What would be your 2.00 per day menu, and could you do it?

Imagine that you're givin the opportunity to win a substantial prize (say, 5000 dollars and a make-out session with Angelina Jolie or Sam Shepherd) if you can A) feed yourself for 60 days on two dollars per day, and B) retain or improve your current health better than other contestants.

Ah, screw that, that's silly. What would be your menu if you had to live for a month or two on two dollars per day, and you could not accept free food? (free water is allowed)

Couldn't you have thought of a better man for me to make out with? :shrug:
Duckie

now shut up and starve! }(


besides, I threw in Jolie for the boys and girls.

And I can go skinny without starving or smoking!
Duckie

So I'm guessing my man crushes aren't what floats straight women and gay men's boats.

Would you settle for 3K and Wes Clark? er... I'm projecting again, aren't I?

would not be too unhealthy.

For instance, I can make two rounds of focaccia bread or twelve pita pockets for about 12 cents. Total.

eat carrots.

If there isn't a clause that says you can't be orange by the end of the contest.

Since I get free food at work. :evilgrin:

Although, as much as I love Sam Shepherd, could I make out with someone who isn't old enough to be my father? or grandfather even. :o

What are you, a frickin' republican? Cheater cheater free food eater!

I am! I'm really a freeper troll, don't you know? :o

A bowl of oatmeal made with water is probably .20, a pack of ramen .20, let's see... some chicken legs one day, a block of tofu ($1.75 split over two days). Not a lot of color!

I would add a kiwi, raisins, a .99 pack of carrots for the week.

My mother said you can live forever on just potatoes and milk, but that's pretty damn bland (and no fiber!).

Choose your fruits wisely, that's all I'm sayin'.

One 7 oz baked potato, including the skin, has 6 grams of fiber. Without the skin, 3 grams of fiber.

So eat that potato skin!

I'd steal my food. You said you couldn't accept free food, but you didn't say you couldn't shoplift. I'd steal whole hams, chickens, ding-dongs, vodka, whatever and eat like a king.

Beans and rice together make an excellant protien. The Saturday farmers market has great deals. A 12-pack of eggs lasts quite awhile. Different yogurt brands are always on sale. Bulk granola and oatmeal are CHEAP.

Just a start, but it's not hard to do.

I could easily do it.

or is that more free food?
I forgot spuds, since I cannot eat them anymore. I do not know what they cost, but 20 pound bags of spuds used to be very cheap. Cheaper if you grow them too.
Are you figuring in enery costs for homemade bread?

Lots and lots of cucumbers.

I eat them every day.

I have digestive problems and saw this in one book as a way to determine food sensitivities. Turkey and rice were the two foods that gave very few people digestive problems so you start off eliminating everything except those two foods then start by reintroducing other foods after a couple weeks starting with non acidic cooked veggies.
Anyway, rice and turkey are very inexpensive when bought in quantity so I think this would work out. Then I could also buy big bags of frozen veggies.

so that might save you some money?

Ramen noodles and pinto beans. When you live on that little bit of money, you don't care about health, only survival.

in a developing country where the currency is way, way undervalued :evilgrin:

Plus it would most likely have a nice pristine beach for the makeout session with Angelina... purrrrrr.....

edit: speling

...between many paydays, I got to live on less than $2.00 a day, and my only reward was not starving. My strategy? Cajun red beans and rice with smoked turkey necks (about $5 worth could feed me for a week) and pasta with cabbage (about $5 worth would last 4-5 days). Both are healthier than my normal diet. You would think that I would never want to eat these dishes again, but I actually crave them sometimes, even when I have plenty of money in my wallet.

I probably have done it, if I could quit the soda.
When I figured that I had ulcers, I thought maybe I could heal them by a total milk and cereal diet. So for a number of weeks my only meal was peanut butter crunch ($1.97 per box at the local wal-mart, plus for a time there they came with 30 cent coupons on the box. So half a box per day plus milk and a multi-vitamin pill is going to be less than $2 a day. I could do that for sixty days and never get tired of it.
Other meal choices - a ten pound bag of rice is about $3 and provides about 25 meals, say 15 cents a meal. Peanut butter and cheese sandwiches are pretty cheap, and I like them too, singly and in combo. Milk is about $2.5 per gallon, or 16 cents per eight ounce glass. You want fruits? A half gallon of OJ is 99 cents, or 12.4 cents per eight ounce glass. A cup of applesauce is about 20 cents.
So lets try that
breakfast - cereal 20 cents, OJ 13 cents, milk 16 cents
lunch - pb sandwich 17 cents, can of pop 25 cents
dinner - rice or pasta 25 cents or less, OJ 13 cents, nutty bar 18 cents

total cost $1.47 including such unnecessaries as nutty bars and cans of pop. Throw in a cup of applesauce for lunch for $1.67 total. Hell, you can even splurge on another can of pop, and a couple slices of toast for an afternoon snack. Ditch the pops and you can have two more glasses of OJ, or drink more of that free water.

