October 14, 2010

Learn to love leftovers

At just over $20 dollars for the family for the day we are on the right track. With a couple minor changes, this day had the potential to reach the the Eating in 3D goal.  

ED
Breakfast
Latte
Granola with vanilla yogurt

Lunch
1/2 sausage
Beans
Edamame
Peach Yogurt with a banana

Dinner
Broiled Cod
Brown Rice
Peas
Milk

Total Daily Expenditure: $6.71


JAMIE
Breakfast
Latte

Lunch
Meatballs and Swiss cheese on 1/2 a bagel
Edamame
Peach yogurt

Dinner
Brown Rice
Peas
Cod (4 oz)
Peach
Milk

Total Daily Expenditure: $6.39


CELIA
Breakfast
2 waffles
1/2 syrup (1/4 cup)

Lunch
Broccoli & Cheese Baked Potato
Pineapple and apple slices
Cherry tomatoes and baby carrots
Milk

Snack
Z-bar

Dinner
Broiled Cod
Brown Rice
Peas
Milk

Total Daily Expenditure: $7.15

Lessons Learned and Observations

I have a friend who will not eat leftovers. If and when she ever joins us in this eating adventure she will change her tune. Eating last night’s dinner for lunch tomorrow is the easiest path to cheap, effortless, nutritious eats.  Once I realized this I started cooking 5 servings of each dinner and immediately putting 2 servings aside in storage containers for the next day.

The other lessons of this day, in retrospect are:

1) Fill the gaps. Assuming you are well within budget, if you come to the end of dinner and you are short a fruit – have a piece. If you’re missing a serving of whole grains, have a piece of toast before bed.

2) Don’t eat a meal that misses the mark. Celia’s waffles with syrup were woefully inadequate from a nutritional standpoint. Her chart at the end of the day looked like she only had 2 meals. No fruit, no veg, no milk, no protein - just grain and sugar. That is not an effective meal unless the goal is simply to fill ones belly.

1 comment:

  1. You're not really recording the nutrients correctly. She had dairy, grain, eggs and sugar in the waffles. Probably half an egg and half a cup of milk, or more, depending on your recipe.

    If you switch to pancakes you can grate an apple into the batter, or mashed squash, or potatoes or spinach even. There are a thousand value-added variations.

    For you, you should start eating breakfast for a start, and a couple of snacks. Smoothies for breakfast are a great way to fill in the gaps for your day. You can add nuts, vegetables, fruit and dairy. I keep pureed spinach frozen in ice cube trays in my freezer for things like this. You can't taste it at all but it packs a great nutritional punch.

    Cheryl

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