Feeding myself for 3 dollars a day.

So I have about 90 dollars a month to fee myself. And since I have multiple sclerosis I can't really play fast and lose with my health and eat lots of cheap pasta and ramen. I have to eat real food. I won't allow meat in my house because of an issue with germs, heh...so that at least saves me some money as meat is very expensive. I mostly eat fruit, veggies, beans, seeds, and nuts.

So I decided I'm going to post some cost breakdowns of the food I've been cooking. See if I can get my costs even lower and maybe have enough money left over at the end of the month to put away some food storage of staples like beans and rice, etc.

I use my crock pot a lot making soups and chilli so that's what most of my posts will entail.

My first cost breakdown is for some veggie soup I made. I looked at the complete cost per pound/box/can/carton of the item and what percentage of that I used for the recipe and divided it.

1 sweet orange pepper (2 for a dollar), chopped: .50c

3 carrots (bag of 12 carrots 1.49)peeled and sliced in rounds: .37c

4 stalks (approx 12 stalks .99) celery sliced:  .25c

3 green onions (6 onions a bunch at .50c each bunch) chopped: .25c

1.5 cups cabbage (.29 cents a pound) chopped: .17c

1/2 of a 28oz can of stewed tomatoes (full can 1.49): .75c

1 14.5oz can of green beans: .69c

3/4 of a 32fl oz carton of veggie broth (full carton 1.49): $1.12

1 Telma stock cube (box of 36 cubes 4.99): .14c

Few shakes of Worcestershire Sauce (this was a guess): .02c 

TOTAL COST: $4.26  /6 servings= .71c a serving.

The most expensive part of the soup was the broth, and if I used water and my own seasonings I could cut the cost of the pot to $3.14 /6 servings=.52c a serving.

The canned green beans were likewise expensive when compared to the rest of the soup and upping the other cheaper raw veggies to take place of the beans would also work well. I can cut cost on this next time and the soup will still be delicious and good for me.

Still I have to say that .71 cents for dinner is pretty good. If I wanted to add some toast or some rice I could still have dinner for under 1.25 which is within my budget.

Tomato plant woes, my table garden is a partial success

Well, year two for the old urban homestead (last year this consisted of one dying tomato plant), and it's been interesting this year. 

So the tomato plant, it will will bud out, get flowers, and then the flowers will die. OR a very small tomato will start to grow and the stem it's growing on will die. So far I have gotten 3 tomatoes, and they were mealy textured. 

For a minute in July and first part of August the tomato plant acted like it might grow, but then it decided NO.

It's a new pot and different soil from last year's setup so I know it's not something bad in the soil that made it want to die. At least last year's tomato plant gave it all it had and kept producing tomatoes while it faded away to brown stalks. This year it's not even pretending.

I also have had very bad luck with radishes, they didn't grow and went to seed with tiny nubs as root. In the pot with them some volunteer succulents grew, and are loving life.

 

You can see the dried up radish and the little volunteer succulent next to it. All in all it's been a strange year for my table garden.

The lettuce did really well until August then it got too hot and went to seed. The kale got bitter really fast, by the end of July. It never got very big before it turned bitter. 

 

The oregano plant died but I have a tiny basil plant that is producing lovely fragrant basil! 

 

 Mom found 2 camomile plants in my yard and put them in pots, they immediately died also.

The strawberries are impossible to kill and doing very well producing huge canopy sized leaves and tiny very misshapen fruit.

The green onions are just now the size of chives.

I'm sort of conflicted about next year. I know I will grow lettuce, kale, and strawberries, but as for everything else it was a flop. Part of me resists giving up on the tomato thing, maybe third time lucky?

I just don't know.

Lettuce harvest time! :)

The lettuce is so beautiful and tastes great. I am not sure what makes me happier, how asthetically pleasing it is, or how good it tastes. hmm.

Pretty good amount for my tiny table garden!

Ok I don't care how crazy this makes me sound, but seriously look how pretty my greens are! Admire them.

 Wonder at the pretty!

All cleaned and drained in the salad spinner ready to eat. I'm a gardener now. So nice to know that these are clean and pesticide free.

Grind yourself peanut butter!

Ok so Winco always has great deals on the grind yourself peanut butter, which is awesome because it's just unsalted peanuts...no lard, no sugar, no sodium. The price is usually really good, THIS is a ridiculously good price $1.98lb...especially as the peanuts were $2.89lb. I don't know how a finished product can be less than its base ingredients, but I got 2 lbs of it to put in the fridge, will last me forever!

Yay WINCO!

I have tomatoes. Well, sort of.

So the weather has turned warmer and it doesn't rain day and night so my tomato plant is happier. In fact it has two tiny tomatoes on it. It's veins are still darker/purpley colored so it's still probably not leaching enough phosphorus out of the soil yet. It needs to get a little warmer still.

