breakfast
Oatmeal - (f4Less, on sale, last year some time)
Bananna - FFs
Apple Sauce - My mom & dad gave me some rotten apples they had earmarked for the compost pile. I cut out the bad spots and the cores and made applesauce....an internet recipe, I could dig and find it if I needed to. I froze the applesauce in baggies. Every once in awhile I move a bag from the freezer to the fridge & use it in yogurt, oatmeal, or whatever. Today, oatmeal - oh yeah.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Saturday, April 26, 2014
After googling "Zero Budget For Groceries" and finding folks posting their grocery expenditures of >800/mo for "family of 3", and after similar searches (though not results) for "food bank cooking", I decided to heed the suggestion of a fellow food banker and post my experiences. In the past, I've resisted the urge to do precisely this - I didn't want to be found by family, former colleagues, current neighbors - I confess - all those Facebook photos of dinner at the hottest new Sushi Bar in town, etc, etc, were a bit intimidating.
Since I tend to be on-line while eating meals - (single, no kids) - I figured I could use the blog to keep a record of my nutrition, if nothing else. If you've found me, I hope you find my posts entertaining, if nothing else. Perhaps you'll learn a new trick to get you through your version of tough times. I have to admit - this is the Southern California version of tough times - I have so much to be grateful for there is not time in the day to express it all. I don't know if there is another country on earth in which I could live so well on so little.
No photos for now. No working camera. No working camera on working cell phone. You all will be the first to know if that status changes.
Tonight, dinner is "Food Finders Penne with Fresh Basil and Gorgonzola".
16 oz Penne -
I'm sure every food bank is a little different. Mine is the Food Finders food bank at the local Senior Citizens Center, and I'm not familiar with other food lines except from what I've seen on television/internet. Non-perishable food items are a bit on the rare side on this particular food line - almost everything at "my" food bank is highly perishable: bananas, organic vegetables, breads with no preservatives. This "lucky" bag of Penne came my way via Food Finders via a stocking clerk with a utility knife that slashed a bit too deeply. Yes! Keep up the good work! Thank you!
Water & salt & a dash of olive oil
A year and a half ago I went 3 months with "zero" usage on my water bill. Less than 7 gallons a day gets you zero for one month....I was living in an extreme fiscal conservation mode at the time I achieved the three months at zero status - less than 3 gallons a day? Perhaps as a carry over from that period, or perhaps because I really should be living that way Right Now Today, I did not rinse the pasta. I did not discard the water from boiling the pasta. After straining the pasta I put the pasta water back in the pot and boiled it down (so it would take up less room in my freezer) so I can use it as future soup stock. I do the same when I boil beans, but in the case of beans I usually make the "Bean Stock Soup" right on the spot. Add some seasonings, a few beans, a few diced onions, and voila! But I digress. The olive oil came my way courtesy a Christmas gift I returned to Big Lots and exchanged for laundry detergent, dish soap, comet, and olive oil!
4 oz fresh Basil
What a luxury. I was lamenting not having any salad greens on hand and then remembered the basil. My green leafy for the day. Hooray! Thank you Food Finders and the gourmet grocery store that supplies them. (Am I allowed to mention their name?)
Several ounces grated Gorgonzola (frozen, so I grated it versus crumbling it)
Cheese at my food bank is another rarity, but I was at the right place in line to scoop this one up: a moldy molten mass - pink where it should have been creamy white with blue veins. I know, I know - moldy cheese is only OK to eat if it is one of the "hard" varieties, not one of the soft. But I was really careful to cut off all of the pink stuff & I froze the rest thinking it might kill off the remaining creatures. A neighbor with a mouse problem was the recipient of the moldy leavings - smelly stuff - she put it in some "humane" traps & says she hasn't seen a mouse since.
1 Tbs Minced Garlic
I haven't seen condiments at the Food Bank - well, I think there were a couple bottles of salad dressing once or twice. I purchased 8 oz of Minced Garlic at the 99c Only Store for 99 cents, of course.
Breakfast
So this was dinner. I know it was short on protein, but I really hit the protein hard at breakfast and lunch. Breakfast was 2 corn tortillas (70 tortillas for ~1.89 at Food 4 Less) with TVP (Top Value, 1.49/pound dry), onions, (3 pounds for $1 at Food 4 Less), a dash of chipotle salsa (79 cents a bottle, close out, end of the year 2012 at Food 4 Less), a dash of Tapatio (99 cents only store), beans (50 pound bag at 50 cents a pound, purchased Sept 2011), Rice (20 cents a pound on sale at "Superior" grocery store, purchased April 2012), Corn (massive can of corn I found in the trash & rinsed it 3 times to get rid of the corn syrup, then froze it & used it as needed), and corn oil - added to the "vegetarian ground beef". Oh, and green enchilada sauce I got for free in a dented can without a label. I was hoping for canned tomatoes at the time, so I froze the enchilada sauce for later use. This was later.
