People Are Hungry

I went to a Second Harvest Food Bank today to get food and it was not a fun experience.  In fact, it was depressing as hell.  From the time I left home until I returned was just ten minutes short of three hours...35 minutes of that was spent standing outside in a 45 degree rain waiting for those who were warm and dry inside to open the doors and let us in.  About 40 minutes of it was round trip drive time, I waited inside about an hour and a half before being served, and the actual getting of food and getting it to my car took about 20 minutes.

This is what I came home with.

l loaf bread
1 box crackers
2 lb pasta
2 lb rice
2 lbs dried pinto beans
2 cans pinto beans
2 cans corn
2 cans green beans
2 cans condensed tomato soup
2 jars pasta sauce
2 cans mixed fruit
2 cans peaches
1 qt box 2% milk
1 can evaporated milk
1 box fiber bars
1 jar peanut butter
4 slices processed cheese food
1/2 dozen eggs
1 lb chicken tenders
glazed marble cream cake

As with the food I got at at the CSFP, a lot of this is stuff I wouldn't ordinarily buy.  In fact, some of this I'm not even gonna act like I'm gonna try to use, because I'm not!  I'll be giving away the canned corn, canned green beans, condensed tomato soup, and processed cheese food, for starters.  Most of the rest of this I will make an effort to do something with.

What else did I get?  Well, like I said, depressed.  Really.  This food bank was scheduled to be open from 4 to 6 pm today, so I planned to get there by 3:30, anticipating I'd have to wait, but willing to do so in order to be among the first few people to be served.  I also thought that with the cool temperatures and rain and it not being the end of the month yet, there wouldn't be a lot of people there today.  Wrong.

I arrived 30 minutes before their scheduled opening time, and there were already people from 16 households in line in the cold rain ahead of me.  Women.  Children.  Men.  Mostly white, but some black, a couple were Latino.  Young (some babes in arms) and old, quite a few I'm sure were considerably older than me.  There were a lot more than 16 people in line, but they were from 16 different households and that's how numbers were given out when they finally opened the doors 35 minutes later.  I was number 17.

Another woman who arrived when I did struck up a conversation with me and we both noted that we were surprised so many people were there today.  We agreed that you probably really needed to get free food if you were willing to go through this in order to get what you actually get at the end of the process.

What else?  The worst part, for me, was being able to hear snippets of others' conversations as they waited.  Sad, sad stories.  Children bored to death, acting like children are supposed to, being hollered at and hit by frustrated adults who don't know what else to do with them when they do.  Some moms clucking that "my child wouldn't have to be told twice" to mind, chiding the mom who tried to be patient with her 4 year old who had more energy than the rest of us combined.  This, her 4 year old son.  He who now lives with her and her husband in a motel room near by.  Because they lost their trailer home a few weeks ago.  But, they're optimistic.  If they can just come up with the $260 every week between now and when her husband gets his tax refund next year, they'll have a home in the motel.  It's hard on a four year old to be cooped up like that...she says she knows.  So she takes him out for three hours every afternoon to let him blow off steam.  Today it's at the food bank.  Tonight, a little before midnight, she'll be at the bus station to pick up her 18 year old 3-months pregnant cousin.  Because she doesn't have anywhere to go.  She'll stay in the motel room with the 4 year old and his parents.  Damn.

Oh, crap.  There's so much more.  I don't want to deal with it.  I don't want to know.  I know I have a hard time, but I also know I have so much more than do so many.  And I don't have crazy chaos in my life.  I should be grateful, not pissed and upset.

I'll probably end up writing more about this later.  I want to write something about the barriers to good nutrition anyway, so this will just push me to do it.  Will write more later, too, about Second Harvest processes in general and how to access.

Spinach and Egg "Pizza"

This came about because I still had a small container of cooked spinach left over in the refrigerator I wanted to use.

What to do:  Preheat oven to 350.  Saute chopped spinach, chopped onion, minced garlic in a pat of butter or a little olive oil.

Spread spinach mixture over a whole wheat tortilla and top with some shredded cheese.  Break one large egg in center of tortilla.

Bake until egg is just set, about 15 minutes.

Use a fork or spoon to break the yolk and spread the egg a little over the top of the tortilla and add some salsa.

Cut into wedges (a pizza cutter works perfectly) and serve.  This is very hearty and should satisfy the biggest of appetites!

