I began my week of frugal eating on Saturday morning with coffee and baked French toast with blueberries to fuel me for a trip to the farmers market. Breakfast is one of the meals I reliably cook for myself: I am a morning person — by dinner time I often do not care what I eat. The other thing I will almost always do is make a bowl of salad every time I run out of it: because I have been eating kale salad, which is pretty much indestructible no matter how long it sits around, I usually make salad twice a week.

By Thursday last week I was out of greens and jonesing for them, so I bought two bunches of kale and one bag of Brussels sprouts. Total spent: $17.00. I had just run out of eggs, so I picked up a dozen farm fresh eggs for $7.00. Lastly, I stopped by Pane D’Amore bakery for my new Saturday lunch treat: a slice of focaccia and a chocolate-walnut cookie for $7.25 — I am particularly liking food-to-go on these busy Saturdays of demonstrations. On days other than Saturdays, I am likely to pack up salami, cheese, crackers, containers of homemade kale salad, nuts and/or oranges to keep me fueled while I stand in public spaces holding signs.

I was out all morning — at the bank, at the market, at Hollywood Beach for a native American water blessing ceremony and march. Once home, I ate my focaccia before running off to the library sale. The focaccia is filling and I rested and napped most of the afternoon and evening. I don’t like to eat heavily in the evening, so I nuked a bowl of Brussels sprouts, added a spoonful of pesto, followed that with a homemade pumpkin blondie for dessert and called that dinner.

Saturday meals: Breakfast: cardamom French toast with frozen blueberries, coffee; lunch: focaccia; dinner: Brussels sprouts with pesto, pumpkin blondie.

Sunday meals: Breakfast: homemade pumpkin pancakes with blueberries, coffee; Lunch: leftover homemade pizza with pesto, kalamata olives, roasted peppers; black tea with evaporated milk; Dinner: kale salad with feta, dried cherries, roasted almonds and lemon-tahini dressing.

Monday breakfast: pumpkin pancakes with blueberries, coffee; lunch: kale salad, homemade pizza, half chocolate walnut cookie, black tea with evaporated milk; dinner: whole wheat burrito with refried beans, salsa and sour cream.

Tuesday breakfast: pumpkin pancakes with blueberries; lunch: kale salad, homemade pizza with arrabiata sauce, feta, kalamata olives and roasted peppers, black tea, pumpkin blondie; dinner: burrito; snack: dried cherries, roasted almonds.

Wednesday breakfast: pumpkin pancakes with blueberries; lunch: Brussels sprouts with pesto, homemade pizza, pumpkin blondie, green tea; dinner: homemade burrito; snacks: chocolate with nuts, roasted almonds, dried cherries.

Thursday breakfast: pumpkin pancakes with blueberries, coffee; lunch: kale salad, roasted strawberry shortcake*, black tea; dinner: pizza, kale salad, whole wheat tortilla.

Friday breakfast: pumpkin pancakes with blueberries, coffee; lunch: kale salad, homemade pizza, roasted strawberry shortcake, black tea; dinner: pasta with Brussels sprouts and pesto.

* If you should find yourself with underripe strawberries, you can cut them up, sprinkle them with a bit of sugar and roast them in a 350-degree oven to concentrate their flavor. You lose the raw character, but they taste better. I made the shortcake biscuits with 2 and 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour, 1 cup of rolled oats, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup butter 3/4 cup evaporated milk, a pinch of salt and 2 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder.

Total weekly food spending: $31.25, including my Saturday lunch treat.