Spaghetti and cooking lessons

Day 19.  Ate way too much spaghetti at dinner tonight.  But it was so good.

The community center I work at has a community meal each Thursday, which I run.  The meal is free, and open to the public.  A mix of people come.  Seniors who want a night out with company; young families struggling financially; and yes, food bank clients who use the food bank right that shares our building--it is open the same day as the meal.

Frequently I don't eat during the meal, though I try to at least get something to drink and sit with someone for a few moments.  The meal isn't just about feeding the body; it is about building community and creating bonds between people.

Tonight's team served spaghetti.  An economical meal, to be sure: Sauce at 88 cents a can at Winco, with a bit of added spice and herbs, and browned hamburger.  I ate two plates of the stuff.  Because I was amazingly hungry.  And I really didn't realize it until dinner was served.  I am guessing on the amount of sauce and meat, but if I am close to correct, dinner had over 1000 calories.  And I didn't even eat the ice cream.  

I came home sleepy and totally full and satisfied.  And so did about 150 other people who dined with us this evening. 

Here is the big problem:  the cheapest, easiest meals for the poor, just like for the middle class, are high in sodium and calories.  Your stomach doesn't say you are full when you have had 500 calories.  It says you are full when you have a couple of cups of food in you.  And it doesn't matter if the food is high calorie pasta with meat sauce and parm, or a low calorie spinach saute with mushrooms.  It is about SPACE.

Today I thought a lot about the things I miss.  I miss soda.  I used to drink a lot of Pepsi, but gave it up a couple months ago to save money and lose weight.  Oh, I occasionally had a soda (usually when driving long distances), but it was no longer my daily fix.  And after the first few days it really didn't bother me.  Now that I cannot have it (because if I am being true to the Food Stamp Challenge, I cannot afford it), I crave it.

And cinnamon dolce lattes.  

The first couple of days I craved burgers, but the news about the horse meat in the beef in Europe has kind of put me off hamburgers.  Thank you Ireland, which is apparently where that mess started.

But something else happened today.  Anna came and did a cooking lesson in our kitchen.  Anna is a nutritionist, and she works with food bank clients to teach them how to cook and shop for nutritious, delicious food on a budget.  All the clients in the class got a cookbook of high nutrition-low cost recipes.  

This got me to thinking about Daughter A.  She is a great cook.  Learned the basics from mom, and ran with it.  But a lot of her friends never learned to cook.  I have friends that never really learned how to cook.  Oh, they are great at the Hamburger Helper meal, or fixing something from the freezer case, but cooking?  Not much chance of it happening.

Stay with me here, because I have an actual train of thought.  Back in the 1970's, when I was starting high school, my school district made an announcement: my graduating class would be the first class that did NOT require girls to take home ec (or boys to take shop). My friend Deb took shop--one of the rare girls in the class.  But none of us took home ec.  And I regret that, because cooking is something I really love now.  I could have learned to love it about a decade sooner.  

23 years ago, when I was on food stamps for real?  THAT is when I learned how to cook.  I figured out that if I made a meal from scratch instead of from a box or the freezer case, I would save money.

Daughter A runs a tight budget, eats mostly vegetarian (one of her room mates is totally vegetarian) and is probably better off for it.  

So one of the problems confronting people living in poverty is that many of them did not learn how to cook from scratch.  I have volunteered at the food bank and watched them refuse dried beans and lentils because they simply have no idea what to do with them.

Hence Anna, teaching food bank clients how to cook, nutritious and delicious meals.

Maybe home ec should be required for ALL high school students.  A semester to help them learn how to cook, create a household budget, etc.  

Of course, we won't see anyone in congress proposing spending money on such a concept any time soon.  Instead, congress in its foolishness, is determined to allow us to take a fiscal flier, and see where we land.

The rest of what I ate today:

Breakfast: slice of cheddar, apple, three rye crisp crackers.  I am out of eggs.

Snacked on three baby oranges

Forgot to eat lunch--which is part of why I was hungry.

The invisible poor . . .

Day 17 of the Food Stamp Challenge - When you are on a tight budget all your decisions have consequences and trade-offs.  Last night in a fit of hunger I ate two pieces of bread that were supposed to be this morning's breakfast toast.  No toast for me this morning. So I started the day a little hungry (and I have to say, since I am not a huge breakfast eater, usually skipping breakfast is not a big deal for me, so it was a surprise)

Still, I had a decent lunch.  An apple, a slice of cheddar, three rye crisp crackers and a hard boiled egg.

And a great dinner:  three black bean tacos.  A little more salsa tonight, and I skimped on the beans.  I have two corn tortillas left, and think I will have black been quesadillas on Thursday or Friday for breakfast (yeah, I know, not normally a breakfast food, but I like breakfast foods for lunch, and dinner foods for breakfast occasionally).

And I am drink a lot more water.

My friend Allison who has embarked on this same challenge wrote that she is reading a great book (and I have to recommend it, as it is really very good) "Nickled and Dimed".  Allison wrote: A very interesting read.  Some of the critiques of the book have been slamming, because they hated that this woman was so shocked about discoveries on this practice.  I am experiencing some of the same surprises and, though slightly embarrassed that it took this practice to get me to feel so passionately about the topic, I feel compelled to do something about the hunger/poverty/food stamp crisis in this country.