A tiny perfect radish!

Ok yes I have a radish, it is tiny. It tasted great. HA. I went out to water my homestead and found this sitting up on top of the soil, so picked it.

Last Rebif shot and first Tysabri infusion.

So my last MRI wasn't good. New lesions on my spine and what the neurologist described as dystonic movements in my upper body which makes balance impossible. So he just reconfirmed what I had known. Rebif is not working as a disease modifier. It's been a hard road with the Rebif I've lost so much physically since going on it. He wanted me to go on Tysabri, and I have been very leery of it because of PML, a brain infection isn't a joke.

So I took the test of the JC virus, which is one of the things that makes PML more prevalent and found out I was negative which cuts down on my chances for PML even more. After a bunch of freaking out and crying and coming to grips and freaking out again, I said yes let's do it.

My last shot of rebif was May 17th. I have not missed the 3 times weekly injections I gave myself.

Last needle of rebif getting injected. yikes.

My last two rebif injection site reactions that last for WEEKS, I also won't miss those! Or the flu symptoms, hard heartbeats, fever and chills with each injection!


On Monday May 20th I had my first infusion of Tysabri.

I went to Allenmore Hospital, to their infusion center. The nurse there (who I've had before with my solumedrol infusions for m.s. exacerbations) helped alleviate more of my fears. The center has been working with my Dr. for 6 years of Tysabri infusions and she hasn't seen one case of PML or severe allergic reaction to the drug in that time, so this is good news.

We talked for a while about that, then she asked me the questions they are required to ask each time you go in which helps with first signs of PML if it were to occur. Then she put the I.V. in me and took blood at the same time to test my liver levels at a base starting point.

It's all bloody, because she just had the port part in and was holding the vein in my arm to stop the blood and had to grab the blood vial for a second and had to let go of the pressure on the vein. HA! Blood everywhere GOOD VEIN! But she got it mostly cleaned up.

My Dr. also prescribes a dose of Solumedrol with the first three infusions of Tysabri to help with allergic reactions. So here it is going in.

Then the Tysabri infusion was started, which takes 70 minutes to give. They then did a 15 minute flush of saline and an observation period of 60 minutes.

It took all told about 4 hours, because of all the preliminary stuff I had to do, in the future it should only be about 2.5-3 hours all together, once a month! There should be no side effects with the Tysabri itself, but because I have to have solumedrol for the first three months I had to deal with that.

Solumedrol comes with it's own joys. Headache, bitter taste, rapid heart beat, flushed skin, hot, and manic moods, water retention, insomnia. It was a smaller dose than usual, but I felt it all night. By morning I felt ok except for water retention that makes everything hurt...still all in all, not bad since it's once a month!

 I also CRAVE meat when I'm on solumedrol. I don't know why. I really don't...but it's crazy. I got some General Tso's chicken and ate it like up like it was the best thing ever, I then Skyped with a friend in Australia for a few hours and was hyper and didn't sleep until 5am.

 So that's my first infusion down and an infinity to go (cross fingers).

My table garden!

On the homestead front. I received a garden for my birthday a couple months ago, and a free cycle table to hold it. As my disabled legs don't believe in me getting down on the ground, unless I want to continue life down there.

This picture is when all the plants were just planted. They have really taken off since then.

A tomato, cucumber, radishes, cilantro, and some basil plants added to my lettuce and strawberries.

And lemonade bottle for a self-waterer for the tomato plant, make sure it's buried completely upright or the air will leak in and it will drain too fast.

A chair so I can sit out and watch my plant's grow!

See! This is much nicer. The kale and lettuce varieties have given me the most reward for my time thus far. They grow fast and taste fantastic! I have harvested the kale and lettuce each once, and the lettuce are ready to go again.

The cucumbers died due to the solid month of May rain we had, I am going to get some more this week. The tomato hated me also, but didn't die. Thankfully! The strawberries are filled with tiny green berries, can't wait. And the radishes are up and looking good. The green onions are tiny thin slivers, but they are up. So far so good.

I sort of think everyone should grow at least lettuce at their homes it's the most forgiving and easy to grow, and everyone needs more greens in their life!

Ok well more later.

Therapist today.

He really wants me to talk about things I don't want to talk about. I don't know if I can see the benefit in it. :-\ Ergh. So yeah...I don't know.

In the meantime here is Jori. She has taken to lying on my chest when I am in bed reading in the morning.

Here she is purring like an engine, just chillaxin'.

Aoife queen of the broken toys!

And a nice smoothie for breakfast. Apple, banana, frozen strawberries, lime, ginger. Very good!

Had my yearly MRI

Had my MRI on the 11th. Spent time like a cork in a bottle so they can see what the brain is doing. I am pretty sure I have a sizable new lesion on my cerebellum as I have some very interesting ataxic kinds of tremors going on in my head and upper body. Strange stuff. I meet with my Neuro on Monday 25th so it will be interesting to see what he wants to do.

