day eleven

(Click here for an explanation of the project.)

Here’s what we ate for $2.79 yesterday, January 12, 2011.

Whoa, $2.79? I promise I doubled checked our calculations.

BREAKFAST

bruleed steel cut oats with 1/3 a banana $0.22

LUNCH

whole wheat bagel $0.42
3 tablespoons hummus $0.18
2 large organic carrots, $0.19

DINNER

1 cup cooked organic quinoa $0.36
2/3 cup serving African pineapple peanut stew $0.60

SNACKS

8 ounces plain yogurt with blackberry jam $0.50
banana $0.25
6 ounces stove top espresso with 1/3 cup frothed soy milk $0.07 (still using free coffee beans)

total $2.79

I guess the theme for the day is cheap but healthy protein sources. I’m sure you’ve already heard all about the magical superfood quinoa. I was excited to calculate the cost per serving. Our co-op has a few different organic options, and the cheapest is organic white quinoa for $3.35/lb. A cup of dry quinoa weighed in at 6 ounces, so the cost per dry cup was $1.26. And after cooking we measured the yield of one dry cup to be 3-1/2 cooked. I was kind of amazed to find the price of a cup cooked organic quinoa is only 36 cents. And in case you were wondering, it has 9 grams of protein.

I’ve also added our recipe for 6 cent a tablespoon hummus, complete with cost breakdown and nutrition information. Enjoy!

Oh, and the African pineapple peanut stew recipe, recommended by our dear friend Jen, is pretty killer, too. We used organic kale grown in our backyard, which saved us a couple bucks on this recipe. We got four 2/3 cup servings out of one recipe.