La Vida Fresca

Just regular ol’ stir-fry that definitely fits in the Spartan category …

And some hot tea …

The price:

1 lb. frozen stir-fry veggies- $2

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast- about $2.60

So it’s about $2.30 per person, not including staples like soy sauce, corn starch and oil.

Of course, if you don’t like Spartan food, you could add some rice …

This meal’s stats for a big serving (1/2 lb. chicken, 1/2 lb. veggies, soy sauce, oil, and cornstarch) are:

498 calories

11 grams of fat

37 carb

64 protein

Today I started a new dinner adventure: “Eat like a Spartan.” Previous dinner adventures include $14- and $16-limits for five weeknight meals for two. The rules were each meal had to have a protein, quality starch, and vegetable, none of which could come from a can. I’m planning this one for five nights too, unless something else comes up (like, say, we end up going out to eat or I just really want to do something else). For the purpose of this exercise, Spartan means three things:

• Inexpensive (goal is between $4 and $5 per person, per meal).

• Made of a few simple ingredients, including meat.

• And lastly, these are meals the guys training for the “300″ movie might’ve eaten. For this I’m making meals that don’t include starches. This part is pure speculation, as I have no idea what they really ate, although I think I remember reading they ate somewhere around 1,800 calories while training hard at Gym Jones. If that’s true, it must’ve been a very sad, hungry time for them. I don’t think I’d be happy on that much food doing what they did. However, they did get to train at Gym Jones as part of their job, so that alone makes me not feel sorry for them.

Back to the point. This is tonight’s dinner and stats. It’s kind of light on the calories though. Spartans might require a little more. I’m just kind of winging it here, but if I were going to modify this, I’d add more protein.

350 calories

16 fat

34 carb

22 protein

Even though it’s low on calories, it’s actually quite a lot of food. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the salad items, especially the tomatoes, were huge. I left them in big pieces because Spartans don’t like dainty salads. :- ) There’s a big piece of chicken, three carrots, a whole large tomato and whole cucumber per person. We couldn’t even finish all the salad.

I also used two tablespoons of olive oil total and some cooking spray. It was $8.58 total*/$4.29 per person — less than an Extra Value Meal at McDonald’s. I use this comparison because you always hear people complain that they have to eat junk and fast food because “healthy” food is too expensive.

*I figured the cost of the chicken is 2/3 of the price of the chicken on the receipt, because I used that much out of the pack. The rest I’ll use in another meal, most likely in the next few days.

Tonight was soup night. We had chicken noodle (whole wheat) and chicken and rice soup.

The rice looked like birdseed but it was actually this crazy blend of long grain brown rice, sweet brown rice, something called Wehani, and Black Japonica (whatever that is). I got the rice (Lundberg Family Farms Wild Blend) a while back from a bulk bin at a health food store. I only bought 3/4 cup so it was really cheap and just the right amount for the soup I made. The texture was neat and I thought it was perfect for the soup. However, I don’t think it would be very appealing on its own as a side dish.

My helper and I made a big pot of chicken breast cooked with sliced baby carrots, onion, celery, and spices. Then we divided it up into two pots: one for the rice soup and one for the noodle. The idea was to make a bunch of soup and stockpile individual portions in the freezer. Even with just the three of us, I only had three (puny) individual portions to freeze. Good thing it was light! We also had a salad to go with it.