Living on a Food Stamp Budget Month 2 Day 7

I begin my day with 3.72.

I've not lost any more weight than the two pounds. I think my body is used to fewer calories and my metabolic rate is a bit lower than it was. I also do less cardio because at the reduced calorie consumption I have found it tires me rather than energizes me.

Coffee went up in price. I had to purchase a different bean than what I was using and it cost more. My tiny pot is now .30 a serving.

Breakfast
Coffee .30
Grapes .50
2 Turkey Quessadillas rescued from the freezer 1.30
Total 2.10

I had to check back to month 1 day 17 to reference the cost of these delicious beauties.

And I was off...I had a meeting at St. Luke's (You didn't think I was putting this whole event on the 27th together by myself did you) and we went over all that needs to be done and confirmed and checked and listed.

And then I dropped by the Chef's program at Episcopal Community Services. This is an amazing program. Led by Chef Bill Taylor they cram two years of instruction into three months. The chefs then go into a 3 month internship and are thus prepared for a job. I was incredibly impressed with the skill level of the chefs in the program. From knife skills to beautiful plating it was clear that these students were there to excel.

Today was the cookoff between the students who had finished the three month program and the interns who had finished their various internships.

Each was given a basked of the same foods and invited to use dried fruits, nuts, cheeses and pantry items to create a meal.

Both teams played it a little safe with salad and stuffed pork loin but there were some standout tastes, and platings.

Our Intern graduate team produced one of the best dinner rolls I have ever eaten. It had a great slightly chewy texture, a good crumb, a beautiful developed flavor and they were served warm. I had 3.

The Intern team also had an exceptional side dish with their pork a Quinoa with nuts and feta cheese. I ate every bite of that.

However out student team had beautiful plates and some really great ideas and execution. They wrote out the menu on brown bags and filled the bags with delicious bread sticks. They sugared cashews and used them atop rice with a mustard sauce. Their dessert won them the competition (it was close)Figs, poached in a citrus sauce and the sauce had been flavored with citrus rind and honey and a bay leaf. None of us could identify the flavor, it was almost like Campari. I was stuffed from all the bread plus the two meals yet I still managed half of the dessert and I scooped up all the sauce with my spoon. The figs had been posed atop a slice of poached apple. The plating was beautiful.

I walked away with enormous respect for the instructors and the students. The students in this program have come from homelessness, drug rehab, prison and other disadvantaged circumstances. The one thing they have in common is that they have all decided that they want a better life and were willing to work HARD to get it.

It is hard to imagine that I got hungry later, but in fact I did. At 9:30 I found myself wanting food, quickly. I took the other half of yesterday's pork and cabbage, ground it a second time in the processor to give it a fine texture 2.22 and to that a can of tomatoes .97 to a total of 3.19. I used 1/3 of it with my standard two ounces of pasta and had a delicious, if heavy late meal.
Sauce 1.06
Pasta .19
Iced Tea .03
Total 1.28

Day total 3.38

Though I did not eat two complete meals at lunch, some of it was just a few bites when I added up all those bites plus my meals I consumed 2,733 calories. WOW.

I have an extra .28 for tomorrow.