Green and Red Lentils
We’ve really missed our spices this week. Not only do we have a drawer of spices built up from a year’s worth of purchasing, but we are growing a lot of our own spices. Rosemary, in particular, is incredibly easy to grow and can live in almost any conditions. Our rosemary bush cracked under the weight of the snow last year and even that couldn’t kill it. Our state food assistance program allows you to buy both fresh foods as well as seeds to start your own garden. Planting a small container garden at your home, even if all you have is a small porch, sunny kitchen window, or postage stamp back yard is a great way to get more variety in your cooking for very little money.
Now here’s where I confess to you that we broke the challenge today. Long before we signed up to participate in the challenge, we pre-paid for an oyster dinner. The dinner was $20 per person, and it totally breaks the budget for the challenge. So what we decided to do was to make sure we had enough food for the entire challenge, plan out a dinner for Thursday, and then eat it over the weekend as one of our meals. Is that completely fair? No. You see, we ate more calories tonight at our dinner than we would have eaten had we been eating at home. So tomorrow, when we are finishing up the challenge, we’ll start out with fuller bellies than we would have. But, we’d already paid for the dinner, the tickets were non-refundable, and so skipping it wouldn’t make sense.
That dinner, however, gives us a great excuse to talk about something that I haven’t mentioned yet. Dealing with surprises. If we had truly been on food assistance, and had just a few dollars left for the week, we might make a few adjustments here and there. For example, Dick’s offered two for one burgers on Tuesday afternoon. If I had $2 in my pocket, and was living on food assistance, I’d probably have gone down and gotten two burgers. I’d have done it for a couple of reasons. First, luxury. That fast food hamburger, while not all that healthy and not a complete meal, would have made me feel, for a moment, that I wasn’t on food assistance and sometimes that’s exactly what’s needed. The food that wouldn’t have been eaten because of the burgers would have been saved for the next day.
Here’s our breakdown for today (assuming we’d eaten dinner at home).
- Breakfast: 1 handheld frittata each. $1.22
- Lunch: 1 soft taco each. $1.70
- Coffee: $1.05
- Cream: $0.25
- Lots of water: free
- Leftover soup from last night: free.
- 2 oz cheese, snack $0.37
- 2 eggs. Skagit River Ranch. $1.00
Total cost for the day: $5.59
Total cost for the week: $49.46
Since we had nearly the same food today as yesterday, our calorie total would have been similar as well. About 1300 calories. Instead of the chicken breast that we had last night, tonight we planned eggs.
I bought several little snippets of spices from the bulk section at PCC for the challenge. But I wanted more! I also cut some thyme from my backyard in hopes that “foraging” wasn’t cheating.
So how were the oysters?
KitchenSink´s last blog ..Hunger Challenge – TIME
I have several friends here in Vermont who receive food stamps. The friend who tries to feed her family unprocessed healthy food has to add money from elsewhere. Another friend serves her family almost exclusively processed food has money left over every month.
On our supposed “middle class income” after we pay everyone (Student loan, medical stuff, housing…) I have less money to feed my family per person then they do. However I can take advantage of things that they cannot afford. For example we have a CSA and I buy a whole lamb and split a half cow with a friend. I also buy my flour and other staples at Costco, which neither friend can use as they do not accept food stamps.
Both friends still drink coffee, the quality sometimes goes down at the end of the month though…
-Robin
Hippo Flambe´s last blog ..French Crepes
This has been an interesting journey to follow so far!
Jenn AKA The Leftover Queen´s last blog ..Soaked Buttermilk Biscuits with Brunost
[...] Cook Local noted that living with food benefits allows you to purchase seeds to start your own garden. “Planting a small container garden at your home, even if all you have is a small porch, sunny kitchen window, or postage stamp back yard is a great way to get more variety in your cooking for very little money.” [...]
We have been living on food stamps for over a month. There are four people in my family. Here is what we have learned:
- Costco accepts food stamps. This started very recently, I think October 2009. This is a lifesaver. We save and stock up on meats, cereal, tuna, coffee, milk, cheese, onions, potatoes, rice, etc from Costco and then supplement.
- Trader Joe’s is our favorite place for vegetables, even though I have to walk a mile to get there.
- Pot roasts are a perfect dinner. A costco pot roast is meat/mashed potatoes/veggies one night, and yummy beef stew or french dips on homemade baguettes the next night.
We bake our own bread from scratch, always have, but even more so now. Google “no knead bread” for super easy recipes. We also like the French Baguettes on allrecipes.com.
- Seattle farmers markets (including many produce vendors at Pike Place) accept food stamps, although we haven’t tried it yet since it is winter.
- Some things are just silly expensive and we have learned to live without. Juice boxes, potato chips, croutons, deli sandwich meat. We still splurge on our favorite $5 barbecue sauce but use less or thin it.
- I spend more time cooking, even on nights when I’m tired and would normally order in. It takes more planning, and I don’t know how moms who work two jobs to support their families find the time to cook this much as well.
One thing I am finding people on this challenge are doing is spending $2 on burgers when they have it. Food Stamps are on your card, and cannot be used for fast food, or even pre-made takeout food at the grocery store (like safeway chinese, which we don’t eat anyway).
I wish we could join our CSA again this year, but unfortunately will probably not be able to afford it. Being able to use the card at Farmers Markets will be a nice substitute (but hopefully, hubbie will have found a job by summer!)
Thank you everyone for taking this challenge. It adds so much to yours and others understanding of what its like and will help diminish judgements on those who rely on it.
Thank you.
SeattleMama,
Thanks for commenting! You’ve hit on one of the things I feel this challenge is missing… shopping for long term as opposed to shopping for a week. It is great that Costco accepts food stamps now. Good luck with your husband’s job search.
What a great idea, grow your own to add freshness and variety. I’ve been doing the Hunger Challenge all this week too. Have also been frustrated at times by the inability to reach into my pantry for a basic item or spice. I turned to the grocery store bulk bins for spices too. It was a good source, but I miss the ability to adjust flavors as I cook.
If it had only occurred to me, I could have added sprouts of various kinds to salads and stir-fries. I’ve been growing wheat grass for my cat for some time now. Should have been growing some sprouts for us!
Patricia, I’m really enjoying your blog, especially the Hunger Challenge entries. You’ve opened up some interesting avenues. Plus you make it look easy and fun. Thanks. D’s Home Food
Dorri´s last blog ..United Way Hunger Challenge Day 4: Thursday, 1/28/10 – Learning and Cuisine Rapide (Quick Food)
Hey, SeattleMama, what does your husband do? A few openings where I work right now, in better departments than mine. Drop me an email, if you want: john@cooklocal.com