the help of over 100 selfless individuals, the church will be able to serve over 200 people for Thanksgiving tomorrow.I thought about how much money was actually spent by the people that...

$3ADDP: Green Beans and Ground Chicken

I don't know if there are many vegetables as man friendly as green beans. I mean, Tony Roma's and TGI Fridays each have their own man friendly version of these delicious little green sticks. And have you ever have black bean green beans at any Chinese restaurant? Yum.I had a bag of green beans I bought for $1 at the farmers market that were going to go bad...

$3ADDP: Day 8

Ok, it's official, most of my friends and family think I'm just being weird by subjecting myself to a project like this. What's the point they ask despite the fact that I explain it to them. Then they say that they couldn't do it.But the reality is that it's not that hard. There are a few challenges here and there which include:1. Having the foresight to...

$3ADDP: Napa Cabbage Salad

I was trying to find a salad that would go well with the soba noodles I made for my husband's lunch. I had some leftover napa cabbage and thought about how delicious a tangy dressing would be with some tomatoes, onions and spicy jalepenos. Turns out that it tasted like Korean banchan and he loved it!I used some of the leftover salad and soba sauce to put on...

$3ADDP: Day 7

My mom used to tell me stories about her time as a college student in Vietnam. She came from a well-to-do family and college students were sent to different parts of the country by the government to study agriculture at the different farms. These farms, more often than not, were owned by poor families who had no choice but to host these students who were sent...

$3ADDP: Thanksgiving Stuffing

As I previously mentioned, Hubby and I were headed to an early Thanksgiving at his dad's place. I cooked up a dish to contribute to the meal, in the usual holiday tradition and tried to keep the price low and the flavors great so that my Dear Readers can make the same dish if they are so inclined, without breaking the budget.I originally wrote the recipe to...

$3ADDP: Day 7

As of today, I am down 3.5 lbs which means over the course of the past 6 days I have lost over .5 lbs a day. That's interesting because I am not really hungry at all. The occasional cravings I have are those "I know I can't have this so I want it" type cravings but I'm slowly overcoming them.Beware of upcoming TMI. Husband and I went to his Dad's house for...

$3ADDP: Day 6

I should report that Josh and I have both lost 3 lbs each during the course of this project. We're going to early Thanksgiving dinner with Josh's dad and I struggled to figure out how to do this project on Thanksgiving. I reasoned that most people don't actually cook the bulk of the thanksgiving meal themselves, they bring a dish to someone else's house and...

$3ADDP: Day 5

Have you ever been to the Farmer's Market and bought a ton of stuff that looked so absolutely interesting to you? Squash blossoms (delicious filled with goat cheese then tempura battered and fried), purple potatoes (beautiful in scalloped potato dishes), long beans (stir fried with a black bean sauce), the list goes on. The possibilities run through my head...

$3ADDP: Chicken and Cajun Rice

I have quite a bit of chicken left in my freezer from two weeks ago so I figured I would focus my recipes around that. I've been craving jambalaya but I realize I just want something spicy, tomatoey and ricey. Yeah, I'm making up food words. Using mainly things that I bought at the 99 cent store, I whipped up some Chicken and Cajun Rice.Husband seemed to like...

$3ADDP: Day 4

Today husband asked me if he was going to be part of this "sucky poor project" if he could just save up all his food money and spend it on booze instead, you know, live it up right. I think the project is getting to him. Later, in his comical insensitivity asked if he could partake in domestic violence during the project to get a real feel for living under...

$3ADDP: The Yale Project

Well I've apparently been living under a rock. When googling $3 a Day Diet Project to see where my google page rank is the Yale $3 a Day Diet Project came up first. It seems that $3 is what the food stamp allowance is for the population of people who are being fed by the United States Government. In the article I read from the Yale Daily News, one of the students...

$3ADDP: Day 3

I never realized how much crap I used to eat until having to regulate it down to the minutiae. Turns out, I used to drink a lot more sugary drinks and prepackaged sweets. How do I know? Because every time I went into a store today I starting eying the soda cooler and candy section. Who knew I was a Snickers fan?I had a pre-arranged Magic Show and dinner planned...

$3ADDP: Pizza Dough

So you've all seen it, pizza for $5 carry out. That's about $0.63 a slice. Cheap, but not really cheap enough. I'm trying to get the main courses we eat under $1, not including sides. Husband will not eat only 1 slice of pizza, it's physically impossible for him. I think it's the pie shape.So here's a pizza dough recipe adapted from Cooks.com that I will...