How to feed yourself for one day: Trader Joe's

About to slice tofu

Many college students are broke, making buying groceries without over-drafting the bank account a hassle. So I’ve set out to see if its possible to feed yourself for one day using 10$ shopping at Trader Joe’s, and I went vegan for a day without me intending to.

I must say as a disclaimer the food I bought satisfied me for the day, but that doesn't mean it could work for you. As they say on TV, I recommend consulting a nutritionist before trying this at home.


Breakfast: Trader Joe’s Strawberry Raspberry Oatmeal.

Trader Joe's Oatmeal 

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but let’s face it, who wants put in the effort of making food first thing in the morning? Breakfast for me had to be the cheapest item that required the least time and effort to make while remaining nutritious enough to kickstart my day. If it wasn’t for the soaring milk prices, cereal would’ve been my go to.

Luckily for me, just a few feet from the cereal section was a Trader Joe’s brand single serving oatmeal for 1.29$. Just add water, nuke for a minute, and done; cheap and simple. Best part about it is it’s cup-o-noodle-like packaging makes it perfect for those “late to class” mornings.

Lunch: Tofu and Carrots.

Sprouted extra firm tofu

For lunch I decided not to be a lazy ass and actually make something beyond adding water. I thought the Trader Joe’s “Guilt Free” mac and cheese to be the most optimal decision. For 1.99$ and a prep time of four minutes in the microwave you can’t go wrong, but there's a big disqualifier; I can’t write about microwaving food and sound interesting.

So I went for a more economical, less satisfying choice.

I found shredded carrots for 99 cents and thought I could use them to half-ass a salad with some sort of protein that I could also use for dinner. This was problematic because meat is expensive, but the alternative came at a less wallet flushing price of 1.99$. Super firm tofu that came in two packages with 45 grams of protein in each which is enough to feed this hungry boy.

Unfortunately the lunch I made flopped harder than the USA soccer team at the 2018 world cup.

After consulting with a few Youtube cooking tutorials, I found that tofu is almost too easy to make. They say that you have to squeeze the water out, but I’m not gonna waste the time and effort into that process. I instead diced the tofu into medium sized cubes and laid them flat on a pan at medium high temperature for four to five minutes. Doing so allows the water to evaporate off the tofu.

I turned the heat down, flipped the tofu, and left it for another two minutes to dry the other side. Then soaked it with soy sauce (any sauce works) for a minute or so watching the little soy curds soak up all the soy sauce like spongebob in that one episode when he was down with the suds. After the tofu got saucey and sizzley, I threw them on the shredded carrots. In retrospect I should’ve cooked the carrots with the tofu because the carrots tasted depressingly cold and crunchy.

Dinner: Tofu and Veggie Stir Fry.

My laziness persisted into dinner, but I still wanted an actual dinner fully cooked by yours truly.

Tofu stir fry

The Harvest Hodgepodge by Trader Joe’s is a pound of mixed vegetables including: broccoli, baby corn, onion, mushrooms, red peppers, and snap peas among others for only 1.99$. Add that to what’s left of the tofu and you can make stir fry, but what is stir fry without rice? The most expensive item on the list was a box of microwavable rice at 2.99$, but it was worth it because it comes with three packets and takes only three minutes to prepare.

So I queued the music to play the dropkick murphys and tried my best not to set my house on fire.

I got my trusty pan and made tofu the same way I did during lunch. I set the tofu aside and in went the veggies at medium-high until they thawed and cooked, and the way I used to figure out if they were ready or not was by touching the baby corn and see if it’s still frozen or not. At the same time I placed a rice packet in the microwave for three minutes and they were ready by the time the veggies cooked.

I added the tofu and the rice into the pan and dumped a lot of soy sauce then it was a matter of sizzle here sizzle there and viola; dinner that doesn’t taste like crap.

Weirdest thing about this is that no animals nor their products were consumed during this experiment. Veganism in this context is apparently a cheaper way to feed yourself for a day using 10$ than buying meats and animal products.