Day 56 - Value Eating on 05/08/2010

I woke up today and was not feeling too great. The hectic pace of the last weeks was getting to me, as did the temperature change… not good to be cold when on a bike! So I assigned myself to my bed and some hearty food that was to warm me from the inside, too. I strongly believe in the ying & yang concept of foods. And I totally and absolutely am a cold person needing hot food. So I prepared a huge pot of chilli to munch on over the weekend (and days to come) and cooked some rice, of which I used a cup for breakfast, mixing it with organic raisins, some organic almonds, a tablespoon of local organic honey, an orange and some grated fresh ginger. Very yummy, warm and filling. Cost: 1$ rice, 0.2$ raisins, 0.2$ almonds, 0.6$ orange, 0.15$ honey and 0.1$ ginger = 2.25$

Lunch was a small serving of the chili – one does not really burn a lot of energy sleeping and so I was not really in need of food, but wanted some of the chili peppers (dried chili flakes and a fresh organic Jalpaneo pepper I had bought at the green grocer – did you know that if you want a hot pepper, you should go for the more shriveled ones – you did? Oh well, I learned that yesterday…) Overall I used 1.1$ for onion & jalpaneno pepper, 0.9$ beans, 0.8$ organic canned tomatoes, 0.25$ for other spices (chili flakes, cumin, salt) and 6.50$ for a pound of local pasture fed happy cow ground beef (which I pulled from the freezer in my attempt to clean out that part of the kitchen, too). Total of 9.55$ for approx. five servings – so let’s out the rate at 2$ per serving. I had a small serving and some rice for a total of 2.5$ lunch cost.

For dinner I met friends at a restaurant – a new place that serves Soul Food and live music with it. Dee’s Place was delightful, it was good to get out of bed and enjoy a crispy and not at all greasy fried chicken (and yummy appetizers, sides and pecan pie). 23$ for dinner & entertainment.

Total Food Cost of Today: 27.75$