Day 22: The 18-cent Egg Drop Masterpiece

Today was another huge breakthrough day of "recipe improvisation." I'm calling my latest invention Spicy Egg Drop Noodle Soup. The traditional egg drop soup recipe calls for cornstarch. So I thought to myself, well I have some corn bound up in those corn tortillas, and where there's corn, there's cornstarch, right? So wheels started turning in my head and I got to work. I double toasted a corn tortilla until it was nice and crispy. Then I put it in a zip lock bag and hammered it into a powder. I added the water to the powder as the recipe instructs, and I got a sort of cornmeal consistency that gave the soup some great texture...

I then beat one egg and started pouring that into the boiling noodles and cornmeal bit by bit. I was pretty thrilled to see the egg turning into that Chinese restaurant style egg drop soup consistency. I really never imagined myself making egg drop soup, but here I was. I then added half of the spice from the Ramen noodle pack pictured below (also just used half of the noodles). After that you can see the finished product. I really surprised myself on this one. Even without all of the proper ingredients, my improvisation was a home run in my little world. This one will definitely make my long term list of future recipes well past the 30 day challenge. You should give it a try. Best part, the cost of this delicious and filling soup is only 18 cents.

Dinner was great as well. I baked two corn tortillas cut into triangles yielding 16 tasty seasoned tortilla chips with an all-natural bean dip. I enjoyed the roasted potatoes and carrots so much last night that I decided to go with that again. On top of all of this, it was pasta day, so I enjoyed a cup of pasta with two teaspoons of tomato sauce. Running very low on tomato sauce- just about one more serving remains!

Prayer focus: Pray for our widow's seamstress business initiative in India. Many widows in this part of the world are socially shunned and often pulled into the darkness of prostitution. But Peace Gospel is offering widows a way out of their poverty and despair. As we receive sponsorship funds from donors like you, widows are taken through a 3 month training program and then equipped with a sewing machine and basic supplies. This allows widows to start a practical in-demand business that provides for their family. Through the incentive of a micro-credit program, the newly commissioned business owners will pay back their equipment costs in affordable monthly installments. These payments are placed into a fund which is then used to commission more widows into the program.

Estimated Savings for Day 22: It was one of those gorgeous Houston spring days, bright sunshine and 70 degrees with a light breeze. On days like these I love to go to Becks Prime and sit out on their deck under the huge oak trees while catching up on some reading. I would have dropped about $9 on a hickory cheeseburger with fries and drink. Add this to my normal estimated daily grocery cost of $7, subtract $1 for today's actual cost, and I've saved $15 toward my orphanage donation today. My running total is now up to $336.81 which is about 11 months' wages among the poor of South Asia.