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Hi Friends!

The #surviveon35 challenge has come to an end so it seem’s like now would be a good time to do a recap of the entire challenge! I was selected to participate in a challenge sponsored by Anytime Fitness and given $70 to buy groceries for this challenge.

I introduced the challenge over a week ago. CLICK HERE to read the intro post where I explain the challenge. The challenge kicked off last Wednesday and finished up last night!

I started by giving you guys a breakdown of how I planned my meals for this challenge and recapped my trip to the grocery store. CLICK HERE to read that post.

In summary, I made a meal plan and used that to make a grocery list. Then I visited two grocery stores to compare prices and chose the store with the best prices overall to do my shopping for this challenge. Based on the prices I recorded, I made some adjustments to my grocery list and then headed to the store.

The trip to the store took me a while because I found myself having to weigh all the items in the produce section AND I was constantly checking and double checking what I put in my cart.

I spent $56.87 during my first trip to the store and here’s what I came home with:

In my next post, I gave a detailed breakdown of everything I bought, including the prices. CLICK HERE to read that post.

In that same post, I showed you guys some of the prep work I did to make cooking the meals easier during the week and I shared some of the things I thought about while I was at the grocery store.

Then I recapped my daily eats for each day of the challenge. In each daily eats post, I included recipes for what I ate that day.

Day 1 Eats

Banana Berry Baked Oatmeal
Tuna & Black Bean Lettuce Boats
Plain Greek Yogurt w/ Berries & Cereal
Vegetarian Cabbage Rolls

CLICK HERE for larger pictures and recipes from Day 1.

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Day 2 Eats

Toasted Oats Cereal w/ Blueberries & PB Toast w/ Bananas
Hard Boiled Egg, Triscuits & Carrot Sticks
Burrito Salads
Celery Sticks w/ PB & Applesuace
Lentil Pot Pies w/ Strawberry Spinach Salad

CLICK HERE for larger pictures and recipes from Day 2.

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Day 3 Eats

Berry Breakfast Couscous
Hard Boiled Egg & Triscuits w/ PB
Lentil, Veggie & Brown Rice Soup w/ Blueberries & Applesauce
Green Monster Smoothie
Black Bean & Sweet Potato Quesadillas
Toasted Oats Cereal & Skim Milk

CLICK HERE for larger pictures and recipes from Day 3.

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Day 4 Eats

Scrambled Eggs, Whole Wheat Toast and Black Bean & Potato Hash
Side of Blueberries & Sliced Bananas
Fish Chowder w/ Hummus & Carrots
Plain Greek yogurt, Applesauce, Blueberries & Cereal
Black Bean & Brown Rice Burgers
Leftover Black Bean & Sweet Potato Quesadilla

CLICK HERE for larger pictures and recipes from Day 4.

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Day 5 Eats

French Toast with Sliced Bananas & Melted PB
Leftovers Day!
Leftover Lentil Pot Pie & Fish Chowder
Leftover Black Bean Burger Wrap
PB & Banana Quesadilla and a Hard Boiled Egg
Leftover Lentil Veggie Soup w/ a side of Beans, Lentils & Rice
Leftover Black Bean Burger w/ Beans & Rice (not pictured)
Banana Fro-yo w/ Blueberries

CLICK HERE to see larger pictures and recipes from Day 5

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Since I only spent $56.87 on my first trip, I returned to the store on Sunday to restock a few items. Going into this challenge my plan was to have about $10 leftover from my first trip so I would be able to restock a few things near the end of the week. Here’s what I bought:

I restocked some basics like fruit and milk,
And picked up some stuff for our last two dinners.

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Day 6 Eats

Oatmeal Smoothie Bowl
Tuna & Brown Rice Wrap
PB Chocolate Chip Larabar
Plain Greek yogurt, Applesauce, Blueberries & Cereal
Lentil Veggie Mac & Cheese w/ a side of Green Beans

CLICK HERE to see larger pictures and recipes from Day 6.

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Day 7 Eats

Eggs & Toast with a side of Strawberries
Leftover Lentil Mac & Cheese, Rice & Beans and PB Sandwich for hubby
Sweet Potato Oatmeal with PB & Cinnamon for me
Banana Berry Snack Balls
Fish Cakes with Rice & Beans, Green Beans & Roasted Carrots

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Since I didn’t do a separate post for Day 7 Eats,
I’ll share a few recipes with you here:

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Sweet Potato Oatmeal

For the sweet potato oatmeal, I microwaved a sweet potato,
saved half for later and added half to my oatmeal.
You could also diced it up and cook it right in with the oatmeal.
Top with pb and cinnamon!

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Fish Cakes

1/2 c cooked sweet potato, mashed
3 Tbsp onion, diced
1/3 c cooked black beans
1 clove garlic
2/3 c cooked, flaked fish
1/2 c breadcrumbs
1 egg
Old Bay & Cayenne pepper to taste

Mash the sweet potato, onion, black beans and garlic in a small bowl.
Mix in the fish, breadcrumbs and egg.
Form into 4 cakes.
Bake at 425 for 14 minutes, flipping once.

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Banana Berry Snack Balls

1/2 a banana, mashed
2 Tbsp peanut butter
1/4 c oats
1/3 c blueberries

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl.
Scoop into balls and refrigerate or freeze.

