Slacking

     The title of this posts means two things.

1) I'm sorry I've slacked and not posted lately. I got CRAZY busy with the holiday's and cam stuff and... haven't really cooked much... But I have cooked a little. :)

2) I feel like living on the budget also goes hand in hand with some other things. One of those other things is... being a college student/recent grad/minimum wage employee/someone else who doesn't often have the time or forethought to plan meals in advance. Like, we might plan a week of dinners but then every day we don't eat a thing until that dinner we planed. We often slack on taking care of ourselves and making sure we eat normal meals.

     Hey, it happens. We're all busy, and snacks just seem like an extra expense. But if we have an arsenal of simple snacks to make up, at the very least we might eat at least a mini-lunch. :)

Cheapish Snack Options:

• Peanut butter and apple slices
• Soft boiled egg and toast
• Cottage cheese with salsa (or tomatoes with EVOO and balsamic)
• Celery and peanut butter
• A handful of white chocolate covered pretzels
• Toast with avocado, EVOO and salt
• A muffin (banana nut muffins from last week are a great (and cheap) or for something different substitute pumpkin for the banana and your favorite pumpkin spices for the vanilla)
• Cucumber boat with turkey and cream cheese
• Radishes
• Cucumber, onion and tomato salad with a vinegar and sugar dressing
• Numi Organics Savory Tea (I do not work for them, nor am I getting any kickbacks, but this is a fairly satisfying drink)
• Crispbread crackers with many of these as a topping
• Any of these awesome ideas from BuzzFeed

The key with snacking on a budget is moderation. You don't want to stuff yourself, just have something small to tide yourself over until dinner. Otherwise, it will get expensive and if you're too full to eat all the dinner you've made it could potentially make that more expensive as well (you throw out half of dinner because you were too full from lunch to eat it, your dinner just doubled in price-per-serving). I COULD eat an entire bag of potato chips for lunch, but then my lunch cost me $4.50. Or, I could have a handful of chips with a glass of water and toast with peanut butter and apple slices and my lunch will only cost me about $0.75! It's all about portioning and using cheap items to make a good meal. 

Since I haven't provided you with much of a recipe I guess I'll tell you what I made the other day...

Chicken Fried Rice

3 tablespoons sesame oil (or canola, whatever you have)

1 small white onion, chopped

1 garlic clove

1 cup frozen peas and carrots blend (thawed)

3 cups cooked white rice (day old works best but you can make it a few hours in advance and toss it in the fridge)

2 eggs

1 chicked breast, cut into bite size pieces

1/4 cup soy sauce

1. In a large frying pan heat oil over medium low heat. Cook chicken, try to get it lightly browned in spots. Remove from pan onto a plate.
2. Add onions, garlic, peas and carrots and heat until tender. Push everything to one side of the pan.
3. On the empty side of the pan, scramble the eggs.
4. Add in the cooked white rice and soy sauce, mix until everything is well combined. Add in chicken.
5. Enjoy!

I'll try to update this with prices later, but, it's pretty cheap! 

xoxo
Steph