Bailey asked for peas for lunch so I gave her a big bowl of frozen frozen peas and a little bit of rice.
I had leftover chili over rice with a sprinkling of cheese. I was a little worried I wouldn't have enough chili left for chili dogs but it turns out the rice makes a great filler and we had far more chili leftover than I originally thought.
Dinner was chicken taco casserole. Bailey had some of the taco chicken and some cheese cubes and raspberries and I had the rest of the rice I made on the side. I haven't felt hungry at all today and Bailey hasn't been begging for cereal like yesterday.
Today's SNAP Challenge prompt:
How would this experience be different if your spouse and children were also eating off a limited food budget for the week?
Well, this one doesn't really apply to me because I made a decision at the beginning of the challenge that we would all be in it together. I asked how Aaron felt about it and he said as long as I made food he liked he would participate.
See, I added up what our budget would be for a family of 3 for the week and then I added up the number of people I feed every meal for the week. I didn't include Aaron for breakfast or lunch during the week. I included Yaya and Nana and Senator for Monday night, Grandmother and Papaw and Aaron's sister and her three kids for Saturday, and Admiral, CJ, and Senator for Sunday. Amazingly it came out the same total either way. Aaron is on his own for breakfast and lunch and usually stops for fast food.
I guess I could go with how the challenge would be different if my family wasn't participating with me. I'm one of those people who is perfectly fine with eating leftovers of the same dish for multiple meals. I'm also happy to eat the same yogurt or cereal for breakfast for an entire week. As long as I get full at dinner and lunch I don't feel the need to snack between meals, although I do tend to want lunch only a couple of hours after breakfast so when I wake up early I wind up eating lunch at 10:00 in the morning.
So if it was just me I would probably stick with one or two main meals and make leftovers out of them for the rest of the week. I'm quite fond of a little breakfast stir fry that I can turn into burritos for the rest of the week. I can make a pot of chili or soup last for 3-4 days. I'm also just fine with plain grilled cheese or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to fill the gaps.
That leaves me with the difference being that I have to get as much variety into the meals I make that I don't bore Aaron and Bailey. It's great when I can incorporate leftovers from one meal into another meal later in the week, such as the chili from Tuesday going on the hot dogs on Thursday. Also I feel really guilty about being so strict about food this week. Bailey is disappointed that we don't have any of her usual fruit and vegetable snacks. She's also scarfing down the cereal faster than I would like. I'm worried it will be gone by tomorrow and then we'll have to figure out something else for breakfast and I'll have to listen to her cry when I tell her she can't have cereal because we don't have any left.
I can't imagine living like that on a regular basis. I want my daughter to have the healthy foods she wants. I mean, even the cereal I bought is relatively healthy (no sugar coated sugar bombs for us) and she's missing out on her favorite grapes and strawberries that have been a staple in her diet for the past year or more.
Okay, summary of food consumed:
3/4 cup rice
1/3 leftover chili
7 oz shredded cheddar
1 oz cheddar cubes
2/3 cup frozen peas
2 chicken breasts
1 packet taco seasoning
5 tortillas (1/2 package)
There's no chicken taco casserole left but I still have plenty of chili and after skipping breakfast today I'm a little less worried about running out of cereal and milk.
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