Hi Friends!
I know I haven’t shown you the detailed breakdown of what I bought yet- that post is scheduled for Friday- but I wanted to take a minute to show you guys what we ate on the first day of the challenge! I didn’t really follow recipes but I did my best to write down what I used as closely as possible so I could share with you guys! So here we go! Note: I was selected to participate in a challenge sponsored by Anytime Fitness and given $70 to buy groceries for this challenge.
Daily Eats- Day 1 (Wednesday):
Breakfast
Blueberry Banana Baked Oatmeal
1/2 a banana, mashed
1/2 c oats
1/4 c skim milk
sprinkle of cinnamon
blueberries
peanut butter for topping
Combine all ingredients in a greased ramekin.
Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.
Top with peanut butter and eat!
Serves 1.
Since I decided not to buy coffee during my first trip to the grocery store,
I’ve been enjoying hot water with a slice of lemon.
Lunch
Tuna & Black Bean Lettuce Boats
1 can tuna, drained
4 lettuce leaves
3 Tbsp hummus
1/2 c black beans
1 carrot, diced
3 Tbsp onion, diced
cayenne pepper & paprika
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
Combine the tuna and hummus in a small bowl.
Mix in the veggies and black beans.
Season as desired and mix well.
Spoon onto lettuce leaves.
Top with hard boiled egg.
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This made enough for each of us to have 2 boats.
Eat by hand, like a wrap, or with a knife and fork.
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Served with a side of applesauce and some carrots & hummus.
Snack
Yogurt Bowl
Plain Greek yogurt
3 strawberries, cut up
handful of Toasted Oats cereal
Dinner
Vegetarian Cabbage Rolls
2 cloves garlic
1/3 c onion, diced
1/3 c carrot, diced
1/3 c green pepper, diced
1 c lentils, cooked
8 oz no-salt added tomato sauce
1 c brown rice, cooked
paprika, black pepepr & cayenne pepper to taste
1 can no-salt added diced tomatoes, with juice
1/2 c vegetable broth
7-8 green cabbage leaves
Place the cabbage in boiling water for about ten minutes.
Remove and carefully pull off 7-8 leaves.
In a small bowl, mix together everything but the diced tomatoes & broth.
Spoon mixture evenly into leaves.
Fold the bottom of each leaf in, the the sides, then roll shut.
Place seam-side down in a greased baking dish.
Mix together the tomatoes and broth and pour over the rolls.
Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes,
or until cabbage is cooked to desired tenderness.
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Served with a side of roasted sweet potatoes.
We each ate 2 rolls and had 3 leftover.
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I also ate a bowl of toasted oats cereal with skim milk before I went to bed.
Sorry I forgot to take a picture!
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All together now:
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
Get my free Table Talk email series where I share bite-sized nutrition information about carbs, protein, and fat, plus bonus information about snacks and sugar!
Wow that’s a whole lot of good looking food! Did you feel full throughout the day? I’m constantly snacking so I feel like I would go over the $35 a week pretty easily just on snacks.
i’m a big snacker too. I’d say this challenge is definitely going to help me cut back on mindless snacking, ie grabbing a handful of cereal here, a handful of something else there. i usually just eat cereal for breakfast and then have a morning snack as well as an afternoon one, but the oatmeal kept me full. I also snacked on some carrots and hummus while making dinner- forgot to mention that!
Those are some tasty looking foods. I just wrote down your recipe for the Tuna Lettuce Boats.
the funny thing is, this looks a lot like what I ate yesterday… hmmm… maybe I could have handled the challenge!
I want those cabbage rolls!!!
girl, you totally could have rocked it!
I’m pretty sure based on your eats alone so far, you’d never know you were on the challenge. These all look delicious and like something I would gladly eat (or already do)! 😉
yay!!! that’s the goal!
Wow that’s som seriously dliecious food for $35 a week! You are awesome. Especially those cabbage rolls…I want them 😉
All of that looks so unbelievably amazing! I will DEFINITELY be stealing some of those recipes. Love!
awesome!! enjoy!
i am so impressed!!!!!
dinner looks like something i’d like to try!
go for it!!! hope you like it!
I’m super impressed by your days eats! They all look delicious, and not too expensive which is a plus! I definitely wouldn’t think you were doing a challenge with all this tasty food
awesome! that’s the goal 🙂
Ok, so I’ve unplugged these last few days, and boy have I been missing out! What a neat challenge! I kinda want to do this too! The hubby won’t be very happy though, I can tell you that right now :). Your dinner sounds amazing!!!
good luck if you decide to give it a try!
I commend you for taking the challenge, despite what others might say. I think we all can learn something from this, like how to make eating healthy more affordable and also how those with low-incomes struggle to eat healthy and provide for their families. Also, those blueberries in your oatmeal look like Raisinettes and may have made my mouth start watering. XOXO
haha thanks girl 🙂
These all look awesome! I’m definitely inspired to look for extra ways to save money while grocery shopping.
awesome! good luck!
I still don’t get the point of this challenge. Is it to help us understand what the underprivileged go through? Aren’t we better off volunteering at a food bank or donating food to help them? If it’s to help people with their food budget, you can do that without depriving yourself.
Seems pointless when everyone is going to go back to shopping at Whole Foods the second it’s over. What am I missing?
the reason i’m doing this challenge is to hopefully provide a few tips, a little inspiration and some new ideas to people who are trying to eat healthy on a limited budget. in addition to this challenge, i donate to food pantries in my area regularly and i’ve also volunteered at several over the years. i don’t shop at whole foods for my groceries, i shop and meijer and kroger and kroger is where i did my shopping. I just spent less money than I usually do. hopefully seeing some of the meals all of the bloggers put together during this challenge will give people some new ideas, and help them realize that even if you’re on a very limited budget, with a little planning you can make healthy meals for you and your family!
You are so creative!!! I’m totally making the baked oatmeal and those cabbage rolls!
yay! hope you like them!
Not too shabby!! So impressed with your creativity on a budget!!
Cheers
~ Jillian
http://www.hersplitends.com
Wow can’t believe how much variety you have going on! Great job!!!
thanks so much for the support!
this looks great girl! I’m LOVING this challenge–you’re proving to so many people that everyone can afford to eat healthy foods!
yay! thanks so much!
I’ve been dreaming of this baked oatmeal for the last several hours and am finally enjoying it! Yum! I don’t love regular oatmeal, but baked oatmeal is a whole different story. The texture is great, and the blueberries, banana and pb really make it pop. Thanks!
yay! glad you liked it! i agree. baked is definitely it’s own thing 🙂
Great day 1!!!
thank you!
I really need to get on this challenge just to cut my grocery budget back a bit!! You had some pretty great lookin’ eats for such a teeny weeny amount — I love those cabbage rolls – they look really good!!
How did you roast the sweet potatoes?
i just cut them up, toss them in a little olive oil and season them with spices. i usually use paprika and cayenne, sometimes i use curry powder…then put them on a baking sheet and roast them at 400 degrees, stirring every 10 min or so until they’re done to your liking. don’t add too much oil though…just a tiny bit!
Thanks. Making the cabbage and sweet potatoes tonight! Can’t wait.
Did you put the whole cabbage into the water? What did you do with the leftover cabbage?
yep, cut out as much of the core as you can and then put the head in boiling water until the outer leaves are soft, pliable and easy to peel off. The inner ones won’t cook as much so I saved those and later in the week I cut them into ribbons and put them into some lentil veggie soup!