Ingredient notes:  Whole wheat tortillas are readily available, cheap, and keep well in the freezer in resealable bags.  They can be used as the base for all sorts of toppings.  Frozen spinach is also easy to find, almost never more than about a dollar for a 12-oz bag (often less) and lends itself well to throwin' in at the last minute when you want to add some nutritional punch to something, or a little color. 

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

Once again, this is a recipe born of the need to cook some fresh food before it spoils.  In this case, it was a spaghetti squash and the remainder of a bag of field greens I'd bought on manager's special.

What to do:  Preheat oven to 375.  Cut spaghetti squash in half and scoop out seeds and pulp.  Bake cut sides down for about 45 minutes.

While the squash is baking, brown a large chopped onion and about a half lb smoked sausage (cut up) in a little oil.  Add field greens, stir in and let cook to wilt. 

Stir in a can of tomatoes with chilies and let simmer about 5 minutes.  Allow to cool so the eggs you'll be adding to this later don't cook on contact.
 

When squash is done, remove from oven and let cool about 15 minutes so you can handle it.  Using a fork, remove the spaghetti-like strands and put in a large mixing bowl. 
 

 
Add the tomato/sausage/onion mixture and stir well.  In separate bowl, beat together four eggs with salt, pepper, and basil to taste.  Stir egg mixture into bowl with other ingredients and mix well.

Pour into oiled or sprayed 9 x 13 baking dish, top with shredded cheddar cheese.  Turn oven down to 350 and bake for about 30 minutes, until well set.

Let sit for 5 minutes before cutting to serve.  This will come out of the pan much like quiche slices if you use a spatula.

 

The squash was a bargain at $0.69/lb.  I'm estimating this cost not much more than $4.00 total to make and it's really a lot of food!  Plenty of protein too, with the addition of the cheese and eggs to the half lb meat that's there.  Between that and all the veggies here, this is some excellent nutrition as well as being just dang tasty! 

There's way more of this than I can possibly eat before I'm sick of it too, so some of this will end up in the freezer.  That freezer, btw, now holds at least ten containers of leftovers from this month so far, including Southwest Chicken Soup, Beans and Rice, Curried Pumpkin Soup, Marsala Chicken, the rest of the eggplant dish I made, and the remainder of the apple/veggie stuffing I used with the acorn squash.  I'd say it's looking like I'm gonna be eatin' pretty good the rest of the month without spending much more money!

Commodity Supplemental Food Programs

From their website:  "The Commodity Supplemental Food Programs (CSFP) is a Federally funded program, which works to improve the health of low-income pregnant and breastfeeding women, other new mothers up to one year postpartum, infants, children up to age six, and elderly people at least 60 years of age by supplementing their diets with nutritious USDA commodity foods. It provides food and administrative funds to States to supplement the diets of these groups."  I went there today and picked up food as packaged for qualifying adults aged 60 and older.  This is what I came home with:

Some of this is food that I would never buy myself because I really don't want to eat it.  The canned chicken (two 12 1/2 oz cans), cranberry apple juice (two half gallon containers), and American cheese (a 2 lb block) are all definitely in that category.  I wouldn't buy the white flour pasta either, unless it was expressly to make macaroni and cheese about once a year, but I wouldn't use American cheese to do it and I wouldn't use reduced sodium or reduced fat cheese either.

The only things I might have bought are the cereal, boxed milk, dried pinto beans, and lite peaches.  I do have some Cheerios in the cabinet and found that the nutritional value is comparable to the cereal I received today (two 14 1/2 oz boxes).  I don't eat cereal with milk, but I do like to dip a banana and coat it in Cheerios for breakfast sometimes, so I can use this.  The milk (two quart sized boxes) is 1% and perfect for me to have for cooking, though it might be difficult for me to use an entire quart after opening before it spoils.  The pintos (a 2 lb bag) I can use, but they're not a kind of bean that I usually buy because it's not a favorite.  I'll figure out something new to do with them, perhaps.

I don't usually eat canned corn either, but I noticed this is labeled as "no salt added" and the ingredients are corn and water only.  I will keep these (4 cans) and maybe use them in a soup sometime.  The peaches I'll keep (2 cans) because I often keep canned fruit in the frig for when I don't have fresh fruit or to put on frozen yogurt.  Glad to see it was "lite" too.