Allison is right--the book is good.  I read it a few years ago, and after re-reading Allison's email, I pulled it back off the shelf.  Barbara Ehrenreich, author of the book writes:
When I watch TV over my dinner at night, I see a world in which almost everyone makes $15 an hour or more, and I'm not just thinking of the anchor folks. The sitcoms and dramas are about fashion designers or schoolteachers or lawyers, so it's easy for a fast-food worker or nurse's aide to conclude that she is an anomaly — the only one, or almost the only one, who hasn't been invited to the party. And in a sense she would be right: the poor have disappeared from the culture at large, from its political rhetoric and intellectual endeavors as well as from its daily entertainment. Even religion seems to have little to say about the plight of the poor, if that tent revival was a fair sample. The moneylenders have finally gotten Jesus out of the temple.” 
― Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America  (1998)

The poor have disappeared from view--while growing in numbers over the past decade.  Even before the Great Recession started, the income gap--the difference between the rich and the poor--was growing.  The middle class was shrinking, as people slid backward economically.  And that trend will not reverse itself easily or overnight.

For starters, there are not enough jobs out there for everyone who is ready and able to work; in four days there will be fewer jobs, as the federal government kills jobs with a single inaction.

Let's start with the good news:  You may have heard that congress, in it's infinite wisdom, has done nothing to prevent the sequester.  So starting Friday, many government programs could seem some pretty big cuts.  SNAP Benefits (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), also known as food stamps are NOT going to be part of the sequester.  

The bad news--a lot of other programs that help the poor will be cut, at least temporarily.     Student loans, vocational rehab programs (and by the way, these programs have many vets making use of them) are two of the programs that will see cuts.  If congress doesn't get its act together in the first few weeks, they will inflict new damage on a fragile economy.

In 2010, the most recent year I could find statistics for, over 16% of women and children in this country were living in poverty.   

Ehrenreich spoke at a symposium on poverty in January 2012.  She said "The theory for a long time--coming not only from the right, but coming from some Democrats--is that poverty means that there's something wrong with your character, that you've got bad habits, you've got a bad lifestyle, you've made the wrong choices.  I would like to present an alternative theory . . . poverty is a shortage of money.  And the biggest reason for a shortage of money is that most working people are not paid enough for their work, and then we don't have work."

Being poor isn't something to be ashamed of, yet many people are.  I can distinctly remember when I was on food stamps 23 years ago--back when food stamps were paper coupons and everyone in line knew you were using them.  My first trip to the grocery store was late in the evening, at a store where I didn't normally shop.  I wanted to minimize the chances of anyone I knew running into me while I was shopping.  I had my 6 month old in her baby seat in the cart, and moved through the grocery store as quickly as I could, relieved when it was done.  After a few weeks, shopping with food stamps became my new normal--but it was never something I became comfortable with.  I made every effort to shop as economically as possible, remembering all the tales I heard of people buying steak with food stamps.  

Are there problems in the program?   Yep.  And we should talk about them.  But I am currently grateful that congress, which has been so foolish about so much for the past several years, was wise enough to exempt food stamps from the sequester.  

Of course, if the sequester puts people out of work, there will be more people using food stamps, so the savings in other programs will be negated by the increase in food stamp use.  I don't know if that is the kind of trade off we need.

Another great book by Ehrenreich is "Bait and Switch" (2006) about the struggle for those who have done everything right--gotten the college degree, been careful with their money, built the great resume--to stay financially solvent.  

Both books were written before the Great Recession.  Both have a lot to say about what we have been living through for the past few years.

Black Bean tacos save the day . . .

I ate well today, but arrived home starved, and I cannot explain why.

I drank a large glass of water, trying to ward off the desire to consume whatever I can in the first 5 minutes after I walk in the door.  This is not stress eating.  I had a great day at work, and things are pretty good overall.  I just want to eat.  I cave in and have a piece of whole wheat toast (the bread that I bought a a couple of weeks ago I broke into two slice freezer bags and stuck in the freezer.  Then I toast another.

Drat.  This was not apart of today's meal plan.  I did well all day long.  A baby orange, three rye-crisp crackers, a single slice of cheddar and a hard boiled egg for breakfast.  A large bowl of vegetable barley soup for lunch, along with a second baby orange, and a piece of cake  (small) left over from the luncheon rental (they left the cake and cookies for us).  I should not be this hungry.  But I am.  And it wasn't a particularly active day.

Again I wonder to myself how a teenager or a a fully grown young man would deal with my low calorie diet. I know there are ways I can add calories--there are low cost ways to eat (think box of mac and cheese).  

After taking the edge off my hunger, I start dinner.  Black bean tacos.  Which I have never had before, but the recipe is easy and cheap.  And I have everything in the house, because I have left over groceries from last week.

While my black beans are heating, I call up a friend.  Her advise: Coupons.  

They arrive in every Sunday paper, and you can print out coupons from several web sites now.  A few months ago, a local food bank even hosted a class on couponing to bring down the cost of your groceries.  And there is something to that, but here is the problem for me: coupons do not exist to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, and there are not a lot of them out there for things like flour, sugar, etc (except during the holidays).

I took the time (and it took some time) to count the number of coupons in this Sunday's Paper: 162.  Only 42 were for food items that were food stamp eligible.   Most of them were for items like high sugar breakfast cereal, or kid's yogurt.  Of those that were good for item that everyone needs that food stamps don't cover, most were for the higher end versions of tooth paste and toilet paper.  Oh, and there were two coupons for condoms.  Which is not the worst idea ever, but they aren't on my shopping list.

