$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 join in the group's festivities. So, for the 3 Thanksgivings we will be attending I will be making a dish for the group that totals less than $6.00 (what Josh and I have to to spend for the day) assuming that that meal is the only meal Josh and I have for the day. More than likely I'll make a dish that costs $3.00 for the whole group.

For Josh's dad's dinner I will be making stuffing. Stay tuned for the recipe.

Breakfast: Oatmeal ($0.15 - 150 calories), egg ($0.17 - 70 calories), parmesean ($0.10 - 20 calories), Leah only. Pizza ($0.25 - 140 calories) Josh only.

Lunch: Ramen ($0.17 - 440 - calories), spinach ($0.25 - 10 calories), snacks at the fam's ($0.50 - 100 calories) - Leah. Sandwich ($0.08 bread, $0.17 egg, $0.10 turkey bacon, mustard/mayo $0.05 - 510 calories) - Josh

Dinner: White/Brown rice ($0.24 - 231 calories), green beans and chicken ($0.46 - 193 calories).

Cocktail: Energy drink and Vodka ($0.78 - 184 calories)

Josh: $2.13 - 1258 calories

Leah: $2.82 - 1398 calories

$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 and I'm dizzy with excitement. I buy it all!

Then you know what happens? I make one thing and figure I'll get to the rest later and then instead of cooking the rest we end up at restaurants. Though I'm not the absolute worst at wasting food in the sense that I often try to make up recipes based off what I have in the fridge to get rid of, I'm not always successful at avoiding food going bad until now.

This project has made me conscious of a few things. First, how much I can actually stuff in my 5'2 frame versus how much I actually need to eat. Second, how easy it is to stay full when you're eating whole and healthy products versus highly processed and fat filled foods. But mostly it's made me conscious of using every little bit of what we have.

For instance, we currently have 2 slices of pizza, 2 servings of black beans, 2 servings of chicken and navy bean soup, and half a head of lettuce that needs to be eaten. Guess what we're having for dinner tonight? Yes, leftovers despite the fact that I dislike leftovers.

The other night I made a batch of oatmeal cookies because I had some browning bananas that I couldn't bear to throw away. They turned out awfully because I tried to skimp and leave out the oil but we'll end up eating those cookies too. Because we should. I have some leftover tomatoes that have been sitting around in the fridge that I'm going to turn into a tomato soup so that they don't go to waste also.

Breakfast: 1 slice of pizza ($0.25 - 140 calories) Leah Only, Oatmeal ($0.17 - 160 calories) and Coffee ($0.33 - 10 calories) Josh only.

Lunch: 4 slices of pizza ($1.00 - 560) Josh, 3 slices of pizza ($0.75 - 420 calories) Leah.

Snack: Grapes ($0.25 - 100 calories) - Josh only. Nibbles from family ($0.25 - 75 calories)

Dinner: 1/2 serving of black beans ($0.15 - 85 calories), 2 tortillas ($0.06 - 110 calories), 1/4 head of lettuce ($0.25 - 10 calories) each person, 1/10 serving of chicken with cajun rice ($0.12 - 52 calories) . 1 slice of pizza ($0.25 -140 calories) - Josh. 2 tortillas ($0.06 - 110 calories), Spam Musubi ($1.00 - 265 calories) - Leah

Josh $2.58 - 1227 calories

Leah: $2.89 - 1267 calories

$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 the rice so I give this recipe an A for ease of preparation, man friendly, a high nutritional value and an effective way to get rid of one of my least favorite forms of animal protein.



Ingredients:

1 cup white rice ($0.22)
1 cup brown rice ($0.30)
1/2 onion ($0.08)
5 jalepenos ($0.20)
1 can tomatoes ($0.99)
3.5 cups water ($0.00)
3 teaspoons cajun seasoning ($0.65)
9.6 oz chicken ($2.00)
5 sprigs saffron ($0.20)
3 teaspoons chicken bouillon ($0.02)
1 oz olive oil ($0.11)

Directions

1. Pour 1/2 oz of olive oil in a skillet, saute the white rice and brown rice until it smells nutty. Transfer to rice cooker pot.
   