I tried them both ways and prefer them frozen,
and then slightly thawed! SO GOOD!

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Between my two trips to the store, I spent a grand total of $69.66.

For your reference, here’s a list of all of my #surviveon35 posts:

Menu Planning & Grocery Shopping
Grocery Breakdown and Food Prep
Day 1 Eats
Day 2 Eats
Day 3 Eats
Day 4 Eats
Day 5 Eats
Day 6 Eats

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 Now, let’s recap some of my thoughts about the challenge!

Some things I noticed & learned:

• I did less mindless snacking. Usually I’m always grabbing a handful of cereal here, some crackers there…I did less of that because I simply didn’t purchase as many snack-type foods.
• I did less overall snacking. Usually I tend to eat several small meals throughout the day. During this challenge I found myself eating 3 main meals and one or two snacks. This means my 3 main meals were larger than I’m used to eating.  I was eating more at meals and less between them.
• I was constantly thinking about how much food we had, re-evaluating my menu plan, worrying about whether we would run out of stuff.
• It’s tiring to cook every single meal. Typically we go out to eat at least once a week, sometimes twice. We couldn’t do that on this budget.
• When I think about it, $70 per week isn’t all that much less than we typically spend per week.  However, I have a well-stocked pantry and freezer so I have more money to spend on things like fresh fruits.
• Planning is KEY. There’s no way I would have made it through this challenge without doing the amount of planning I did.
• There were things I missed, but they weren’t necessarily things I NEED for a healthy diet, just things I’m used to having like red peppers, coffee, almonds, avocados…
• I did go without some of my favorite items this week, but I do think they could be purchased on a similar budget..perhaps not every week, but you could definitely incorporate them into a multi-week rotation.
• Having a limited supply of foods to work with helped me come up with some combinations I probably wouldn’t have thought of on my own.
• I never felt like I wasn’t getting enough food or that I was missing out on any nutrients.
• Frozen vegetables are awesome. I don’t know why I never bought them before, but I’m definitely going to start- they’re perfect for things that are going to be cooked anyways like soup and pot pies.
• There’s nothing wrong with store brand. The cereal and the tortillas I bought were both as good, if not better than the name brand kinds i’ve bought in the past!

One whole wheat tortilla
Some hummus
About 1/2 cups of cooked black beans
About 2 cups of cooked lentils
A few cups of homemade veggie broth
About 1/4 gallon of milk (our second gallon)
1/2 a box of pasta
An 8 oz can of tomato sauce
1/4 pint of blueberries (our second pint)
About 1/4 jar of peanut butter
4 oz of cheese
2 zucchini
2 carrots
1 tomato

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Thanks so much for all of your support during the challenge! I had a great time sharing my eats with you! Big thanks to Fitfluential and Anytime Fitness for giving me the opportunity to participate. If you have a moment, I’d love for you to tweet and share this post and go through and like some of the photos I’ve posted on Instagram and Facebook over the past week if you haven’t already! The winners of the challenge will be chosen tomorrow!

If you enjoyed the campaign, please join Anytime Fitness and all of the #surviveon35 challengers for a Twitter Chat tomorrow (Thursday July 26th) at 7pm EST/6pm CST! Winners will be announced, so come find out who gets to give $1,000 to their favorite food pantry!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Fitfluential compensated me for this campaign. All opinions are my own.

Hi Friends!

Today is the last day of the #surviveon35 challenge. Let’s recap yesterday’s eats shall we?I  was selected to participate in a challenge sponsored by Anytime Fitness and given $70 to buy groceries for this challenge.

Breakfast

Oatmeal Smoothie Bowl

Make your favorite green smoothie.
Mine was very similar to the one I made here.
It had greek yogurt, spinach, frozen banana, strawberries and some milk.
Make a bowl of oatmeal and let cool for a few minutes.
Add the oatmeal to the blender and mix well.
Pour into a bowl and top with fresh fruit if desired.

Lunch

Tuna & Brown Rice Wrap

I made some tuna salad that was very similar to this one,
except I left out the black beans and added some green pepper.
I added some lettuce and brown rice to a whole wheat tortilla,
Topped with tuna salad and tomato (and cheese for the hubby).

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Served with a bowl of fresh berries and some hummus & carrots

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PM Snacks

Larabar snack while doing some work.

Post-workout snack:
Plain Greek yogurt, applesauce, blueberries and toasted oats cereal
Plus a hard-boiled egg.

Dinner

Lentil Veggie Mac & Cheese with a side of green beans.
I blogged about the mac and cheese recipe a while ago.
CLICK HERE to view the recipe.

For this challenge I made a few modifications-
I used 2 cups of frozen veggies- worked perfectly
I added a scoop of Greek yogurt instead of goat cheese.
I used yellow cheddar cheese instead of white.
I made a roux with olive oil instead of butter.

This is one of our favs.
We ate pretty much the whole thing 🙂

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All together now:

 Come back tomorrow to see how we round out
the last day of #surviveon35!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

Happy Monday! Can you believe we’re already on day 6 of the #surviveon35 challenge? I was selected to participate in a challenge sponsored by Anytime Fitness and given $70 to buy groceries for this challenge.

