Pixel Posybytes of life

Well I’m back in on the recession lunch. You really can’t beat $10 for lunch and breakfast for a whole work week.

I made Texas Spaghetti for everyone today and it was snarfed up. There were no leftovers.

This is one of my husband’s family recipes and we always make it in a big batch to freeze.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb hamburger browned and seasoned to taste
• Cooked lasagna noodles (boil according to box directions). My 8×8 size pan took maybe 6-8 noodles to make 2 layers.
• 1 can tomato soup
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 bag of shredded mozzarella cheese, I also choose the Italian mix sometimes with Romano and Parm
• Other additions might be onions, garlic, green peppers, mushrooms, whatever you like in spaghetti sauce; either cook it up with the meat or add them fresh.

Mix the browned hamburger meat with the 2 types of soup. Do not add milk or water to the soup. I always add canned mushrooms to this mix and have browned my hamburger with garlic, onion, salt, pepper and basil.

Assemble:

• Spray pan with a little cooking spray to make it easier to clean and scoop out.
• Put down a layer of noodles, overlapping the edges and tearing or cutting them to fit the bottom.
• Spread out some of the meat/soup mixture.
• Sprinkle a generous amount of cheese to cover the meat.
• Layer another set of noodles, I usually choose the opposite direction, I think it holds together better.
• Layer the rest of the meat/soup mix
• Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top

Cook:

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes; basically until the cheese is a golden brown. It’s safe to eat cold, but so much better when it’s all melted together. Let it cool for a few minutes before cutting into.

This freezes really well, and is simple to double the recipe for a bigger pan with 2-3 pounds hamburger and the larger family sized soup cans. Can never have too much cheese .

Bon Appetit

This is really a lasagna pic from google images, but it ends up looking a lot like this when doubled.

Week 4 was a pretty good week. Only coworker B to my knowledge cheated with a coffee and a scone one morning.

I’ll spare you the full menu, but we started the week with sticking to leftovers for breakfasts and 1 lunch (we froze leftover spaghetti from last week) and splurged on hamburger meat for sloppy joes. We also had lunchmeat sandwiches, chicken & rice, and bean and rice burritos to round out the week.

The challenge has really gone well, although for week 5 I’ve decided to drop out. I found myself eating more than I typically would at lunch time, if you can believe that. We also started buying more junk food like chips, cookies and pop to compliment our meals. It’ll be more expensive to eat solo again, but I need to eat healthier as well.

The biggest annoyances to the challenge are shopping for groceries, hauling them in, and having to take items home to cook and bring back for the group. We also have run into some conflicts of taste when developing the menus.

I’m still sticking with my no buying food items at work as it was a New Year’s resolution. That alone will still save me money and keep me from going out for fast food.

Hubby has been bringing crackers, tuna and soup at hand’s to work and it has been working out well for him. I’m headed to Target after work to find some things for myself to bring.

Week three is coming to a close and I don’t think anyone has cheated. Although tomorrow… and even I am caving, we’re going out for Chinese Pizza. I’ve never heard of such a place, but the menu sounds fun so the experience is worth joining the cheater’s list. Oh and we’ve decided that hauling stuff home to cook and bring back stinks… going to try to avoid that unless someone expressively feels the urge to cook for the group.

Here’s what we served up this week…

Week 3 Menu:

1. Monday:
   • Breakfast: oatmeal or poptarts and an orange
   • Lunch: turkey Sandwich, pickle, chips and a banana
2. Tuesday:
   • Breakfast: cereal and bananas
   • Lunch: potpies, cottage cheese, green beans and buttered bread
3. Wednesday:
   • Breakfast: waffles and syrup
   • Lunch: chicken and rice soup, crackers, leftover baked potatoes with cottage cheese
4. Thursday:
   • Breakfast: waffles and syrup or leftovers
   • Lunch: spaghetti, salad with ranch, buttered bread
5. Friday:
   • Breakfast: whatever is left
   • Lunch: CHEATERS or leftovers
6. Monday:
   1. Breakfast: Oatmeal.

Additional Snack items: Popcorn, PBJ sandwiches, extra crackers, chips and pickles, cookies.

Drink Options: water, milk, orange pop and tea.

In case you haven’t read the original post, a group in my office has started a challenge to eat at work for $10.00 a week. This includes all food and drink items consumed at work, nothing else can be purchased during work hours or brought from home to consume here. Dinners however are on our own with our families. We shop during the Monday lunch hour at a nearby Save-A-Lot grocery.