   
2. Dice chili peppers and onion. Pour 1/2 oz of olive oil in the skillet and brown the chili peppers and onions.
   
   
3. Open the can of stewed tomatoes and pour into the skillet along with the water, cajun seasoning, saffron and chicken bouillon. When saffron dissolves, pour the mixture and the chicken into the rice cooker pot. Cover the pot.
   
   
4. Turn the rice cooker to cook. If you have a multi-setting on your rice cooker set it to cook brown rice. Otherwise, if cooking in a regular pot, cook covered for approximately 45 minutes to an hour on medium low.

4 servings for $1.20 and 529 calories a serving.

$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 the poverty line.

It seems dear hubby has not only misunderstood the nature of people who live below the poverty line but also misunderstood this project. As his hunger grows, his comprehension of anything related to this project is lost. He ended up having to have a business lunch today with his manager so his totals really go out the window. I'll show you what he was supposed to eat, but I have no idea how much his food today really cost.

You're going to see a quail item in the details of the food I ate today. My mom, who used to own restaurant that she cooked the food for, makes some amazing food. Knowing that I was doing this project, she insisted that I have one quail to split with Josh which she promised was only $0.50 per person. She's too cute.

I also took a bite of my sister's PBJ because she insisted I see whether or not it was still good. It wasn't. The bread was awful. But I am a good food taster.

Lastly, Josh and I went to the Bevmo! $0.05 wine sale to buy wine gifts for people and partook of one of the $0.05 bottles for ourselves. Yes, you might think this is cheating or just pure genius. I mean, we were going to spend the money on the gifts anyway, why not get the extra bottle for $0.05?

Breakfast: Oatmeal ($0.17), Coffee ($0.33) Josh only. Ramen ($0.17 - 440 calories) Leah only

Lunch: Pizza ($0.05 dough, $0.02 sauce, $0.05 meatballs, $0.13 cheese) $0.25 a slice. ($1.00) for Josh, ($0.75 - 420 calories) for Leah.

Snack: ($0.25) apple Josh Only. 1/5 PBJ ($0.06 - 76 calories) Leah only.

Dinner: 1/2 Quail ($0.50 - 105 calories), Green Beans and Chicken ($0.46 - 193 calories), White/Brown rice mix ($0.13 - 231 calories)

Cocktail: 1 bottle of wine split ($0.03 per person - 219) - $0.05 wine sale.

Josh: Is totally lame and ate a lunch combo at a BBQ place.

Leah: $2.10 and totally full with 1608 calories. Not the healthiest, but I'm feeling pretty happy.

$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 part of the project who considered himself a very serious activist had to give up cage free eggs for regular eggs because he just couldn't afford to care about animal rights in light of how expensive they are and how little he had to spend a day. What I'm going to say next is going to make me VERY unpopular.

I think that it's easy for people who have the money to worry about the activist side of things. That's why most politicians are already fairly well off before they get into the game. The average person living in a lower middle class to lower class situation can't afford to care about things like whether or not the food they're eating is organic or whether or not it's right or wrong to cage animals that are set for slaughter anyway. They're worried about what they're going to eat and what their families are going to eat.

It's the responsibility of those us that do have the money to care about these things in the larger picture because we can AFFORD to. That being said, here comes the unpopular part; shouldn't we care more about activism for human needs before animal needs? See, I get that animals are adorable and cuddly. I have my cat, George Kitteh, sitting on my TV right now trying at the moving pictures on screen as though he can stop the lights from moving. I love him dearly. Would I save him above the average human? No.

That makes me sound really unloving or disloyal. I know. But at the end of the day, aside from the circle of happiness intertwining George's life, my life and my husband's life, there is little that George can contribute to society. The average human, however, if given the opportunity could do great things for mankind.

I'm not trying to tell you, my dear reader, what you should and should not care about. I'm simply musing on what we humans have compassion for and how our priorities work. It's rather remarkable how far apart everyone believes. It's what makes the social activism landscape of the US both effective and ineffective.

Have you ever thought that as a nation, without government involvement because we don't want fiscal waste and everyone knows private sector can do it more efficiently than public sector, if we made a list of all the causes that had foundations or organizations related to them and put it to a vote to see which one was MOST important to the nation and everyone just focused on that for a while, the problems we could resolve? Obesity? A problem of the past. Cancer? Totally cured. HIV/AIDS? That's gone too. Illiteracy? Not on our watch. One by one, the collective resolve of an educated and relatively wealthy nation, would knock down each problem.

