$3.33 a day: Busy Busy Busy

One of the benefits of being a chef is getting to bring home leftovers sometimes. This is a super dense chocolate cake with ganache. At work, I serve it with whipped cream and raspberry sauce. It is so intense, I can only eat two or three bites. The cake itself is vegan (otherwise I would not be posting it here)..

I realize I have been very lax with my postings... but I am sticking with my $3.33 a day budget even if I'm not posting as much. Frankly, I it is not a matter of choice even though I am working. I still only have $100 a month to use for food. It is NOT easy to make ends meet. My Ex is still unemployed. Today is my day off so I made some food for the week. Above is a variation of a curried groundnut stew. It is full of eggplant, onions, ginger, zucchini, spices, tomatoes and a tiny bit of peanut butter. I need to run to the store and get some cilantro and lime juice to finish it off.

I also made a huge batch of ratatouille/chunky vegetable sauce. It has been a base for many meals.. (I made a batch last week and another today).. You can see in the background, brown rice, chickpeas and brown rice pasta. I am going to boil up the peas and add them to both stews for protein and choose either brown rice or the pasta with each dish. We can get 8 good sized meals out of these two main stews and beans. We'll probably go through half the rice this week and all of the pasta as well.

Knowing me, I'll turn the stews into a soup at one point as well and probably get a few freezer meals.

Ratatouille stew with yellow squash angel hair and tofu

Yellow squash spaghetti with tofu and veggies

In the next couple of months, I'm going to be a guest chef for several weeks at a program run by the New Hampshire Food Bank. I am really looking forward to meeting the people who will take the classes. I think my first classes will be with Seniors. I am going to introduce them to green smoothies!

I am also going to be speaking at the Maine and New Hampshire La Leche League conference in November on meal planning on a budget. It is a 70 minute presentation (without cooking!).. Again, I'm looking forward to doing that. I believe so strongly that it is possible to eat healthy and delicious food on a budget, so having a platform to share what has worked for me and my family is really exciting to me.