Lunch
Lunch was 8 oz of Edemame - courtesy Food Finders - I got quite a few of them last week and froze them. I also had a flour tortilla (FF's) with the same filling as in the corn tortillas at breakfast. I also had an apple (FF's), Oh, and I think I had a Food Finders banana at breakfast. Oh, and two parmesian rosemary rolls (FF's) for lunch.
Reading (and writing) all of this, there is no wonder why I'm overweight. I need to eat less. Next time it needs to be basil salad with citrus, not with pasta.
Since I tend to be on-line while eating meals - (single, no kids) - I figured I could use the blog to keep a record of my nutrition, if nothing else. If you've found me, I hope you find my posts entertaining, if nothing else. Perhaps you'll learn a new trick to get you through your version of tough times. I have to admit - this is the Southern California version of tough times - I have so much to be grateful for there is not time in the day to express it all. I don't know if there is another country on earth in which I could live so well on so little.
No photos for now. No working camera. No working camera on working cell phone. You all will be the first to know if that status changes.
Tonight, dinner is "Food Finders Penne with Fresh Basil and Gorgonzola".
16 oz Penne -
I'm sure every food bank is a little different. Mine is the Food Finders food bank at the local Senior Citizens Center, and I'm not familiar with other food lines except from what I've seen on television/internet. Non-perishable food items are a bit on the rare side on this particular food line - almost everything at "my" food bank is highly perishable: bananas, organic vegetables, breads with no preservatives. This "lucky" bag of Penne came my way via Food Finders via a stocking clerk with a utility knife that slashed a bit too deeply. Yes! Keep up the good work! Thank you!
Water & salt & a dash of olive oil
A year and a half ago I went 3 months with "zero" usage on my water bill. Less than 7 gallons a day gets you zero for one month....I was living in an extreme fiscal conservation mode at the time I achieved the three months at zero status - less than 3 gallons a day? Perhaps as a carry over from that period, or perhaps because I really should be living that way Right Now Today, I did not rinse the pasta. I did not discard the water from boiling the pasta. After straining the pasta I put the pasta water back in the pot and boiled it down (so it would take up less room in my freezer) so I can use it as future soup stock. I do the same when I boil beans, but in the case of beans I usually make the "Bean Stock Soup" right on the spot. Add some seasonings, a few beans, a few diced onions, and voila! But I digress. The olive oil came my way courtesy a Christmas gift I returned to Big Lots and exchanged for laundry detergent, dish soap, comet, and olive oil!
4 oz fresh Basil
What a luxury. I was lamenting not having any salad greens on hand and then remembered the basil. My green leafy for the day. Hooray! Thank you Food Finders and the gourmet grocery store that supplies them. (Am I allowed to mention their name?)
Several ounces grated Gorgonzola (frozen, so I grated it versus crumbling it)
Cheese at my food bank is another rarity, but I was at the right place in line to scoop this one up: a moldy molten mass - pink where it should have been creamy white with blue veins. I know, I know - moldy cheese is only OK to eat if it is one of the "hard" varieties, not one of the soft. But I was really careful to cut off all of the pink stuff & I froze the rest thinking it might kill off the remaining creatures. A neighbor with a mouse problem was the recipient of the moldy leavings - smelly stuff - she put it in some "humane" traps & says she hasn't seen a mouse since.
1 Tbs Minced Garlic
I haven't seen condiments at the Food Bank - well, I think there were a couple bottles of salad dressing once or twice. I purchased 8 oz of Minced Garlic at the 99c Only Store for 99 cents, of course.
Breakfast
So this was dinner. I know it was short on protein, but I really hit the protein hard at breakfast and lunch. Breakfast was 2 corn tortillas (70 tortillas for ~1.89 at Food 4 Less) with TVP (Top Value, 1.49/pound dry), onions, (3 pounds for $1 at Food 4 Less), a dash of chipotle salsa (79 cents a bottle, close out, end of the year 2012 at Food 4 Less), a dash of Tapatio (99 cents only store), beans (50 pound bag at 50 cents a pound, purchased Sept 2011), Rice (20 cents a pound on sale at "Superior" grocery store, purchased April 2012), Corn (massive can of corn I found in the trash & rinsed it 3 times to get rid of the corn syrup, then froze it & used it as needed), and corn oil - added to the "vegetarian ground beef". Oh, and green enchilada sauce I got for free in a dented can without a label. I was hoping for canned tomatoes at the time, so I froze the enchilada sauce for later use. This was later.
Lunch
Lunch was 8 oz of Edemame - courtesy Food Finders - I got quite a few of them last week and froze them. I also had a flour tortilla (FF's) with the same filling as in the corn tortillas at breakfast. I also had an apple (FF's), Oh, and I think I had a Food Finders banana at breakfast. Oh, and two parmesian rosemary rolls (FF's) for lunch.
Reading (and writing) all of this, there is no wonder why I'm overweight. I need to eat less. Next time it needs to be basil salad with citrus, not with pasta.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)