$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 for Thursday but because Husband is working on a deadline, had to cancel. I guess it's for the best, the magic show was $20 per person and if the magician was no good I'd have a hard time claiming that the entertainment was worth $17. Lol.

Honestly though, the idea behind this project is not to be impossibly restrictive, it's to prove that if anyone chose to live off $3 a day, healthily, they would be able to do so. I hope that at the end of this project I will continue to make many of the recipes I develop and properly portion them to avoid weight gain after the project. I hope too, Dear Reader, that you'll enjoy these recipes and find them not just budgetary edible, but easy to make and eat.

Breakfast: Oatmeal ($0.17 - 160 calories), Coffee ($0.33 - 10 calories) Josh only, Egg ($0.17 - 70 calories) Leah only.

Lunch: 4 tortillas ($0.12 - 220 calories), 1 serving of black beans ($0.30 - 169 calories), 1 oz cheese ($0.50 - 100 calories)

Snack: Grapes ($0.25 - 100 calories)

Dinner: Cajun Rice 4/5 of a serving ($0.96 - 423 calories) and Salad with Dressing ($0.24 - 130 calories), Full serving of Cajun Rice ($1.20 - 529 calories) for Leah.

Josh: $2.87 for 1312 calories total.

Leah: $2.99 for 1478 calories total.

$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 use as a basis for many a dinner during the project:

2 cups bread or all purpose flour ($0.36)
2 cups whole wheat flour ($0.45)
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water ($0.00)
1 packet active dry yeast, or 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast ($0.33)
2 tablespoons olive oil (any good brand), but extra virgin is best ($0.11)
1 1/4 teaspoon salt ($0.02)
1 teaspoon sugar, or 1 teaspoon honey ($0.01)
1/4 cup milk or 1/4 cup water ($0.00)

Preheat oven 450°F.

I prefer using water for the liquid in this recipe because it's practically free. But the original recipe states that water adds flavor to the dough.

Using a large ceramic mixing bowl, or any suitable food safe bowl, add the flour, make a "well" in middle, and put in 1 teaspoon salt, stir to combine well. Set aside.

Prepare the starter: In a liquid measuring cup pour in 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water, 1 teaspoon sugar or honey, and one package of active dry yeast. Stir and set aside for 5 minutes. Allow to foam up (or proof).

Next, mix the starter (yeast water) and the water in the bowl containing the flour with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Stir together using a wooden spoon or clean hands.

I adapted this recipe to include whole wheat flour which tends to need more water than bread flour. Add water until the mixture is still slightly dry but has enough give for you to knead it. For me the cups of water ended at about 1.5-1.75 cups instead of the 1.25.

Note: You will need additional flour to knead on the surface that you're working on. Knead for about 8 minutes or until you get a smooth elastic rubbery dough ball.

Set aside in bowl, drizzle with a little olive oil to keep the dough from drying out. Let dough sit covered lightly with plastic wrap or use a plate or damp clean towel to cover it.

Allow the dough to rise for 30 minutes to an hour. Flatten dough and press out into a circle to fit the pan it will be baked in. Spread it out evenly, don't be afraid to lift underneath to stretch the dough. Sprinkle baking pan with yellow cornmeal or Farina. If you don't have these on hand you can use flour or simply grease the pan with olive oil using a paper towel. The dough makes 2 - 12 slice pizzas at $0.05 a slice. Slice the dough in half and keep the second half for another time.

Add meat sauce and some cheese on one. These are the ingredients in a quick and easy meat sauce and the amount of cheese I used:

1/2 onion ($0.08)
1/4 head of garlic ($0.06)
1/4 a jar of tomato sauce ($0.25)
3 oz ground beef ($0.84)
3 oz cheese - I suggest you use very finely grated mozzarella cheese because it seems like more when grated this way. ($1.50)

Bake for about 12-14 mins, but watch it! I don't have a picture of the final pizza because I kind of burned it.

At 12 slices, that's $0.23 a slice plus $0.05 a slice for the dough totaling $0.28 a slice and approximately 138 calories each.

This is the recipe I used for the pizza from Day 1.