Eating a (Mostly) Balanced Diet on a Budget: Day Three--Pork Chops

I have been thinking about this series and decided I needed to define my idea of what "eating healthy" is because I feel like nobody really agrees on this subject.  My idea of it is to eat a well-rounded diet that includes meats, carbs (both in the form of fruits/veggies and breads), and fats.  I remember reading or hearing that one's diet should consist of about 50% carbs, 30% protein and 20% fat.  I don't recall exactly where or when and am too lazy to do the research this week, but that has kind of always stuck in my head.  So that is what I strive for.  I also try to serve food I know most of my family will like.

Now that I've cleared that up, I should also mention that I don't count calories, read labels, buy organic, or watch portion-size very carefully.  But since I've always been pretty healthy, I figured that how I eat must be all right.

Okay, let's move on.

Tuesday

Breakfast

This morning I wasn't feeling it, so I didn't wake up early enough to really cook breakfast.  So we had cereal again.  This time, we had some of it in the form of hot cereal, or oatmeal.  The kids then had second bowls of cold cereal if they wanted to.

I always have oatmeal in the pantry, and I can't recall when I bought it last, but I think it wasn't any more than $3 for the container.  The container probably contains at least 24 servings, which puts a serving of oatmeal at $.12.  And we also had cereal, so looking back at Sunday, it ranged from $.17-$.27 for a serving of that.

Cost of breakfast:

$.22 serving of cold cereal
$.12 serving of oatmeal
$.10 milk per person (1 cup, 2 4-oz amounts in the oatmeal/cereal)
$.54 Total per person ($3.78 for all)

Lunch

Again, the same lunch as the day before for the school kids, so that was estimated at $1/person.  Those of us at home had grilled cheese sandwiches.  Six pieces of bread ($.36 for all the bread), about 4 oz of cheese since I had an 8-oz chunk and used half of it ($.98 because I bought the chunk for $1.99), and some sliced up strawberries (about $.75 worth of a container that I bought for $1.50).

Cost of lunch:

$.36 bread
$.98 cheese
$.75 strawberries
$4 kids' lunches
$6.09 Total=$.87/person

Dinner

We had a meal called "Pork Chops and Pedros".  I don't really know what that means, only that my mother has always called it that.  It is pork chops and potatoes.
Recipe:
Scrub and pre-slice several potatoes (I did four).
Brown pork chops in oil, remove from pan.
Put potatoes in pan and cook in a little oil until done (soft).
Put pork chops back in pan, cover, reduce heat to low and cook 25-30 minutes until done, checking once in a while to make sure nothing sticks or burns.

We had steamed broccoli and fresh fruit salad for the sides.
I bought the pork chops on sale for $1.49/lb.

Cost of dinner:

$7.45 pork
$.99 potatoes
$1 fruit salad
$.49 broccoli
$9.93 total=$1.24/person

Total cost of food for Tuesday $19.08=$2.38/person