We’re heading into the 5th and final day of the Hunger Challenge here and we’re still under our $60 budget. Today’s dinner consisted of homemade pasta (1 cup flour, 1 egg) and cheater’s spaghetti sauce. We use cheater’s spaghetti sauce when tomatoes are out of season; start by sauteing onion, garlic, broccoli (stems and crown), bell pepper, and zucchini, a teaspoon of thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Add jar of sauce (I found a jar of organic sauce at Madison Market for $2.89) and simmer down. Add water. Simmer down. Repeat. As it reduces, it gains a complexity that the regular jar of sauce does not have on it’s own.

Homemade pasta is so cheap, coming it at under $0.35 for 4 servings. It requires a pasta maker though, as well as the time to produce it. It is so easy to grab packaged pasta at the store that I almost picked up a pack (we have enough left in our budget to afford it) but we had the flour and the egg on hand anyway.

When we are not taking this Challenge, we normally attempt to adhere to a diet that is predominantly vegetarian. It saves money and also can be healthier in many respects. Our diet this week can be compared to the vegetarian food pyramid, though we did have bacon and turkey sausage in small portions on a few days.

Overall, this challenge really helped us get back on the “bandwagon”, so to speak, for a healthier diet. One of the biggest fears I had going into this was the chance that I would get really cranky. When I don’t eat right, my blood sugar tanks, and I get a bit irrational. The term I have heard is “hangry”. Earlier I did write a letter to my stomach, but it was mostly in good humor. Usually if I don’t take a snack or eat a healthy breakfast, I will grab something at one of the numerous cafe’s on the UW campus or just head to a restaurant for lunch. I haven’t been able to do this all week and I didn’t have a single instance of being “hangry”.

Lastly, I have been browsing my favorite food sites looking for the very first thing I am going to make on Saturday after the challenge has ended. It’s currently a cross between Lemon Cake or grilled cheese sandwiches w/ a bowl of tomato soup.

Be sure to check out the week’s worth of blog roundups and other information related to the Hunger Challenge here.