I have been on Rebif long enough that if it was going to work my brain mri should show that. IF not I worry about the next step. I have anxiety about Tysabri and I think that would be my next step. :-\ Hmmm...in any case yeah, guess I don't need to get all freaked out before it happens.

In the meantime I am juicing and smoothy-ing like a freaking champion. Love it bigtime.

Looks a bit anemic in the picture, but in real life it was very good. A fruit (w/spinach) 'sorbet', made with one banana, 2 oranges, raw spinach, and frozen peaches, blended and enjoyed!

Sauteed Radishes! My sister recommended this recipe and I baulked so much at first, but these were amazing! I used some grape seed oil (she recommended butter), green onion, sea salt, pepper, and radishes. Saute them until they turn nice and purple and are tender. They are so good I want to eat them for every meal.

After months (and I wish this was me being hyperbolic, but no it has been MONTHS) of stuggle to get my two cats off of their 'fast food' style grain filled commercial kibble. And on to a raw meat, no grain diet, made by me...dealing with their rejection of them not even recognizing grain free food as 'real' food...then struggling against my own ocd and quite real fear of having meat in my home I compromised and bought this raw diet recipe for them, that comes frozen in pre-cut 1oz medallions.

So instead of feeding them an all raw meat diet, that I make myself, I thaw and feed them the raw in the morning, and a grain free kibble at night. It's not where I wanted to end up, but I couldn't rationalize with my meat phobia and face the prospects of grinding, mixing, portioning, and cleaning up after all that raw meat. This seemed like the best I could really do. It still creeps me out, but it's a manageable amount of daily cleanup and my germaphobia doesn't go too crazy, and it's in reality so much better than where I started that I just have to take baby steps. Maybe at some point I will be able to take the plunge but not right now.

Aoife (on the right) quality controlling Jori's usage of her new 'slow down' bowl. Making sure she's doing it correctly!

Getting shit done yo!

So I had my first dental appointment in over 12 years, and now I am freaking convert to the going to the dentist religion. I want everyone to do it. A lot. My dentist split my appointments into four parts one quadrant at a time to deal with some cavities (my shame knows no bounds) and the cleanings themselves. THANK GOODNESS for my ocd (thank you daddy for your genetics) because my teeth aren't falling out of my head, my gums are perfect, and he can clean each quadrant in about three minutes flat. So I have one more appointment where he is going to take off my retainer brackets I've worn for over 25 years. Sort of nervous for that one. :-\

I also made an MRI appointment as I see my neurologist at the end of the month and he needs new film for that to see what new holes are in my brain. I have new m.s. symptoms like the bad tremors so I know there are new lesions, which makes me wonder if he will want to switch up my drugs. I am on Rebif, with 3 self injections a week. I swear if he wants me on a drug with more frequent injections I will lie on his office floor and sob. I wish I were kidding here. I don't know what's going to happen.

I have been seeing a counselor again, and it's a man. ugh. I let him know when I had my first appointment that I don't trust men and he was cool with it, he said after our first meeting that if I thought I wanted to see a woman he could refer me. BUT I decided it might actually help to see a man as that will maybe help me do what I'm trying to do, which is improve my emotional quality of life. ANYWHO....what else. Um...I'm trying to get some art done, and possibly read a bit less. :-\ (boo)

THIS is a tomato based juice (with lots of kale, thus the green) and it looks like swamp but it tastes AWESOME! I added some sriracha to it as well which just gives it the spicy love that I need.

So yeah, I'm still juicing and green smoothie-ing it up around my joint. I still want to bury myself into a pile of refined flour products and eat my way out of them, but oh well, it is what it is.

Juicing and green smothies are my friends?

Yeah so I have been doing even more raw food recently and I love and hate it all at once. I dream of bread, no lie. I have dreams where I am eating cheese tortillas and rationalizing why this is now part of my raw food plan. Hmmmm.

Anyway. I got this GIANT aloe leaf at Valley Liquidation for 1.49 whoot and I sliced it up into slimy mucus-y chunks to add to my smoothies.

Look at that monster! Here it is all sliced and diced.

It looks green but that's because I put a green lid under it, in real life it's clear and looks like ice cubes.

The texture isn't my favorite, but I know it's 'good for me' so I eat it. I think I might be a little crazy as well, which helps I suppose.

My health has been interesting, I have a new fun symptom which is an upper body and head tremor, it makes it difficult to stay upright. BUT most people get the tremors in their hands and that would make it hard to do art, so I will just count my luck on that one. Other than that just a new cat condo for my ladies from my parents and the girls LOVE IT! (And they also love their cat toy grave yard they've created down below as well.)