Testing the Lenny Letter’s “Shop Like Your Mom” Meal Plan: Tuesday

This week, I’m testing the Lenny Letter’s “Shop Like Your Mom” meal plan, as created by Sally Sampson. I already tested the grocery list and found that it came in under the estimated $75; yesterday, I learned that trusting my instincts is just as important as trusting the recipe.

Tuesday

Recipe #6: Banana-Berry Smoothie

Prep time: 3 minutes

Recipe adjustments: not a smoothie

Rating: YES PLEASE

I don’t own a blender, so I ended up making a banana-berry yogurt bowl instead of a proper smoothie. Doesn’t matter. This is great, and it takes no time to put together (even if you get out the cutting board and slice the banana instead of tearing it into chunks with your fingers, and I’m not saying I’ve ever done that, but I’ve totally done that).

It’s also more filling than my usual muesli and yogurt breakfast, which is good because the biggest problem with breakfast (for me) is that I’m generally hungry again an hour later.

The real question is: can I afford to eat this every day?

Here’s what I know: a quart of Tillamook plain yogurt costs $2.95 and should make a week’s worth of breakfasts, if I stick to the half-cup-of-yogurt per bowl recommendation. (I know that seven days only comes out to seven half-cups; I’m assuming the last half cup will get used up due to accidental overage.)

Banana prices change regularly, but using this most recent shopping trip as an example I can expect four bananas to cost about $1.40. (Each breakfast only requires half a banana.)

My 40-oz bag of Safeway Frozen Strawberries cost $5.99 on sale; it’s usually $6.99. Judging by the amount of strawberries I used this morning, I could easily go through an entire bag of these in a week, bringing my estimated weekly breakfast cost to $11.34.

As a comparison, a week’s worth of muesli and yogurt costs, roughly, $2.95 for the yogurt, $6 for a thing of mixed fruit and nuts, and about $3 for the oats. It’s an equivalent breakfast, so I could definitely switch out the muesli for a while and start eating fruit instead.

Recipe #7: Greens (with ½ the leftover tofu, tomatoes, and cucumbers)

Prep time: 6 minutes

Recipe adjustments: used store-bought salad dressing instead of the disaster dressing I made on Sunday, also added a slice of bread and butter

Rating: This is a salad, good job salad

Nothing wrong with this salad. This is the kind of lunch I eat most days, sometimes with a bit of cottage cheese on the side.

I did use the grocery-store dressing instead of the olive oil mixture from yesterday, which means I doused my salad with SUGARS and EMULSIFIERS and ARTIFICIAL COLORS or whatever, but at least it was better than dousing it in pure olive oil.

Also, I added bread. Every salad should come with a small portion of bread, otherwise the lettuce doesn’t have anything to mix with before it hits your intestines.

Recipe #8: Egg Fried Rice with Peas

Prep and cook time: 25 minutes, plus some extra time for the pork chop

Recipe adjustments: Added pork chop and broccoli

Rating: Solid dinner

On the subject of my intestines: eating a big bowl of rice for dinner is a quick path to a slow digestion, so I served myself a half cup of fried rice instead of the recommended two cups and added a pork chop and some broccoli on the side.

One of our commenters said yesterday that I needed to get a meat thermometer, so I have to ask: do you all use meat thermometers every time you stick a pork chop or chicken breast into the oven?

I tend to do the smell test first, and then I pull the meat out and slice into the center with a knife to confirm that the inside is fully cooked.

The fried rice turned out well, especially with all of the vegetables I ended up tossing in there. I would eat this again—which is a good thing, as the leftovers are going to show up in a few more recipes this week.

Previous installments: Sunday and Monday

Support The Billfold

The Billfold continues to exist thanks to support from our readers. Help us continue to do our work by making a monthly pledge on Patreon or a one-time-only contribution through PayPal.