In case you’re just catching up, you can see what’ we’ve been eating for the past several days by clicking the links below:

Day 1 Eats
Day 2 Eats
Day 3 Eats
Day 4 Eats 

Now, let’s recap Sunday’s eats.

Breakfast

French Toast with sliced bananas and melted peanut butter.
I used 4 slices of whole wheat bread, 2 eggs and a splash of milk.
It was delicious even though it was just sandwich bread,
not the fancier bread I usually use.
I forgot to add a sprinkle of cinnamon,
But that would have been an added bonus.

The rest of the day was all about leftovers:

Lunch

I had leftover fish chowder, leftover lentil pot pie & some celery with pb.

Hubby had a wrap using a leftover black bean burger and some applesauce.

Snack

PB & Banana quesadilla with a hard boiled egg.

Dinner

Leftover Curried Lentil Veggie Soup and a side of beans/lentils and brown rice.

Hubby had the last bean burger topped with hummus, onion and cheese
and a side of black beans and rice.

Dessert

Banana “fro-yo” with a handful of blueberries.

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All together now:

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Also, I stopped by Kroger yesterday to spend the rest of my $70. As you recall, I only spent $56.87 on my first trip. My plan was to save about $10 so that I could restock a few things near the end of the challenge.

Here’s home I spent the rest of the money:

 

I restocked a few basics like milk and fresh fruit.
I picked up a few items for our last two dinners,
and grabbed a few larabars for snacks,
since I know I’ll be at the library a lot this week.

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So, between the two trips, my grand total was:

Stay tuned for the last two days of #surviveon35 eats and a final recap post!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

Hope everyone’s having a great weekend! Let’s have a quick look at yesterday’s eats shall we? I was selected to participate in a challenge sponsored by Anytime Fitness and given $70 to buy groceries for this challenge.

Breakfast

Scrambled Eggs
Whole Wheat Toast
Potato & Black Bean Hash
Sliced bananas and blueberries

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For the hash, I just diced up 1/4 of a russet potato and 1/4 of a sweet potato and microwaved them for about a minute and a half. Then, in a really hot pan, I sauteed the potatoes, some onion and some green pepper for a few minutes to get some nice color on the potatoes. I added a little McCormick’s seasoning at the end to finish it off. Delish!

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Lunch

Fish Chowder

1/2 a russet potato
1/3 c onion, diced
1/3 c carrot, diced
1/3 c green pepper, diced
1.5 lbs fish, cooked and flaked
Old Bay seasoning & black pepper to taste
1 c vegetable broth
2 c Skim milk

In a dutch oven, saute the potato, onion, carrot and peppers for 5 min.
Add the broth, milk and seasonings and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
Add the fish and simmer 5 minutes more.
Serve warm.

Hint- I made this soup in the morning and served with lunch.
It’s best when it sits for a while.
I used Perch for the fish, haddock is a great choice as well.
This made enough for about 3 bowls. You could easily double it!

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Served with carrots and hummus.

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Afternoon Snack

Plain Greek yogurt
Applesauce
Sliced banana
Blueberries
Toasted Oats cereal

Dinner

Black Bean & Brown Rice Burgers

1 1/2 c black beans, cooked
1/2 c brown rice, cooked
1/2 c carrot, diced
1/3 c onion
2 cloves garlic
1 egg
1/4 c breadcrumbs*
red pepper & paprika to taste

Place 1/2 the black beans in a small bowl and smash well.
Stir in the remaining beans, carrot, onion and garlic.
Add the egg and breadcrumbs and mix well.
Form into 4 patties.
Place in the freezer for at least 30 min.
Remove and bake at 400 degrees for 16-18 min, flipping once.

*I didn’t have breadcrumbs so I smashed up some
toasted oats cereal and used that instead.

-Also, I didn’t buy buns so I just cut bread slices into circles.
Works well, especially if you use the ends of the loaf.

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Served with another black bean and sweet potato quesadilla to share!

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All together now:

Plus a bonus shot of Tucky & I- we took the boys on a long walk around the
OSU campus since it was a beautiful day!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

Let’s take a look at Friday eats shall we? I was selected to participate in a challenge sponsored by Anytime Fitness and given $70 to buy groceries for this challenge.

Breakfast 

Berry Breakfast Couscous

Usually I use quinoa to make this. CLICK HERE to see the recipe.
Yesterday I used whole wheat couscous instead of quinoa,
left out the vanilla and topped it with blueberries.
I was going to add peanut butter as well, but skipped it.

AM Snack 

Hardboiled Egg
Triscuits w/ Peanut Butter

Lunch

Curried Lentil & Veggie Soup

2 cups mixed vegetables
1/2 a russet potato
1 clove garlic
2 Tbsp onion
1 c lentils
4-5 cabbage leaves, sliced
3 c veggie broth
1 c water
1 c brown rice
curry powder & cayenne pepper to taste

Saute the onion, garlic and potato until tender.
Add the veggies and saute another 3 minutes.
Add the broth, water, cabbage, spices and lentils.
Bring to a boil reduce heat and simmer for 20 min.
Stir in the rice  and heat through.
Serve warm.

