Last day! leftovers and wrap up

It's my last day of the SF Food Bank's Hunger Challenge. I had $28 to spend for the week, and based upon my receipts, spent $3.50 a day instead of $4. That extra cash was reserved for: emergencies, or to cover my basic pantry goods (salt, pepper, spices, oils)


the food still available to me today (i'm going to make veggie tacos for lunch out of some of it!):
-1 full baggie of tortilla chips
-2 enchiladas (will freeze)
-1 cup cooked rice, 1 cup cooked black beans
-coleslaw and black bean terrine
-1 cooked beet, 1 cooked yam, 1 carrot, a lot of broccoli
-1 cooked yam
-1 cup shredded cabbage
-6 corn tortillas
-1 kiwi, 1 banana, 1/2 apple
-2 eggs
-pint of hummus
-2 servings of carrot soup with bacon and white beans (will freeze)

... needless to say, getting enough food for the week was not a problem- the key being: big batches, cooking at home and eating mostly vegetarian cuisine.

The hardest part: being social, going out with friends. Seeing people eating food that I could not have was tough. But knowing that I could go back to it in a week, when others will never get that luxury, was even harder.

www.hungerchallenge.com

I took part of the Hunger Challenge because:
1)it is a way to raise food for the food bank without plainly donating money -http://bit.ly/sBE9x donates 500 lbs to the Food Bank for every blog, so I started one.http://probablycooking.blogspot.com/

2)it was fun to have some creativity on a lmiited budget, and hopefully showed some ideas on how to jazz up the same old thing and make eating meals special with relative cooking ease
2b) to show that eating on $4 a day can still be balanced meals, not just PB&J and preservatives

3)spread the awareness to others

I feel a little disease at my ability to be whisked back into a coffee shop for a latte and bagel... so I might just ease back into SF foodie culture.

Thanks for the opportunity and the support!