Coupons are not really meant to help the poor; they are their to hook the middle class on purchasing a particular brand.  $1 off a box of high sugar cereal is really not all that much, when the cereal costs $4 and would only feed a teenager for a week.  

IF you have a computer and printer at home (or can use one at the library), you can print your own coupons. Albertsons and Winco allow you to print manufacture coupons, printing only the ones you need.  Safeway has a cell phone app for coupons and discounts.  I don't do cell phone apps, but I have no problem printing coupons.  This is slightly better for me--I can at least get coupons for cereal I will eat (plain old Cheerios),   I print $15 dollars worth of coupons--some for me, some for my daughter, and a couple for items we use at work.  But I have already done the bulk of my shopping for the week, so they will have to wait.

Coupons have been around for 125 years.  You can thank a guy by the name of Asa Candler for this--in 1888 he had a new product he was selling, and he wanted to encourage people to buy it.  So he created coupons for a free glass of his new product: Coca Cola.  Back then it contained coca leaf extract.  The same plant we get cocaine from.  But that's another story to be told another time.

CW Post made use of a 1 cent off coupon to sell a new cereal he was introducing in 1909: Grape Nuts.  By 2000, over $3 BILLION a year in coupons were used in the USA.

It is kind of a shame that so few of them are for nutritious food.  There are few for frozen or even canned vegetables and fruits.  There are fewer for anything like fresh salad ingredients--even the ones that come in bags.  Lots for meat that has sauce or frozen meals or canned soup (traditionally high in sodium, and not particularly healthy).  

My black beans were in the cupboard from before I started this challenge.  I usually use them for soup, but I am tired of day after day of soup (I may freeze what is left for later in Lent).

The Black Bean Tacos are WONDERFUL.  Here is the recipe:
I can black beans, drained and rinsed
6 corn tortillas
6 tablespoons shredded cheddar
2 cups Romaine lettuce, shredded
1 cup grated carrots
1/4 cup salsa

Heat black beans in microwave or oven
While they are heating, in a nonstick pan heat corn tortillas.  I actually sprinkled the cheese over them before removing them from the pan.  Then divide black beans, lettuce, romaine and salsa among the tortillas and serve.  2 servings.  

I am short on cheese, so I use a little less than it calls for, but use a little bit more salsa.  I don't know if it is the spice or what, but for the first time in a couple of days, I feel happy with what I am eating.  

This recipe is adapted from the CarbLovers Diet. I used less cheese, more salsa, and I suspect less beans--I seem to have more left over than I used for three tortillas.  But from bite one, it felt wonderful.  And healthy.  And cheap.

Beard. James Beard. On economical cooking.

Day 14 (Saturday) - 
"Within the limitations of your budget you can set a table that has variety and distinction.  You can serve gourmet food . . . it is not the basic cost of the food but the care with which it is selected and prepared that makes it gourmet rather than pedestrian."  James Beard, "How to Eat Better for Less Money"

I have been reading like crazy lately, and decided it was time to pick up a few books at the used book store.  I particularly went searching to see if I could find a great book on cooking cheap.  My first stop is Tacoma Book Center, which, if you haven't found it is just one of the best second hand book stores outside of Powells in Portland (when I retire, I want to live in Portland and spend my spare time at Powells).  There I picked up a copy of Dicken's "Hard Times" before moving on to the cook books where I discovered two gems:  James Beard's "How to Eat Better for Less Money" and "Buffy's Cookbook".  

No, not Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Buffy such as in Buffy and Jody, the twins on the 1960's show "Family Affair."  There on the cover is little Buffy with a rolling pin.  I can hardly wait to read it!

The James Beard is equally exciting--I love reading his cookbooks.  He is an icon, and I am surprised to find he did an economy cooking cook book.  I have not yet had time to read it, but I am already a bit suspicious.  For one, this is the republished version (circa 1970).  Apparently you got a copy free with a purchase of Parliament Cigarettes.  Secondly, there is a supplement on wines and spirits in this cookbook.  Which makes it seem a bit more than cooking on a budget.  But time will tell.

Then it was off to Half Price Books, where I was disappointed to find nothing on cooking on a budget.  I did pick up "Grub" which is about the eat local/organic movement. 
And I wandered over to literature and picked up cheap paperbacks of the works of William Blake and Canterbury Tales.  

I am craving Mexican food.  The chips and salsa they bring you at the restaurant before the meal; the margarita; the rice and black beans (I like refried, but the fat content).  I want a chili relleno so bad.  

Once home, I warm up some soup and sit down with Jame Beard.  The book is a small paperback, a 1970 re-issue of his 1954 cookbook.Thumbing through it immediately lands me with a recipe for (I am not kidding) Frankfurters in Sour Cream.

Okay, this could be . . . interesting.  

You start out with one pound of frankfurters.  Which you shred.  Yes, you read that right, you are to shred the frankfurters with a knife.  Long shreds, the length of the frankfurter. They are then sauted in butter with a finely chopped onion.  until the onions are lightly browned and the frankfurter is heated through.  Then you add a cup--a cup--of chili sauce and let it come to a boil.  Stir in one cup of sour cream or heavy cream.  Stir until thickened and serve over noodles or rice.

Huh?

Does anyone else think this sounds, well, like a gourmet preparation of budget food?

I don't think I will be trying this one any time soon.