The canned chicken poses a dilemma!  I don't like canned chicken, not any I've ever tried, not cooked any way I've ever had it.  I'm pondering whether or not I want to waste other ingredients in order to try something else with this.  I'm considering using some of the many apples I have and coming up with a sort of chicken salad.  Or maybe doing a croquette sort of thing with enough onions and peppers and spices to make it taste like anything but canned chicken.

I'm also considering making some macaroni and cheese using one of the two 1 lb bags of macaroni and some of the American cheese.  It won't be the way I'd ordinarily make macaroni and cheese, but I think I'm gonna experiment and see if I can come up with something that I actually like using these ingredients. 

Not sure yet what I'll do with the juice.  I don't buy or drink juice because there are just more efficient ways to get the nutrients involved.  I'd rather have a piece of fruit than a glass of juice.  I might could use some of it as a smoothie ingredient, but there's a gallon of it here and that's a lot of juice!

Individuals who qualify for the CSFP program can pick up a food package once a month and can be removed from the program, I was told today, if they don't pick it up every month.  I was given the complete order today, but people are given the option of choosing to not get the food they think they won't use.  The basic make up of the box stays the same month after month, but the variety comes in the rotation of what sort of vegetables you get four cans of, which fruit you get two cans of, which canned meat you get, etc. 

Applicants must provide ID, proof of income, and proof of address in order to qualify and must recertify their benefits every six months.  At the time of certification, you can designate somebody to pick up your food for you if you need to, but they'll need to be with you and have ID when you register them as authorized.  After acceptance, you'll be given a card you or your authorized representative must present, along with ID, each month when you get food.

Smoked Sausage Sandwich

Cutting a one lb smoked sausage link into four pieces will give me good portions to make sandwiches with.  I cooked the link under the broiler in the oven, turning it once to brown good all over and cook thru well.  To add some nutrition to the meal, I served it on a bed of field greens on a slice of whole wheat bread.

Then I added spicy brown mustard, some hot pepper/pickle relish a neighbor made and gave me, and some chopped onion.  It took both hands to hold onto this, but it was surely good and the mess was more than worth the effort!

The sausage was $2.50, so even with figuring in a little for condiments and garnish (and, remember that the field greens were a manager's special clearance item), this still comes in for probably less than $0.80 per serving.  It's very filling too.  Bonus:  There's definitely enough here to count as at least one, possibly two, servings of veggies.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Ordinarily, if I'd cooked the Curried Pumpkin Soup already today, I wouldn't be cooking again tonight!  But there's the matter of needing to at least cook and store some food before it goes bad, and the broccoli slaw I bought on a manager's special was on the line. I had an acorn squash and lots of apples to use, so this is what I came up with.

 Cooking the apple/veggie stuffing.

To do:  Preheat oven to 350.  Peel and chop two apples and one medium onion.  Cook apples, onion, and most of a bag of broccoli slaw (shredded broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, red cabbage) in a little olive oil.  Add plenty of raisins and season to taste with salt and nutmeg.  Cook until done, but leave apples and veggies a little crisp. 

Cut acorn squash in half and remove seeds and stringy insides.  Cut a small piece of each end so the halves will stand up later when you stuff them.  Place face down in a baking pan with a little water and bake for 30 minutes.


Remove squash from oven, Carefully turn squash over and stuff halves with apple/veggie mixture.  Add more water to pan if needed and return to oven until squash is done, about 20 minutes.  NOTE:  Do be careful when turning the squash over!  One of my halves formed a vacuum of sorts in the pan and I got splashed with a little hot water when I attempted to turn it.



This, of course, gave me lots more apple/veggie mixture than I could use to stuff the squash, but I plan to freeze the leftovers and think of how to use it another way later.  The squash was $0.69/lb and the entire bag of veggies was a little over a dollar.  (I had used out of it once, to make slaw.)  These apples were only $0.80 lb.  This comes in as a really good value and it's about as nutritious as can be.  A few nuts would have added more protein and been good too.  I do like how this turned out!

One half is a substantial serving with the stuffing piled on.

Curried Pumpkin Soup

This is a very hearty soup for Fall and is my version of a curried pumpkin soup.  It's a little thicker than many soups, and with the addition of lots of mushrooms (I'd bought on a manager's special) and onions, there's texture for chewing too.  The tomatoes add different nutrients, so this ends up being just mostly really good for you.

