Seven Dollars A Day, My Aunt Fannie!

Ran across a blog called "Eating on Seven Dollars A Day." The author pulled his punches, however, declaring that the main ingredients for supper be seven dollars, for two servings, and then you cart the leftovers to work the next day for lunch. And wherefore art thou, breakfast?

I can do better than that. I eat on about five dollars a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. And no, ramen noodles never cross my lips.

It's good, healthy eating, based on good nutrition and the things that got me my Lifetime Key at Weight Watchers. I did Weight Watchers, BTW, because you are never hungry-starving on Weight Watchers. I eat enviably good.

Repeat after me:

A normal, healthy adult only needs five to seven ounces of protein a day.

While it is fun to have a big protein-feed now and then, a diet focused more on vegetables, healthy grains and fruits will keep you spry. And who doesn't want to be spry? I have fruit and whole-grain bread for breakfast, or fruit and cottage cheese. I cook two or three entrees every Sunday (mainly chicken and fish and vegetarian) and I heat up a small serving of one of those entrees for lunch at work. Dinner is a fresh salad, a little more protein and good-quality skim milk.

Snacks are 33 cent mozzarella string cheese sticks, or carrot sticks (from a big 69-cent pack of carrots), or Wheat Thin crackers (bought on sale). My grocery store does a wonderful job of stocking fresh fruit in season, on sale. This week I got strawberries for $1.50 a quart and two tangelos for 50 cents each. I also got a big pink grapefruit, which I eat like an orange. My co-workers are positively fascinated with my snacks and the Sherman Tank Health level of an Old Lady like me.

Americans need to get over their obsession with meat. If your plate was the face of a clock, meat should take up no more than one quarter of the plate, the space from nine to 12 o'clock. It's better still to mix a little meat in with the other ingredients.

My vegetarian entree this week is what my Southern mother always called, "Snap Beans and New Potatoes." Fresh green beans were 69 cents for a two-pound pack this week, and I will cook them with the last of the new baby potatoes from the Hmong farmers at the Minneapolis farmer's market. Serve it up with sliced tomatoes, and it is a meal fit for a King. Or a parsimonious Divorced Lady.

Other dirt cheap feasts include:

Stir-Fried Cabbage, with sweet onion and soy sauce

A good old-fashioned chicken pot pie, (with the meat gleaned from backs-and-necks if money is tight), and a sour cream crust

Oven roasted baked potatoes, with The Brown Derby Restaurant's recipe for creamed spinach over the top.

Macaroni Anything. Macaroni has wonderful mouth feel, and a big bag of any frozen vegetables (my store's house brand is 99 cents) mixed with macaroni will keep you alive till next payday.

"But, hey, lady, I like meat!" you say? Then make friends with the butcher. If you go in early (I do mean early), you can get the markdowns from the day before. My last 6 a.m. foray to the grocery store scored me six pork chops for $1.99 and a four-pack of chicken breasts for about three bucks.

I also watch the sales on meats. I buy up ground chicken, or ground turkey or lean ground beef when it goes on deep sale. I divide it up at home into four-ounce freezer packs. Or I cook down huge turkey wings and use the meat for turkey and noodles. Or I wait for the big bags of Wisconsin cheese to go on sale, and make a big, baked macaroni and cheese.

I don't scrimp on quality skim milk, or yoghurt or cottage cheese or good whole-grain bread. I have a bad jones for Italian pasta. I eat out with friends, when there's coupons. I have been known to go to a bargain matinee and eat enough popcorn that supper is just a snack that evening. I ask for things like Italian expresso powder and Italian tomato-paste-in-a-tube for stocking stuffers.

Tomorrow I will cook my mother's macaroni recipe, with about four ounces of lean ground sirloin, stewed tomatoes, celery and Vidalia onion. Then I will oven-bake the last of a six-pound bag of catfish fillets I found at the grocery store for three bucks. Make a saucepan full of glazed carrots. Make some homemade biscuits for a not-so-sweet strawberry shortcake. And eat like a queen for another week.

Oh, and I also contribute to the food bank. So I feed myself, the cats and the food bank.

Seven dollars a day, my Aunt Fannie! That's for amateurs!