I will also be skipping the Feijoada, which is a Brazilian favorite.
FEIJOADA
(6 to 8 servings)
3 cups black beans
2 pounds beef brisket, cut into large squares
2 pounds smoked beef tongue, peeled (PEELED?  YOU THINK I AM GOING TO PEEL A BEEF TONGUE!!!!  YUCK!) and cut into squares
1/2 pound dried Italian, Spanish or Portuguese sausage, sliced 1 inch thick
1 pound salt pork
(5 1/2 pounds meat?  And this is economical how?)
1 bay leaf
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 tablespoo butter
2 oranges, sliced

Wash the beans and soak overnight.  Drain in the morning, and cover with water to cover and bring to boil.  Add 1 tablespoon salt (James, you're killing me here), the meats, the salt pork, the sausage and the bay leaf.  Cover and simmer for 2 hours until the beans and meat are tender.  Brown the garlic in the butter.  Take one cup of the beans from the pot, and mash with the garlic, then return to the pot.

To serve, place beans in the center of the platter, and surround with hunks of meat.  Serve with orange slices and mustard greens or collards.  This dish is traditionally served with a braised loin of pork (because otherwise, what would you do for meat?) but that can be omitted.

Is it just me, or is this NOT economical cooking on a budget?  And WHAT is UP with the ton of protein and lack of vegetables in this meal?  

I will have to keep reading but I suspect that the whole "budget" cooking is really not James Beard style.  But it is amusing.  

Of course, when Beard wrote his book (1954) he was not trying to help the poor--he was thinking of the emerging middle class housewife, who might be trying to cook on a budget to impress the husband's boss (and the bosses wife), or her bridge club. There were no food stamps in that world. The world is very different today. 

All the same, I am going to find one "economical" recipe in that book to try.  It won't be the frankfurters in sour cream (sorry, it just sounds unappealing), but I am sure that somewhere in that book is something that will meet my budget and James Beards standards.

Meantime, off to another bowl of vegetable soup.    

Chocolate from God . . .

Day 13 of the Food Stamp Challenge
Once in a while God knows what you are craving, needing, and gives it to you.  In my case, I was craving chocolate.  Good chocolate.  You know, the kind that you spend $3-4 dollars to buy a bar of at the grocery store.  But chocolate is not on my shopping list, especially expensive chocolate.

I walked into the church office this Wednesday to drop off some papers, and check my mailbox.  And there was a fair trade chocolate bar.  Dark chocolate with caramel crunch in it.  Salty and sweet all at the same time.  I forced myself to wait hours to open it, and I have only eaten 4 squares so far.  

Chocolate from God.  Or, as my daughter informs me later, from T. who bought it for me Sunday when they were selling fair trade chocolate at church.  A small little treasure that I savor more than normal, because usually I can just buy chocolate if I want it.

Meanwhile, back in my kitchen . . . 

So having salvaged my sweet potatoes, I have to talk about the soup.

My soup usually has celery in it--but this week I went a couple dollars over budget to ensure I had olive oil.  So no celery for me.  You could use rice instead of barley, or noodles I suppose, but I like barley best.  And barley is amazingly cheap for a bag--less than a $1 usually, but I never use more than 3 or 4 tablespoons in a soup, as it tends to expand.  Which makes it filling.

Soup is one of those things you can make and fill up on cheap.  I learned to make it 23 years ago when I was poor for real.  I never peel carrots or potatoes if I can help it.  The skin is high in fiber and in the case of the potato, high in vitamins.

This is my simple soup--Vegetable Barley.  About 10 minutes of work for me, and an hour of simmering before I can eat.  

Vegetable Barley Soup:
1 yellow onion, chopped
2-5 cloves of garlic (depends on how well you like garlic)
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 oz (1 container) sliced mushrooms (I prefer brown to white, but whatever you like)
2 cups sliced carrots
4 cups diced potatoes
1 32 oz carton vegetable broth
3 tablespoons dry barley

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until soft.  Add mushrooms.  Saute until the mushrooms get a little color.  Add carrots, potatoes and broth.  I usually wash out the broth container with a cup of water and add to the soup.  Bring to boil, then simmer for about an hour.

Wash barley.  Cover with water in small saucepan, cook for about 30 minutes.  Add to soup.  

This makes a ton of soup fairly cheap, and it is low fat.  The mushrooms give it a meaty flavor, and a nice hit of fiber.  Sprinkle grated Parmesan Cheese over top, if you can afford it.

When things go a little wrong . . .

Day 12 of the Food Stamp Challenge:
Got home last night with a plan--bake a sweet potato for dinner, and start a batch of soup.  Got out the stock pot and got my Vegetable Barley going, then reached for the sweet potatoes.  Inside the bag was wet--and gooey.  

Sweet potatoes are NOT gooey.  Unless they have spoiled.

I have had yellow potatoes grow eyes, and spinach turn to slime, but never before do I recall having sweet potatoes turn to goo in a bag.  The entire bag is ruined.

And my day is not yet done.  I decide to eat an orange.  I bought a bag of the little baby oranges two weeks ago, and have been eating one or two a day.  But sometime during the day, something bad happened--one of my baby oranges is a ball of green mold.  I carefully remove it from the bag and wash the rest of them carefully, salvaging the bulk of them.  

New household rule: check all produce daily to see if there is anything we need to get rid of before it rots everything.

I could go buy more sweet potatoes--I am not really on food stamps, and no one would know if I kept my mouth shut (which obviously I didn't do).  But a family on food stamps--if they bought more food stamps, it would leave them less money at the end of the month.  Which we are getting down to.