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Served with applesauce and blueberries.

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PM Snack

Green Monster Smoothie

1 banana, cut into chunks and frozen
1/3 c skim milk
2 big handfuls spinach
1/4 c applesauce
1/2 c plain greek yogurt
1/4 c blueberries
Ice

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend well.

Dinner 

Black Bean & Sweet Potato Quesadilla

1 c black beans
1/2 a sweet potatoes diced, microwaved until soft
1/3 c green pepper, diced
1/4 c onion, diced
cayenne pepper, to taste
2% shredded Mexican cheese
2- 8 in whole wheat tortillas

Saute onion and green pepper until crisp tender.
Add black beans and sweet potato and heat through.
Spoon mixture onto tortilla, top with cheese.
Cook in a pan, oven or panini press.

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This made 2 quesadillas with enough filling leftover to make one more.
I cooked them on our George Foreman grill.

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I also had a late afternoon bowl of cereal!
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All together now:

 Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

Just popping in for a quick recap of what I ate during day #2 of the #surviveon35 challenge! In case you missed it, to see what I ate on Day 1, CLICK HERE! I was selected to participate in a challenge sponsored by Anytime Fitness and given $70 to buy groceries for this challenge.

Breakfast

Like I said, I’m a cereal girl at heart.
So I’ll definitely be eating it a few times this week.
Kroger brand Toasted Oats with skim milk & blueberries
Whole wheat toast w/ natural peanut butter and sliced bananas
Hot water with lemon

AM Snack 

Carrot sticks
Hard boiled egg
Reduced Fat Triscuits
Side note- I’d never really looked at the label for Triscuits before,
but they only have 3 ingredients plus 3 g fiber & 3 g protein per serving!
That’s better than a lot of the crackers I looked at!

Lunch

Burrito Salad

Lettuce
1/2 c brown rice
1/2 c black beans
1/4 c sweet potatoes
onion & tomato
topped w/ a little cheese

These are one of my favorite lunches! I blogged about them last month
CLICK HERE to read.

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Served with a side of sliced strawberries!

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PM Snack

Applesauce
Celery sticks with peanut butter

Dinner

Lentil Pot Pie
Strawberry Spinach Salad

Lentil pot pies are one of my favorite meals! Major comfort food and so easy to make! I blogged about them waaaay back in October of last year, but I realized I never posted the actual recipe. SO, I went back and updated the post just for you guys! CLICK HERE for the recipe.

For the challenge, I didn’t buy puff pastry. Instead I bought a can of refrigerator biscuits. Just bake them on a baking sheet along with the pot pies (you’ll probably have to take them out before the pies are done) and then pop one on top of your pot pie. Tastes just as good 🙂 Also, I didn’t buy butter for the challenge so I subbed oil and it worked just fine. I used the frozen veggies I bought, which were a mix of green beans, peas, corn and carrots. I added garlic, onion and half a russet potato!

All together now:

Not pictured: a couple handfuls of cereal and triscuits while making dinner and a bowl of cereal before bed 🙂

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

We’re skipping Fitness Friday this week so I can keep sharing more about the #surviveon35 challenge with you. I was selected to participate in a challenge sponsored by Anytime Fitness and given $70 to buy groceries for this challenge.

When we left off yesterday, I had just gotten home from the grocery store. Here’s what I bought for $56.87:

Today let’s break it down into a little more detail to show you what I got (items that are bolded were on sale in the store):

 Fruit

1 Quart of Strawberries- $2.00
 1 Pint of Blueberries- $1.50
6 Bananas- $1.16
1 Lemon- $0.50
Applesauce- $1.87

Dairy

18 eggs- $2.19
1 bag 2% Mexican cheese- $1.79
1 gallon Skim Milk- $2.49
Greek Yogurt- $3.29

Protein

2 cans of chickpeas- $1.98
1 jar of natural peanut butter- $2.50
2 cans of tuna in water- $1.40
1 bag brown rice- $0.70
1 bag dried lentils- $1.29
1 bag dried black beans- $1.39
Wild Caught Perch- $3.49
*yes greek yogurt also could be in this picture
*yes rice could also be in the grain picture

Grains

10 Whole Wheat Tortillas- $1.59
1 loaf Whole Wheat Bread- $1.79
1 box Toasted Oats cereal- $1.99
1 box Triscuits-$2.00
5 pre-made refrigerator biscuits- $0.69
1/2 pound rolled oats from bulk bins- $0.66
1/4 pound whole wheat couscous from bulk bins- $0.56

 Vegetables

1 bag baby spinach- $1.99
1 head of green cabbage- $0.79
2- 8oz cans no-salt added tomato sauce- $0.74
1 can no-salt added diced tomatoes- $1.08
1 head red leaf lettuce- $0.90
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables- $2.50
1 bulb garlic- $0.50
2 russet potatoes- $0.98
2- 1# bags carrots- $1.58
1 bunch of celery- $1.50
2 zucchini- $1.15
2 onions- $1.00
3 sweet potatoes- $1.47
1 green pepper- $0.79
3 roma tomatoes- $1.00
*yes I know tomatoes are a fruit

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So now that you have the breakdown, here are some of my thoughts, in no particular order:

• I eat a lot of Greek yogurt. I wanted to buy some. I was lucky to find some on sale. However, that’s one thing I probably would have bought even if it wasn’t on sale because I know it plays a large role in the amount of protein I personally get.
• I chose to get a big bag of frozen vegetables (peas, carrots & green beans) because several of the items on my menu require cooked vegetables. There was no reason I needed to buy fresh vegetables for those dishes if they were more expensive.
• I planned to buy fresh green beans to eat as a side dish because I prefer them to frozen. They were out of green beans. Sad.
• Choose cheese made with 2% milk for the same price as full-fat cheese.
• I used the bulk bins to only buy the amount of oats and couscous I needed for the week.
• I chose Triscuits for my crackers because they have a simple ingredient list and provide fiber and protein, something a lot of cheaper crackers don’t have.
• I still looked at the sodium content in the tortillas and bread I got. I weighed price against nutritional value and was able to find tortillas and bread that were relatively low in sodium. I also got 100% whole wheat products for not much more than the cost of comparable non-wheat products.
• I could have bought dried chickpeas but it’s my personal preference that I prefer canned to make hummus. Since making hummus was all I planned to use them for, I didn’t need a whole bag of dried ones.
• I chose dried black beans and lentils because I will be using them in almost every dish. They’re easy to cook ahead of time and freeze, and I like that you can control the sodium content. Plus they’re cheap!
• I was able to find a natural peanut butter on sale that contained just peanuts and salt. Although I prefer unsalted, this was the best choice for this week. However, had it not been on sale, this is another item I would have spent more $ on to get a natural version without all the added sugars and oils that are in some brands.
• I chose Perch for my fish not only because it was on sale, but because it was wild-caught. I got slightly less fish than if I’d bought a larger pack of farm raised tilapia, but it was cheap and I am using it in soup which I can bulk up with vegetables.
• The berries I bought were on sale. If they hadn’t been, I would have looked at the fruit options that were on sale. I chose unsweetened applesauce because you can get a lot of applesauce for not much money and it will help me get my servings of fruit in each day.
• Celery is not the most nutritious vegetable. There isn’t much too it. I wouldn’t have bought it, however, I decided after looking at the prices of veggie broth that I could make my own for much cheaper. I think celery is a key ingredient in making broth. I used the tops and bottoms of the stalks to make broth and will eat the celery with peanut butter for a snack!
• I paid $0.20 extra for a can of no-salt added diced tomatoes. My can has 10mg sodium per serving with about 3 servings per can. Other cans, with salt added, have 300-400mg per serving or 900-1200mg per can. Since I plan to use the juice from the can as well, I believe it’s worth the extra money to get no-salt added.
• I was going to buy enchilada sauce. It’s high in sodium as well so I bought a small can of no salt-added tomato sauce for 1/3 the price and will add a few spices to make my own sauce.
• Like I said yesterday, coffee is expensive. I can live without it and hubby can get free coffee at work. However, I had money leftover so I may use it to treat us to coffee this weekend.

When I got home from the grocery store I spent a little over an hour in the kitchen doing some prep work for the week. Here’s what I did to make it easier to put together meals during the week:

I made some homemade veggie broth with celery & carrot scraps and onion.
The rest of the celery & carrots are chopped up & ready for snacking.
I cooked the whole bag of dried black beans.
Portion them into ziploc bags and freeze until ready to use.
Same thing with lentils.
They cook fast and freeze well.
I hardboiled half my eggs to snack on during the week.
Store the veggie broth in the fridge if you’re going to use it during the week.
If not, freeze it and thaw it out when you need it.
Make your own hummus.
I made a double batch for snacking this week.
I also cooked up some brown rice (not pictured).

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

We’re in Day 2 of the #surviveon35 challenge. I was selected to participate in a challenge sponsored by Anytime Fitness and given $70 to buy groceries for this challenge.

Today I thought I’d take some time to talk about all the preparation and planning that went into this challenge for me. But first I wanted to briefly address why I’m doing this challenge. I’ve seen lots of people do this challenge over the past couple of years. No matter who is doing it, or for what reason, there always seems to be someone that has a negative reaction to it. Someone who thinks that it trivializes the food stamp program, makes a mockery of people currently going hungry, etc. There are bloggers doing this challenge with me this week that are getting HAMMERED by people who view this challenge as a negative thing. I disagree. As a future Registered Dietitian, I obviously feel very strongly that everyone should strive to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet. I realize that on a limited budget it is challenging, but I also believe it can be done. That’s why I’m doing this challenge. To show you guys that with a little planning, healthy meals can be created for very little money. 

I fully understand that doing this for one week doesn’t mean I know what people who live like this every day are going through.
I understand that there are a lot of factors that aren’t being addressed by this challenge . There are a lot of people that can only get to the grocery store using public transportation. There are a lot of people who live in areas that don’t have a grocery store nearby, so they do their shopping at smaller stores/drug stores/etc that may or may not have the amount of fresh produce, etc that I had access to. There are a lot of people that work two jobs and don’t have a ton of free time to spend menu planning and clipping coupons. And many more…

However, I also believe that this challenge can be a learning experience for a lot of people. By doing this challenge, I hope to share some of my knowledge with all of you. If me sharing this experience on the blog leads to even one person being able to successfully purchase more healthy food than they usually do with the same amount of money, or gives even one person an idea for a new, healthy meal they want to cook, it will be worth it.

