“We have food at home,” is what I am used to hearing often, followed by my sad sigh. I wanted to eat something different. Something fresh, something tasty, something nice. When I learned that I have almost two weeks of no home-cooked meals (as in I have to find my own food for two weeks), I was excited. Think of all the new places I could try! I could finally choose what I want to eat and as much or as little as I want to eat. Should I set a budget for each day? How much will it cost me to eat out without home-cooked meals for two weeks?
Day 1: Friday
On the first day, I was still clearing up the rest of what has already been prepared (it was quite a bit). I was supposed to have vermicelli and sausage bread for breakfast, and rice with pork and daikon for lunch. That was already so much food that I ended up eating the vermicelli for breakfast, sausage bread as a pre-lunch, then the rice with pork and daikon as a 3pm early dinner. I was not hungry by the time it was my usual dinner time, so I ended up skipping dinner.
| Meal | Item |
| Breakfast | Vermicelli |
| Snack | Sausage Bread |
| Late Lunch | Rice with Pork + Daikon |
Day 2: Saturday
I woke up so hungry. I was excited to eat lunch. For dinner, I decided to order enough to save some food for Sunday too.
| Meal | Item |
| Lunch | Phở Dặc Biệt – Rib Eye & Brisket, Tendon & Tripe with Rice Noodle Soup (Large Combo) |
| Dinner (for 2) | Hainan Chicken Rice – Singaporean-style poached half chicken and chicken rice with spicy cucumber salad, fried peanuts, and chicken soup. Served with pickled veggies, ginger scallion sauce, and red ginger chili sauce. Serves 2-3 people. This was only $26.09 since I found a discount code and also got cash back! |
Day 3: Sunday
I had lunch plans for Sunday! For dinner, I learned that there was actually still leftover home-cooked food from last week, so I reheated that up to clear it out!
| Meal | Item |
| Lunch | Indian Food |
| Dinner | Rice with Imitation Crab + Sausages + Zucchini, Leftover Hainan Chicken Rice |
Day 4: Monday
The real test begins. My day started with a build-your-own lox bagel at the office. It was filling enough that I only needed to buy a small lunch, so I decided to go to the salad bar at Whole Foods to build my own lunch.
Dinner, on the other hand, did not go as planned. I had coupons for Yoshinoya, so that was the plan for dinner. I even downloaded the app to collect points. Originally, I was going to save part of my Yoshinoya bowl for lunch tomorrow, but the regular bowls have shrunk so much that I ended up eating my entire bowl for dinner.
| Meal | Item |
| Breakfast | Lox Bagel with Cream Cheese |
| Lunch | Whole Foods – Field Greens & Goat Cheese Salad with Chicken and Red Onions, 0.27 lbs for $11.99 per pound! My total? $3.24. |
| Dinner (for 2) | Yoshinoya – Regular Chicken Bowl with Veggies + Regular Beef Bowl, $13.99 for two regular bowls. It came out to be $15.46 after tax. |
Day 5: Tuesday
I started off my day with some Lunch on the Run tuna salad and crackers. It was so satisfying. For lunch, I walked for almost 1.5 miles before deciding to finally get lunch from Whole Foods again. This time, I got an umami bowl for $11.99. It was actually a very big portion and super filling. There was a good amount of chicken katsu, a bit of soba noodles, and some veggies. My complaint would be that there was too much dressing though – it tasted a bit too salty towards the end. If all these ingredients were put on in the salad bar area for $11.99 per pound, that would have been great.
Dinner was more simple. We had some frozen sliced pork and dumplings in the freezer, so a bit of that plus rice made it a meal!
| Meal | Item |
| Breakfast | Tuna Salad and Crackers |
| Lunch | Whole Foods – Umami Bowl with crispy chicken katsu, soba noodles, cashews, toasted sesame seeds, charred broccoli and green beans, cilantro, kimchi, lime, and sweet and sour pickles. Topped with sesame tahini ginger and sriracha sauce. 1.42 lbs, $11.99 per bowl, $13.16 after tax. |
| Dinner (for 2) | Rice with thinly sliced pork + dumplings |
Day 6: Wednesday
I originally had lunch plans today and had already prepared my stomach for Italian food. Unfortunately, my plans got canceled so I had to think of what to eat for lunch again today! I will never say no to sushi, so that’s what I decided to get – a sashimi lunch set! It was so good. This was my first time trying the sashimi lunch set (instead of a chirashi bowl) and I actually really liked it and wished I had tried it sooner! The set came with miso soup, tofu (I really liked the sauce with this), and some pickled veggies. The bowl of rice came on the side and was a pretty big bowl. The sashimi plate was fresh and tasty, but I was missing the ginger. Initially, I was worried it wasn’t enough food, but combined with the big bowl of rice, I was full by the end of it.
For dinner, I had Chinese BBQ with rice – BBQ pork, roast pork, and chicken! This was so much food that I was able to pack some for lunch tomorrow and still have leftovers for dinner tomorrow.
| Meal | Item |
| Lunch | Sashimi Lunch Set – The sashimi lunch set was only $26, but after tax and tip, it was $32.44. |
| Dinner (for 2) | Chinese BBQ |
Day 7: Thursday
I didn’t have to worry about food at all today – I had leftovers from dinner last night!
| Meal | Item |
| Lunch | Chinese BBQ |
| Dinner (for 2) | Chinese BBQ |
Day 8: Friday
Another easy day. I had lunch in the office: pasta. It was a bit salty (and so much carbs!) but at least there was a bit of salad too. For dinner, I had tri tip from Costco with veggies and rice at home! The tri-tip was so good and juicy.
| Meal | Item |
| Lunch | Pasta + Salad |
| Dinner (for 3) | Rice with Tri-Tip + Veggies |
Day 9: Saturday
I am attending a wedding today, so I only have to plan for one meal: one big breakfast!
| Meal | Item |
| Breakfast (for 2) | Porridge, Chow Mein, Beef Brisket + Beef Balls with Rice Noodle Soup, Milk Tea. All this food was $32.12 after tax and tip! |
| Dinner | Tacos |
Day 10-12: Find Me In LA
What did I eat these few days? Check out my post here.
Day 13: Wednesday
Back to work. I had some leftovers from Monday for lunch, plus a small salad from Whole Foods! Dinner was simple – spam fried rice!
| Meal | Item |
| Lunch | Fried Rice + Sweet & Sour Pork + Tofu + Roast Pork, Whole Foods salad – 0.21 lbs for $11.99 per pound, total $2.77. |
| Dinner | Spam Fried Rice |
Day 14: Thursday
What a great day for sushi. I got sushi for lunch, then had leftover dinner from a few days ago for dinner.
| Meal | Item |
| Lunch | Sushi |
| Dinner | Fish Filet with Rice + Baked Pork Chop Rice + Spam Fried Rice |
That was my 14-day food adventure.
Average Daily Amount I Spent over 14 days: $22.04
That doesn’t seem too bad! Considering how I went to some pretty good restaurants which were also pricier, I was expecting a higher average. What would you have eaten for two weeks?