Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Food Project: Monday, week 1....

Late.... I know.... but that's just me never learning how to manage my time. I promise I'll work on that.

Ok, let's get this show on the road.... see how long it lasts. I did good today, ate all my meals.... which, for me... well, yay! But this is about food costs, so... Here's today's rundown:

Breakfast: Oatmeal mash, served with milk and jam, ray bread with meat spread, juice to drink. Price per person: 8,04 SEK (1,21 USD).

Ugh, i never liked oatmeal. But, i baked the bread myself! Yay! One thing i was thinking about. How much juice did they count on? How big is a glass anyway? i have glasses that are 1,5 dl and I have glasses that are 4 dl. I opted for 2 dl, that felt ok.


Morning Snack: Coffee with milk, 1 crispbread with butter, 1 orange. That's the original version. I don't drink coffee, so I sub it out with 1 dl of hot cocoa. I also subbed out the orange for 100 g of blackberries. I want to eat fruits and veggies that are in season, so to speak. Well, oranges are in season now, but when I started planning for this project it was still September and as i shopped this first Monday in advance, I bought frozen blackberries. Anywho, with my tweaking, this snack cost me 13,35 SEK (2,02 USD).


Lunch: Fish stew, served with potatoes, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, 2 pieces of baguette with butter. This stew apparently calls for saffron, as it says so in the menu. But 1: Saffron is expensive. REALLY expensive, and 2: I couldn't find any good recipe. But i found a recipe using creme fraiche saffron&tomato. I also subbed out the lettuce for baby spinach. As this is is a stew, there is no reason to make less than 4 portions. This means 3 portions in the freezer. Making the stew cost 109,27 SEK (16,56 USD). 1 portion, including veggies and bread; 38,94 SEK (5,90 USD).


Afternoon snack: 1 piece of ray bread, with butter and cucumber. I HATE eating butter like that. At least the bread was warm, so the butter melted. Cost: 2,55 SEK (0,38 USD)


Dinner: Pea soup with pork and mustard, 1 ray bread with butter, 1 carrot (I think), 2 pancakes with jam. Ok, so, a couple of changes here. I skipped the pea soup, as I cannot even look at it without feeling nauseous. I subbed it out for spinach soup with a hard boiled egg. Carrots I'm allergic to, so I just skipped out on veggies. But who doesn't love pancakes? Strawberry jam I love, but take care with, as I'm also allergic to strawberries. Making spinach soup for one is a piece of cake, but i made pancakes batter on 3's (3 eggs, 3 dl of flour, 3 dl of milk), making 15 pancakes at a cost of 15,91 SEK (2,40 USD). 1 portion of Spinach soup and pancakes landed on 19,75 SEK (2,98 USD).

Evening snack: Tea, 1 bread with butter and cheese. Again, subbing things out. I don't drink tea. Never did. I should probably start. I had my mini cup of chocolate instead. And instead of normal yellowish cheese, i had some brown cheese, mesost, that I have never seen anywhere other than Sweden and Norway. Don't ask me to describe it because I can't. I want to say it's a bit vanilla-y... Never mind.. can't do it... anywho, this snack of mine landed on 4,47 SEK (0,67 USD).


So today's shopping list looked like this:

If i had had empty cupboards:                      Actually needed to shop:
Jam                                                             Jam
Sugar                                                          Sugar
Eggs                                                            Eggs
Nutmeg                                                       Nutmeg
Heavy cream                                               Heavy cream
Chicken stock                                             Chicken stock
Yellow Onions                                            Yellow Onions
Frozen Spinach                                           Frozen Spinach
Baguette                                                     Baguette
Baby spinach                                              baby spinach
Tomato                                                       Tomato
Creme fraiche                                             Creme Fraiche
Leeks                                                          Leeks
Black pepper                                               Black pepper
Codfish                                                       Codfish
Blackberries                                                Blackberries
Butter (for bread)                                        Butter (for bread)
Crispbread                                                  Crispbread
Instant chocolate                                          Instant chocolate
Meat spread                                                Meat spread
Wheat flour                                                  Wheat flour
Ray flour                                                       Ray flour
Butter (for cooking)                                      Butter (for cooking)
Yeast                                                           Yeast
Orange juice                                                Orange juice
Milk                                                            Milk
Salt                                                             Salt
Oatmeal                                                      Oatmeal
Cheese                                                        Cheese

Total cost:871,90 SEK (131,61 USD)          Total cost: 483,21 SEK (72,94 USD)


Ok, that was the first and last time I calculated the cost of having absolutely nothing. It would have taken almost one third of my increased budget and about half of the calculated budget for one person. Of course some of the things will keep over a longer period, maybe even past this projects time. I mean, who uses a pound of salt in 2 months? If you do, you shouldn't.... Anywho, first day of project done, and here's how we stand, money-wise:

Purchasing budget                          Cooking budget                             Budget per portion
  3000,00 SEK(452,84 USD)        3000,00 SEK (452,84 USD)       1720,00 SEK (259,63 USD)
-   483,21 SEK(72,94 USD)       -   197,12 SEK (-29,75 USD)       -  87,10 SEK  (13,14 USD)
  2516,79 SEK (379,90 USD)        2802,88 SEK (423,09 USD)       1632,90 SEK (246,49 USD)

Suffice it to say, if my purchasing cost is going to keep being this high, I'll run out of money before the week is out. Which would mean it is impossible to follow this menu, at least the first time around. Portion budget, however, seems like it can make it.

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