I hope some of these meals will inspire you.
I hope this challenge will motivate you to make healthy choices.
I hope  this challenge will help you realize that you CAN feed your body healthy food on a budget.

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 CLICK HERE to read a post by one of my fellow challengers Bess. She does a great job explaining how she feels, which is exactly the same way I do, about all of the negativity. Finally, I respect the fact that everyone is entitled to their own opinion about this challenge. I’ve shared my reasons for doing this challenge. Others have shared their opinions. Not everyone agrees, and that’s fine. Just because we feel differently doesn’t mean anyone should behave in a manner that is anything less than civilized and respectful towards one another.

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So, here’s the approach I took for this challenge:

I started by making a list of things I might want to make, typing out whatever popped into my head:

Once I got the ball rolling, it was easy to come up with 6-7 things I wanted to make for dinner. Next I wrote down a few lunch ideas. Finally, I tackled breakfast. I am the type of person that eats cereal for breakfast every day of the week. And I am 100% fine with that. However, since this is a challenge, I decided to challenge myself this week and show you guys some non-cereal breakfasts!

Once I had my menu, I made a grocery list. Then I spent some time deciding where to shop. My approach to this aspect of the challenge may be different than some of the other contestants. After much debate, I chose to shop at just one store. Although I know I could have gotten more food by going to two, possibly even three stores, I decided that in reality, a lot of people may not be able to do that. They may be taking public transportation, or have limited gas money. I initially thought I would go to both Kroger and Meijer because both are within 0.5 miles of my house and within 0.2 miles of each other, but in the end my solution was to compare prices at the two stores and then choose the best one overall.

On Monday, I headed to both stores with my grocery list. I located all of the items I was planning to buy and wrote down the price. I don’t think this comparison is something you need to do every time you shop. But if you take a notepad with you and write down the prices of the thing you find yourself buying often, you’ll be come familiar with the prices. This will help you recognize when there are sales and it will help you have a more accurate idea of what you’re going to spend.

After noting all of the prices,  I headed home to do some math. I quickly realized two things:
1) There was no way I could buy everything on my list for $70, even though I thought it was a pretty reasonable list.
2) I pretty much have no idea what constitutes a pound of potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, etc.

So I got to work. I had all these produce prices that were by the pound, and I had no idea whether a pound of tomatoes was one tomato or four. So I pulled out my kitchen scale and a few things from my pantry to help give me a better idea of what I would need to buy.

Then I started crossing things off my list. I had hopes of making some homemade granola using things from the bulk bins, but when I realized I would be over budget, those were the first items to get crossed off the list:

The Kroger I went to also didn’t have quinoa in the bulk bins this week- they rotate through a lot of grains, so I knew it would be too expensive to buy a large package of it. Coffee was another expensive item. Even the cheapest can of ground coffee I saw was $4-$5. I spent a lot of time thinking about that one but eventually crossed it off.

I did some more calculating (please note that it drove the hubby crazy that I did this on paper and with a calculator instead of on the computer in an excel spreadsheet- what can i say, i’m old fashioned!) and got my list down to below $70.

We literally went grocery shopping 2 hours before I found out I got picked for this challenge last week so I’d been trying really hard to use up all the stuff we bought before the challenge started so it wouldn’t go bad. I ended up having to freeze some stuff, but I made it work and cleared out the bottom shelf of the fridge and one veggie drawer for my challenge groceries.

Then, on Tuesday, I headed to the store. It took me a little longer than normal because I was so nervous about going over budget that I kept checking and rechecking things. I had my list with the prices written next to it. As I added things to the cart, I checked them off on my list and made sure the price I had written down was correct.

Note the weird symbol system I had for the different phases of my trip. I decided to save the produce for last so I got everything else on the list and added that up to see where I was at. Then I spent some time in the produce department and added those prices to my previous total. I had to use the scale for almost every item to figure out what the exact price was going to be. That’s something I never do when I go grocery shopping. I usually just pick up 2 onions, 6 potatoes, or whatever I need, without worrying about exactly how much they weigh or exactly how much they’re going to cost.

After I finished getting produce I was at about $52. I decided to add a couple more items to my cart, including an extra container of fruit and then I was ready to checkout.

According to my calculations, my total was supposed to be $57.21. As I rang the food up (I used the self-checkout so I could take my time), I watched the items carefully to make sure the prices were correct. I’m glad I did because I caught a major error. I bought some fish  that was on sale for $3.49. When I scanned it, it rang up as $7.99 on sale for $6.99- in other words, double the price it should have been. Had this been a normal shopping trip, quite honestly, I may not have noticed. I probably would have seen that it rang up on sale and moved on, not noticing the fact that it wasn’t the correct sale price.

However, with this challenge, where every dollar counts, you better believe I was tracking down the attendant to get them to adjust the price for me. When all the groceries were scanned, I was pretty darn close to my estimated total!

