Roasted veg
6 peppers, 2 zucchini, mushrooms 10$
Hummus for dressing 3$
Quinoa ?
Feta 3$
Misc spices ?
Tacos
Tortillas 2$
Quinoa ?
Corn 2$
Diced tomatoes 1$
Black beans 3$
Avocados 5$
Cheese- 2$
Eggs
Eggs- 5$
Fruit
Pineapple- 2$
So maybe 38$, let's say 45 with taxes and small items that do add up like oil and spices and the quinoa. Plus 3 hours labor to make plus time to wash all the containers, another hour labor. 80$ of labor and that's a lot less than I actually make.
Cooking sucks man. And I'm good at it.
I know I'm late to this post, but
1. your prices seem high. I get eggs $1/dozen, I notice you're not eating meat but I doubt you're eating a dozen eggs per day. Cagefree organic eggs maybe? In general I'd say I get food at half the price in a HCOL area. Not that that's the bulk of your costs but...
2. You used $20/hour and said "that's a lot less than I actually make" - did you consider taxes in that? Cause on my side-hustle I'm a contractor and pay 15% FICA, 8% state, 22% federal (marginal rates). Can you earn $40/hour after your normal job doing something other than cooking? I recently quit my side hustle cause I found I was eating cheap, easy-to-cook junk due to lack of time.
3. I've only seen coworkers eating microwave lunches but they seem small, no dishes cause they fill up landfills, the variety is garbage, and the vegetables are cheap squash, not expensive peppers, mushrooms, and avocado. The point is, you could buy two microwave lunches per day or you could buy cheaper ingredients than the fancy eggs you're buying.
4. This week in the middle of tax season and home stress and a kitchen remodel I ate the same thing for 4 days (work buys lunch on fri): omelet breakfast strawberries/mango snack1 tomato/bell pepper/cuc snack2 tortellini with spag sauce lunch. The tortellini was $5 sauce $1 eggs $1 strawberries $3 mango $2 tomato $1.50 pepper $1 cuc $1.50 for a total of $16, plus some onions and oil $17, no tax. Not as healthy as your quinoa and hummus but not bad and fast. I like pineapple but i spend 30 minutes coaxing all the flesh out. if you're going to cook them anyway, frozen vegetables save money and prep time, and come in interesting mixes.
5. 10 meals, 3 hours of cooking, 18 minutes per meal doesn't seem bad. Its annoying to do at once, but then its done. I won't count doing dishes, cause thats just doing your part for the planet.