It’s funny to see what a little bit of variety can do to one’s morale. Yes, I spent all week complaining about my meals and I would like to officially apologize for my many whiny posts. But today, I woke up knowing that I would make my fried rice dinner instead of the usual regular eggs and I was stoked! My day went as usual: yuck-flavor coffee (although almost getting used to it…almost) and Kashi cereal with fresh strawberries for breakfast, followed by macaroni for lunch. A few slices of mango for snack…I almost forgot I had them! For dinner, I cooked the package of Knorr chicken fried rice (yay $1 deal!) and added 2 eggs and some frozen broccoli to it. The result was two portions of deliciousness. Probably not something I would be excited about in my regular life (I would probably prefer making my own fried rice from scratch), but under the circumstances, it was great!
Now to answer today’s SNAP Challenge question…
Are you worried about your groceries running out before the end of the Challenge? Do you feel you are you eating a healthy, balanced diet? What nutrition decisions did you have to make?
At the beginning of the week, I was extremely worried about running out of food. But now that we are Friday, I realize that I could have eaten a little bit more each day. At this point, here is what I have left: 2 portions of macaroni, 1 portion of fried rice, enough cereal for 1 bowl, 3 eggs, 1/3 bag of frozen broccoli, 1/2 mango (cut in pieces), 1/2 bag of spinach and a few strawberries. I wish I had calculated it all better but the fear of running out of food was very strong when I started and I don’t think I could have convinced myself to use too much more food.
I do believe that my meals are fairly balanced. I try to have a few portions of fruits and vegetables each day, although not as much as I do in my regular diet. I don’t think that the quantities of pasta (big portion every day) is ideal but it was the best way for me to make lunches for the entire week on a small budget. And at least they have lean meat (turkey), tomatoes and spinach in it.
The biggest nutrition decision was to repeat, repeat, and then repeat again. Buying more of one or two ingredients to eat all week was cheaper than going for variety. I tried to pick good ingredients and repeated their use, as much as possible. Not having variety was a bummer but lacking nutrition would have been worst in my opinion.
Today’s calorie count: 1101 calories; i.e. 219-calorie deficit from my recommended daily goal, according to MyFitnessPal. Definitely better than I did all week, probably because, as the week is coming to an end, I am not quite as worried to run out of food. Also, the fried rice added a lot of carbs and calories compared to my other dinners so far.
The Hungry Quebbie 