SNAP Challenge Day 1: Doing Math with Each Meal

This post is the third in a series.  Read post one and post two.

Even at a serious bargain of a happy hour, the single cocktail I bought this evening was more than my entire daily budget for food… and that’s before tip.  The realization of how quickly I can guzzle down a SNAP recipient’s meals for the day is eye-opening, and it makes me feel wasteful.  You heard me right: I bought a cocktail.  No, I didn’t give up booze as a part of this challenge, just like I didn’t give up paying for my gym membership, my phone bill, or gas for my car.  The only thing these have in common: none of them can be purchased with Food Stamps.  Despite persistent myths to the contrary, SNAP benefits cannot be used to buy beer, wine, cigarettes, tobacco, non-food items or pre-made meals, even if sold at the grocery store.  So that story Uncle Ned tells every Thanksgiving about that freeloading SonnaovaB he saw using his EBT card to buy a sixer of Budweiser and a pack of Marlboros at the Five & Dime… well, there’s just no truth to it.

Anyways, Day 1.  By mid-morning I’m already seriously questioning whether I’m going to have enough food to get me through the week.  I’ve done a little math since I got home from the grocery store.  I have sixteen slices of bread (including the ends), which means that if I have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch everyday, I can only have bread with my breakfast twice.  I have one dozen eggs, which means that if I continue to have two eggs each day, I’ll have no eggs left for day seven.  I’m going to have to get creative.  What it’s really going to come down to is whether the two recipes I plan to use for dinners make as many servings as they say, or if that is counting on them being served with a side… such as that brown rice medley I left at the register.

The first of these recipes is this Thai Coconut Lentil Curry.  As I mentioned yesterday, I wasn’t able to afford the raisins on my budget, so I left those out.  Instead of the two cups of lentils the recipe called for, I used the whole bag so that I could stretch this recipe out as far as possible.  I also didn’t boil it down as much as I generally might, leaving it more of a soup than a curry.  Soups have more volume, and volume is fiilling even if it’s water.  I split it into equal portions so that I could see just how many meals I had.  I felt much better about my ability to get through the week on my grocery haul when I saw just how much this recipe made.  I easily have six filling portions, even without that poor abandoned sack of rice.  Here’s a look at my meals for the day:

Today’s Meals:

Pre morning workout snack: 1/2 Banana and 1/2 T Peanut Butter
The first change to my daily routine came at 5:45 am when I ate my pre-workout snack. Generally, I would have half a Quest bar before heading to boot camp.  However Quest bars are certainly not within my SNAP budget (frankly, they really shouldn’t be in my normal food budget).  At $24.99, a twelve pack would be 75% of my food allotment for the week, and at $2.09 a piece each bar would be nearly half the cost of my food for the day.  Instead, I have half a banana and a spoonful of peanut butter.  This gives me plenty of fuel, and my bananas for the week plus the jar of peanut butter (which I am also using for my lunches) costs less than two Quest bars.

Breakfast:  Two scrambled eggs and a piece of toast with peanut butter and jelly.
While I often use egg whites instead of the full egg to get protein without as many calories and cholesterol, throwing away half the egg is certainly not an option when I only have twelve of them.  Honestly, I recognize this as a wasteful habit in my current lifestyle, and I think newer research shows that eggs yolks have been over-villainized.

Because this coupon is offered in the free local newspaper, I deemed it widely available and thus okay to use during the challenge.  Since I didn’t allot coffee into my meal plan, this will likely be the only caffeine I have all week.  While I usually gulp most of it down on the way home, I saved half of it thinking I’ll appreciate it tomorrow!

Pre lunchtime workout snack: 1/2 Banana and 1/2 T Peanut Butter
I’m getting nervous about how much I’m dipping into my peanut butter reserves, but being active requires a lot of calories!

Lunch: Peanut butter and jelly on two slices of whole wheat bread; sliced carrots.
I actually love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, so no qualms here, beyond the lack of green on my plate.

Afternoon snack: 1/2 apple and 1/2 T peanut butter
I was going out to happy hour with the girls, and knew I’d be a total grouch if I had to watch them eat Tash’s delicious baba ghanoush on an empty stomach.  Usually, I pack a Quest bar when I want to avoid munching on less-than-healthy bar food.  Food on the go is tricky, because packaged food is so much more expensive.  Luckily, this held me over nicely until I got home for dinner!

Dinner: Thai Coconut Lentil Curry with a side of broccoli
This recipe was incredibly warm and satisfying on a chilly Fall night!  With 23 grams of protein and 13 grams of fiber per serving, I feel pretty good about its nutritional content!

Nutrition breakdown for the day:
1,449 calories, 200 carbs, 52g fat, 67g protein, 42g fiber

The calorie count is on the low end for someone as active as I am, but not alarmingly so.  I wasn’t hungry, which is the most important thing.  This is more carbs and less protein than I generally eat, but I don’t see those numbers as a red flag.  The fat was mostly plant based (peanut butter), and I got a nice healthy dose of fiber.  I was well above the recommended intake of Vitamin A and Vitamin C, but got only 67% of the iron, 25% of the calcium and 75% of potassium recommended for the day.  This would definitely be a problem over time.

Johanna