Seafood Sunday (and Eggs, lots of them)

Today is the first day that I actually cooked something while trying to follow the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP). It was interesting to try and cook like I normally would, while also trying to keep in mind the weekly limits for the different categories. For example, I have already pretty much used up my weekly limit for eggs (4) today.

Breakfast:

Cereal in milk: 2 oz cereal, 13 oz milk (cost - $0.49)

Eggs over easy (2): 3 oz (cost - $0.23)

Lunch:

Crab fried rice: 3 oz brown rice, 2 oz white rice, 1.7 oz carrots, 1 oz Bok Choy, 1 oz spinach, 2.7 oz crab, 1.4 oz egg, 0.7 oz oil (cost - $1.79)

Dinner:

Roasted Vegetables and Stir-Fry (for the whole family, not just what I ate!)

Rice: 2 oz brown rice, 1 oz white rice (cost - $0.21)

Roasted vegetables: 8.5 oz squash, 5.7 oz potatoes, 2.8 oz onions, 0.4 oz olive oil (cost - $0.84)

Stir-fry imitation crab and greens: 1.2 oz Bok Choy, 1.2 oz spinach, 1.6 oz imitation crab (cost - $0.81)

Fruits:

Clementines: 15 oz (cost - $1.13)

Orange juice: 4 oz (cost - $0.12)

Milk: 13 oz (cost - $0.17)

Tea: 4 oz (cost - you don't want to know)

Summary:

Total cost of food: $5.79 ignoring tea

Total eaten / Total daily allowance:  91.9 oz / 91.1 oz

Grains eaten / Grains daily allowance: 10 oz / 10.4 oz

Vegetables eaten / Vegetable daily allowance: 23.1 oz / 21.2 oz

Fruits eaten / Fruits daily allowance: 19 oz / 19.2 oz

Milk Products eaten / Milk Products daily allowance: 26 oz / 26 oz

Meat and Beans eaten / Meat and Beans daily allowance: 8.7 oz / 9.1 oz

Other eaten / Other daily allowance: 5.1 oz / 5.2 oz

Lessons learned:

- Planning meals is HARD! I had no idea what to make today - my wife "suggested" that I make what I made today.

- Not everyone likes eggs over easy with runny yolks.

- Remember to turn on the ventilation hood when frying at high heat, or suffer the wrath of your wife (rumor is that Chinese, Japanese, and Korean housewives are particularly wrathful).

- Splash guards are your friend when frying at high heat (see above).

- Crab fried rice is good.

- Carrots need to go into the pot (or pan) first, since they take longer to cook.

- No one cares if carrots are a little undercooked, because crunchy carrots are awesome, while mushy ones are not.

- "Basting oil" = olive oil.

- Onions don't do well in the oven when everything else is in chunks, because onions peel off into smaller layers and burn up before the other chunks are done.

- Imitation crab meat (which comes in a lump) does not stir-fry well, while real crab meat (which comes in shreds) does.

- Winter squash (which are like pumpkins) has high wastage by weight, since you can't eat the skin.