Day 2 of 7: What does it cost to eat?

Here is today's menu:

Breakfast:
3 Tbsp. Cream of Wheat
0.5 cup of almond milk
0.5 cup of water
0.5 Tbsp. Grandma's molasses
0.5 Tbsp. Food Lion brand 100% Maple syrup
1 box of raisins
1 banana
1 yogurt



Lunch:
2 slices of homemade bread
2 Tbsp. Kroger brand peanut butter
2 Tbsp. Smuckers red raspberry preserves
half a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
2 Tbsp. Food Lion brand unsalted butter
1/4 cup Food Lion brand shredded cheese (for extra calcium!)
1 cup of calcium enriched minute maid Orange Juice



Dinner:
3/4 pound of fresh salmon filet
4 Tbsp. Kraft low fat mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. mustard
seasonings (thyme, basil, oregano and dill weed)
1/3 cup white rice
1/2 bag of Steamfresh frozen broccoli
1 cup of almond milk



Snack:
1 Fuji apple
1 Reese's pumpkin-shaped peanut butter thingee

So, doing the math was a little bit more difficult for portions of today's menu. The reason why is the homemade bread. I calculated the cost of making 1 loaf of bread by approximating the cost of the flour, which I don't have exact numbers for because I dump the flour into a Rubbermaid container and then throw away the bag. I need the bag to find out how many servings are in the whole bag, and then I take the cost of the flour (which I don't remember) and divide it by the number of servings I used. Well, I know I used 3.5 cups of flour in the last loaf. I had to just take a random guess as to how much that amount of flour cost - I guessed 50 cents? I also had to approximate the cost of the Fleischmann's Yeast I use (2 tsp. in this loaf). I think we paid $6 for the jar, so 2 tsp. would work out to be just 34 cents. In addition, I added 25 cents for the rest of the ingredients in the loaf of bread - things like 1 tsp. salt, 1 Tbsp. brown sugar, etc. I'm not about to do all the math for all the ingredients that go into a loaf of homemade bread. But for the purposes of this food cost experiment, I got a total cost of $1.50 for a loaf of bread. I normally get 12 slices out of our bread, but this loaf didn't exactly come out that great, so I only got 8 slices. So, with all of this approximating, I really don't know how close I'm getting to the real cost of the food I ate today. But, I tried, and that's all that matters, right?

The breakdown of cost per meal:
Breakfast = $1.55
Lunch = $1.72
Dinner = $6.45
Snack = 50 cents

So, I warned you yesterday that my dinner I had planned for tonight was going to be "expensive". And you can see that it was, as more than 3/4 of the total cost of dinner was in the cost of the salmon alone. I know that fresh salmon is never going to be cheap, but sometimes I can find it on sale for about 20% off. I should try to look around at other grocery stores for their sale prices on salmon. I also wonder if going to a fish market would be worth it? Can you freeze salmon? I have no idea if it freezes well.

Anyway, as I am pregnant, it is important for me to eat a well-balanced diet that hits on all of the food groups. I'm trying my best to eat as healthy as possible for my own sake and for my baby's growth. The omega 3 fatty acids in salmon are great for baby's brain, but experts suggest that pregnant women don't eat more than 1 serving per week of certain types of fish. If I could afford it, I would put this salmon dinner in our menu planning once every 2 weeks. It is so delicious and healthy, I just love it! And Rob really loves it, too!

So, the grand total cost of my 3 meals and snack today was $9.72, almost $4 more than yesterday's total! Yikes! Well, tomorrow shouldn't be nearly as expensive.

Baby girl was kicking a lot tonight when I was on the phone with my Mom a couple hours ago. I think she was telling me that she liked everything I ate today!