Day 19: More Discoveries!

Today was another eureka! kind of a day. Breakthroughs:

1. Perfected my Egg Fried Rice
   
2. Made bean dip for my new tortilla chips
   
3. Baked some oatmeal raisin bars w/ sunflower seeds

I scrambled my egg before adding the rice and this just put the dish in another league. It was good before, but this tasted amazing. I know some of you are laughing at this point, but I've never made egg fried rice and I was just kind of winging it yesterday...

The bean dip was simply chilled pinto beans mashed into an even consistency. With the corn tortilla chips this tasted so fresh it was almost too good to be true that both the chips and dip cost only 5 cents. My wife had a few bites of each of these and she was pretty impressed, actually amazed, as was I. It's all in the presentation...

That's been the growing theme of this challenge for me: shocked at how much I can actually make from my list, and definitely beginning to think in terms of how I can sustain this (in terms of cooking with simple ingredients- maybe on $60 or $90 a month?) moving forward beyond the 30 days. Also gaining an inspiration for growing my own foods, maybe my next challenge? 30 days on 30 seeds?

The other discovery was a baked oatmeal raisin bar recipe a friend sent me. It was an improvised guess, but it worked. I soaked about 1/4 cup of raisins overnight in an equal amount of water. Put them through the blender to create a syrup. Poured the syrup into a mix of 1 cup of rolled oats, 1/4 cup of raisins and 1 teaspoon of sunflower seeds. Mixed it all thoroughly and baked at 225 for 1 hour. It yielded six 2-ounce bars that will make great snacks. I actually already enjoyed one of them tonight. It reminds me of a vegan oat cookie they sell at Whole Foods here in Houston. Not very rich without any butter, but definitely sweet, and certainly filling. Cost of each 2-ounce bar: 8 cents. 

Prayer focus: Pray for Myanmar (Burma). Four decades of repressive military rule have isolated the nation and brought it to utter destitution. Widespread despair followed the repression of democracy in 1990. The courage of the leader of the main opposition party, Aung San Suu Kyi, was recognized in her being awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. She has remained under house arrest since 1990. Pray that the international community and the other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members might speak out and act to bring democracy. Pray for an orderly transfer to a just and democratic government that will rebuild the country with both democratic and religious freedom.

Estimated Savings for Day 19: I met a friend during the lunch hour today. If I was not on the challenge I know we would have met over a meal. I'm not sure where we would have eaten, but let's just say it would have cost around $8.50. Add this to my normal estimated daily grocery cost of $7, subtract $1 for today's actual cost, and I've saved $14.50 for my donation to the orphanage today. My running total is now at $292.31.