What I did:  Browned about a half lb mushrooms and 1 large onion (both thinly sliced) in a little butter.  Stirred in a little flour and some curry powder.  Added one can chicken broth slowly, brought heat up, cooked and stirred for about 5 or 10 minutes.  Added one can fire roasted tomatoes, one can solid packed pumpkin, salt, pepper, and more curry powder to taste (I like a lot!).  Stirred to keep smooth while all heated well.  When back to simmer, added a cup of 2% milk and heated all through before serving.

Even factoring in the cost of the tomatoes and pumpkins that I already had, this made a nice big pot of soup for about $4.00.  I ate a big bowl full and prepared containers to freeze most of the rest.

Ingredient notes:  I don't drink milk, so the only milk I buy is for cooking.  Boxes (8 oz each) are the most convenient way for me to be sure I have it when needed, since it stores in the cabinet and doesn't need to be refrigerated unless opened.  I just alter recipes to use the milk in a way that I don't have to throw much of it out.  Dried milk can work just as well too.

Cheesy Garlic Spinach Stuffed Potato

I mistakenly thought I had broccoli in the freezer, so I ended up coming up with this way to incorporate something green into a meatless meal based on a baked potato. 

Ready for final run through microwave to melt cheese.

What I did:  Microwaved a large russet potato packaged for that purpose.  Cut cooked potato in half, scooped all the meat out of the potato skin and combined it in a small bowl with some butter, salt and pepper, minced garlic, and about a half box of frozen spinach (thawed and cooked in the microwave first).  I then restuffed the potato halves and put them back in the microwave for 1 minute.  To finish, I topped with sharp cheddar and microwaved for 1 minute more.

This is very filling and I could only eat one half of it at a time.  That makes this not much more than about a dollar per serving, factoring in that the potato was bought half price and allowing for if I'd had to buy the spinach I already had on hand.

Hint:  I think the garlic is what makes this really good.  Unless you just hate garlic, don't make this without it!

Of Rice and Beans and Eggplant

I've had beans and rice a couple of times, using rice left over from what I cooked to go with the Marsala chicken and a can of black beans.  Ordinarily, I would have used lots of bacon to do this, but the bacon I bought is gone now.  I did save the bacon grease, though, because I knew I wanted to make beans and rice and still have that good bacon flavor.

What I did:  In bacon grease, I browned a large chopped onion with minced garlic.  I added a can of tomatoes with chilies and a can of black beans.  I microwaved to heat the left over rice, combined it with the bean/tomato mixture, and today when I had it, I stirred in a little sharp cheddar for a bit of kick.

NOTE:  When I use can beans, I dump them into a colander and rinse well to get rid of as much sodium as possible.  It takes about 20-30 seconds under cool water until the sodium stops bubbling over them.  Then I just toss them in the colander a bit to drain before using.

What I ate tonight for dinner was about needing to do something with food so I don't have to throw any more out!  I needed to use the eggplant a neighbor had given me, so I did a really simple dish to bake in the oven.  I lined a bread pan to do this, with the goal of being able to simply lift the eggplant from the pan by holding on the foil after it was baked. 

Ready for the oven

I also needed to use some of the broccoli slaw I got on clearance, so I mixed some with a little mayonnaise and threw in some thawed green peas for color and more nutrition.

Simple Eggplant:  Peeled and cubed eggplant was sauteed in olive oil with minced garlic for about 10 minutes to cook a little before a can of tomatoes with chilies was added.  Seasoned with salt, pepper, basil, and oregano and then put mixture into a bread pan lined with foil.  Topped with shredded sharp cheddar cheese and baked at 350 for 30-35 minutes.  Let sit for about 10 minutes before lifting out of pan and onto a plate.  Use a spatula to slice and serve.

There's still a lot of fresh food here that I need to at least get cooked and stored before it goes bad.  A sale isn't a bargain if I end up throwin' the food out, so will be focusing on that over all else right now.

Apple French Toast Casserole

I found this recipe and thought it a great way to use apples while they're plentiful and at a good price, but I wanted to modify it to be healthier so I wouldn't feel too bad about eating a lot of it and to take advantage of what I had on hand.  I followed the general directions as posted at Yummly but made the below noted ingredient changes.


