Yelled
at one of my kids today for eating some of my carrots. It's harder to be
easy-going when you are on a tight budget. Heading back out to the
grocery store to fill in holes in my menu planning. I have $10 left to
spend, and then that will be it.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
Day 2. Food Memory.
Breakfast: For me, toast and jam, a banana, a small glass of orange juice -- for Brian, cereal and milk, a banana, a small glass of orange juice
Lunch: For me, leftover lentil soup, a slice of toast, a banana, an apple -- for Brian, leftover pasta, a cheese sandwich, a banana, an apple
Dinner: Round three of lentil soup, pan-fried potatoes with grated carrot
We've been talking about how familiar this food is to us (minus the meat). We both grew up in the seventies and eighties, before the democratization of haute cuisine and boutique ingredients. Fried potatoes, root vegetables. Simple and stewy.
If the taste is simplicity, the rest is complexity. We are already rationing the bread. We left our one jar of peanut butter in the bagging area at Aldi, and it won't be cheap to replace. If I cook five potatoes instead of four, will we have enough for the rest of the week? How many carrots are really in that five-pound bag? What are we going to eat when things start running out?
Lunch: For me, leftover lentil soup, a slice of toast, a banana, an apple -- for Brian, leftover pasta, a cheese sandwich, a banana, an apple
Dinner: Round three of lentil soup, pan-fried potatoes with grated carrot
We've been talking about how familiar this food is to us (minus the meat). We both grew up in the seventies and eighties, before the democratization of haute cuisine and boutique ingredients. Fried potatoes, root vegetables. Simple and stewy.
If the taste is simplicity, the rest is complexity. We are already rationing the bread. We left our one jar of peanut butter in the bagging area at Aldi, and it won't be cheap to replace. If I cook five potatoes instead of four, will we have enough for the rest of the week? How many carrots are really in that five-pound bag? What are we going to eat when things start running out?
This one time
Lenna Tasley-Broome
Hi Food Stamp teamers,
When we have and inherently know we
have - then doing without comes to a choice of 'this one time', 'I have this
everyday and really love it or need it' and most importantly we can cheat a
little. Food Stamp citizens similarly navigate this quandry - resulting
in going without - having to just go without. I'm in a place and
time in my life where finances aren't as robust - and need to budget - but
still I have wiggle room and my mom. It's only me and my pooch and $4.50
a day - yipes. No Panera salad, I guess cause it's simpler
than cooking - which I didn't do much since being in food industry many years
and my beloved never expected from me. No children either a
money credit - an emotional debit.
Yesterday had the Panera salad -
2nite will have frozen veggies, tuna with stewed tomatoes - ya know one of
those meals only you'd eat. I eat dinner only - have a food/weight
schtick - so that's a savings.
We'll see - the blogs were great -
so heartfelt - like being right there with some of you. Thanks.
1 1/2 Days
Cheryl Lyons
Had Oatmeal with raisins for
breakfast. Banana for snack. Cooked northern beans and cottage
cheese for dinner. Did fine. Missed my sparkling water. (12
pack $4.49)
At work today, Monday 11/12 and
started my day with oatmeal and raisins. Brought sweet potato, two boiled
eggs, and 2 carrots, for my lunch and snacks today. J
Hunger Challenge - Day Two
Andrea Kaiser
I began my day with a bowl of steel cut oats/ about 1/4 cup fat free milk with a garnish of four walnut pieces (leftovers from last week), and a tablespoon of cranberry sauce. Nothing else to drink but a little water. I was hungry 2.5 hours later. I waited another hour before I ate.
I made my own tomato vegetable soup for the first time. (I'm not much of a cook, but having to get creative this week in my food choices!) The soup was made with frozen veggies: green beans, corn, julienne carrots, soybeans, canned tomatoes, tiny red pepper strips (more for color!), pearl onions,basil, garlic, and I added half a boiled, red potato. The other half I sauteed with 1 Tbsp olive oil and a seasoning mixture of garlic/onion/salt/pepper. My meal was quite tasty; not exactly filling. I was still a bit hungry. A green apple awaits me in two hours, followed by dinner: 2 slices of ham, sweet potatoes with cranberries--maybe a couple of walnut pieces, and fresh steamed broccoli--perhaps with a little Mexican cheese mixture. At bedtime, I will have 1/4 cup sunflower seeds.
What I noticed:
1.) As I was turning on the water about to wash out the soup bowl, I spotted a couple of tiny pieces of potato, and before the water splashed in, I quickly swallowed up the tiny morsels! In the past, this would have been an appetizer for the garbage disposal!