I look at the bag of sweet potatoes--are they ALL gooey, or did just one go bad?  I hate digging through stuff like this.  But I do--because if I was on a limited budget for real, it is what I would do.  Of the four sweet potatoes in the bag, two are ugly.  Two are usable.  I rinse and dry them, and research why they went bad.  Apparently the two that are now goo at the bottom of the garbage (which I took out first thing this morning) apparently were not in good shape to begin with.  I can cook sweet potatoes and freeze them for up to 10 months.  Or cook within a week of purchase.

We live and learn about these things.  But when you are poor, when you are surviving on food stamps, this is the kind of lesson that can be costly: it costs you in food, and food is energy.

I went ahead and baked the two remaining sweet potatoes, then mash the pulp and throw it into two small freezer bags.  At least they won't go bad right away.  

The road that is paved with good intentions . . .

Okay, let me just say that this whole $21 a week/food stamp "diet" would have been easier if I had no family.  Of course, I love my family.  But last week, I bought the daughter and friends bakery cupcakes (which did not fit the $21  a week budget) for her birthday.  Then, four days into the project, I spent a weekend with extended family.

On the upside, I bought NO groceries.  They took me out to dinner Friday night (thanks Uncle Russ), took me to lunch on Saturday (thanks Aunt Joan) and out to dinner on Sunday (thank you Uncle Bob).  And there were potato chips on the table (I rarely buy them, because I will eat half the bag if they are easily available), and a six pack of Pepsi--16 oz cans.

Plus, being in the car for 16 hours over the course of the week-end lead to the inevitable snacking.  Bought a soda as I left Tacoma.  Bought a latte going over the pass.  And a cookie.  And a slice of pizza.  On the way back I had a 16 oz soda (furnished by my aunt), a small bag of popcorn, coffee, a latte, and a slice of pizza.  

Crap.  So much for my good intentions.

Came back today, spent the afternoon at the office and then went grocery shopping.  Last week, taking into account Pam's concerns about my weight and health, I used the handy dandy machine they have at Fred Meyers to find out what I could about my health.  I repeated that exercise today:
Weight: 169.2 lbs
BMI: 25
Blood Pressure: 114/73

Okay, so I lost weight?  Like, three pounds.  In a week.  Without trying.  

Today's grocery shopping was not as fun as last week, because I ran out of a household staple--olive oil.  I love cooking with extra virgin olive oil, and resolved to pick a small, inexpensive bottle of the stuff.  The store brand was the cheapest--but there were three varieties of the stuff: Italian (with notes of grass, buttery with a peppery finish), Spanish (with bright high notes, herbal overtones and a peppery finish) or California (notes of grass with a buttery finish).  When did buying olive oil become something akin to buying wine?  I love the buttery finish, but the California style, while a store brand, is $1 a bottle more than the Italian (which was the cheapest of the three).  I'm a girl on a budget, so the Italian variety it is.

2% Milk: $3.79
Mushrooms: $1.99
Mushrooms: $1.99
Hlsr links: $3.99
Lettuce, Shredded: .98 cents
Spinach: $1.67
Apples: (1.82 lbs @.98 per pound) $1.78
Bananas: (.84 lbs @ .64 per pound) .54 cents
Cabbage: (1.24 lbs @ .89 per pound) $1.10
Potatoes: (2.76 lbs @ .49 per pound) $1.35
Olive Oil: $5.99
TOTAL: $25.17

This works largely because I have left over oranges, bread, eggs, sweet potatoes and carrots from last week.  No, the mushrooms being posted twice is not a typo.  I ran out of mushrooms last week, and don't want it to happen again.  

The good news is that the links (beef brat links) will last for a couple of weeks--I typically use one or two in a pot of soup that makes several servings.  And I should not have to buy olive oil again during this experiment.

But I love bananas--I had been eating one a day before this experiment started, and this week, I will be reduced to two.  I miss them.  

Dinner tonight:  Yep, sauted spinach and a baked sweet potato.  Back to the basics.  Which I love--but which will get boring very soon.

When you don't get enough calories . . .

Wednesday/Thursday - 

One of the things about living on food stamps is that you can take advantage of other programs that help feed people--places like food banks, hot meal sites, etc.  Or, you can go to church.

Wednesday was the first day of Lent, and the start of soup and bread dinners at my church.  I had a large bowl of clam chowder and two rolls.  This, on top of my usual breakfast (orange, bread, glass of milk) and lunch (apple, cheese, crackers, hard boiled egg), put me in a good place for protein, but I am fairly sure that I am lacking vegetables. I will have to work on changing that.

But I got to thinking--what about a family?  How would a single mom with a teen-aged son fare on my food?  Mom could probably make it, but the kid would be starving all the time (actually, teen boys are starving all the time no matter what, but that is a bigger discussion).

I ran my menu for Wednesday through a calorie calculator, and found that I consumed a total of 1516 calories (give or take--depends on the size of the apple, etc.)

Then I look on several websites for nutrition, including WebMD and find that a boy between 11 and 21 needs between 2100 and 3100 calories a day--TWICE what I am eating.

He could probably use some more vegetables in his diet also.

Me too.  People worried about me gaining weight from my diet?  I am concerned that I could be eating too few.  I am trying to shed about 20 pounds, but this diet has me more than 500 calories A DAY under what is recommended for my age--and that is if I am sedentary.  Which I am not.

I know that I am looking at just one day--and I will start checking my calorie intake more carefully.  

Today I actually did worse.  I managed my regular breakfast, but got busy and skipped lunch.  Dinner was delicious--wonderful corn chowder provided by the community center I work at, with salad and angel food cake with berries for dessert.  The meal is provided each week to anyone who wants to come, and many of those who come are obviously hungry.  Tonight I was too.  Every bite tasted better.  But I also felt more self conscience than normal: I regularly eat at this meal--we are trying to build community, and you cannot do that without sitting down and joining the community for meals.  But some of them have so little--and they have kids.  Many of them are on food stamps, and clearly not making it.  They make use of the food bank down stairs, and enjoy the meal upstairs.  

Someone I knew once referred to the people who come to the food bank and the meal as "those people".  And not in a good way.  In a way that made it clear that "those people" were some how less than the rest of us.  But they are not.  They are moms and dads trying to raise their kids.  Or raise their grandkids, in some cases.  They are single parents doing the best they can.  They are seniors, who worked hard for years, and don't need the food bank or really, even the meal, so much as they need the relationships and the community.

Spend day after day with them, and you start realizing that they are not "those people" but rather, they are people who do whatever it takes to take care of their family.

In the next few weeks, a bunch of congressmen and women in DC will try to take a bite out of food stamps.  They will talk about the need to spend less on "entitlements".  Some of them will talk about the "47%" who pay no taxes (this is a myth folks), and talk about how helping people keeps them from helping themselves.  What they won't talk about:

 - $100 million a year in food stamps are provided to current and retired members of the US Military

 - the average person on food stamps is only on the program 9 months.

 - the largest group of people benefiting from food stamps: children, who make up 47% of those people on food stamps.

 - 21% of people on food stamps also receive Supplemental Security benefits targeted at seniors and the blind.

When congress talks about cutting $2 billion from food stamps, they are talking about taking food out of the mouths of those who need food the most--and placing an additional burden on the thousands of food banks and meal sites across the country.

There are smarter spending cuts that hurt fewer people.

Work, food and a birthday

Day Two - And did I mention it is A's birthday?

I get up and have my orange, toast and glass of milk, and head off to work.  

Did you ever contemplate the amount of food present at work?  Pot full of coffee with creamer, which I partake of, without thinking twice.  During this morning's webinar, there is fruit and cookies on the table.  I eat the fruit and skip the cookies.

I have brought lunch to work--an apple, cheese, crackers and hard boiled egg.  And the good news is that it will be there waiting for me tomorrow, because things kept happening, and I never quite got around to lunch today.  This is no one's fault but mine, but still, I am glad I ate fruit during the webinar, because it is going to be a late, late dinner.  I did leave work at a reasonable time (4:00 pm) but I went to a meeting--and it ran long.  The good news: they had cheese and whole grain crackers.  

In other good news: my daughter A, a member of the Tacoma Symphony Choir, has a concert tonight.  And by the way, did I mention it is her birthday?  So though there is no time to run home and eat, I stop at the grocery store and debate--if I buy cupcakes for her and her room-mates, as a birthday present, is it breaking the rules?  After a moment I decide I don't actually care if it breaks the rules or not.  I purchase three cupcakes and flee.  

When I get to Slavonian Hall, they have a spread of cookies and treats out.  I opt to be good and drink decaf.  Afterwards, a large group of us sang Happy Birthday to A, and I gave her the cupcakes; C. wanted to know why there were only three.  "It's her blog thing," T. explains.  The three cupcakes (if I were counting them--and yes I should, but I won't) cost $4.50--more than a day's worth of food.  I am hungry.  I could stop at McDonald's and pick up a $1 burger, but instead, I come home and throw a sweet potato in the oven.  Saute spinach and mushrooms.  Dinner is served.  

When I open my facebook, there is Alison, like my own private cheerleader:
Russet potatoes are 3 lbs for $1 at Freddies this week.  I know you've already spent your weekly amount, but I am telling you because it's a good filler for the rest of us.  Thanks again for doing this and getting me on it too!  The funny part was seeing the teenage boys on Sunday at my house wondering where the load of food I usually have is, and wondering why I was rationing my rice milk and apple juice.

Yes, somewhere along the way I inspired Alison to join me in this experiment.  It may have been the wine on Friday night.  But I am betting she was smart enough to eat dinner before 9:00 pm.

As I look at living on what food I could buy with an average food stamp benefit (SNAP) I see that Households CAN use SNAP benefits to buy:  food for the household to eat such as breaks and cereals; fruits and vegetables; meats, fish and poultry; dairy products.  Seeds and plants which produce food for the household to eat.

Households CANNOT use SNAP benefits to purchase: beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes or tobacco; any nonfood item such as pet foods, soaps, paper products and household supplies; vitamins and medicines; food that will be eaten in the store; hot foods.

So, toilet paper, Kleenex, sanitary items for women, and bath soap aren't covered?  Where do these items come from?  What do women do each month . . . . ?  What do you do when have a cold and a runny nose?

How very fortunate am I?  VERY!

This is why more and more food banks are carrying these items.  Too many people who use their food stamps carefully simply don't have money for things like shampoo and toothpaste.

Alison is, of course, right.  We are very fortunate.  We live in a country where even though people may live with hunger, we have programs like food stamps, food banks and free and reduced hot lunch programs to help them along--so true starvation is rare.  My $1 a meal seems so small--until I remember that there are many living on much less.  $1 a day.  If you look at large chunks of Central and South America, Africa and Asia, you see the kind of poverty that we have not had in the USA in decades.  And that $1 a day doesn't just cover food--it covers everything.

Let me put it this way: could you live on $365 a year?  Of COURSE not.  Realistically speaking no one can.  This is the kind of abject poverty that leads us to some heartbreaking statistics:
32,000 people die every day due to hunger related causes.  
The majority of them are children.
1 child every 5 seconds.  
12 children a minute.  
720 kids an hour.
17,280 a day.
Day after day after day.

So yes, today I bought cupcakes for my living, breathing daughter, because it is her birthday--one of 23 that she has celebrated on this earth.  But this evening, I cannot get too upset about my missed lunch or my late dinner--because in the time it takes me to eat a meal, 240 children will die because they could not eat at all.

If I had all three cupcakes here right now, I am not sure I could eat them.  Either that, or I would drown my sadness in chocolate and buttercream.

DAY ONE:  Breakfast was an orange and piece of bread and butter with milk.  Lunch, an apple (forgot I had apples in the fruit bowl on the table), crackers, cheese and a hard boiled egg.  More about dinner below.

I used my Facebook page to invite a lot of my friends and family to follow along as I try this little experiment.  A few people immediately expressed concerns:

Pam: Not sure how this will work - seriously, don't eat meat; however, it seems to cost more to purchase items that don't have meat products in them. If you look at the percentage of Americans on food stamps and look at obesity - one might find a connection. Mac & Cheese, other pasta quick meals or even just plain in their own packages are some of the cheapest items in the store - much cheaper than meat and even fresh fruits and vegetables. So not all obesity might be from over-eating, just not eating healthy food that will sustain the body without being all carbs. And this may not be a lifestyle choice; however only what can be afforded for food. Anxious to see what you come up with for ideas, recipes, etc. and if weight gain comes with less food choices, rather than just affecting those who frequent fast food establishments and/or purchase more expensive food items in the stores. Weigh before you start :).

Weigh before I start?  Well, as it so happens . . . I have been working to lose weight lately.  I think it is possible to do this in a healthy way (though that would be easier if I had tried this in summer when I have a garden).  But Pam has a point.

Weight: 173.7 lbs

BMI 25.6

Body Fat: 29.2%

Blood Pressure: 98/69

Pulse: 73

This at the high end of the weight range for my height, but within bounds.  I am not much of a meat eater; in fact, I am a carb junkie.  So we will see if the change in diet and the tight restrictions help or hurt me.

I think I have the menu for the week worked out.  But what about the spiritual side of this experiment?  So I have several books that I will be reading as meditations during this experiment.  Anne Lammot has become a fav, and I will start by reading “Plan B-further thoughts on faith”; as well as daily meditations from "A Place at the Table--40 days of solidarity with the poor" by Chris Seay.  And well, my Bible.  

Dinner?  I actually made home-made soup: Half an onion, two cloves garlic, three cups carrots sliced, four cups of diced potatoes, half a head of cabbage shredded and one hot-dog sized keilbasa chopped up.  Add water and one can of vegetable broth to cover, cook until vegi's are done.  My dad would have called this a boiled dinner.  I just call it good.  And in this case, cheap.  I have over half my carrots left, as well as most of my potatoes and half a cabbage.  And left over soup still.  I also had a half a glass of wine--I had an open  bottle and I won't be buying more until after Easter. 

Light on meat--but as Pam pointed out, meat is one of the more expensive things you can buy.  And I have a very tiny budget.  $21.00 a week.

Day one went well.  Day one was easy.  But it could turn out to be a very limited diet.  Pam is right--vegetables are sky high in cost right now, thanks to a cold snap in Arizona.  If I have to eat the same meal day after day, will it get too boring--will I get frustrated and give up?  

TRUTH:  On the way home, I was CRAVING a burger.  Or chicken.  Or really, anything that I could pick up at a fast food restaurant.  

I rarely eat burgers.  They are not a favorite of mine.  But knowing that I COULDN'T eat a burger and fries made me crave it all the more . . . And unlike those on food stamps, I could cheat.  I could buy a burger, and only God and I would know.  

THIS is the part that will make the whole thing more difficult.  Perhaps living in an area with no grocery stores and no fast food joints will make it a little easier to resist temptation.  If you don't drive past Frisco Freeze, you are less likely to get a big greasy burger, fries and a chocolate malt.  And the fact is, I haven't had any of those things in weeks.  But now that I have promised I won't--it is all I want.

The week-end before . . . . 

"How are you preparing for your food stamp thing?" Alison asked.

My reply was simple: I am trying not to.  Over the past few years, many of the people who ended up unemployed, underemployed and on food stamps were people who one day had a great job, and the next day didn’t.  It would have been easy to take the time between making this commitment and the start date to stock up on supplies.  But I have not done so, and I am working hard to resist the urge.

I did do one thing most people didn’t do before landing on food stamps: celebrated my own little Mardi Gras.  Friday evening, Alison and I met at Pour at Four, a fantastic wine bar in the Proctor District of Tacoma.  We had been trying to get together for several weeks, and I knew with my food stamp challenge commitment starting the following week, it was now or never.  So, despite being on the tail end of cold, I was going to enjoy my evening.

And there I was, running late.  People kept popping into my office unexpectedly.  And my old friend J. called out of the blue to chat.  So, as 5 o’clock (our designated meeting time) approached, I picked up my cell to tell Alison I would be late.

“I’m running behind too.  And I was ready for a glass of wine at noon.”

Despite stopping at the bank and the gas station, I still managed to beat Alison to Pour, and was drinking a decent chardonnay when she walked in.

We spent the evening talking, sipping wine and enjoying our meal.  For the record, the Artichoke-Parmesan soup, at $5 a cup, was warm, soothing and delicious.  The brie with raspberry-tarragon compote—DIVINE.  And the Vanilla Crème Brulee (which I was not going to have, until Alison ordered the chocolate peanut butter pie) was probably one of the best I have ever had.  Two glasses of wine with my meal, and it was still under $30.  Not bad, but in just a few days, I will be spending less than that on a week’s worth of groceries.  I went home, snuggled into bed and got a great night’s sleep.  And awoke in the morning with no cold symptoms, for the first time in 5 days.

Still, it would be wise to take stock. I have a half gallon of milk, which for me is nothing.   I love milk, drink a gallon of it a week, and I am picky—I drink organic.  I will have to keep my eyes peeled for bargains and coupons.

But I have cheese—and it is all still in date. A bag of spinach.  This is a staple for me—I love to put a hand full in pasta soups, or just sauté it with mushrooms and garlic. 

The cupboards are not bare, but they have an odd assortment.  Five jars of pasta sauce (and I never eat it as pasta sauce, I use it in other recipes); four cans black beans, three cans green beans, two cans of chili.  Several boxes of various kinds of noodles.  A half a bag of rice, a small bag of barley, and some polenta.  And (again, I don’t know how this happened) 8 boxes of red beans and rice mix.  I bought them on sale a while back.  Four cans of tuna.

One box of Cheerios.  I love Cheerios.  They are a favorite of mine, and I usually eat them as a snack instead of a breakfast food.  Pour some in a bowl and eat them like they were popcorn.

I don’t have any canned or frozen fruit.  I do have half a dozen baby oranges, which I love.  I want more. Time to go grocery shopping.

For week one, I will be shopping at Fred Meyers.  I know what I have at home, so I am going to try to purchase groceries that will fit in with what I have.  

1.54 lb carrots (.59 cents a pound) = .90 cents

2.34 lbs yellow potatoes (.79 cents a pound) = $1.85 (8 medium potatoes)

2.08 lbs cabbage (.99 cents a pound) = $2.06

0.97 lbs polenta (.99 cents a pound) = 0.96

1.16 lbs yellow onions (.69 cents a pound) = 0.80  (2 onions)

1.87 lbs sweet potatoes (.99 cents a pound) = $1.85 (4 small sweet potatoes)

3/heads garlic = $1

Small carton brown mushrooms=$1.99

Bag of satsuma oranges = $6.98

Eggs = $2.69/dozen

Bread = $2.50

TOTAL =  $23.58 

Three heads of garlic may seem excessive, but I use it in making soup and pasta.  And the bag of satsuma's was more than I would usually spend on fruit.  But as I am coming off a cold, I justify it.  Besides, I do this shopping on Saturday--part of it will feed me on Sunday, the day before I start my little experiment.  

And here we are--it is Sunday night.  And tomorrow this starts for real.  

The Challenge: Eat for 46 days (that time period known to Christians as Lent) like you were living on food stamps.  National average for food stamps is $21 per person.  43 million people in the USA receive some food stamps.

Meet the challenger:  Beth Ann Johnson, Chair of the SWWA Synod Hunger Committee; reads cookbooks for fun.  Single. Works in a small nonprofit, where a large portion of the clients rely on a mix of food stamps and the food bank for their daily food.

So where did this idea (lunacy, one friend calls it) come from?

Well, it isn’t new.  The Food Stamp Challenge is part of a national strategy by hunger advocacy groups to make politicians and everyday people aware of what it is like to live on food stamps.  Usually they ask people to spend a week walking in the shoes of a food stamp client.

Of course, if you make $110,000 a year or more (like many of our DC politicians) the idea of eating 3 meals a day for a $1 apiece may be unappealing.  And even if you do it, you are only going for a week, right?  And the challenge usually allows you to incorporate any food you have on hand into your meals. 

For me, in some ways it is a return to a former life.  I was on food stamps for a while when my daughter was little.  It was, at first, very difficult to buy the groceries I was used to with so little money, but as time went on, it became easier.  I benefited from having a college education, a love of cooking, and the ability to think outside the box.  I want to really remember what that struggle was like for me—and what it is like for millions of families in our country.

But even with all of that, I wasn’t sure that I would do this—I mentioned it to a couple of friends, who yes, thought I was nuts for attempting it.   I was inclined to agree.  I knew enough about this, why go back to the beginning?  My cousin Diana pointed out that I love fresh fruits and vegi’s—how would I make this work?

Super Bowl Sunday decided the thing for me.  I went grocery shopping during the game (I doubt that there is a soul on the planet who cares less about pro sports than me—and the stores are amazingly empty).  I left with $42.00 worth of groceries.  And as I was putting it away, I realized, it wasn’t even a week’s worth of food.  And I am single.  And I barely eat breakfast (yes, I know I should).  And I would like to put more money away in savings.

Two nights later, in a meeting with Diane and Alison (yeah, did either of you suspect you would make an appearance in my blog), I mentioned that I was going to do this as my Lenten practice, to re-center myself on the issue of hunger both in the USA and in the world.

So, starting Monday, February 11, 2013, I will be spending the next 6 weeks (up until Easter) living on $21 of groceries a week.  I have selected several books to read to help me along the way, and I will share them with you, as well as my grocery receipts, recipes, and other thoughts I have along the way.

Any thoughts you have are welcome, just remember, this is a family blog, so keep it clean.