$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...

$3AADP: Day 2

So after I pre-made all this oatmeal it turns out that Husband doesn't like oatmeal the way I prepare it and he'd rather have instant oatmeal than the steel cut (harumph) so I bought him 2 boxes of Mom's Best Oatmeal at the 99 cent store so he can make it himself. It's staggering that it's only 99 cents there because I see the exact same box at Sprouts for...

$3ADDP: The Repeaters

So as part of my research phase, I was thinking about the easy peasy repeats. I know I'll probably get a little creative with lunch and dinner but breakfast and certain sides will be pretty commonly repeated.My husband has agreed to do this $3 a Day Diet Project with me, that loving man. I hope at the end he doesn't think that our cat is eating better than...

$3ADDP: Day 1

I stayed up a little later than usual last night to prep some food for the coming week, also known as the first week of the project. Hubby goes between being really excited about it because he wants to scale back our portions and being really wary of the project. We'll see how long he lasts. He'll have the ability to post on this blog as a contributor during...