50 Cent meal challenge week one: What I ate last week

                             

 The 50 Cent Meal Challenge is a joint effort between two sisters in different regions and with different challenges.  Tina lives in Ohio with her husband and son, and is learning to stretch her shrunken budget while trying to develop an old fashioned, basic approach to cooking.  Jen lives in New Mexico with her husband and they are Foster Parents who are learning the art of flexibility. They live on a single income and are joining this challenge for the sake of the challenge.  Tina and Jen are planning their family groceries on a 250.00 budget for 6 weeks. 

                                                        August 14-20

This past week was the first week for the 50 Cent Meal Challenge and this is what we ate. 

We did have 1 foster child who stayed with us from Monday to Thursday, so there were 3 of us for part of the week. 

For breakfast we had cereal, toast or breakfast burritos.

For lunch we had leftovers, sandwiches or chicken salad sandwiches, mexican style.

For dinner we had

• Monday-     Roasted Chicken with veggies and cucumber salad
• Tuesday-     Spaghetti, green beans and bread
• Wednesday Leftover Spaghetti
• Thursday    Fend for yourself night. We had a meeting, no time to cook. I think we ate more spaghetti when we got home..1 pound of pasta is a lot for 3 people..we won't have it again for a while!
•  Friday        Chicken stir fry with green tomato and jalapeno jam and green beans (using leftover chicken)
• Saturday     Cabbage and bacon, steamed zucchini and cucumber, tomato salad
•  Sunday       Went out for Chinese food after church and snacked the rest of the day. (Sam and I shared a plate, it came with rice and 2 choices of the main entree and 2 drinks for $8!! Yes $8. We love that place! And we even had leftover rice and 3 pieces of chicken.

For snacks we had chips and homemade salsa and popcorn.

I only spent 25.95 this week, I thought I spent 37.40 but I had some non food items on the receipts that I failed to deduct. 

 I only had to buy Italian sausage for the spaghetti, bacon and a few things for the green tomato jam (by the way it is really surprisingly tasty--you should make it) 

These are gorgeous green tomatoes from my garden (If I do say so myself) that I used to make the green tomato and jalapeno jam.

 But I must let you know that I have a pretty decently stocked pantry and freezers. I'm a sale shopper. My grandma was a shopper and if she saw a shirt that she liked, she bought one in every color they had. I'm kinda like that with food.  I am a stocker, but for this challenge I am only using my main pantry and freezer, just to keep it real.  And to keep it even more real I am posting a pic of my quickly straightened pantry.

                        Not a terrific picture but it gives you an idea of what I have to work with.
 This is the produce that we got from the garden last week. Can't wait to eat those butternut squash!                              
Having a garden  really cuts down our grocery bill!

                                    And we have these girls that supply us with plenty of eggs.

                                     The 50 Cent Meal Challenge

                    Track Tina's progress here