they have most of the nutrients you really need to live on. I like the suggestion of spinach as well.

if only for a short time and dependant entirely on the culinary skills of the person in question, can even be a healthy diet.

In general, stick to the tried and true low cost menu items:

Beans, Peas and Lentils
Rice, Pasta and Potatoes
Eggs, Cheese, and milk

Have some staples in house, -

Flour, sugar, butter, yeast and oil
Baking powder and baking soda can be helpful
A bit of red or white wine vinegar is a plus
As are any versatile condiments such as mustard, horseradish, etc.

And learn how to bone out a chicken; I can get 4 dinners, 2 lunches and a nifty homemade chicken stock from one $3.50 Fryer. Or I can buy the individual elements someone else has cut up for $12.87.

If your culinary skills are limited, you've more of a challenge in the health department, but it's possible to keep body and soul together.

Kraft Dinners, Ramen Products, Eggs on Toast, Baked Potatoes doused in butter and chili... I do recommend one learn to make their own burritos using refried beans and cheese. It's not hard and it's quite thrify. Those same flour tortillas can make an excellent, easy and inexpensive quesadilla or soft taco.

If you're looking for actual menus, recipes and a plan, then give me some parameters of what you like to eat, what staples you have in house and what your skill and time level might be and I'll put some stuff together for you.

:hi:

tomatoes and peppers. I can do a LOT with that in the kitchen, especially if I'm allowed to save up my $2 allowance and buy some chicken every now and then. Actually, thighs are pretty cheap, and dark meat is yummier anyway.

For an all out all night fuck fest with AJ I'd eat catfood for 60 days.

They're like 10 for $1 or something.

A whole variety of things.

Fruits
Veggies
chicken

But, beware of red meat... It'll eat up your $2.00

baked potatoes.

Breakfast: oatmeal in water (60 cents, better if you can use filched restaurant sugar packets to sweeten it.)

Lunch: Rahman noodles (1.19)

Dinner: Zatarain's Rice (various flavors) (1.19)

If one was allowed under the rules, I would Dumpster dive behind grocery stores or get in good with a produce manager for my greens, veggies and fruits.

I could also by a few items at Taco Bell, they have some cheap if not scary options. There are a lot of $.99 items at fast food restaurants; I guess I'd have to skip a meal if I did that. It can be done though.

You have to already have a crockpot, which I do. It lasts for years. You can get white rice on sale at the Wall for as little as 15 cents a pound, lentils and green peas are frequently 44 cents a pound. So there is still room in the budget for onions, bell pepper (if they are not priced too high), celery, garlic. Saute some onion, pepper, celery, garlic in a tiny bit of olive oil -- a small bottle will last all month if you stir a lot while sauteeing -- and then add to the beans in the crockpot. Serve beans and rice together, and it's a complete protein. I don't have the problem digesting beans that others do so I can live on two meals a day like this indefinitely, although I do it more often with the slightly more expensive black beans. For breakfast make some hot tea -- the Great Value orange pekoe tea is running about 2 cents a tea bag. If you are losing too much weight, add sugar to the tea and reconstituted nonfat dry milk or even evaporated milk. Seems to me that there is still usually a few bucks left in the budget if you have $60 for a month of groceries for one person. Maybe treat yourself to a bottle of wine or two.

Another way is to make scratch tomato sauce from tomato paste, onion, garlic, celery, and Italian herbs (I grow my own but they are cheaply had at the dollar store if you don't) and serve over the cheapest pasta. Again very easy to keep it under $2 a day per person but if you are losing weight too rapidly and have to find cheese, it is tough these days to find a decent cheese to melt over your spaghetti for a fair price. So you'll probably have to blow off the wine in favor of a good Romano or Parmesan.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

cheap and Atkins approved.