2.) When you know you can only eat a couple of items at a meal, you tend to TASTE them more than normal! The flavor seemed more enhanced. And I slowed down my eating process, to savor each miniscule bite. Each tiny piece of vegetable came alive in my bowl of soup.
3.) Watching TV can make one hungry quite easily. I am striving to remain busy between meals, so I don't think about my hunger. When I am less busy/active, I am aware of a growling tummy.
4.) Operating at 40-60% full after meals.
5.) Seeing the difference between Lack and Abundance. Lacking food makes me more appreciative for every spoonful.
6.) I am reminded of my parents saying to eat everything on my plate; the children in Europe(China/elsewhere) were starving! That meant nothing to me as a kid, but everything to me as an adult!
7.) Last night, I forgot to pack my food to take to a friend's home. I was caring for her mother for 7 hours: 2-9PM. I managed a small portion of mixed greens, and two scrambled eggs.
To healthy eating!
I began my day with a bowl of steel cut oats/ about 1/4 cup fat free milk with a garnish of four walnut pieces (leftovers from last week), and a tablespoon of cranberry sauce. Nothing else to drink but a little water. I was hungry 2.5 hours later. I waited another hour before I ate.
I made my own tomato vegetable soup for the first time. (I'm not much of a cook, but having to get creative this week in my food choices!) The soup was made with frozen veggies: green beans, corn, julienne carrots, soybeans, canned tomatoes, tiny red pepper strips (more for color!), pearl onions,basil, garlic, and I added half a boiled, red potato. The other half I sauteed with 1 Tbsp olive oil and a seasoning mixture of garlic/onion/salt/pepper. My meal was quite tasty; not exactly filling. I was still a bit hungry. A green apple awaits me in two hours, followed by dinner: 2 slices of ham, sweet potatoes with cranberries--maybe a couple of walnut pieces, and fresh steamed broccoli--perhaps with a little Mexican cheese mixture. At bedtime, I will have 1/4 cup sunflower seeds.
What I noticed:
1.) As I was turning on the water about to wash out the soup bowl, I spotted a couple of tiny pieces of potato, and before the water splashed in, I quickly swallowed up the tiny morsels! In the past, this would have been an appetizer for the garbage disposal!
2.) When you know you can only eat a couple of items at a meal, you tend to TASTE them more than normal! The flavor seemed more enhanced. And I slowed down my eating process, to savor each miniscule bite. Each tiny piece of vegetable came alive in my bowl of soup.
3.) Watching TV can make one hungry quite easily. I am striving to remain busy between meals, so I don't think about my hunger. When I am less busy/active, I am aware of a growling tummy.
4.) Operating at 40-60% full after meals.
5.) Seeing the difference between Lack and Abundance. Lacking food makes me more appreciative for every spoonful.
6.) I am reminded of my parents saying to eat everything on my plate; the children in Europe(China/elsewhere) were starving! That meant nothing to me as a kid, but everything to me as an adult!
7.) Last night, I forgot to pack my food to take to a friend's home. I was caring for her mother for 7 hours: 2-9PM. I managed a small portion of mixed greens, and two scrambled eggs.
To healthy eating!
Making different food choices
Cyndee Levy
We decided to begin tomorrow, Monday, as we could not get our act together before Shabbat. So we have menu planned and gone shopping and will begin in the morning.
We did fairly well shopping; we had a budget of $189 for our family of 6 and we still have $60 left for later this week. The menu planning wasn't too difficult as I do cook almost every night of the week. But we decided to use more frozen veggies instead of fresh as we were able to get more for our dollar. This experience is already showing us that we have to make different food choices in order to have enough and that we will absolutely have to go with smaller portions in order to stretch the dollar, with three 18 y/o boys in the house this will be the biggest challenge.
We decided to deduct $20 from the overall budget for the coffee, flour and sugar, condiments and the like that we will be using. But, we did pull everything out of the pantry that was part of our menus for the week and deducted their dollar value from our budget. Now the pantry is closed for the week.
In some ways we are lucky because of the fact that I cook a lot and my family are already very healthy eaters. So we don't some of the things that families usually have on hand for snacking. My family are also big veggies eaters, salads, kale, greens...the less expensive items that can be stretched a bit further.
We will do without meat, expect we have planned turkey meatloaf for Shabbat dinner.
Thank you again for sharing this experience with us through Mirowitz. I know we will learn a great deal.
We decided to begin tomorrow, Monday, as we could not get our act together before Shabbat. So we have menu planned and gone shopping and will begin in the morning.
