CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 21

If you're just joining the conversation, you can read all about the $4/day challenge I have embarked on this month!  Today officially marks 3 weeks of the challenge with only 1 week left! 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 20

Today was Saturday and I was in a baking mood.  I made a batch of these English Muffins.  We ended up having breakfast sandwiches for brunch, which was really tasty and definitely hit the spot!  This was the last of our eggs though, so we will have to buy more this week!  If you're just reading now, you can catch up on the challenge here! 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 19

If you're just joining the conversation, you can read all about the challenge here! 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 18

Today is Day 18 of the Food Bank Challenge!  You can read all about it here.  This week we are going completely without milk or butter because we are out of both and only have $20 left in our budget for the month. I want to use some of our funds to buy fresh produce next week, so we are sacrificing the extras.  It's actually not so bad, the only time I'm really missing it is in coffee.  I'd also be doing a lot more baking right now, especially leading up to Christmas. 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 17

Today was another day filled with meetings.  My first meeting was at one of my favourite local coffee shops, The Old Grind.  The woman I was meeting bought me a tea, which I couldn't say no to, so I had a delicious london fog for breakfast! 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 16

Today was a crazy busy day with meetings around the clock!  As a result, on the door I grabbed the only food I had in the house that didn't require cooking - a pear.  I was hoping to make a fresh pear tart for breakfast one day this week, but a fresh pear was pretty great too.  If you're just joining the conversation you can catch up here!  

CWJ Food Bank Challenge Day 15

If you're just joining the conversation, you can read all about it here. 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 14

Today is officially half way through the challenge, and needless to say things are starting to get a bit harder.  We are out of milk today, even though we just bought a gallon a few days ago.  We are out of butter now, and because we use real butter and not margarine, it rings in at about $6/lb.  I sacrificed half of the butter to make shortbread cookies last week, the kind of thing I probably won't have the luxury of doing with the next lb that I purchase, if I can somehow fit it into my budget.  We have just over $20 left for the next two weeks, but we do have a lot of non perishable items and still quite a bit of meat left.!

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 13

Today we came within pennies of our daily budget for the $4/day challenge, though we ate really well today considering how little we had to spend.  We had fresh fruit, a hearty salad, and a traditional roast beef dinner.  I would have to say, that today has been our most satisfying day so far, and I'm really proud to say we were able to eat such a great diet today on such a small budget!

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 12

I've been looking forward to today's recipe all week long!  I have a bit of a sweet tooth, so I think other than missing cream in my coffee, sweets have been the #1 thing I miss during this challenge. Pancakes with homemade syrup are a really nostalgic food for me as well,  since both are something my Grandparents always made for me growing up (and continue to do so to this day).  All in all, brunch was a great meal, and rang in at a mere $1.14/serving! 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 11

Well today marks Day 11 of the challenge!  If you're just joining the conversation, you can get up to speed here. 

Basic Homemade Pancakes

This recipe for pancakes is really easy to whip together.   Mix together the first 4 ingredients and store for quick use later on (this is essentially homemade Bisquick).  We often bring this camping with us, storing the wet and dry ingredients in separate containers, combining only when it's time to use.  Goes wonderfully with this recipe for Brown Sugar Syrup.  Recipe makes 8 large pancakes 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge Day 10

This month I've challenged myself to survive off a $4/day grocery budget.  You can read the overview of the challenge here. 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge - Day 9

It's amazing how many people are following this challenge right now.  Last night I went on a late night grocery run - the manager came over to ask how the challenge was going and to take a look at what I had placed on the conveyer belt this week (a head of lettuce, 1 tomato, 2 pears, and a gallon of milk - for a total of $10.65).  It has been really interesting so far to hear the feedback from those who are following along.

Easy Homemade Mac and Cheese

  Ingredients - 2 cups dry macaroni noodles - 2 tbsp butter - 2 tbsp flour - 2 cups whole milk  - 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 8

Today was a bit of a crazy day to say the to say the least. 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Week 1 Recap

Things I learned in the past week have been invaluable. 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 7

Today marks 1/4 way through the challenge and the end of the first official week.  I have to say that we are doing much better with the budget than I had originally thought we would.  Though the first few days were a bit high, we managed to make everything stretch really well throughout the week bringing our total meal cost each day lower and lower.  You can read my thoughts on the first quarter of this challenge in a re-cap post here. 

Brown Sugar Syrup

My Gramma has always made her own syrup out of brown sugar and water.  Whenever we would visit as kids, Gramps would make us all customized pancakes (I usually got a letter "J") and Gramma would be busy at the stove whisking the syrup.  This is a great, simple recipe that costs only around $1 or so to make. 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 6

If you're just joining us, you can read about the challenge here. 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 5

If you're just joining us, you can read all about what's happening HERE. Today we also officially ran out of milk when we had our morning coffees, so I'll have to make a run to the store to purchase some more at some point.  I still have a little over $30, so we are still mainlining our leftover budget really well!  

Easy Homemade Bread

We've been making most of our own bread for years now.  Up until last year, we would use the bread maker "dough only" setting and then transfer it into our own pans to bake.  This is my Gramma's recipe, and it served us well for many years!  Unfortunately our bread baker broke last year, and rather than replace it we decided to figure out how to make bread without it. 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 4

Well guys, today at only 4 days in, I encountered probably the biggest challenge that I will encounter throughout the course of this project (and I am even travelling for a few days towards the middle of this month - I thought that was going to be the greatest challenge).  Even still today ended up being our best day as far as the daily food budget went.  

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 3

The feedback for this challenge has been incredible, I'm loving all of the comments, private messages, texts, and just overall interest that this entire project is receiving so far.  

Creamy Chicken and Dumplings

I made this recipe as part of the $4/day food challenge I am working on this month. This is a great classic comfort food recipe that uses leftover roasted chicken, so I knew it would be perfect for the challenge!  This recipe makes between 4-6 servings. 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 2

If you you're just joining the conversation, you can read all about the challenge HERE. 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Day 1

A few notes about today's menu - 

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Groceries

As promised, here is a grocery list along with prices and receipts from everything I purchased today.  If you're just joining the conversation, you can catch up HERE.

CWJ Food Bank Challenge: Overview

I was chatting with the President of my local food bank a couple of months back and he mentioned that the average person who is accessing the food bank has only around $4 to spend on groceries per day.  That got me to thinking - could my family survive off a mere $4/person/day?