SNAP budget meals

For the SNAP budget assignment, I tried my best to create meals that used whole grains, as many fruits and vegetables as I could fit in, were reasonably nutritionally balanced, and that were interesting flavor-wise.

This was challenging, and I realized that there may be ways to further cut costs that I didn't think of (are canned/frozen vegetables cheaper than fresh? I didn't compare prices), and certain items were surprisingly expensive. For instance, a pack of 8 flour tortillas is around $3.00. I'm pretty sure a loaf of bread is a better deal than that!

I ended up going over budget a little even after cutting out a few things--coffee at breakfast (just for the adults), and peanut butter to go with the apples at lunch. I also realized that I miscalculated the cost of the squash after I got home so I had to triple that price. However, I think the price I took down for tuna was pretty high, so if I found something cheaper that would probably bring it down to $15.

Here was the menu I came up with:

Breakfast
Oatmeal (cooked with water) with a splash of milk, brown sugar, and cinnamon, sliced bananas mixed with a little bit of yogurt and honey, and a glass of milk for each of the kids.

2 c rolled oats - $0.73
3 c milk - $0.60
1/3 c brown sugar - 0.15
Cinnamon (pantry)

4 bananas - $0.80
1 c yogurt - $0.82
1 T honey - $0.15

TOTAL: $3.40

Lunch
Wraps with tuna/vegetable salad (tuna, mayo, mustard, pepper, chopped celery and broccoli and shredded carrot--I've made this before and it's great) and lettuce, apple slices.

4 whole-wheat tortillas - $1.50
2 cans tuna - $2.34
1/4 c mayonnaise - $0.39
1 T Dijon mustard - $0.11
1 carrot - $0.09
1/2 c broccoli - $0.50
1/4 c celery - $0.13
Black pepper (pantry)
4 lettuce leaves - $0.42

3 apples - $1.50

TOTAL: $6.98

Dinner
A recipe from Bittman: White bean soup with greens and rice, and roasted butternut squash.

1 c brown rice - $1.00
1/2 lb white beans - $1.00
1 onion - $0.25
1/2 lb collard greens - $0.50
2 cloves garlic - $0.13
Thyme (pantry)
Salt and pepper (pantry)
Water or vegetable stock

1 1/2 lb butternut squash - $2.09
Salt and pepper (pantry)
Olive oil (pantry)

TOTAL: $4.97
GRAND TOTAL: $15.35

So--from looking at this it seems like it's possible to feed 4 people on $15 a day. Realistically I think it's much harder than this, especially if you're trying to create meals that are both healthy and filling. I love making my own food, but I don't always have time to pack a decent lunch and cook dinner every day. There are also definitely things I wouldn't want to do without (ahem COFFEE) that didn't fit into the budget. The meal plan I came up with also doesn't account for any snacks which, while maybe not absolutely necessary, I think would ideally be included.

A side note--that white bean soup and squash dinner sounded really good so I picked up some greens when I was at Rainbow... I'll post the results later this week!