Day 22 of the Food Stamp Challenge -

My day to day diet has been reduced to 1500-1600 calories a day most days.  Today, however, was Sunday, and church, and there was cake.  And grapes.  And a cheese tray.  I resisted the urge to eat more than one piece of cake, one cluster of grapes and two slices of cheese.  And about four cups of coffee.

I dropped The Daughter at her place, and went grocery shopping.

Yesterday I purchased a small head of cabbage, an onion and two heads of garlic for $2.25.  This means that I managed to come in under goal for the week (but I am still paying off that olive oil!).  Then I blew it by buying a salad (it was reduced down to $2.50) because I was craving it.  

Today's groceries:

2 packages mushrooms, $2.50

carrots, 1.42 lbs @ .59 cents a lb

2 cans reduced sodium black beans, $2.00

yellow potatoes, 2.76 lbs @ .99 cents a lb

bananas, 1.9 lbs @ .54 cents a lb

corn tortillas, $2.99

lettuce, .98 cents

spinach, $1.99

sweet potatoes, .85 lbs @ 99 cents a lb

TOTAL: $16.39

I have a busy week at work, so I planned simple meals.  I still have part of my last bag of baby oranges.  I still have a little milk and cheese, and an open jar of salsa.

I know that the menu is light on grains.  I have part of a loaf of bread left in the freezer, and pasta that I could figure out something to do with.

But I will be eating cabbage-kielbasa soup and black bean tacos a LOT this week.  The soup is on the stove, and I will have a cup for dinner.  Two days I will have a baked sweet potato for lunch.  And there will be soup for dinner at church Wednesday night.    

After shopping, I use the magical medical machine at Fred Meyers.

Blood Pressure: 114/68

BMI: 24.6

Weight: 166.8

So I still lost weight, even with the two meals of pasta last week.

I rarely feel totally full.  You know, that feeling you get when you eat all you can put in your stomach, until you are not just full, you are almost over-full.  

As I said, my day to day diet has been reduced to 1500-1600 calories a day most days.  This works for me, as I can fill up on water.  I work at a desk job (well, a mostly desk job).  If I miss a meal, I can still function, and I have lost weight (which I needed to do).

43 million Americans live this way.  And a large chunk of them are children and teens.  Another large chunk are working for a living at low wage jobs, which typically are NOT desk jobs.  How do they manage it?  Imagine working a job that requires you to move boxes or stock shelves on 1500 calories a day.  Imagine being in school and trying to learn with your stomach empty.  Imagine wanting to play football or basketball in high school and dropping out because you are too hungry to play right or well.

Now, imagine going through it day after day, not knowing when, or if it will ever change. You see on tv that you should have more (thanks American advertisers).  You want more.  But how do you get there?  Hard work--it isn't always enough.  All those people who have jobs and still qualify for food stamps are not lazy.  They simply don't earn enough, in part because of the priorities of their employers.

Today one in five children in the USA now lives in a food insecure household.  ONE IN FIVE.  Too many kids in this country are not getting the nutrition they need to grow and learn and stay healthy.  

Hungry children don't learn well,  Hungry children have more discipline issues in school.  Hungry children are more likely to get sick and miss school.  

We can and should do better.  

    

Day 20 of the Food Stamp Challenge:Living in a desert not of our choosing

It is Lent, and as such there are soup suppers every Wednesday evening at church.  Last Wednesday I was late, after picking up The Daughter from the train station, and get a small bowl of potato soup.  That and a roll was dinner on Wednesday.  And if I had been at home that night, dinner would have been about the same.

On the tables are table tents from Bread for the World, a hunger advocacy organization I deeply admire.  I pick one up and take a look.  The Bible verses are not surprising.  Nore the prayer.  It is the reflection that I pick up on almost immediately:
Lent is a time to remember those who live in a desert not of their choosing, those who have been deserted and long forgotten. (Lawrence Cunningham, emeritus professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame)

A time to remember those who live in a desert not of their own choosing.  

And here is one of the great problems of our society.  We have forgotten that very few people chose to be poor.  Or sick.  Or homeless.  

Once upon a time, this was a country where we looked at our poor, and took up the challenge to change things for them.  Today, we look at the poor and declare them lazy.

