December 26 Low-Cost Healthy Meals

Breakfast: cup of milk $0.5

Snack: V8 juice $0.3

Lunch: Baked tuna steak with crushed pecan crust  $4.50
asparagus $0.88  Cost of meal: $5.38

Dinner: lentil soup $1; fresh spinach $0.45; grapefruit $0.05; cup of milk $0.5 Cost of Meal: $2.00

Snack: 2 large raw carrots $0.06

Bedtime snack: 2 oz cheese $0.25

Total Cost of Meals: $8.49  (I could have had approximately the same nutrients by eating canned tuna instead of fresh tuna steak, and the cost would have been about $1 instead of $4.50. The total cost of meals for the day would have been $4.99, which, I believe, is still about $0.49 cents above the daily budget for the Texas Food Stamp Challenge  http://www.news8austin.com/content/top_stories/274948/austinites-take-on-the--food-stamps-challenge-)  However, some of my other days have been below the $4.50 per day budget, so maybe I'm still within budget. Not that I set out to take the Food Stamp Challenge, but it's interesting to see how well one can eat within the budget. I could have brought today's meals within the $4.50 budget by making my own lentil soup instead of buying the relatively expensive Amy's brand soup, and by eating canned tuna instead of fresh.

Kristi Willis of Austin Farm to Table came up with some wonderful recipes, all within the food stamp budget and all healthy. She prepared food as though she were cooking for a family, and stored the leftovers in her freezer. http://www.austinfarmtotable.com/2010/05/hunger-awareness-dinner-5-green-chile.html