trucking along

lent is more than half over now.

the journey is trudging along, but it is worth it. i had a calculated portion of spaghetti last night that was less than half of what i normally get - and it was a bit too much! part of this experience has been learning that we simply don't need as much of what we consume (food, materially, etc.). i've found some cheap chicken breasts and they are making for some meals that are better. i haven't had a salad in about a week (need to change that ...), i haven't had much tuna yet (one meal), i need to make another batch of refried beans, and the list goes on. in other words, i still have some options left to spice things up!

cravings

it only took two weeks for the craving to start ...

on the drive home from picking up jake in the afternoon, i'm usually starting to get hungry. regular oatmeal or peanut butter on toast and then a sandwich at lunch only end up going so far. i pass a papa john's (of which L partook last week) and the coffee shop and long for a splurge. i think it's less the specific food and more feeling handcuffed by not being able to eat whatever i want, when i want. it's similar to feeling like a spoiled kid not getting what he or she wants.

for people of means (like everyone reading this i presume), eating is very much a social activity. something to do. shopping is often the same way. "oh saturday is so boring. let's go to the mall or out to eat." spending becomes our activity.

holy saturday is one month from today. wow.

first full week of lent

and now a non-backdated update post.

yeah, so the last five entries were all backdated to catch things up and not miss some important events in life. this past week has been fun and i must say that lent hasn't been that tough so far. i guess i just prepared a lot (numbers are fun) and focus on eating cost efficiently.

each day i either have plain oatmeal with 1 tbsp of maple syrup (6-7 cents) or a piece of toast with 1 tbsp of peanut butter (8 cents). most days i have a half or whole banana for a snack around 10 am (when i normally eat almonds), but that costs 8.3 or 16.6 cents respectively and really cuts into the dinner fund. lunch is usually a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (1 tbsp of each) for 14.2 cents or the occasional bologna sandwich for roughly the same cost.

on the days i have a half banana for a snack, that leaves me a whopping 70 cents for dinner which ends up being a ton. on the first few days i had a huge salad (lettuce, cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, onion, salt and pepper, 2 tbsp dressing), but it was just a bit much. so lately i usually have a salad half that size - just lettuce, cucumber, salt and pepper, and 2 tbsp dressing is plenty wet and actually really tasty - and then something else. this week that has often been a serving of refried beans and/or rice sometimes with tortillas.

a few special meals: looking for something different and interesting on thursday night, i had a bologna sandwich with a scrambled egg on it. and it was sooo good. friday night, i went as light as possible during the day and for dinner i had a half a box of penne pasta, a 1/2 cup of meat spaghetti sauce, and a bunch of spices. very tasty except it was actually a bit much. i should have stuck with a 1/4 box of pasta and then had a small salad. finally, this morning i conjured up a small version of juevos rancheros (one of my faves at mexican places): one egg, 2 corn tortillas (that i unsuccessfully tried to fry up a little bit in some butter), and the last of my refried beans.

who knows what 65 cents will bring tonight for dinner, but it's a fun adventure.

oh, and i figured out what to do on sundays. normally lent is the 40 days between ash wednesday and easter sunday, not including sundays. thurs, you usually break your fast on sundays, but that seems odd for me to indulge myself gratuitously on sundays - even though it's supposed to be a 'mini-easter.' my plan is to keep on the fast for all meals except sunday lunch and then remain frugal for that one meal. last weekend, lindsay made more homemade barbecue and we bought a rotisserie chicken so i had a good portion of meat and some potatoes and onions for sunday lunch.

homemade refried beans

to help on the lent adventure, i made some some homemade refried beans.

and man they're cheap! and very tasty! i used a recipe from emeril and limited the amount of ingredients to just what was necessary (beans, garlic, spices). i priced everything out and the entire batch only came to $0.63 for what started as a base of 2 cups of beans. should be an interesting week of some burritos (i have some cheap corn tortillas, but they fall apart easy) and who knows what!