My strategy was to spend roughly $60 on this first trip. That would give me $10 leftover so that if I was out running errands over the weekend, I could stop and pick up a few more things to finish out the last few days of the challenge. Most likely it will be some more fresh fruit because we eat a lot of it during the summer and I didn’t get very much. I thought I did pretty well coming in at $56.87.

I came home and unloaded the groceries and here’s what it looked like all together:

Pretty good, right?

Come back tomorrow for a detailed breakdown of everything I bought. I’ll also talk about some of the things I thought about when choosing items at the grocery store and show you all the prep work I got accomplished when I spent an hour or so in the kitchen when I got home!

Let’s chat:
Do you watch the register carefully when your groceries ring up? Have you ever caught a major error?
Do you use the scale in the produce department?

Enjoy!

–Lindsay–

Hi Friends! I was so excited to tell you guys about the #surviveon35 challenge that I forgot to tell you about my weekend!

Friday

We kicked it off by heading to happy hour with my in-laws! We went to a restaurant with an awesome rooftop patio.

I drank Oberon- one of my fav summer beers.

We displayed our true feelings.

Afterwards, we went to dinner. Hubby looked over to the next table and noticed Lindsay was sitting next to us! So fun!

Saturday

We got up early and drove to the farmer’s market in our old college town.

Then we grabbed some bagels and coffee and headed up the hill
for a little picnic breakfast on the quad.

Here’s the farmer’s market haul: Wheatberries, basil, onions, potatoes, focaccia, tomatoes, a couple peppers and some flowers!

Zinnias with basil in the bouquet!

 We took a walk around campus and saw lots of turkey vultures:

My in-laws dropped off some stuff they found in the basement, including hubby’s GIGANTIC high school class ring.

We walked around the art fair but didn’t buy anything:

We ran a few errands and stopped at a second hand store where I scored this little beauty for $2.50. I cannot wait to make some veggie noodles!

I made THE BEST sandwich I’ve had in a long time. I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow in WIAW but just look at it. Food is beautiful.

I learned that scotch tape works really well for removing temporary tattoos:

We had movie night. I don’t sit still for movies very often but i LOVE this movie.

I made popcorn.

All of my animals LOVE popcorn. Especially Tucker.

Sunday

We bought some giant, industrial shelves for the garage from Costco.
Hubby is so happy.

We went to a bunch of random stores. I spent $20 and got the following:
Batman Begins- We’re going to see Dark Knight Rises this weekend,
but i’ve never seen the first one so we picked it up for cheap.
A resistance band with handles- I hate the ones I have now!
Pens- I’m CONSTANTLY looking for a pen. You can never have too many.
12 pens for $2.00? I’ll take it.
Laser pointer- All the animals love it.
Our old one is lost/ran out of batteries/or something…

It rained. Like a substantial amount. For the first time in forever.
Look at our grass. So that was good.

What wasn’t so good was the fact that it happened about 2 hours before we were supposed to play a volleyball tournament.
So our games were delayed. And our courts looked like this:

What was good was that despite the puddles, and the fact that we had to sit through another lightening delay, and the fact that we didn’t finish until almost 11pm on Sunday night…WE WON THE TOURNAMENT.
That means free beer and pizza next week 🙂 Worth it.

Final random thought:

How was your weekend?!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

I have some exciting news to share with you guys to kick off the week! As you guys know, I’m a Fitfluential Ambassador and with that comes the opportunity to do some really cool things. One of those cool things is the challenge I’m going to share with you today!

I was selected, along with 9 other Ambassadors to participate in a challenge sponsored by Anytime Fitness. Tomorrow there will be an interview with the CEO of Anytime Fitness published on the Fitfluential blog that talks more about the challenge, but the basic premise is this:

I’m being given $70 to shop for and purchase enough food to feed the hubby and me 3 meals a day for 7 days. That’s $35 a week per person…or $5 a day.

This equates to the average amount you would receive if you were participating in the SNAP program (formerly called Food Stamps). The budget is adjusted for ambassadors based on family size.

We’re being challenged to:

• Stay within our budget
• Share our meals with you via instagram/twitter/facebook
• Show you guys that you can cook healthy, nutritious meals on a tight budget

You guys know I LOVE sharing healthy meals with you and I am SO PUMPED for this challenge! But guess what? There’s a kicker! Anytime Fitness is going to select 2 of the 10 ambassadors as winners of the challenge at the end of the 7 days and they will donate $1,000 to the food pantry of our choice! 

Amazing, right?!

Winners will be chosen based on the number of likes, shares, tweets etc they receive via social media, as well nutrition and creativity!

Some of you guys might remember the post I wrote earlier this year called 5 Reasons to Volunteer that included a section at the end about my favorite food pantry in Columbus. I’ve always held a special place in my heart for food pantries and have volunteered at several over the years. I would LOVE to win this challenge and be able to give that $1,000 to the food pantry at the Mid Ohio Food Bank!

But I need help from you guys! The challenge starts Wednesday so I would love your support in liking and sharing my pictures/tweets/etc!

I also want to extend this challenge to all of you!

Do you think you could survive on $35 a week and still eat some healthy, delicious meals? I’d love to have some of you join me in this challenge!!! If you decide to join in, I want to hear all about your journey! Tweet me your thoughts, tag me in your pictures, show me your grocery list…are you up for it?

