Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Day 3

Breakfast:    1/2 cup dry oatmeal
Snack:        Protein Bar
Lunch:        1 1/2 cups chili with 1/4 cup cheese
Snack:        Apple
Dinner:       8 oz. Chicken, 1 cup mixed veggies, onion and mushrooms
Snack:       10 baby carrots, 1/2 avacado, yogurt

So far so good!  Been able to eat plenty of food and not eat processed, bad for you foods.

At this rate, I will have left over food to start building off of for next week.

Eating more protein durring the day has helped me not have so many cravings and I don't have to eat as much at one time because if it.  I need to make sure to have protein for breakfast everyday because that is when I am the hungeriest,  between breakfast and my snack. Sometimes I find myself eating the protein bar an hour after breakfast when I only eat oatmeal or only have my apple.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Day 2 - Homemade Vegitarian Chili

Today's Menu:
Breakfast    1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal, apple
Snack         Protein bar
Lunch         1 serving of shrimp sauteed with 1 cup left over frozen veggies
Snack        10 baby carrots, slice of cheese
Dinner        1 serving of chili with pasta and 1/4 cup cheese, 1/4 avacado
Snack        1 yogurt

Walk 1 mile with the dogs

Today I made a pot of chili that should last several meals-  5- 6 servings I think.

1 can chili beans
1 can white beans
1 can kidney beans
1 30 oz can dices tomatoes
1 onion diced

Mix all into a pot and let it simmer for a hour.

Makes a huge pot of chili

Cook up a serving of pasta.
Pour 1 cup of the chili over the pasta and sprinkle with a little shredded cheese !  YUM !

Monday, November 14, 2011

Day 1

Today I start my healthy life food stamp challenge.

Breakfast : 1 yogurt and 1 apple

Snack:  Protein bar

Lunch : 6 oz chicken breast 1 1/2 cups of frozen veggies

Snack: 1 apple, 1 slice of cheese

Dinner: 4oz Salmon Fillet, 1 cup steamed squash/zucchini and 1/2 cup of sauteed mushroom and onion.

Walk 1 mile with the dogs.

Can you lose weight on a food stamp budget?

The other day the news said you can't eat healthy on a food stamp budget.  Even set out to prove it.  Well I had to disagree.  Thus my task began.

I live in Tennessee and found that a single person would receive $50 a week for food.  This sounds almost impossible, seeing as I would spend $80-$100a week on fresh groceries from Publix and Kroger each week.

I have been shopping the outside isles of the grocery store for the better part of 6 months.  I have been watching what I eat and exercising and have been able to lose 60 pounds so far.  I do not want to stop the weight loss process so I have to be smart with what I buy.

Most people think that you cannot eat fresh fruits and veggies with food stamps, they are just too expensive.  Well the price of those items have definitely gone up at traditional grocery stores. I tried shopping at the farmers market, bout found the prices to not be much better. 

I need to stick to that $50 a week to prove my point.  So I began to research the grocery adds, and found that discount chains like Aldi have great prices on many of the items in the store. 

I made my list and took off for the local Aldi.  I have a working knowledge of the items I purchase every week so I was able to compare prices of those items.  I found that the fresh produce was cheaper for most items.  Squash and zucchini were $1 per pack cheaper,  a 3 pound bag of apples was $2 cheaper, the mushrooms were only .10 cents cheaper.  The frozen veggies were .50 cents less and the pork tenderloin was a shocking $3 less than at Kroger ( I will get that next trip). 

I was able to purchase everything I needed for $53.83.  Ok so I went $3.83 over.  Not bad for my first trip.  next week look out, I should be able to do even better.


What I purchased:

3 pack of squash
3 pack of zucchini
3 pack bell peppers
1 bag onions
1 12 oz mushroom container
3 pd bag of apples
1 avocados
1 16oz box whole wheat pasta
1 16 oz bag frozen veggies
1 bag baby carrots
1 16 ox bag of frozen shrimp
1 3lb bag of frozen chicken breast
1 16ox bag salmon filet's
1 15 oz can kidney beans
1 15oz can white beans
1 15oz can chili beans
1 15oz can black beans
1 30 oz can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 cheese block
1 container of salt
5 yogurts
1 oatmeal
1 box protein bars