Day One

Today is Tuna Melt Day! Yum!

We had a strong start today. Taylor had oatmeal for breakfast, and packed a lunch of a granola bar and cranberries for at school. And I had a granola bar for breakfast, tuna melt for lunch, and peanutbutter crackers for a snack. So for dinner today we are having Tuna Melt!!! (Yeah I know, I had it for lunch but I just couldn't wait!)

To make our delioucious dinner we only had to use three items from our box:

• tuna
• cheese and broccoli soup (the broccoli adds extra flavor, variety, and nutrition!)
• twirls

[Our first thought for this was to just buy a box of mac'n'cheese and add the tuna...we decided that the bag of noodles and soup would last longer. And on second thought, while writing this, we noticed that we wouldn't have been able to make the mac'n'cheese anyways since we are lacking milk and butter! Good thing we chose the soup route!]

We cooked the pasta, warmed up the soup, then threw it all together with the tuna to get this wonderful dish.

Tuna melt+green beans+mandarin oranges for dessert=day one dinner! :D And it was good!

Note for today: You notice very quickly how much you take for granted the abundance of food in your home when you pair down. Much like anything else that you have a lot of (money, clothing, Q-tips, etc.) you tend to use more of it more often than when you have little of it. Like when grabbing a snack: when you have a lot of food you reach for something everytime you are hungry (and sometimes complain about not being able to find something), but when your snacks are in limited supply, you carefully plan them- when and how much you will eat. This may be an undeveloped thought or it may be crystal clear...I'm not sure...but try it and you'll see what I mean. Seriously, try it with anything that you have a lot of. Put most of it away and see how you change your usage of it and let us know how that turns out!

Eating Beneath Our Means

A new blog and a new project! We thought that a new blog would be a great place for us to share some of the exciting things going on in our newlywed life together! To kick it off, we are sharing our experience with you as we live for a week, eating out of a box. No, it's not pizza, or a happy meal, but a Children's Hunger Fund Food Pak.

These small boxes cost about $25 to fill and provide nutrition and hope for families in need. They are designed to supply meals for a family of four for about a week. We did make a few adjustments to ours (we aren't quite a family of four...although sometimes we eat like we could be) but none the less, we are challenging ourselves to eat beneath our means. Not only will this give us a chance to experience a small taste of what these families go through, but it will also free up some of our budget so that we can help provide some of these Food Paks through CHF.

It's going to be different, that's for sure. And it may be bland. But hopefully it will help us put in to perspective the amount of money we should be spending on food and simplify our eating habits.

Here are the rules:

1. We only eat food from the Food Pak- breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, fourth meals, etc.
2. No eating out.
3. We only drink water.
4. We pray daily thanking God that He provides for us in abundance and for the families who live on less than what we are currently eating.
5. We don't grumble and complain...even if we are hungry when we go to bed!

Here is the CHF Food Pak grocery list and the items we purchased:

• two canned meat products 12 oz: tuna and chicken
• 1 bag or box of rice 16oz: enriched, long grain, white rice
• 1 bag of pinto beans 160z: Goya's frijoles pintos
• 1 bag or box of pasta 16oz: twirls!
• 2 small cans of tomato paste or sauce: 1 sm can paste, 1 can cream of broccoli soup
• 2 canned green vegetables 14oz: green beans and mixed veggies
• 2 canned fruits: mandarin oranges and peaches
• 1 bag of salted nuts 6oz: raw Spanish peanuts
• 1 small box of crackers: saltines
• 1 box of granola or nutritional bars: crunchy granola bars variety pack
  
  
• Possible additions: peanut butter (check!), soup 12oz can (broccoli cheddar), trail mix, refried beans, cooking oil, dried fruit (apples and cranberries). We also added oatmeal.


• And...we added tortillas...this is Texas, ya'll!

So, stay posted! Frankie is coming up with the recipes and tomorrow we start cookin! :D