Another Favorite Fat Of Mine Is Bacon Grease

While I know that Bacon Grease is a waste by-product of cooking bacon, for the sake of this experiment I am going to put a value on it.  After all, if you never bought and cooked the bacon, you would not have Bacon Grease.



I typically buy bacon at around $2.50 per pound or less on sale, and have found that you get about a cup of Bacon Grease from cooking a pound of bacon. So I am going to value the Bacon Grease at $1.25 per 8 ounces or 1 cup.



1 Cup is equal to 16 TBSP - Each TBSP therefore costs approximately 8 Cents.



Each TBSP of Bacon Grease adds 128 Calories to my Diet - I'll project 2 TBSP per day at 16 Cents.

Gotta Include Mayonnaise

I like Hellmann's Mayonnaise.  I know some of you will scold me for not making my own, but I really prefer the taste of Hellmann's to any that I have tried to make myself.

Ok, without getting to technical and complicated, Giant Eagle has Hellmann's Mayonnaise on sale for 2.50 each this week and if you buy $20.00 dollars worth you get $7.00 off.  Under their shopping rules, I need to buy 5 of them to reach $20.00.



Total out of pocket would be as follows:  5 x 2.50 = 12.50 - $7 off = 5.50 - 5 x $1 off coupon = .50 for 5  30 ounce jars of Hellmann's Mayonnaise

I took this picture before I found out I needed a 5th coupon.  I have since downloaded and printed another 2 coupons.



So as you can see [just take my word for it]  The Mayonnaise is for all intents and purposes FREE.















I generally have two tablespoons of Mayonnaise per day in my diet.  They add 180 calories of good fats to my diet and are a very inexpensive source of calories.

PRIMAL CHALLENGE - CALORIE COUNT & COST

Here is a projected menu, calorie count, and cost breakdown for the 7 days.  Initially I have projected eating the same products each day, but will be varying the preparation and adding things as the week progresses.



8.5 oz boneless skinless chicken breast - 400 Calories - $ .90 Per Day

6 Large Eggs - 360 Calories - $ .50 Per Day

2 Cans of Tuna or Salmon - 200 Calories - $ 1.00 Per Day

2 TBSP Hellmann's Mayonnaise - 180 Calories - $ 0.00 Per Day

2 TBSP Bacon Grease - 256 Calories - $ .16 Per Day

4 Oz of Sausage per serving - 360 Calories - $  .50 Per Day

7 Oz of onion per serving - 70 Calories -  $  .22 Per Day

4 Oz of Mushrooms per serving - 18 Calories -  $  .35 Per Day

3 Oz of Cucumber per serving - 12 Calories -  $  .12 Per Day

10 Oz of Organic Vegetables - 100 Calories - $  .50 Per Day

Total So Far - 1956 Calories - $ 4.25 Per Day  or $ 29.75 Per Week

You Can Buy Organic On A Budget

I'm going to throw in some Organic Vegetables just to make some people happy!

I will purchase 6 boxes of frozen Organic Vegetables from Cascadian Farms that are on sale this week at Giant Eagle.

They are on sale this week for $1.67 each for 10 - 14 oz packages.

After Coupon they will be $  .67 per package and I'm sure that I can spread the 6 packages out over 7 days without a problem.

Until I purchase the actual vegetables, I will not be able to give you exact Calories per serving, but I am goin to estimate that I will get 100 Calories for  $  .50

Mmmmmm - Sausage

Planning on buying some Bob Evans Sausage from Giant Eagle.

8 Oz precooked packages of links and patties are on sale this week for $1.99 Each.

With Coupons they will be $  .99 each

I will buy 4 packages which will yield 8 - 4 Oz servings at 360 Calories
The cost for each serving will be $  .50 per serving.

And in addition, I will also get some sausage grease that I can use to
cook other items with - I save and use this just as I would bacon grease.

Budget Primal Challenge

I'm not much of a blogger, so this will probably be kinda rough.  I signed up to participate in a Budget Primal Challenge over at Prague Stepchild.

Sean Abbott, blogger at Prague Stepchild, has an offer out to any budget conscious paleo/primals to prove that Grok can eat on a budget, thus the weekly challenge.

So I signed up to participate.

I'm going to stick to an 1800 to 2200 calorie per day intake and strive to eat frugally.  I'll make every effort to document the prices of the foods that I eat for the week.

Start day is today, Wednesday May 11, 2011.

One of the staples that I will base my week on is Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast.

Why? 
I like Chicken Breast

1. It's not expensive
2. Chicken Breast is very versatile
3. I have 80 Lbs in the freezer that I bought when it was on sale
   

I will cook up [Grill] 3.7 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast [59.20 ounces].  This gives me approximately 8.5 ounces of chicken per day for 7 days.  The cost per ounce @ $1.69/LB is .1056/ounce or about .90/day. {actual cost for week is $6.25}

8.5 ounces of grilled chicken breast will give me 400 calories per day - [cost per 100 calories is 22.5 cents]

This is a good start to the week. - Stay Tuned.

Eggs Are Always A Good Choice

No Paleo/Primal Diet would be complete without Eggs.

I am going to purchase 5 dozen eggs at Giant Eagle - they have them on sale this week for $1.00 Dozen.

I'll hard boil 2 dozen to be eaten as snacks or used in salads or to make egg salad with.

The other three I'll leave fresh to be eaten throughout the week
.
Do I think I'll eat 5 dozen eggs?  Probably not - But I bet I'll eat 6 per day or about 3.5 dozen.

6 per day @ 90 calories per egg would be 540 calories at a cost of approximately 50 Cents per day

Lets break it down on a per egg basis.

1. $1.00 per dozen is 8.3 Cents per egg.
2. Each egg gives me 90 calories 
3. So the cost per 100 calories will be about 9.25 Cents.