And when I say that we once looked at the poor and tried to create change for them, I don't just mean LBJ's Great Society, or FDR's New Deal.  Lincoln is widely remembered as the president who ended slavery.  But he also signed into law one of the first homeownership bills in our nation's history.  The Homestead Act became law in 1862, and provided adult with 160 acres of newly opened land in the West, if they filed the paperwork and paid a small fee.  They had to build a 12 by 14 dwelling on the land, and they had to show that they had never taken up arms against the US Government, and work the land for five years in order to become the full owner.  This of course kept a lot of southerners out after the Civil War, but that is a different discussion.

The idea behind homesteads was simple: provide land for those farmers who were willing to farm it.  Small farmers.  NOT plantation farmers.  And of course, the system was badly abused, especially by the cattle industry, which filed fictitious claims around water sources and then kept farmers and other ranchers from using the water.

Which is to say, we have always had people who cheat the system.

We have a name for such people: welfare queen.

Reagan popularized the term in 1976 while running for president.  In speech after speech he said: There's a woman in Chicago; She has 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security Cards . . . She's got Medicaid, getting food stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names.  Her tax-free cash income alone is over $150,000.'

There is just one problem: she didn't exist.  I don't know if Reagan made her up, if his speechwriter made her up or what, but she didn't exist.

But in that moment, Ronald Reagan, fan of Ayn Rand, told Americans that they were all being duped by those lousy welfare cheats.

This last election season, we heard the story again . . . 
"I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money"
Rick Santorum in a speech in Iowa.

"Over here you have a policy which, with Reagan and me as speaker, created millions of jobs — it's called paychecks. Over here you have the most successful food stamp president in American history, Barack Obama," said Newt Gingrich.

So, let's back up a minute.  Because food stamps are not about "giving you somebody else's money" any more than the Homestead Act was about giving away someone else's land.

We have about 43 million people living on food stamps in this country.  But less than 10% of them are on full welfare benefits.  That means that 39 million people on food stamps are . . . children, the working poor and seniors.  People who are not lazy.  Because they have jobs, or retired from jobs, or are too young for jobs--they just cannot survive without a helping hand.  The same people who make up the majority of clients at food  banks.  

The largest employer of people who receive food stamps in this nation?  Walmart.  Those low, low prices come at a cost to the American public.  In a study of 24 states, Walmart was the largest employer of working poor who received state and federal aid in the form of food stamp and health care benefits.  Next time you go to Walmart, ask yourself if the person who stocks the shelves or runs the check out stand is getting food stamps.  

These are not welfare queens, they are your neighbors.  Your EMPLOYED neighbors  But we don't like to think of the poor as our neighbor.  OR our friend.  Or the person who sits next to us in the pew at church.  

And there is a reason for that: IF we accept that our neighbor, friend or the person who sells us our food at the local store makes so little money that they need food stamps and/or food banks to get by, we also have to accept that it could be US in that spot.

We forget how many of us are a paycheck or two from being there.  It is a lesson that the Great Recession should have taught us, but did not.  So many Americans lost their jobs, their homes, and saw their families shatter and scatter.  And yet, even now, many clamor for cuts to the programs that assist those who lost everything due to nothing they did--but largely due to the excesses of the marketplace.  

We like to believe that people who lose everything did something wrong, which is simply not always the case.  The largest single reason for bankruptcies in this country is medical costs.  You file for bankruptcy because you cannot pay your medical bills.  What, you got cancer on purpose? 

We want it to be the fault of the person who is poor, who is struggling.  Not because it makes us feel superior (although, yes, for some people it does), but because it makes us feel secure.  Surely we would never make the mistakes that that person made.  We would never be in that position.

Lent is a time to remember those who live in a desert not of their own choosing.  

Let me put it another way.  Some of us are poor.  Some of us struggle with depression.  Some of us struggle with addiction.  Some of us are lonely.  Some of us are scared of everything.  Some of us are angry.  Some of us are sick with cancer or AIDS or some other terrible, potentially terminal disease. 

But all of us live in a desert not of our own choosing from time to time.  It may not be the poverty desert, but we will each live in one or more deserts in our life.  We have become good at deciding which deserts are socially acceptable, and which are not, because it makes us feel better about ourselves.  But it doesn't make it right.

It is easier to judge others.  It is harder to not judge at all, and simply offer friendship and a hand to the person you see in need.  It is hard to remember those who are in need. It is easier, more culturally acceptable to think only of our own needs.

In America, the hungry, the poor, the homeless have long been demonized and damned.  Deserted and forgotten. It is time we walked side by side with them.

Today I ate left over spaghetti, an apple, two baby oranges, and a sweet potato.  A glass of milk.  And water.  This cost me very little of my food stores. But I am hungry, so I made a little rice for an evening snack.  And am still hungry.  

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.