Could You Eat On $30 A Week?

CNN/theindychannel.com ^ | September 22, 2011 | Sheila Steffen

[Abathar]

(CNN) -- That is the reality for the more than 40 million Americans who rely on food stamps. According to the Food Research and Action Center the average food stamp allotment is just $30 per week.

I began thinking about taking a food stamp challenge earlier this month when I met several women who we profiled on hunger for two CNN stories airing this week. These women had to make tough choices between paying bills and buying food. Often they skipped meals so their children could eat. Often the amount of food stamps they received was not enough.

Living on a food stamp budget for just one week won't begin to put me in these women's shoes or come close to the struggles that millions of low-income families face every day; week in and week out, month after month. But I do expect to gain a new perspective and a better understanding.

[ctdonath2]

Well duh it’s not enough for long-term nutrition, but it will jump-start anyone with enough energy to earn the other $0.60/meal needed for a balanced diet with sufficient variety.

[ctdonath2]

Get a used cast-iron skillet for a couple bucks (if not free) and build a fire in the back yard.

http://abuckaplate.blogspot.com/2011/09/fire-and-skillet.html

[ctdonath2]

#236

[Flamenco Lady]

Since my family’s favorite meal of all times is turkey and all the fixings, I stock up on canned cranberry sauce, canned sweet potatoes, mini marshmallows, canned pumpkin, green beans, French’s onions, mushroom soup, and Stove Top Stuffing mix too around Thanksgiving and Christmas since all that stuff goes on sale then too. While I make stuff completely from scratch for Christmas and Thanksgiving, having the canned and packaged stuff in the pantry helps me throw “easy mini Thanksgivings” on the night I cook up the extra turkeys I bought ahead so we end up having a Thanksgiving type meal once a month from November through March each year.

My family loves this so much that it has simply bcome a family tradition in our home to have these mini Thanksgivings each month thoughout the colder months of the year. We generally eat leftovers for the next two days. I freeze all the dark meat the first night along with the turkey carcas, since my family all prefers the white meat for their Thanksgiving dinner style meals. Then I have the dark meat to use for other dishes throughout the month, and the carcas and the bones from the dark meat to use for making my soups, stews, etc. I pick the meat off the bones too when I cook them down and then throw it into my other dishes.

I figure I easily get at least six meals for my family of 5 out of each 24 lb. turkey and I pay on average about 25 cents per pound for the turkeys, so each trukey costs only about $6.00 each. That means that the meat portion for my family of 5 averages about $1.25 per dinner, so it is quite economical to do.

Turkey breasts also usually go on sale for about $.99 cents per pound around Thanksgiving too. I sometimes pick up several of those too, since I can get at least 4 meals for the family out of that by using the leftovers in other meals. They cook up faster, take up less freezer space and are equally good for use in other meals. Turkey breasts average about 6-7 pounds, so that means the meat for the meals stil averages out only about $1.75 per family meal, so even they are quite economical.

[reformedliberal]

No culinary school, here, but I grew up with a Ukrainian Jewish grandmother and my own mother. Chickens came from the butcher minus the head and the feathers. I received my first anatomy lesson from watching them butcher the chicken. They would peel the feet and put them in the stock. There would be one large unshelled/unlayed egg in a hen. It would be carefully removed w/a slotted spoon and quickly poached in the simmering broth. It was a delicious treat we would wait for.

Skin and fat would be saved to make schmaltz with griebens (chicken skin cracklings). Added wonderful depth of flavor to everything. The old folks would spread schmaltz on a piece of pumpernickle and top it with sliced long white radishes for a snack. Garbanzos were fried in schmaltz and salted for a snack. Livers saved up to make chopped liver. Gizzards/hearts/kidneys saved up to add to rice or gravy.

There is now a gourmand cult of offal among foodies. It is good eating and nutritious.

[Little Ray]

Sounds like a recipe for beri-beri. Better buy some greens, pickles and fruit with the remaining $13.

[ctdonath2]

(something I wrote/spoofed a while back)

Not Being Poor
A Rebuttal to a Whiny Screed by John Scalzi http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/

To not be poor...

...know exactly how much everything costs.

...don’t let your kids waste their lives being indoctrinated by watching TV.

...buy $800 cars because they’re cheaper than fixing a newer one.

...know regular dental care and insurance is cheaper than tooth-rotting sweets.

...take care of your home so your kid’s friends will want to come over to yours.

...don’t be ashamed of saving money or accepting handouts.

...move far away from the freeway.

...buy a month’s worth of rice for the price of one short-lived box of Raisin Bran.

...take a well-off sibling at his word when he says he doesn’t mind when you ask for help.

...buy off-brand toys.

...run a heater in only one room of the house.

...don’t have “friends” who would steal $5 off your coffee table.

...plan for your kids to have a growth spurt.

...teach your kids stealing meat from the store is wrong and unacceptable under all conditions.

...buy Goodwill underwear.

...everyone who lives with you earns their keep.

...know the difference between inexpensive shoes and cheap shoes is not price.

...teach your kids to learn despite 15-year-old textbooks and no air conditioning.

...know $8 an hour is way more than most people on the planet live on.

...know most people don’t give a damn about you no matter how much you make.

...work an overnight shift under florescent lights if need be.

...don’t give your body to a man who you would have to beg for child support.

...be grateful you have a toilet.

...stop the car to take a lamp from a stranger’s trash.