We did fairly well shopping; we had a budget of $189 for our family of 6 and we still have $60 left for later this week. The menu planning wasn't too difficult as I do cook almost every night of the week. But we decided to use more frozen veggies instead of fresh as we were able to get more for our dollar. This experience is already showing us that we have to make different food choices in order to have enough and that we will absolutely have to go with smaller portions in order to stretch the dollar, with three 18 y/o boys in the house this will be the biggest challenge.
We decided to deduct $20 from the overall budget for the coffee, flour and sugar, condiments and the like that we will be using. But, we did pull everything out of the pantry that was part of our menus for the week and deducted their dollar value from our budget. Now the pantry is closed for the week.
In some ways we are lucky because of the fact that I cook a lot and my family are already very healthy eaters. So we don't some of the things that families usually have on hand for snacking. My family are also big veggies eaters, salads, kale, greens...the less expensive items that can be stretched a bit further.
We will do without meat, expect we have planned turkey meatloaf for Shabbat dinner.
Thank you again for sharing this experience with us through Mirowitz. I know we will learn a great deal.
I live with a woman
rabbi james stone goodman
I live with a woman who is into this exercise but I can’t
say that it has grabbed my imagination. Yet.
There are some consciousness challenges that arise. I am,
like most everyone else who lives in my neighborhood, a food snob. Everyone
seems to be an expert in food nowadays. My old friend Stevie grew up on frozen
fish sticks and wouldn’t eat a single fruit or vegetable until he was well into
adulthood; today he calls himself a “foodie” and every time I hear him evaluate
an artesian pizza crust or a particular olive oil I wonder who is speaking.
I enjoy shopping at Trader Joe’s, as I see all my neighbors
do. I could lobby for local ordinances every time I go there. But I also
respect the fakery of our lives; Trader Joe’s started with that faux South Seas
routine reminding me of Trader Vic’s when I was a kid. We didn’t have a nickel
and I didn’t go on a vacation until I got married but Trader Vic’s was like
dinner on a cruise.
The poverty of our inner lives; such things work. Everybody
in Pasadena wanted to shop the first Trader Joe’s because of all that
Polynesian narischkeit as you strolled the jungle aisles and left your sad
little Chevy Vega hatch-back life outside. It’s still in business by the way.
TJ’s, not the Chevy Vega.
So we go to Aldi to shop for food stamp food. TJ’s, founded
by Joe Coulombe, has been owned since 1979 by a family trust set up by the late
German businessman Theo Albrecht, one of the two brothers behind the German
discount supermarket chain Aldi Nord.
Ha! It’s the same family! Serving two different worlds in
contiguous neighborhoods that rarely intersect. Who wrote this story, Salman
Rushdie?
It’s the novelistic intersections of these stories that
delight and depress me. I feel like I’m scurrying through this microcosm-maze
operated by mystery relations that intersect in some other envelope of reality;
here we intuit the TJ-Aldi connection, not sure how it plays out, but what it
means on the micro level – we are the snobs who shop TJ and I for one have
never set foot in Aldi and it’s totally a noblesse oblige kind of concept I
admit – I am just like the people I bump into at TJ’s and what a surprise that
I know everybody in the store. I wouldn’t know a soul at Aldi I’m sure. If I
ever went there. Which I won’t.
One other thing. I don’t like the whole subject of food
stamps and poverty. I’d rather not think about it unless I get lost and wander
off the corridor and into the world where I don’t live. So does the rest of
America. How much did we hear about poverty in the last election? How obscene
is that. Lyndon, yours is the last voice I hear in my head when I think
Poverty. A little Bill if I sit with it for a while.
One last thing. In 1971-72, that winter, I was living in the
back of a white Rambler station wagon (American Motors, CEO George Romney hello
again Salman) in a rest area in Phoenix, Arizona. There was a recession then,
those old enough to remember, one would have to line up for blocks and hours to
get gas. I parked my white Rambler station wagon in a rest area in Phoenix,
Arizona, and moved only when the po-lice roused me.
In those days, that part of America was on the move. There
were families living next to me in that rest area rolling across America from
the dying industrial North and Northeast looking for work. I felt like Woody
Guthrie and the dust bowl. At night we would make fires, I sang songs with a
guitar, and on a good night someone showed up with a box of potatoes secured
from who the hell knows where and we roasted them over the open fire. I had no
food stamps ‘cuz I had no address.
That’s another reason I don’t care for this exercise. I had
left home and another life and was trying to start over; I could not ask my
parents for money and there wasn’t a home to retreat to. I considered crime.
I don’t talk about this story much, too soon. It was forty-one
years ago.
james stone goodman, united states of america
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