Eat on $3 a day

Step 12 Conclusion!

Since my sprouts & kombucha blossomed, I am set for at least two weeks of low-cost/free eating. So, at this point, I conclude writing about what I'm eating, as I've discovered and localized around a set of foods that cost me mere pennies.

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Additional foods that I thought of being good and cheap to eat, but didn't explore:
-Oatmeal:
You can eat a filling meal on just a handful of this and some hot water.
Tastes really good mixed with anything (fruit, yogurt, trail mix, ketchup..)

-Quesadillas:
So, cheese and tortillas are both sold in reasonable bulk and at prices where you could cheaply eat a few quesadillas every day.

- Sauerkraut:
Sauerkraut is a surprisingly tasty topping for a slice of bread/pizza/soup/anything.
Sauerkraut, and anything you can grow on your shelf are fabulous cheap foods.

-Kefir!
You can also grow Kefir on your shelf. Like kombucha. No instructable on that yet.

-Mushrooms
I am curious to know what growing mushrooms (especially indoors, on a shelf) is like. Can mushrooms be grown hydroponically?

Comments

[Ormspryde]

I don't actually intend to use it, but I really like this instructable, it made me smile. :)

[sires6]

Actually, there's a cool instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/Growing-Mushrooms%3a-PF-Tek/

Yoghurt can be grown very cheaply (I have some going right now) with non-fat dried milk, water and some cheap unflavored yoghurt from the store. maybe I'll do an instructable on that!

[shesparticular]

There's one on growing shiitake and oyster mushrooms now too - they provide a little more nutrition than cubes do.

[Dr. Rex]

I hope you do know that it is probably a bad idea to make a meal with these mushrooms? Psylicybe Cubensis is not meant for nutrition! But if you want to "experiment" please make sure that you know what you are dealing with, enough bright minds have been screwed by Ms. Psilocybe through time because of lacking information. Anyways this process should work fine with other fungi like oysters and such.

[Hoopajoo]

True. We are told in USAF Survival School to not bother with mushrooms when foraging. They contain virtually no nutritional content and as such are not worth the health risks involved.

[thatgengirl]

Kimchi is considered one of the healthiest foods to eat, and it's super cheap to make - in facxt, I'm sure you could get someone to give you the cabbage from their garden in exchange for an hour of weeding.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Kimchi

[pleabargain]

Post your Instructable on how to make Kimchi!

[mguer133]

I've just been back from 3 weeks back packing in South Korea where Kimchi is THE national side dish.. They also use a lot of pimiento in there Kimchi and they have the highest rate for stomach cancer in the world... Also Kimchi can be good and very bad ...

[cofosho]

Wow. Very impressive! It gives e hope. I need to find dumpster divers to teach me their ways here in Madison. The diet looks mostly good, but I think there'd be a couple of factors to consider: 1) Your metabolism - Too fast and you're wolfing food and may have to spend more. I wonder if there would be complications from a slow metabolism? Cheaper still, mebbe? 2) You propensity for low density lipoprotein (cholestersol) buildup. Though cost-effective and tasty, such an egg-laden diet might be a problem for older folks... or down the road for yourself. Congrats on fighting and beating the oppressive food regime.

[stasterisk]

I actually learned dumpster diving from some very friendly Wisconsin-ians!

I suggest curiosity. See a dumpster? Peek in!

Try chains, bakeries, and grocery stores over restaurants. The bigger the food-making process is, the more just-fine excess they produce!

Checkout how TimAnderson gets ''BUCKETS'' of delicious chocolate, for starters:

[itsmanofpopsicle]

I am a wisconsinite, and i don't go dumpster-diving:P.

[GroW]

Actually, mushrooms are a little tough to grow. They require all sorts of sterile media and things like that, at least in conventional wisdom. And then there's the issue of inoculating the medium with the mushroom spores. Maybe this is just the experts trying to make money for themselves, but I can't find an easy way to grow mushrooms barring buying a kit for $25.00. Considering these kits will yield for a few months, this may be sufficiently cost effective for you to consider, but it's nowhere near the value of the other stuff you listed. Sprouts are a big one that I found as well. I had tons of leftover garden seeds this year and i sprouted some of each of them. A real range of flavors. Another real cheapie is baking your own bread (if you have or have access to an oven) 3 tablespoons salt, 3tablespoons yeast (it's also possible to capture native yeast for free... will experiment soon) 6 cups water and 13 cups flour is enough for 8 one pound loaves. There's a little trick to rising, baking and storing the dough, which I may get around to writing an instructable for, or I'd send it to you if you like.