Day One

So day #1 of the Food Stamp Challenge is officially through, granted I successfully fight off some major hunger pains later on. ;) No worries, millions of people do it every single day, right? I'll begin sharing what my husband and I had to eat today. And in order to keep sane, I planned meals that we would both eat at the same time.

Breakfast -- Toast with peanut butter & half of a banana, water from tap
Lunch -- PB&J sandwich, saltine crackers, water from tap
Dinner -- Homemade chili, saltine crackers, iced tea

We usually don't eat breakfast (yeah, I know...) so I feel as if we began the day with a really good start! Lunch wasn't so bad since we make a point to only eat out one day a week, if at all. One thing that was different for us was taking a thermos to work, as we are among the 54% of Americans that purchase bottled water (http://www.nrdc.org/). The working day was done & it was soon dinnertime. I cooked the ground beef this morning and placed all of the ingridients--though not many--into the crockpot. I usually include onions, green peppers, tomatos, garlic, etc. in my homemade chili but the budget just would not allow this. I so wish I had my very own vegetable garden at this point! Maybe this challenge will give me enough incentive to finally grow my own produce in the Spring... :)

My very first day living (or eating) on a food stamp budget has already made this experience more authentic than I had anticipated. Throughout the day I was reminded of the 1 in 6 Americans who are unsure of where their next meal is coming from (http://www.feedingamerica.org/). I began, once again, racking my brain of different ways the SNAP program could improve itself to ensure no family, no child, goes hungry. This is something I will be pondering all week long, I'm sure. Until tomorrow...