Day 1 on a Food Stamp Budget

Today is the first day of my Food Stamp Budget project (F$). To recap: I found this website, was intriged and am giving it a try: http://www.gfcf-diet.talkaboutcuringautism.org/gfcfsf-diet-on-food-stamps.htm. See my previous post "Shopping" for how much it cost.

Surprises:Hebrew National Kosher Beef franks have Soy in them... that seems wrong somehow (so I couldn't buy them since this is a soy free project too).
Hominy is just white corn

Side notes:

I spent 2 hours cooking to prepare several things and freeze them to help cut down on prep time during the week (I need my extra 20 minutes in the morning!). During those 2 hours I made my Turkey soup for dinner, cleaned the celery, peeled carrots and potatoes, washed the salad, baked the cornbread muffins, scrambled eggs and fried breakfast potatoes. All tucked in to single serve ziplock containers and stored/frozen for the next 4 weeks.

I actually started with the last week of the month on the menu and will move backwards (http://www.gfcf-diet.talkaboutcuringautism.org/gfcfsf-foodstamp-monthly-menu.html) just because I'm really not in the mood for Chili now. So, I had the hot dog for lunch with the chips and orange and it was way too greasy!! Also, I haven't had a hot dog in long time and I remember why now - icky repeats all day :( I purposely got the Oscar Meyer 100% beef quality franks, even though hot dogs are cheaper but this still left a puddle of fat on the plate and that nasty preservative aftertaste. Thankfully, there is only 1 more Hot dog day this month so the rest of the package can go to someone else (see what I mean about feeding 4 is cheaper than 1 - you can't just buy 1 hot dog @ the store...)

The Turkey soup was really good though! I've never added Thyme to my soup before I think it will be a staple from now on.

Things I'd change about today's menu:
Tuna salad with the chips would be a better option, less grease and fewer preservatives.

What I'm looking forward to:

More Corn Muffins - yum!

Does it bode well to start this on Valentine's Day?