winter wrapup

Now that the pond has fully melted, I *think* spring is here.  So, I better post a few last winter snapshots before they fade away!

 

 

back to the grocery store

Interesting how when I started thinking about feeding my family with food from the food shelf, it became much more personal.  I kept thinking about the many shortcomings of what I had bought for the food shelf family.  The "nonperishable" aspect is something that cannot be avoided and I know that our church has some ways to provide some dairy/bread/produce to families. 

I watched another documentary this week called Food Stamped that was about trying to eat healthy on food stamps.  The basic conclusion was that people eating with food stamps either can't get enough calories in or end up eating unhealthy foods to fill their tummies.

I went back to Aldi because I need a few more things for my family.  For the food shelf family, I decided I would pretend I was down to my last $9.54 for groceries for the week (bringing it to a total of $50) and the long list of shortcomings:

drinks
more snacks
two more meals to cover the weekend
food for breakfasts/lunches for adults on school days

With only $9.54, this was a challenge.  It took me a long time to make my selections. For example, I could buy corn bread mix, but that is of no value if I don't have an egg.  I thought about what I could "live without" and what I consider necessity. As the adult in the family, I resolved I would eat rice and beans for lunches if I could have coffee. In the juice section, I couldn't bring myself to buy the "juice cocktail" in which the first ingredient was water and the second was high fructose corn syrup ($1.19 each).  Instead, I paid $1.49 each for 100% juice.

Food Shelf Family: $11.78  Yes, that's right.  After all my calculating, I actually forgot to include the price of the oatmeal, which I didn't notice until I got home and looked at my receipt.  Had I actually been paying with cash or food stamps, I would have had to put something back!

But I wasn't.  I was paying with my credit card, and not paying a bit of attention.  Now, there's a subject for another day.  On to my family's shopping:

 

$13.59 bringing my total for the week up to $86.83, and let's remember that doesn't include what we consume in meat.  It is a very safe estimate that I have spent at least twice as much feeding my family this week as I have my food shelf family.  And it's only Wednesday.

you are what you eat?

Every March , our church does a food collection for their food shelf.  I usually just grab a case of peanut butter or mac'n'cheese or diapers to contribute.  This year, I had just watched the documentary A Place at the Table so I decided to put a little more thought into it. (As a side note, the documentary was thought-provoking, but it did not particularly convince me that our nation is "underfed" or that it is fully the government's problem.)  Anyway, I decided I would base our contribution on what it would take to feed our family of five for a week.  I considered making a menu for the week and buying exactly double of everything and requiring my family to follow the menu for a week.  After some thought, I couldn't commit to eating out of cans and boxes for a week.  I wouldn't say we have the healthiest menus, but we do eat a lot of fresh produce, and I make many of our meals "from scratch". Instead, I went ahead and came up with a menu for my "food shelf family of five" for the week and simultaneously shopped for my family for a typical week (without a menu, because I'm usually not that organized!)

 

I assumed the children from my food shelf family would eat breakfast and lunch at school, so I came up with family dinners, plus oatmeal for weekend breakfast and granola bars and raisins for a few (but probably not nearly enough) snacks.  I totally forgot about getting anything to drink for my food shelf family and I also didn't think about the adult(s) needing to eat breakfasts and lunches.

 

Here were the meals I purchased for:

 

Spaghetti with meat sauce, mushrooms, can of veggies, can of fruit.

Chicken chili (3 cans), can of veggies, can of fruit, crackers

Tuna casserole (2 cans tuna, noodles, can of cr. of chicken soup, can of veggies), can of fruit

Chicken and rice (Can of chicken, rice, onion soup mix, can of cr. of chicken), can of veggies, applesauce

Chunky Beef and Veggie Soup (3 cans), can of fruit, crackers

"Ham" (Spam) and Scalloped potatoes, can of veggies, can of fruit

Chicken and Stuffing (can of chicken, can of cream of chicken, can of veggies, box of stuffing), applesauce.

 

That's 7 meals, so they are stuck eating leftovers or plain rice or noodles for two more weekend meals.  I also put in a box of Kleenex, because it was on our list. 

 

I did my shopping at Aldi's, where I do much of our family's shopping.  I didn't pay attention to prices or what I was spending until I got home and broke down the receipt. Here is what I purchased for our food shelf family.  When I look at it, I know my kids would "think" they were starving if this was all we had to eat for a week, and it really doesn't look like enough, because we eat more than one meal a day! 

 

Food Shelf Family: $40.46

By comparison, here is what I bought for our family:

Our Family: $73.24

It is easy to see, as in a typical week, most of my shopping happens around the outside parameter of the store (fresh produce - $22.92; dairy - $22.71)  I also bought a few staples we were out of - miracle whip, canned mushrooms, brownie and cake mixes, etc, and some Easter candy.  I spent $4.47 on bread and $0 on meat ($6.27 was spent on canned meat for the food shelf family.)  That's not because we don't eat meat - it's because we buy most of our meat direct from a farmer and it costs way more than 6 bucks a week.  I am also sure that I will end up buying more groceries throughout the week.  However, some of the groceries I purchased for our family will be for kids' breakfasts and lunches (because I think I pack a healthier lunch than what is offered by the school aka gov't).

I would be interested to see a breakdown of the nutritional value of the foods I bought our food shelf family and our family.  My takeaway from this exercise is I am very thankful that we have more than $40 a week to spend on food, and that we are not limited to what is offered at a food shelf.  I hope our food shelf family has a way to get some milk, butter, bread, and bananas! (Lydia eats at least 2 bananas a day!)

soul food roundup

Our soul food menus for February this year included a couple classics and a couple items that were a bit of a stretch for us.

First up, we had Honey-Baked Chicken and Sweet Potatoes with Buttermilk Biscuits.  The chicken recipe was something we had never tried before and was good if a sweet sauce on your meat is something you enjoy.   It was a nice change from fried chicken and all the kids were at least willing to eat some. Lydia helped me make the biscuits from scratch and they were quickly gobbled up.

The second menu was the most difficult to stomach.  We finally mustered up the courage to try chitlins (chitterlings - pig intestine).  This menu started with a history lesson on why chitlins are part of African American culture.  During the time of slavery, slave owners would allow slaves to have the parts of the pig they found less desirable, hence the phrase "living high on the hog". Slaves found a way to make the best of what they had.

Making chitlins required a whole day of simmering, and the whole house smelled...awful.  Chitlins basically tasted like they smelled.  Reggie managed to eat his whole portion, which was better than I could do.   We gave it a try, and then filled up on chicken nuggets and fruit.

Next up, our menu was probably more Cajun than soul food, but another first.  We had frog legs, dirty rice, "fried" okra, and peach cobbler.  Everyone tried everything.  The frog legs...tasted like chicken.  It was mostly a test in mind over matter.

By the time we got to the last week, we were ready for some finger-licking classics. So we had barbecued ribs, mashed potatoes and gravy, collard greens prepared with ham hocks, and iced tea. Yum!  To top it off, we had, hands down, the best sweet potato pie EVER! I honestly don't know how I survived the first 30 years of my life without sweet potato pie.  Oh yeah-with pumpkin pie.  This pie puts pumpkin pie to shame.