4 Tbsp butter (reduced to 3 Tbsp)

3 apples, peeled and thinly sliced (increased to 4 apples and I used Gala)

3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed (reduced to 1/2 cup)

2 Tbsp water (more if needed)

1 tsp cinnamon

8 slices Italian bread, cut 1" thick (I used 6 slices whole wheat bread.  See below.*)

1 1/4 cup milk (reduced to 1 cup and used 2%)

2 tsp vanilla extract

I also added about 4/5 cup raisins when I added the brown sugar and water to the apples for more nutrition.  And I added about 4 Tbsp chopped hazelnuts to toast on top in my version.  The substitutions made here result in a dish that's both heartier but more nutritious than the original.

*I didn't lay slices on top of the apple mixture as the directions called for.  Instead, I tore the 6 slices of whole wheat bread into cubes and spread them on top of the apple mixture.  After I poured the milk/egg mixture over all, I used a spoon to tamp the bread down into the liquid and made sure the contents were spread evenly in the pan.

Sitting to come to room temperature before going into the oven this morning.

If you get four generous servings from this, each has the nutritional value of 1 egg, 1 apple, 1 1/2 slices whole wheat bread, 1/5 cup raisins, 1 Tbsp hazelnuts, and 1/4 cup 2% milk.  That's pretty well loaded and justifies in my mind the accompanying 3 Tbsp butter and 1/2 cup sugar spread throughout the rest of the pan.  I do think, though, that it's possible to reduce the sugar here further and I'll do that another time.

  This one is definitely a keeper!

So Far, So Good!

I'm about a third way into the month now, and things are going mostly ok with this experiment.  From a dollar standpoint, I'm doin' great!  I'm optimistic that at the end of the month, that will still be true and that I'll actually end up spending considerably less than $200 to eat.

The biggest difficulty I'm having, though, is simply eating the food that's here!  My appetite seems to be off right now, and though there is a lot of food here, I mostly am not hungry and have had to even throw some food out.  I don't like doing that!  But I did have some things I had before the beginning of the month that I just never got around to using and if I don't start wanting/eating more green stuff, it may happen again!

I ate from the Marsala chicken three times before I froze the remainder of it and have used some of the leftover rice to make beans and rice today.

I've had tuna salad a couple of times lately and topped the sandwiches with some field greens I already had.  My tuna salad is very simple:  1 small can solid white albacore tuna, 2 hard boiled eggs (chopped), plenty of onion, a little pickle relish, and a little mayo, salt and pepper.  Had this on the whole wheat bread I bought on the buy-one-get-one sale.

And, free food seems to just find me right now!  Haven't yet accessed any of the food at a food bank, but a neighbor gave me a lovely eggplant I'll turn into a no-meat main dish soon, maybe incorporating some hot pepper relish another neighbor made and gave me.

And, coming up...Tonight, I tried my hand at altering a recipe I found for Apple French Toast Casserole.  Hmmm...sounds good, huh?  My version of it is in the refrigerator now, and will be ready to bake tomorrow morning.  Can't wait!

Crock Pot Marsala Chicken

My place smells yummy this afternoon, as chicken with Marsala wine, mushrooms, and onions cooks in the crock pot.  Today's version is a little different from how I would ordinarily do this, but the changes were made so I didn't have to buy anything else in order to make it and to stretch the quantity just a little.  This recipe does use processed food in the canned soup and uses butter, but it's one of the things I'm willing to do occasionally just because it's so good, cheap, and, yes, because I don't do it often.

Ingredients:  4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, salt* and pepper* to taste, half a stick butter, 1/2 lb mushrooms, 1 large onion*, 2 cans cream of mushroom soup*, Marsala wine or cooking wine*.

* Denotes an ingredient I had on hand at the beginning of the month and did not have to purchase.

What I did:  Seasoned the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and then browned them in the butter on the stove in a cast iron skillet. While they browned, I combined the soup and wine in the crock pot.  After the chicken was brown, I put it into the crock pot with the soup/wine mixture and browned the sliced mushrooms and onion in the pan juices.  I pushed the chicken breasts down into mushroom soup mix good and then dumped the pan of mushrooms and onions on top, covered, and am letting it cook on high until the chicken is falling apart tender.