• Week 2 Cheating
  • Coworker K bought a pop from the vendo, with money Coworker B gave to her. B goes on the cheaters list for enabling K.
  • Coworker Y, the same out to luncher from week 1 bought a package of cookies 2 separate mornings and bought morning coffee on more than one occasion.  Y is also skipping the challenge for Week 3.

Mid week complaining from Coworkers K & S started by insisting we put a “going out to lunch” day into the menu. What weak will power! We’re talking of assigning a point system to help better track the cheaters vs. those that stick to the challenge.

Week 2 Menu:

1. Monday:
   • Breakfast: Oatmeal
   • Lunch: Chili hot dogs on a bun with chips and a banana
2. Tuesday:
   • Breakfast: Cereal with milk
   • Lunch: Chicken & Rice, a simple recipe using chunk chicken, cream of celery soup and white rice. Also had and apple, peas, bread and butter.
3. Wednesday:
   • Breakfast: Poptart and a hard boiled egg.
   • Lunch: Baked Potato Bar with ranch, green beans, cottage cheese, butter and salad.
4. Thursday:
   • Breakfast: oatmeal or cereal.
   • Lunch: Egg salad sandwich with cheese, leftover peas, green beans, cottage cheese. Also had chips and apples left.
5. Friday:
   • Breakfast: Cereal with a hard boiled egg, although some choose to eat leftover rice and sugar.
   • Lunch: Tuna Fish Sandwiches, pickles, carrots, ranch, cheese slices, chips and any other leftovers.
6. Monday:
   1. Breakfast: Oatmeal.

Additional Snack items: Popcorn, PBJ sandwiches, extra crackers, chips and pickles. Although most are not snacking much.

Drink Options: Water, milk and tea.

After a lengthy discussion with my colleagues we collectively decided to challenge ourselves to eat for $1.00 a meal. We’re calling it our Recession Lunch Challenge, but to be honest, it’s more just to see if we can. Saving money and probably shedding a few pounds is just an added bonus.

I work in a downtown environment with a multitude of fast food meal choices and sit down restaurants within walking distance, but very few can be had for less than $10.00.  Our challenge has us taking what we spent on one meal and stretching it out over the week. Only breakfast and lunch are included in the challenge, as it would be too difficult to keep each other honest after hours. We’re also shopping together and eating family style.  We would not be able to accomplish the variety and quantity of food we have on our menu if we were not pooling our funds in this way.

Week 1 is off to a good start. We had a budget of $46.00 to feed 5 people breakfast, lunch and snacks for a week. We’re short $4.00, as one person is out 2 days this week. No items brought from home or additional food purchase during work hours can be consumed. Items we can obtain for free are allowed, such as the salt and ketchup packets found in our oasis areas or borrowed seasonings/condiments from other people in the office. We do not have a cafeteria, but we do have break rooms with kitchenettes.

• ***Update Week 1 Cheating ***
  • Coworker Y went out to lunch with friends. She justified this cheating by saying she made the plans long before the challenge.
  • Although not really cheating, I want to note here we decided not to eat what was planned for lunch on Friday and had leftover spaghetti instead. Friday’s lunch mainly contained pantry items that we can use later.

Week 1 Menu:

1. Monday:
   • Breakfast:  Not included. We didn’t go shopping until lunch time, so we will carry over for breakfast next Monday.
   • Lunch: Lunch meat sandwiches with cheese and mayo on whole wheat bread, banana, pickle and chips for sides.
2. Tuesday:
   • Breakfast: Pop Tarts. 1/2 the group opted for rice with cinnamon & sugar and ate the pop tarts as snack.
   • Lunch: Tuna fish & mayo sandwiches on whole wheat, pickle, apple and chips for sides.
3. Wednesday:
   • Breakfast: Yogurt and a hard boiled egg.
   • Lunch: Spaghetti with meat sauce, bread and butter.
4. Thursday:
   • Breakfast: Cereal with milk.
   • Lunch: Rice & Bean burritos with flour tortillas and salsa.
5. Friday:
   • Breakfast: Oatmeal.
   • Lunch: Chicken and rice soup, crackers, a cheese slice and an apple.
6. Monday:
   1. Breakfast: Oatmeal.

Additional Snack items: Popcorn, PBJ sandwiches, extra crackers, chips and pickles.

Drink Options: Water, milk and tea.