I have found myself wondering if eating a vegan diet for five days will be more expensive than my typical diet. I believe there are two ways to go with vegetarian/vegan eating. One is to use whole natural foods and shop in the conventional grocery stores and one is to use the vegetarian/vegan-specific marketed foods and shop in the specialty grocery stores.

Now, that I write that, I realize that’s true no matter what type of diet one follows.

Today, I spent $55.33 at a conventional store on groceries for the next six days. I already have some staples on hand, such as quinoa and dried beans, and I just got a nice harvest (curly kale, carrots, onions, and basil) from the university’s organic garden. I am so looking forward to those kale chips I’ll be making tomorrow with the beautiful organic curly kale! I couldn’t find a soy-only protein powder, so I still need to pick that up for about $10-$12. Even if I had to purchase the quinoa, black beans, and garden vegetables and adding the cost of the protein powder, I think ~$75 to feed 2 people for six days is pretty darn good! That’s just $6.25 per person per day, or around $2 meal!

Here’s my list. Don’t worry – the meals and recipes will be coming over the next five days as I live this experiment!

Produce: avocado, bananas, green/red bell peppers, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, portobello mushrooms, apples, limes, and canned pineapple

Proteins: silken tofu, sliced and whole almonds, peanut butter, canellini beans

Grains: cereal, rice cakes, whole wheat spaghetti

Misc: soup, salsa

Any ideas what I’ll be making?