Ordinarily, I don't add the onion.  I did today to stretch the recipe because onions are cheap and full of good nutrition as well.  The flavor won't hurt either! 

I calculated the cost of this dish, based on the sale prices I paid for the chicken, butter, and mushrooms.  Even factoring in the cost of the two cans of soup and the onion I used, I think this can still be made, including the brown rice I'll eat it with, for less than $1.50 a serving.  Pretty good eating for the price!

That price wouldn't, however, include the cooking wine I used here.  You can't buy it with food stamps anyway and this dish is actually really quite good without it.

9 Cent Cookies

I recently happened across a recipe for cream cheese/cake mix cookies and it seemed like something to try as a relatively cheap sweet treat.  When I shopped on Wednesday, everything I needed to buy in order to try this was on sale.  With my senior 10% discount and motivated especially by my simply wanting something chocolate, I went for it.

My yield was 51 cookies and the total cost to make them was $4.74, or $0.09 per cookie.  I used Devil's Food flavor cake mix and chopped hazelnuts for my add-in ingredient.  My goodness, these are really good!  I shaped the dough into balls about the size of a large walnut and flattened them slightly before baking.  These don't spread much, so they can be placed fairly close together.  The instructions said to bake for 10 minutes, but mine were done and needed to come out at 8 minutes.

Hazelnuts are comparable to walnuts in nutritional value and were on sale.  I used a cup from the bag I bought and will use the remaining 1/2 cup for something else.  They make these cookies jammin' good too!  That's about the best news nutrition wise for these cookies, but they will serve as a sweet treat on a budget and they're delicious.  I can't wait to have more with coffee when I get up.  A banana, a couple of these cookies and coffee sounds like heaven to me!

Shopping

Shopped today in order to take advantage of the senior discount at Kroger.  With sale prices and the 10% discount, I saved $29.99, not counting what I saved on three clearance items I purchased...about another $3-4 there.

I mostly tried to buy what was on sale, but did also buy a few staple items in order to get the discount.  There were some good buys today.  Some of the best values are pictured below.

Gala apples and tangerines all came in at less than a dollar a lb, and both squash varieties were only $0.69 lb.  Clearance specials from the produce section yielded fresh mushrooms and broccoli slaw at about half their usual cost.  Generic plain oatmeal will combine with some apples and/or raisins for a low cost and healthy breakfast and the cake mix was bought for less than a dollar to make what turned out to be 9 cent cookies (recipe and pic will follow in next post).  A couple of large baking potatoes will cook in the microwave and probably be topped with broccoli and cheese for a meal and were also about half of their usual price.

An itemized list of food purchased is on this blog.  The hardest thing to justify was the coffee I bought.  In the end, I bought it because I knew I'd feel deprived if I didn't and it was on sale as well.  Didn't much like buying the butter either, but it was on sale, haven't had any here for months, and did it anyway.

What did I not buy that I would have usually?  The dang fresh tomatoes, that's what!  Just couldn't justify it at this point.  Perhaps later in the month, if the budget holds up well.

My plan is to not purchase any more food now until I make a trip to a resource for free food I'm eligible for.  I want to see what I can get before I lay out any more cash to purchase on my own.  It would have been, no doubt, a good idea to have been able to do that before I went to the store today, but just didn't have the time.

So, What Am I Missing So Far?

Tomatoes!  Fresh tomatoes!  I'm almost craving them!  And, if I don't eat any more of the chicken soup I made to help tide me over until the discount day at my grocer for at least a couple of weeks, I'll be very happy!  (Two small containers of leftovers went into the freezer.)

Today was finally the awaited shopping day (will write more about that in my next blog post), but will quickly post a little of what I've been eating the past few days.

Cheese toast and an apple were my first feed of the day once this week.  You're gonna see "cheese toast" on the list of what I eat (when I finally get that page up) a lot, because I eat it often.  It's fast, cheap, has lots of protein, and there ya have it!  Varies sometimes, but it's usually (and is here) sharp cheddar on whole wheat.  I just dump the cheese (shredded, because I buy it that way) on top of the bread and run it under the broiler.  Add a piece of fruit or some sort of salad and it's a tasty meal.

