On day two, faced with the prospect of drinking nothing but tap water for the next 30 days, I came close to tears. Not only was I giving up my big morning glass of milk, I was also cutting out soda, orange juice, coffee, beer and wine. That's a lot of change at once. I needed another option, a really cheap option. I found an inexpensive box of 100 tea bags for for $1. 69, and decided that hot tea would fill the beverage void. We would be drinking tea without, honey, sugar or Splenda, but we would be drinking something other than water.
We keep our tea bags in the same glasses and reuse them all day long. Each morning brings a new bag and my coffee maker sits at-the-ready with hot water for refills. If you were to stop by my house, I'd not be able to offer you an elaborate meal, but I could offer you a hot cup of tea. At the end of the day when the kids are in bed and we're drinking our tenth cups of tea, it's not really "tea" anymore but rather a hot bath for some old leaves. But, we don't need to be drinking caffeine before bed anyway. Drinking 8-10 glasses of water is something I've always failed at, but now it seems like an easier task. And wierdly, the skin on my hands feels a lot less dry lately, and I hope it's because I'm finally hydrated. Could it be that I'm also growing to like the taste of warm water?
So, tea for two=four cents.
Speaking of almost crying, I kinda lost it today. We got home from the gym at noon and I knew that our big meal for the day was going to be a lunch of chicken quesadillas. I had to roast chicken thighs and then assemble the quesadaillas. I was so ravenous that I was almost in tears at the prospect of waiting for the food to cook. Old Kellie would have done several things differently. 1) Sunday lunch would have been from a restaurant or would have been something quick like multiple Lean Cuisine Pizzas. 2) I would have eaten a snack while microwaving said Lean Cuisines. New Kellie: No Snack and no easy option. My meal took a long time to prepare and was so delicious that I actually did cry when it was ready because it was good and I was happy it was done.
Here's what we ate today
Breakfast
- SKC&G oatmeal with brown sugar. low-fat cinnamon rolls with 1 Tbsp margarine (scott made these as a "surprise")
- C&G also split a banana and had milk
- S&K Tea (mmm, first of many cups for the day)
$1.52
Lunch
- SKC&G Quesadillas made with 4 chicken thighs, 1 Tbsp olive oil, 4 ounces cheese, six 6-inch tortillas, 1 avocado and 5 Tbsp sour cream
- C&G Milk
$4.30
Dinner
- SKC&G Macaroni pasta with meat souce (I browned meat on Wednesday and froze it with 1/2 jar of sauce)
- SKC&G Mixed vegetables
- S&G had bread
- G ate a yogurt
- C&G Milk
$4.25
Dessert
- C&G chocolate pudding
- S&K Cereal
$0.70
Total for the day $10.77
Tomorrow, To the Extreme
Kellie, you need to let yourself (and Scott) have at least another 3.4 cents worth of tea each day, because I'm almost gagging at the thought of those limp little tea bags being dipped in their eighth glasses of hot water! :)
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain. I started 21 days of being vegan on January 1, and it seems like it takes SOOO long to prepare meals. And I feel like I'm starving before some of them are done, and I wish I could just throw a box of macaroni and cheese on the stove! I just keep reminding myself: it wouldn't be worth doing if it wasn't a challenge.
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