Day 10: Cauliflower Cheese Bake

Day 10 Vitals:

Weight:  270 lbs.
Mood:  Everything is Okay!
Water Consumed:  2 Nalgenes
Breakfast:  Oatmeal with Cinnamon
Lunch:  Hobo Soup
Dinner: Tacos
Hangry Thought of the Day: Darned email security systems, blocking my perfectly good macro enabled workbooks!

Just a quick word on dinner.  A friend of mine decided to exercise rule four last night for my dinner.  He made tacos for the family and I did indulge in a couple, but I kept it to a minimum to stay within the rules of the project. 

So today we are going to talk about the third recipe I made during week 1, and by far my favorite.  Cauliflower Cheese Bake from the book Good and Cheap.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbs. Salt
• 1 head of cauliflower, cut to bite sized pieces
• 1 tbs. butter,
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 tsp of chili flakes
• 1 bay leaf (skipped)
• 1 tbs. flower
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 6oz. of Cheddar, shredded
• Pepper to taste

1. Pre-heat oven to 400
2. Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add the cauliflower and salt.  Boil for 4 minutes.  The drain the cauliflower.
3. Oil Baking Dish, and put the cauliflower in it.
4. Melt butter in a sauce pan, add garlic, chili flakes, and bay leaf.  Cook for about 1 minutes
5. Add flour to thicken the mixture (called roux)
6. Slowly stir in milk slowly.  Bring the mixture just to a soft boil, usually 5 to 7 minutes.
7. Stir in cheese and stir until it all melts.
8. Remove bay leaf and pour over cauliflower
9. Bake for 40 minutes

This dish lasted my four meals, and was my main course in a couple.  I really like this dish, and I can see myself cooking it, even when I am not on the project.  It's also a GREAT way to get your kids to eat vegetables.  The book offers some additions that you can add to spice this up, so go take a peak at the above link if you are interested.

Also I got a couple more donations through work:

The pumpkin spice chips chips have me thinking.  If I can squeeze in some vanilla into my budget this week, I can bake cookies from my pantry and use them to raise awareness at work!

Day 2: A Day At Cub

Day 2 Vitals:

Weight:  277 lbs.
Mood:  Enthusiastic
Water Consumed:  2 Nalgene Bottles
Breakfast:  Skipped (please leave some harsh comments as I am not supposed to do that)
Lunch:  Baked Potao with Tuna, and Celery
Dinner:  Jalapeno Cheddar Scone, 2 Chicken Hot Dogs
Hangry Thought of the Day:  What's up with the new season of Daredevil?  I can't make it through one episode without falling asleep!

In today's blog post I would like to spend some time talking about Saturday night's grocery run.  Here are my reciepts.  I spent a total of $29.75 in total, leaving me an extra $0.25 to go into next week.

I was actually really excited about the prospect of doing this.  I felt like an Iron Chef (one of the original ones).  I know I am kind of making light of a somber situation of having to live on what millions of American's do everyday, but I have to keep high spirits too.  For the most part I stuck to my plan.  I wanted to get the ingredients for my dishes.  I picked out three, a cauliflower and cheese casserole, Dal (an Indian dish made of protein heavy lentils), and some cheddar jalapeno scones.  More on these dishes in future posts.

I scored three really big wins at Cub Foods:

• $0.79 Eggs:  I got a carton of eggs on coupon for this low price.  This freed up a couple extra bucks in my budget which allowed one of the two below items
• 2 for $3.00 5lb. Potatoes:  10lbs of potatoes is a HUGE win.  This versatile tuber can be baked, fried with eggs and onions, and added to many soups.  This two was a coupon item.
• 2 Packages of Farmland Deli Style Chicken Franks for $0.99.  Normally $3.99 Cub was clearancing out these items.  HUGE win for my almost meatless week.  I tossed one in the freezer for next week.

So here are my tips for stretching your dollar at Cub:

1. Coupons, coupons, coupons.  Utilize the coupon book and the weekly add.  You can pre-load coupons onto your reward card, or do it old school by clipping them at the door.  These are some of the hottest deals in the store.
2. Look for the TPR/Green Stickers.  These indicate a clearance item, a short coded item, or some other hot deal.  This will allow you to stretch that dollar further.
3. Overall Cub has really good pricing on items, especially in the center store, focused on canned goods and baking ingredients.  Their private label program is very solid, and allows you to save even more.  Keep an eye on your add prices as very often you will see private label more expensive if the national brand is on sale.  Cub's private label program includes Shopper Value, Culinary Circle, Wild Harvest, Everyday Essentials, Super Chill, and more.
4. Cub has really good dollar section.  At my Cub it is located in the GM department.  They offer value spices, and several items in the Shopper's Value line at a great discount.  I didn't need anything from this section, but it is a good place to look if you have a couple of extra dollars to play with for this week's budget!

As an added bonus I got my first "Food Shelf" bonus from work today:

That's all for today folks!  Tomorrow we will talk about some of the recipes I am making tonight including the above mentioned Dal, and cheddar jalapeno scones!  See you tomorrow!

Also the donation button on our Finnegan's Page has been fixed.  Please help by supporting our goal of raising $2,500 for the Finnegan's Community Fund where 98% of your dollar goes back to the community to help peoplei n need get good wholesome and nutritious food!