Going Strong and Cheap!

So, today is day three of my five dollar a day challenge, and I'm feeling pretty great! I don't feel deprived, or bored or hungry. I'm sure once my meals start consisting of leftovers the boredom will kick in! I know people who don't like leftovers at all. I like leftovers, but I like when it's like one serving of leftovers. Enough for a quick meal. Not when you're one person, and you cook a recipe that serves eight.

I did the oven fries with FYH ranch and Carolina gold BBQ sauce for breakfast again. I spiced my fries with curry, turmeric, garlic powder and smoked paprika. So good.
Later on I made a smoothie with raspberries, pineapple and beet greens.

Not the prettiest color, and a little less creamy with no mango or banana, but still totally edible.
While I was making dinner I made a juice with beets, and pineapple. Very basic, but very good. Pineapple is the best at muting the dirty, I'm sorry "earthy" taste of the dreaded beet.
For dinner I made Tabbouleh salad and served it with lemony garlic potatoes, and salad with hummus dressing. Full disclosure, the Romaine was in my crisper drawer on it's last breath, so I chose to use it. This is a saving money challenge so wasting food because of rules is just not going to happen.

This was a really satisfying dinner, and I certainly didn't feel like I was eating on any kind of budget.
The lemony garlic potatoes are from Veganomicon, and I have made them so many times I have the recipe memorized. I haven't even made them in almost a year, and the recipe still came right back to me. They're that good. I will say that I cut the amount of oil  a lot when I make them. The recipe calls for 1/3 of a cup, and I use like one tablespoon, last night I used only one teaspoon.

Love that color!

So tasty and satisfying!

I have a couple of leftover carrot hot dogs, so I think I'm going to mash them up and use them as a binder for the lentil burgers I'm making today. They'll do double duty, bind and add a great salty, smoky flavor!I think what I like most about this challenge is that it's forcing me to get creative, and I feel like  my brain is buzzing lately!
Happy Thursday!