SNAP challenge is going well so far. No major issues so far, although I wish we would’ve picked up more snack food and not just stuff for entrees. Lasagna lasted several days and a container of it is now in the freezer for weeks to come. Information listed below is from last night’s dinner and tonight’s dinner, both of which were quite tasty and relatively inexpensive. As expected, I am not finding this challenge to be particularly difficult as this is pretty much the way we live already. It is actually a pretty smart system, eat cheap, yet nutritious, and still have plenty of leftovers. Aside from snack food, one thing I wish we could have incorporated into the challenge is the use of more greens and veggies in general. Admittedly, you can’t find a ton of great produce at Winco. We usually end up getting most of our produce at Safeway, but of course they are a bit more expensive.

Last night: Chicken Picatta and Scalloped Potatoes ~$5.46 (doesn’t include the little bit of milk that we used or the capers that we already had on hand). Delicious! Plus leftover potatoes for the next day.

Tonight: Split Pea Soup~$6.90 – We made a whole pot which equates to about 12 cups worth. Plenty of leftovers and we froze some for later meals.

Introduction:

I chose to do the SNAP Challenge with my husband in order to see how different this would be from our normal shopping habits. My overall expectation is that there won’t be many differences in how we shop in regards to quality and quantity of food. Currently we budget $200 a month for groceries, which is roughly $60 less than the SNAP budget for one month. Of course, this doesn’t account for special nights out, but realistically we try to limit our grocery spending to $200 or less each month. We’ve set this goal now for the past four years and it stems from my husband’s upbringing. Him and his brother grew up in a single parent household and had to learn to maximize meals with limited groceries. It helps that my husband is a great cook and can make a nutritious meal out of just minimal ingredients. We went to two different stores for our food- Winco and Safeway. Winco is our mainstay but we can often pick up good deals at Safeway (such as manager’s specials where you can often save anywhere from 30% to 50%). Shopping for five days worth of groceries totaled to $47.87 which is just three dollars over the SNAP limit of $4.40 a day per person. We budgeted for two people but are eating for three, so I think it is acceptable to be a little over. As a side note, if my family qualified for SNAP, I would probably qualify for WIC on top of this limit. We have not factored this in to our SNAP challenge budget.

Guidelines

1) We are using pre-purchased staples such as spices, butter, and oils. We will also be using mozzarella that we already have along with minced garlic and rice.

2) Meats were bought in bulk and the price shown is the cost of the portion that we used.

3) During these five days, our goal is to eat three meals a day- all home cooked. We do not plan to eat out, but if we do it will be from the closest restaurant to our home (McDonalds).

4) All meals will be made from the ingredients listed below.

5) Certain meals will be made with the mindset that leftovers will be used for future lunches during the five days. “Maximizing our meals”

6) SNAP Challenge will run from 11/15- 11/19 (5 days)

 

 

SNAP Challenge Ingredients: