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.

It's Monday, and it's been a long time since I wrote.  Well, that isn't strictly true.  I have been writing grants at work, which has become one of my new favorite things to do.

The hard part of living here is the lack of a great grocery story (I have mentioned this before).  But tonight I am lucky--I went shopping over the week-end.  I have fresh spinach and mushrooms, potatoes and garlic in the house.  Soon I have potatoes baking.  Which I like a lot.  Potatoes are comfort food extraodinare!  It is so cold out, that a spinach salad sounded like a bad idea.  So instead I sauted the spinach in olive oil with a little garlic and some red pepper flakes (from Penzey's) and mushrooms.  Usually I would top this with Parmesan cheese--but I don't have any in the house.  What I do have is some great mizithra.cheese.  The result is so great that I have decided that I prefer the mizithra over the parmesan.  Next time I think I will throw in some pine nuts or slivered almonds.  A grilled portabella burger and a glass of white wine to finish it off, and I realize I have not been this relaxed in days.  I can feel every cell in my body thanking me for great, healthy food.

I have not been cooking much lately.  This is a shame, as I find cooking very relaxing.  So I made a decision today--I may not have much of a kitchen (all of 2 feet of counter space), which makes cooking challenging, but I am not going to let that stop me any longer.

Plus which, I got all my fruits and vegetables today.  

Why is cooking so great for me?  I cannot really say.  I didn't grow up with a mom that cooked outside of the meat and potato kind of meal, with a can of vegetables on the side.  So it wasn't until I left home that I realized something fairly startling--I had no idea how to cook.

I could make burgers and a roast, boil potatoes, open a can of vegetables, but I had never really "cooked".  Baked, yes.  My mom was a baker (her home made danish pastries are legend in the family), and so I knew how to make a cake from scratch.  

The only dish I knew how to make from scratch was home-made spaghetti. 

I cannot remember the things I tried to cook early on, or when I became fascinated with food.  I know that I was interested in college.  But when I had my daughter, I only had two cookbooks.  And very little ability to use them.

Today, I have a collection of cookbooks that ranges from the basic (Joy of Cooking) to the exotic (Greek Vegetarian).  And I love them all.  Well, almost all.  

I am anxious for summer and a garden to grow again.  

Meantime, I must satisfy myself with great books about food, books that inspire.  Most recent read: "Comfort Me with Apples" by Ruth Reichl.  I know that "Garlic and Sapphires" has been much more popular, but it isn't as fun.  The other fun read: "Plenty".  This one was written by two journalists in British Columbia (our neighbor to the north) and followed them on their quest to spend an entire year eating local--which they defined as 100 miles from their apartment in any direction.

Now, for a second glass of wine, and after that, perhaps a scan through a great cookbook.

And suddenly it is fall.

Summer on the Salish Sea has been delightful.  My garden produced more lettuce than I would ever guessed.  Although I am fairly sure the first planting was killed off when I was weeding (if you haven't had a garden in many, many years, you don't know what a lettuce seedling looks like).

But here is my surprise--I planted three zucchini plants, because I LIKE zucchini.  Everyone talks about zucchini's profligate ways.  But I no longer believe that is true.  Three plants produced a few zucchini, but not the truck-load I was hoping for.

Zucchini is fantastic--I slice it into thin coins, and saute with garlic in olive oil, until lightly browned.  Toss in some fresh spinach, sliced mushrooms and tofu cubes and toss with pasta for dinner.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Nummy.  

Or saute with onions and bacon and toss with pasta and cheese.

Maybe I don't like zucchini so much as I like pasta:)

We have been blessed this year with an amazing fall--today we walked the Pierce County Hunger Walk and it was sunny and 75 degrees.  

So I still have lettuce growing in the garden, as well as basil (which I am digging up to plant in a planter at the apartment for the winter), and tomatoes still ripening.  Peppers also--beautiful deep green bell peppers, wonderfully bright colored banana peppers.  And one lone acorn squash, which may or may not get ripe, but hey, I am pleased to have it growing there.

And I am happy that I will have my apartment for another year--even though I hate and love where I live.  The rent is decent, the manager is great, it has a pool that I used a few times and an exercise room that I use rarely.  

But I am still stuck in my food desert.  No easy access local grocery stores--so once my garden (which is not near by either, but is close to work) is done, I am back to driving further than I should have to for food.

So here is my new vow: it is time to embrace the life that I now lead.  Food desert, mom with dementia, and a job that has it's own set of issues--starting with a paycheck that isn't enough.  

Of turkey, red peppers and polenta

On a recent holiday week-end, we decided to gather at my daughter’s house.  She shares a rental house with two friends in the south sound, and we decided since they have the best kitchen and a large dining room set, we would gather there for our Easter meal.  No one was terribly interested in the traditional ham or lamb, so we went with turkey.

Despite being taken out of the freezer two days before, the turkey is still partially frozen when I start cooking.  (deep sigh).  So struggle number one for the day: getting the turkey prepped.

Before I go any further, I should say a few works about my daughter and her roommate T.  T (whose name I will not use until he gives me permission) is a vegetarian.  That’s okay.  I often eat vegetarian for days at a time.  T is not a zealot about this—he is not trying to force everyone to follow his vegetarian ways.  But a turkey dinner cooked in his house means we need another main dish option, which his mom is going to provide—a tofurkey. 

But vegetarians cannot live by tofurkey alone.  And as I struggle with my turkey, T starts a homemade polenta, with roasted red pepper.  Turning to me, he asks if he can use the oven for a few moments to roast his pepper. 

Distracted by the slightly frozen turkey I am tackling, I tell him to go ahead.  I had already gotten it preheating.  Thirty minutes later my turkey is finally ready to go into the oven.  In it goes, the timer is set, and I go sit down for a bit. 

Fast forward 45 minutes—I go out to the kitchen and find that my turkey is already browning nicely.  Seems quick, but I check the thermostat and it is set at the correct temp.  A few moments later, my daughter notices what I had not: the oven was set to broil.  They have a separate dial for bake or broil.  We quickly change it back to bake, but I worry—what will this have done to my turkey?

So, I wouldn’t recommend broiling at the start of baking a turkey, but it turns out that it is an amazingly moist turkey when it is done.  I have always cooked turkey at  325 degrees for a long time.  That is what my cookbook suggests.  But as T’s mother explains, she often starts her turkey on higher heat for 30 or so minutes—it has a similar effect to a quick braise on the stove top for a roast, sealing in the moisture.  Apparently our broiler accident had a similar effect.  I won’t do it quite that way again, but I am going to try my next turkey on a high heat start.

T’s mom has her own adventures for this meal.  Tofurkey, it turns out, is easy to find at Thanksgiving and Christmas, not so much so at Easter.  She had to go to quite a few stores to find one.

Despite our series of dinner challenges, it was served on time, and it was great!  T’s polenta was creamy and delicious, and reminded me how great this dish can be when you take the time to make it right.  T used a freshly roasted red pepper, wonderful Fontina Cheese, and home-made polenta to come up with a creamy side dish that was wonderful. 

What’s polenta?  Well, it was an Italian dish, and the word itself comes from the Latin puls or pulmentum or more commonly as gruel or porridge.  Before corn was brought to Europe from the New World it was commonly made from chestnut or chickpea flour (who knew?).  Today it is commonly made from corn meal, which can be bought in the bulk section of many grocery stores.  You can use standard cornmeal, or the more coarsely ground cornmeal, depending on how smooth you want your polenta.

This is one of those cases where the Italians take a simple grain (cornmeal) and turn it into something great simply via preparation.  Stirring this a lot while it is cooking results in a creamier texture, as does using milk for at least part of the liquid.  It reminds me in this sense of risotto, which takes rice and slowly cooks in the liquid to make that wonderful, creamy rice dish.

If you make polenta, count on spending 45 minutes at the stove stirring.  But make a big pot, and you can eat it for a couple of days.  I have been known to spread part of it in a cake pan, about ¾ inch thick and put it in the fridge.  Then you can take a piece and reheat it or fry it (it is really good fried!) and eat topped with fresh tomato sauce (or pasta sauce).  

For every 1/4 cup of polenta, you will want 1 cup of liquid.  The liquid can be water or broth, or you can substitute part of the liquid with milk.  When it is thick (really thick!) you can throw in some cheese: Fontina is good.  So it Parmesan, but for this you don't want to use parma from a can--use fresh.  Fresh herbs are good--I like sage or basil, but play with it.    Because playing with your food is good for you:)

On Planting a Garden . . .

In April I checked to make sure may name was still on the waiting list for a pea patch in the Proctor Community Garden.  It was.  I added my name to a community garden closer to me, but wasn’t given much hope.

Then I got a call from church—they were resurrecting the church garden, and I could have a plot if I wanted. I did, but it was already early June. Too late to do much with seeds.  So I started buying vegetable starts.  I have three roma tomato plants, four zucchini (yes, that may be three too many, but I really like zucchini), two types of cucumbers, acorn squash, cauliflower, and bell peppers.  Then there are the herbs—basil, peppermint and lemon thyme.  I wanted sage, but couldn’t find any plants or seeds.  

The one thing I planted by seed was lettuce—which I have had little luck with to date.  But I have started more lettuce in my window at home, and will transplant it in a few days.  I figure that if I work it right, I can have lettuce from late July thru September.  

What do I hope for?  Enough produce to make the weeding and watering worth the effort. Meantime, had a great dessert of local raspberries and nectarines (which were at the peak of ripeness) over pound cake.  Yummy.  Must get some local berries to eat regularly . . . 

But planting a garden brings me to another thought.  The planting of a garden is an act of faith.  You plant seeds (or seedlings) and water them.  Weed around them, and maybe give them a little plant food.  But they are at the mercy of conditions you have little control over: animals, insects, weather, and other humans.

When you plant a garden, you are living in faith and hope that in a few weeks or months you will have this wonderful bounty to show for it.  

My father was a gardener.  When he bought the property he built the house on, he actually purchased multiple plots of land, so he could garden.  The land was rocky--every spring one of us kids would walk in front and another would walk behind dad as he went through with the rototiller; each of us carried a bucket to collect rocks.  By high school, I was sure that we should have picked every rock possible out of that garden, but year after year we still picked rocks.

But we also ate incredibly good food.  Fresh lettuce, home grown tomatoes, beets and carrots, corn and potatoes.  And cherries, grapes and plums from our own trees became jams and jellies that we would ear on toast in the winter, savoring the flavor of summer.

My dad was a child of the depression--born days after the 1929 crash of the stock market, to parents who farmed at the edge of the dust bowl, he understood the value of being self supporting.

So in my garden, I find memories of my dad.  I talk to him, knowing that somehow he would approve of my feeble little attempt to grow vegetables (well, everything except the peppers--dad hated peppers).  And I keep the faith--that there will be fresh tomatoes, wonderful lettuce, and zucchini enough to share with everyone.

Please God, help my garden grow:)

BTW, a great read on the topic of gardening (if you are looking to laugh) is "The $64 Tomato".  Re-read it after planting my garden, and laughed out loud in public (reading at the park).  His trials and tribulations with his home garden/farm will make anyone who has ever gardened laugh (especially if you have done battle with deer, ground hogs and squirrels over first rights to what you grow!).  William Alexander is the author.