This plate included several things I already had on hand...the fresh asparagus, feta dressing, and kalamata olives.  I just washed and trimmed the asparagus, microwaved it with a small amount of water, drained and chilled it.  Then topped with prepared dressing and a boiled egg to get some protein into the mix.  The olives probably won't be seen again for a while because that was the end of the bottle and it may be difficult later in the month to justify a $3-$4 jar of olives on a $6.45 a day budget.  I did, however, save the brine to use for flavoring.

Now, about those tomatoes!  Cooked this the other night, again using some things I already had before the beginning of the month (except the eggs and cheese).  I sauteed some chopped frozen spinach with chopped onion and minced garlic.  Then stirred in two eggs and some cheddar cheese and cooked until set.  If I wasn't trying to do this food experiment now, I would have definitely had some fresh tomato slices with this.  Or, even some spicy salsa.  As it was, I did have a can of whole tomatoes in the cabinet, so I used some of them, chopped, to accompany this.  It really was good, but I still want a fresh tomato!

How Low Can I Go?

When I first decided to do this project, it was going to be an experiment in seeing how well I could eat if I had only the maximum amount of food stamps (now Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) as a way to buy food.  That's where the idea for the name of this blog came from...$200 is the maximum SNAP benefit allowable to a one person household and that's $6.45 a day for a 31 day month.  I was going to try it for one month, beginning October 1st, also the date FY 2012 begins for that program and recipients will not be receiving an increase this year.  You can review SNAP guidelines here .


But my plan has evolved a bit and what I'm going to attempt instead is to see how low I can go...how cheaply can I eat and still eat relatively well from a nutritional standpoint.  I'll still limit what I spend to the $200 amount, but I will also use some free food that I (and most people who receive a SNAP benefit) am eligible for.  I'll use this blog to account for what food I get, indicate whether I bought it or not, and to record what I eat.  I'll also account for things I use that I went into the month already having on hand.

There won't be elaborate meal plans or long term planning...shopping and menus will be determined by what food I get free and what's on sale at the local grocery.  I won't drive all over town to get the lowest prices I can for every item, but I will go to more than one store that's within a couple of miles from my house.  I'll try to not eat white flour, not much that comes out of a can, and little sugar.  Another goal will be to be able to avoid highly processed food.  I'll also avoid most saturated fat.  This is how I eat most of the time and I want to see if I can still do it this way.

I also intend to note the things I have to do differently in order to try to make this work and will pay attention, too, to the ways in which my situation might be different from others trying to eat well on a tight budget.  For example,  I have a pretty healthy appetite, but no way would what I eat satisfy the hunger or meet the nutritional needs of a 200 lb young man.

I made my first food purchases yesterday, and spent $14.47 for chicken breasts, eggs, grapes, apples, raisins, and cheese.  (I'll get a separate page set up on this blog that will run an itemized list with descriptions for expenditures.)  I bought only these few things because I plan to do a bigger shopping trip later this week when I can take advantage of a once-a-month discount I'm eligible for at Kroger because I'm a senior citizen.

To help stretch things until then, I made big pot of Southwestern inspired chicken soup, using the chicken breasts I bought.  I had some things on hand for this, but I'm guessing I'll have some things at the end of the month too, so I'll just note what those things are as I go through the month.  This is filling, nutritious, and really good for the fall weather we're having now.

Ingredients:  3 large chicken breasts (boneless and skinless), 1 large onion* (chopped), salt* and pepper*, 1 can fire roasted tomatoes*, 1 can tomatoes with chilies*, 1 12-oz pkg frozen lima beans*, 1 12-oz pkg frozen corn*, chili powder* to taste.


*  Denotes an item I had on hand at the beginning of the month and didn't have to buy.

What I did:  Put the chicken and onion in large pot with enough water to cover plus about an inch or so.  Season with salt and pepper, bring to a boil, and then simmer (covered) until chicken is done enough to easily break into chunks with a fork.  Add the two cans of tomatoes, lima beans, corn, and chili powder, bring back the heat and then let simmer to meld flavors until the veggies are tender.

I'm just about at the end of day two now.  So far, so good!  Besides the page detailing expenditures for food, I'll also put up a page that has nothing but what I eat each day on it.  I've recorded it so far, but it might take me a day or two to get it set up.  In the meantime, I need what will probably be my bedtime snack... half a peanut butter and raisins on whole wheat bread sandwich.  :)