Show Me the Money: How Many $$ is that Smoothie?

For years we lived on a tight food budget.

I became adept at making a menu for the week; plotting where the best buys could be had, even becoming a mathematician at rounding up numbers, as I pushed the cart up and down the supermarket aisle. Not a lot has changed, except for the fact I’m cooking for two now. Though, we both think I need to work on getting quantities down.

So this week;

Let’s take a look at our smoothies bottom line which I wrote about in my second blog; “Me and My NutriBullet.” And break down the numbers of ‘Clio’s Warm Grains’ from the blog; “Warm Grains are the Shit Literally and Figuratively.”

If you get that far in the reading, for free, I’ll even throw in the recipe for Clio’s Cheap Spaghetti Sauce. So worth it!

First of all, I have omitted from the original smoothie recipe, I posted in Me and My Bullet; ⅓ cup garbanzo beans, 1 TSP Cacao Nibs and 2 Cups Cashew Milk. I have replaced it with a simple 2 TBS Almond Butter and 2 Cups of water.

Well, that was interesting.

We are spending $4.70 each for our smoothie, five times a week. $23.50 x 2 = $47.00 x 4= $188.00 month. Man alive! I’m on a mission; find Organic Protein Powder replacement. Which is a big deal, because the Protein powder delivers 21 grams of much needed protein. Rick suggested we put in 6 Tablespoons of the Peanut Butter Powder, giving us 24 grams instead. We spent $11.99 on the PBfit on April 2nd. Verses $25.00 for the Orgain Organic Protein Powder.

My other thought is;

Add 1/3 Cup garbanzo beans, good for 5 grams protein, and only do one scoop of the expensive protein powder.  I’ll report back on that new development.

Clio’s Warm Grains and again, life is fluid; I omitted from the original recipe; red quinoa, wild rice, polenta and added the Nature’s Earthly Choice Farro Italian Pearled Farro.

Get this; ¼ cup Farro is a great source of Vitamin B3 (niacin): 20% of the RDI, Magnesium:15% RDI, Zinc: 15% RDI, Iron: 4% RDI. Be sure to google how beneficial this extremely nutritious grain is. Remember, I make this on Sunday’s, cover and keep it in the fridge for an easy get to every morning. Just reheat in the microwave.

Warm Grains Costs for one week, serving two people:

($2.16) 1 Cup Quaker Steel Cut Oats

($0.64) ½ Cup Grain Place Foods Organic Hulled Barley

($0.32) ¼ Anthony’s Organic FlaxSeed Meal

($1.36) ½ Cup Nature’s Earthly Choice Italian Pearl Farro

= $4.48

So, the good news.

Clio’s Warm Grains cost to make once a week is: $4.48 ÷ 2=$2.24 ÷ 5 days = .44 cents a day.

Wow! What an eye opener for the Muirs. I’m not going to do a thing with the grains, they’re perfect. Though, I’m a bit concerned about the cost of the smoothies. Maybe we’ll do them three times a week. Hmmmmmmm…

I have new goals

One of which is eating all of the food we buy; by that I mean, no wastage. For instance, I had just enough of my red sauce for one more dinner. We had gone through all the pasta. And if I had some polenta I definitely would’ve whipped up a batch. But I didn’t. What I did have hanging in the pantry in a string bag; two potatoes. I thought what the hell, I’ll bake those and fill with the sauce, sprinkle what’s left of my vegan parmesan and serve with some fresh minced parsley from the garden.

Baked potatoes stuffed with red sauce

You have absolutely no idea how fabulous our dinner was last night. So good!

This morning I woke up thinking about the benefits of tomato sauce in regards to prostate health. According to Healthline’s article, 6 Foods to Boost Prostate Health

“1. Tomatoes contain a powerful antioxidant called lycopene. It may help prevent prostate cancer as well as reduce tumor growth among men with prostate cancer.” Onward and Onward!!

Cooking for you my love is saying goodby to a wonderful collaborator, Pete Kremer, Web Designer/Business Developer. Pete and I go way, way back. The first time I saw him, he was dead asleep in the corner of a pew at Mass on a Sunday a gazillion weeks ago. He was 2 years old.

Last November we met again, when he returned to Northern California from Sweden to help his siblings move his parents, because of illness, from their family home. We were invited to a gathering that night. It was teary and sad, but the night was also filled with lots of laughter.

What has become a typical conversation between Pete and I over the years he asks, what books have I read lately? And how is the writing doing? I told him I had just sent a short story to an agent, hoping she would take me on. He said, “have you thought about blogging?”

And so it goes. As we left late that night, I had two assignments; Get focused and buy a domain name. “Actually, he said the domain name will help you get focused on what you want to blog about.”

So Pete, thank you my dear friend. I know you know how much working together on Cooking for you my love has meant to me. Its been a blast!