In my quest for a healthier and better me, I have been working on exercising daily and eating healthier. I refuse to count calories or points or anything else. I know what the right foods are and I know what the wrong ones are. I have been working really hard on eating MORE whole foods and LESS processed foods. I'm also doing that on a tight budget.
BREAKFAST
Protein shake:
vanilla whey powder
almond milk
spinach
flax seed meal
banana
SNACK
orange
LUNCH
oatmeal with:
almond milk
plum amazins
grapenuts
DINNER
Beef and broccoli with carrots
Harri covert
brown rice/bulgar wheat mix
Mixed greens salad:
tomato, red and green pepper,
pineapple, radish, scallion
pomegranate balsamic vinegar for dressing
Fat free skim milk to drink
DESSERT
Greek yogurt
grape fruit
Drank 90 oz. water throughout day
EXERCISE
Pilates
5 miles on treadmill
incline 6
1 mile in morning
1 mile at noon
3 miles late afternoon
1 mile worth of sprints at 6.0 1/10 mile at a time
Please "like" my facebook fan page!!!
https://www.facebook.com/MelissMyTwoCents
Most of you won't be familiar with the grocery store Food Lion. Those of you who are, know that they are not the best store to get great deals on a regular basis. They do run some great sales here and there. This month they were running their big deal promotion. If you buy 10 participating items, you get $5 off your bill instantly at the register. Buy 20 items, get $10 off, buy 30 items, get $15 off. I did my best to buy only things we needed and as many things I could with matching coupons. I got everything in the pic below for $24.40. They are worth about a total of $63!
Here is the list of the items and quantities I bought:
1 box Frosted Flakes
1 box Special K
4 boxes Cheerios
12 Yoplait Greek yogurts
2 boxes Eggo Waffles
4 boxes Pillsbury Toaster Strudels
6 Single Rolls Brawny papaer towel
The retail price for these items are:
Frosted Flakes $3.29
Special K $3.29
Cheerios $3.89 (4 boxes) $15.56
Yoplait Greek 5/$5 (12) $12.00
Eggo Waffles $2.59 (2 boxes) $5.18
Toaster Strudel $2.59 (4 boxes) $10.36
Paper Towel $1.50 (6) $9.00
Total if I paid retail $59.38 + tax
The sale prices were:
Frosted Flakes $3.00
Special K $2.50
Cheerios $2.50 (4) $10.00
Yoplait Greek 5/$5 (12) $12.00
Eggo Waffles 2/$4 (2) $4
Toaster Strudel 2/$4 (4) $8.00
Paper Towel 10/$10 (6) $6.00
Total if I paid just sale prices $43.50 + tax
I had the following coupons:
$1 off 2 boxes of Kellogg's cereals (Frosted Flakes and Special K)
(2) $1 off 2 boxes of Cheerios
(6) 50 cent of 2 Yoplait Greek (Food Lion doesn't double Q's either...booo)
(2) 50 cent off 2 boxes of Toaster Strudel
Total in coupons $7
So I can deduct the $7 in coupons and the $15 off instantly cause I bought 30 participating items. $22 off the $43.50 sale prices before tax
Total $21.50 + tax = $24.40
Now in the coupon world, that makes each item about 82 cents!!!!!
Ok so it's 9:09pm and my husband isn't home from work yet, Anthony is sleeping and Isabella is sleeping. For those of you who read my last post, things are pretty much the same but I am getting a lot closer to managing all of it and making room for blogging. I normally wouldn't blog at night but I am so impressed with myself that I had to share :)
If you keep up with me on FB, then you may have seen my post about our new healthy eating habits. If not, you'll be reading about it now and in the future. No one in my fam is too overweight so we aren't going extreme with healthy food. We already eat semi healthy. I really wanted to make better meals, with healthier ingredients. More veggies, more whole grains, less animal proteins and less processed foods. I also have become the portion police lol and make the plates myself so I can portion it all out. I am also working on a strictbudget, even with coupons, it's tight but I am making it work and very proud of it.
Tonights dinner was peppercorn boneless pork chops, brown rice, broccoli and roasted brussel sprouts. It made enough for 5 dinners and 2 lunches. I paid about $16.00 for all of it and that's about $2.30 a serving!!! Here's how I did it.
Pork chops were on sale. I got 12 for $8.53
don't remember how much per lb.
Frozen brussel sprouts and broccoli 1 bag each $1.70 per bag
I love frozen veggies, they are the closest to fresh and they are cheap and easy.
I hardly cook them, I thaw/defrost and warm or roast quickly.
Mahatma brown rice small bag (I think 1lb) was $1.16 I had a 50 cent off coupon that doubled to $1 making it 16 cents for the bag but I only used half of it so that's 8 cents for this meal
2 pkgs of weber peppercorn marinade 98 cents each
I used a bit of butter as condiment, olive oil and vinegar for marinade I added $2.00 for tax and those ingredients
Total $16, made the 7 servings and it's $2.30 per serving!
Recipe
The marinade calls for 1/4 oil, 1/4 water and 2 TBSP vinegar, per packet and I used 2 of them BUT I won't use that much oil so I only did 1/4 oil, 3/4 water and 4 TBSP vinegar (apple cider)
I mixed it but only used 1/4 of it to marinate the pork in a ziploc bag. I saved the rest to cook with so we have a sauce.
I sear the pork on both sides in skillet, then add remaining marinade, cover, and simmer till marinade thickens. DONE!!
I defrosted broc in microwave and then warmed it.
I thawed brussel sprouts in baking dish on counter (you don't have to) I drizzled olive oil on them and drizzled a few spoonfuls of marinade on them too.
I roasted them @ 450 till tender then broiled them on low for a few min till they were a bit charred.
I baked the rice of course. Here is the link for those directions:
http://mytwocents-meliss.blogspot.com/2011/08/baking-rice.html
This pic is of my lunch for tomorrow. Anthony doesn't like brussel sprouts so I gave him 2 servings of broc and some broc for Joe's lunch so I used some mixed veggie and spinach leftover from my lunch today.
I have no idea how many calories etc. I don't really count calories. Like I said before, I am not trying so much to lose weight, I just want us to be healthier and make smarter, healthier choices on a reg basis so we can eat "bad" here and there when we want to without guilt!
