Was up till 3AM last night editing and rendering the Youtube video. But I was pretty happy with how it turned out. As a result, I slept in today which means my breakfast was only a glass of OJ!

Lunch was elaborate. So in order to keep prices under control I just had smaller portions of each item than I normally would. Lunch consisted of a handful of cook pasta and a few olives, with a little Olive Oil and green onion. I also had a slice of bread with some Cherry Tomatoes and even a half piece of bocconcini.

One thing I’ve noticed is that outside of the OJ, I’m drinking a lot more water, and of course my daily coffee, but as I mentioned on Twitter, I’m not including coffee in this. Haha. I think it’s reasonable.

Now, I don’t know about you, but personally I love cooking with ideas instead of recipes. So I had a can of chickpeas and most of the same stuff I used in yesterdays meal, so I decided to make a Chickpea stew, and then cook up the remaining Chicken Thigh for some meat.

This is what it looked like when served.

[DDET Zach's Vegan/Vegetarian On the Fly Chickpea Stew Recipe + Another Picture]

1 Can of chickpeas
A few mushrooms
Half a cup of frozen mixed veggies
Half a bouillon cube, any kind
2 Cloves of garlic
Half a Spanish onion
1 Tablespoon olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

In the pot, put the 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Wait for it to heat. Then throw in both the garlic and onion (chopped).

Wait till they cook a bit, then toss in sliced mushrooms.

After mushrooms have cooked a bit dissolve bouillon cube in water(1/2 cup) and add it to the pot. Let simmer a couple minutes.

Drain the can of chickpeas and then throw them into the pot aswell. At this point, add pepper. (The bouillon is salty, so don’t add salt right now.)

Let it simmer for 10 minutes, then throw in the frozen veggies and wait till stew is back to slow boil.

Remove it from heat and cover for a few minutes to allow all the flavours to settle.

Serve. Add salt if desired. Would be very good with a slice of bread!

END

[/DDET]

At this point I’m at $4.92 total… so I decided to buy a beverage from the store. Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey. In terms of ‘processed’ drinks, it’s pretty good. Only sketchy inclusions are Citric acid and ascorbic acid.

So add $.99 to todays food, and we get a grand total of $5.91! (Oh and I have leftover stew! So my numbers are slightly inflated!)

In Recap
$.35 – Simply Orange Orange Juice
$.20 – Some Pasta
$.34 – A few Olives
$.16 – 2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
$.05 – One Green Onion
$.40 – Half piece of Bocconcini
$.09 – Slice of Bread
$.28 – 4 Cherry Tomatoes
$.89 – Can of Chick Peas
$.85 – 1 Chicken Thigh
$.36 – Half Spanish Onion
$.05 – 2 Cloves of Garlic
$.05 – Salt, Pepper
$.35 – 1/2 Cup of Mixed Frozen Vegetables
$.10 – Half Mushroom Bouillon Cube
$.48 – 4 Mushrooms
$.99 – Arizona Green Tea

So day one of this diet/challenge/budget thing is on! I’m excited to see what I can put on the table for myself for less than $6! I’m still trying to figure out the best way to blog this… should I just list everything including amount and how much it costs? Or… I dunno. Anyway, any suggestions would be appreciated!

I’m usually either a breakfast or a lunch kinda guy, not both. But I like to snack often.

Breakfast

175mL of Simply Orange Orange Juice. I also added 100mL of water to it. I don’t know if you’ve had it or not, but it’s even more sweet than Tropicana, so it’s perfect for adding a little water too. That ran me $.35 as it’s 1.75L and got it on sale for $3.49!
125mL of Skim Milk – $.27
1 cup of Raisin Bran. This was a great find as the box was $2.24! So each cup translates into $.19!
1 Kiwi – $.21

So in all, my breakfast came to $1.02! I was surprised at how little it actually was! Sale items really do pay off.

Afternoon Snack
I had a whole raw carrot (10 carrots in the bag for $.99) and a whole piece of celery (16 pieces, 1.49 for the stalk.) I also dipped it into a little Kraft Calorie Wise Catalina dressing. In total the snack ran me $.25!

Dinner
Dinner, I decided to get a little creative and also videoed and then edited it… so tell me what you think of the video too!

I also had a evening snack of some leftover rice, about half a cup ($.22), and a kiwi ($.21).

In all, I ate healthy for $3.90!

In Recap
$.35 – Glass of Orange Juice
$.27 – Half cup of Skim Milk
$.19 – Bowl of Raisin Bran
$.42 – 2 Kiwis
$.10 – 1 Large Carrot
$.09 – 1 Stalk of Celery
$.06 – Tablespoon Catalina Dressing
$.85 – 1 Bone-In, Skin on Chicken Thigh
$.24 – Half a Red Onion
$.05 – 1/4 Mushroom Bouillon
$.10 – Common Spices (Salt, Pepper, Dry Dill)
$.08 – Conola/Olive Oil Mix
$.48 – 4 Mushrooms
$.25 – 2 “Last Day” Zucchinis
$.10 – Aunt Jemima “Just Add Water” pancake mix
$.05 – Unbleached Flour
$.22 – Serving of Rice

PS. Thank you to @Tylerconium for his comment yesterday about stews and soups. I definitely have those planned!

So I was in a convenience store today looking for something to eat. I picked up chips, put them down… picked up pizza pockets, put them down… grabbed some pudding cups, dropped them…. looked at a Dark Chocolate with fruit bar, said no. I couldn’t figure out what terrible piece of ‘food’ I wanted to put in my body. All the things I picked up had 300+ calories in them! (Chocolate bar, handful of chips, one pizza pocket etc.) and a list of ingredients that sound more harmful than poison! I finally settled on a carton of milk and a banana.

But it got me thinking… is it possible to eat a diet that wasn’t processed? Then I realized, well of course it was, but sounds very expensive. So I revised it to.. Is it possible to eat a healthy diet of unprocessed foods on $6 a day?

So starting tomorrow(today!), I’m going to try to answer that question! It’s going to mean careful shopping, cutting coupons, reducing portion sizes and maybe even some negotiation with local retailers to cut me a deal! Yes, I will haggle if it’s not slowing other people down (I hate when people take forever in lineups asking questions or just holding others up!)

I’ll blog daily what I’m eating, along with any recipes I create/use. I’ll give a cost breakdown. I’ll also plan on doing a video blog if time permits and I have something interesting to say!

Now, someone said if you really wanted to you could live on $1 a day. Rice, water and beans. Well I don’t know about you, but I like to enjoy the food I’m eating! I’m the guy who buys the fresh dill or thyme to add to a sauce, or spends extra to get the Boneless, Skinless Chicken BREAST(no thighs for me). So I do want to spend the 10 cents to buy a tablespoon of peanut sauce! I think $6 is a reasonable number.

My goal of course, is to come under budget, but $6 is the line I don’t want to cross.

Now, what I need from you, is recipe suggestions or any deals you know on food that day/week. Hell, if you’ve got a coupon for something, I’ll even give you my address to send it to me! I live near a Sobeys, Loblaws, IGA, Food Basics and the Danforth fruit/veggie markets.

Let the madness begin!