Tomorrow I’ll be shopping for our groceries for the week! I already have my menu plan mostly figured out… but there are still a few spots I’m working on.  Wanna help?! Let me know what you think I should be eating. I’d love to hear your suggestions for cheap and healthy breakfasts, lunches and dinners! Do you regularly shop on a strict grocery budget? Do you have any tips for me?

Let’s hear it!

–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

If you follow me on Instagram (theleangreenbean), Twitter or Facebook then you may already know what’s coming today! Another dip recipe. Last night my hubby officially declared me the “dip expert”. He says between this dip and the Spicy Feta Dip I made last month,  I have mastered the dip.
So I’ve got that going for me.

Today’s dip is guacamole. But not just any guacamole. This is PUMPED UP GUAC!! It has black beans, greek yogurt and all sorts of other fun mix-ins! It’s packed with fiber, protein and healthy fats. Doesn’t get any better than that my friends!

I made this recipe last summer (almost exactly a year ago, in fact) and haven’t made it since. Last weekend, I realized I had several ripe avocados and I decided to whip up another batch!

I’ve updated the recipe a bit so it’s reposted below:

So there you have it! It gets even better if you let it sit in the fridge for a couple hours before serving.

I was trying to get some nice photographs for you guys but Tucker had other plans:

What’s your favorite summer dip?
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

We’re back on the mainland. We got home Friday and actually landed just 1/2 an hour before the power went out at the airport because we got some major storms here in Ohio. The power was out at the vet but luckily we were still able to pick up the dogs and then we hunkered down for the evening and were some of the lucky ones that didn’t lose power!

Anyways, we’re still kinda in vacation mode around here because hubby took off work through the 4th, so I’ll leave you with some pictures of Maui. We headed to Maui on Friday after meeting up with my parents for a couple days in Kauai. We met my sister and her friend at the airport and all stayed together at a condo in Wailea. We LOVED it 🙂

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

It’s that time of the month again…Foodie Penpals reveal day!

This month I really lucked out and got to receive my package from on of my blogging besties Maddy. She totally spoiled me and was even sweet enough to make sure I received my package before I left on my trip!
Let’s check out what I got:

She wrapped everything up so nicely in pretty tissue paper.
i LOVED opening it 🙂

Inside, I found all sorts of goodies!

I loved that Maddy sent me some of her favorite things.
There was salsa that she likes to eat with her eggs,
apple butter that she likes on her toast,
fruit leathers and luna bars to stick in my purse for on the go snacks
and a few chocolate nut butter samples in a flavor I haven’t tried yet!
And since no package is complete without some treats,
she sent me some cookies and dark chocolate…YUM!
There was also some flavored sparkling water and spicy kale chips.
Even baby Em sent me one of her favorite cookies!

My favorite part was the red pepper pasta from her local farmer’s market!!
I used it that night to make a pasta salad and it was DELICIOUS!

Huge thanks to Maddy for all my delicious treats!!

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I sent my box this month to Jenny, who doesn’t have a blog..but she wrote up a little guest post for me to share with you guys about what she received:

I considered myself pretty lucky when I found out I was paired with the blogger who was running this whole foodie trade.  And let me tell you, Lindsay delivered a great box! My box came and I was very excited to open it. When I picked it up, I noticed how heavy it was. The first thing I tried was the Love Grown Granola.  This granola was so delicious, crunchy, filling, and it was nice with a few roasted almonds.  I paired the granola all week on my Chobani yogurt for a quick work breakfast.  The next goodie I noticed was homemade gluten-free banana muffins. I thought it was a great idea that Lindsay added a home baked item. I will admit I was a little leery about the idea of gluten free and chick pea flour, but they were so flavorful and the texture was really great.  I really enjoyed them and it was nice to know they were healthy and I would never know they were made with chick pea flour.  The little packets of Justin’s butter was a great snack; I added the almond butter to the loose bag of dry ingredients to make granola bars.  They were so yummy.  I always thought that making granola bars would be difficult, but these were so easy and very filling.

Lindsay also gave me a few different LU Bars and a mint Cliff Bar. They were great snacks, and I really enjoyed the Banana Foster flavor.  The other snack that I brought all week to work was the Nature Peanut butter cookies.  Lindsay said that one of her past pen pals gave them to her and that she loved them, and I agree! The last two items was the Jar of Frog Grass Salsa made in Ohio and the bag of Glazed pecans.  The salsa was so chunky and had a great spice to it, and the pecans were so great just the right amount of salty and sweet. Lindsay also gave me 5 popular food magazines that I have been reading by the pool. 🙂 This box was a great combo of sweet, salty, spicy, and healthy.  I cannot wait to participate again and continue to get to know more readers and bloggers.  Thanks again Lindsay for my box and creating this fun little trade.

I was so happy to hear she enjoyed everything!!!

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And now it’s time for some details about Foodie Penpals.  In case you’re a new reader, here’s a reminder of what the program is all about:

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa.

If you’re interested in participating for July, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.

You must submit your information by July 4th as pairings will be emailed on July 5th!

*If you’re from somewhere besides the US, Canada or Europe and want to participate, send me an email and I’ll see if we get enough interest this month!

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Enjoy!
–Lindsay–