day 1 dinner: black bean soup with polenta – cost: $1.79
I’m finally settling down after a long Day 2 of Eat On $30, which already has proven to be both rewarding and challenging. I’m definitely learning that under these budgetary constraints, dining out isn’t really an option, and when I have to cook on a budget, some effort and creativity is required, unless I want to end up eating rice and beans every day.
There were a lot of good comments on my day 1 post, particularly in regards to whether I should use pantry items I have in stock. I voiced my opinion on this in the comments, and I think I’m going to stick with it, because I’m not going to waste certain items in my refrigerator just because I didn’t purchase them this week. But I am still on track to use less than $25 worth of food, and I am only using on-hand items that are reasonably affordable to someone with a minimum budget, such as flour, salt, vegetable oil, cayenne, and so forth. I feel like this isn’t exactly what Tami had in mind, but I’m still learning a lot.
I think today felt particularly hectic because I had to cook all three of my meals, I had a ton of work to day, and I’m also going out of town for the next two days, so I had to plan how I’m going to eat while traveling. Trying to fit it all in was tough. My day went like this: I started the day at 6AM with a workout in Piedmont Park, cooked breakfast at 7:15, started working in my home office, made lunch at 11:45, worked until 2:30, cut up my whole chicken and started a pot of chicken stock with the carcass, rehydrated dry black beans in boiling water, then got back to work. I checked the beans/stock a few times and once I was done with work at 7PM I strained the stock. Then in preparation for a couple of meals later in the week I made refried beans and a red enchilada sauce. At some point I also started the chicken noodle soup for tomorrow.
At 8:30PM I finally started cooking tonight’s dinner, and I came up with a meal that was fairly ambitious for me: Pepin inspired chicken thigh, polenta (leftover) “crostini” topped with chicken liver pâté, carrot puree, and fried chicken rind. If this were top chef, I would say this was “beak to foot cooking”, or maybe something witty like “three way poule”. It came out decent, though I slightly burned the chicken skin on the thigh. The poorly lit photo below make it look more burned than it was though.
The amount of planning and cooking has been more tedious than expected, which I think hits home another another point regarding this challenge. Cooking healthy, creative meals on this budget isn’t just tough to manage because of the money – the effort and time required is just as problematic, further solidifying my respect for those that manage to deal with this situation every day.
day 2 breakfast: black bean soup leftovers over corn tortilla with a poached egg – cost: $0.78
day 2 lunch: ground pork stir fry with leftover noodles and rice from yesterday – cost: $0.82
cutting up the chicken
preparing the chicken liver
searing the chicken thigh (started with too hot a pan, burned the skin)
dinner 2: chicken thigh + mushroom, carrot puree, fried chicken rind, broiled polenta crostini + chicken liver pate – cost: $1.13
fried chicken skin, which I removed from a breast I used for the chicken noodle soup
chicken liver close-up