...keep your kitchen so clean you won’t have to worry whether a cockroach will skitter over the bread.

...know a GED actually makes a goddamned difference.

...don’t shop at the mall.

...marry someone whom you trust to watch your kids if you must take a job.

...call the police to bust into the apartment right next to yours if you know they are criminals.

...talk to that girl even if she’ll probably just laugh at your clothes; maybe she won’t.

...invite others for dinner, however humble.

...sweep up a sidewalk with lots of brown glass on it.

...improve your language, knowing others learn about you by the way you talk.

...earn that 35-cent raise.

...make sure library, free and cheap books fill your home.

...go find 120 soda cans to earn that last six dollars for the utility bill.

...pick up and eat that dropped mac and cheese on the floor.

...work as hard as anyone, anywhere - then leverage what you’ve earned.

...don’t be stupid.

...don’t be lazy.

...spend the six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap talking to the cashier about payment options and plans.

...never buy anything someone else hasn’t bought first.

...pick the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that’s two extra packages for every dollar.

...teach your 14 year old to live with choices s/he makes.

...make people tired of you being grateful.

...know you’re being judged.

...buy a box of crayons and a $1 coloring book from a community center Santa.

...check the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.

...know you can always find or make shelter.

...don’t spend that buck on a Lotto ticket.

...don’t hope the register lady will spot you the dime.

...if your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won’t listen to you beg them against doing so, let go.

...don’t ignore a cough that doesn’t go away.

...don’t lease a couch.

...failing any other options, collecting cans included, you can survive a few days without $200 waiting for your paycheck to come in.

...take four years of night classes for an Associates of Art degree.

...sleep on a lumpy futon bed.

...know where the shelter is.

...know that many people who were poor are now not because they chose not to be so.

...quit sniveling over how hard it is to stop being poor.

...use the options you have.

...at minimum, run in place.

...leave.

[ctdonath2]

Already addressed in #241.

[Flamenco Lady]

Here is a link I found for making schmaltz and gribines :http://www.sadiesalome.com/recipes/schmaltz.html

[JRandomFreeper]

schmaltz with griebens

K. That set my mouth watering. I learned about fried chicken skin with onions when I was 21, from a Jewish lay leader in the small community where I was stationed. (he also taught me to read Hebrew)

And everything I've learned since then gives me great respect for the babushkas from the old country.

Dem gals can cook.

/johnny

[ctdonath2]

The Oak Leaf Cabernet Sauvignon is fine, works for me. Hey, I need another case...BTW it comes in a box too, cheaper.

[JRandomFreeper]

Bravo! And a hat-tip.

Your list is accurate.

I would only add that; however meager the meal, thank God for it.

/johnny

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I make wine from Cranberry Juice Concentrate, yeast, sugar & a glass wine jug with a balloon on top. Good stuff!

[reformedliberal]

Just remember that when you render chicken fat and then fry the pieces of chicken skin in it, the heavy odor will permeate your house and there will be a fine layer of chicken fat on the stove top and maybe the splash wall behind the stove.

I do it in the morning of a day when no one else is home and allow myself time to clean everything well and air out the place.

But then, you have deliciousness to add to everything for weeks. Both the schmaltz and the griebens can be frozen and both will store in the fridge for weeks.

Those old grannies could do everything needed to survive, do it well, with grace and flair. Mine could also take a Sunday newspaper, a bolt of cloth, measurements and turn out a 3-piece suit w/2 pairs of pants and with everything done by hand in a day or a day and a half. Take apart a mass-produced suit today and there is barely any fabric and loads of iron-on interfacing. Bubbie used real canvas and horsehair and did padded stitches by hand.

That generation is gone, now. I suppose those of us who remember them will be relearning those skills, if we haven’t retained them.

[Flamenco Lady]

I divide my extra turkey, ham, etc. into family meal size portions and throw each portion in a sandwich bag, and then throw all the sandwich bags in a one gallon size freezer bag, so I can easily pull out just one sandwich bag at a time when I need some for a meal I am preparing.

I use the same process for any family pack size containers of meat I buy at the grocery store, however, for steaks, chicken breasts and pork chops I put one per sandwich bag and then fill up gallon freezer bags with as many will fit in each bag. These stack easily in my freezer and don’t take up a lot of freezer space that way.

While I think of it, I have noticed whole pork loins on sale a lot in recent months here for $1.50 per pound or less. I have been picking them up and cutting each one up into two roasts and then slicing the rest into pork loin chops and throwing them in freezer bags as well.

I make twice cooked pork with any leftover pork loin roast by stir frying cabbage and other vegetables and then adding the leftover cooked pork that I have marinated in a Korean BBQ sauce I buy at a nearby Korean Market. I skip the whole peppers, as it is too spicy for the rest of the family if I add those on top of the Korean sauce which is a touch spicy all on its own. My family absolutely loves this dish.

[Smokin' Joe]

I can eat on $30 a week, but there is no way I'd reach the physical proportions (girth) of some EBT card wielders on that.

Let's not be fooled. There are a host of other options available for food, from church and organizational food banks to Community Action Programs to make sure the poor don't starve. The 'professional poor' are quite adept at using all of these resources, the nouveau indigent are not.

[tacticalogic]

I’m pretty sure I could eat for a month on what it costs to feed Michelle for a day.

[Flamenco Lady]

I already saved my chicken livers and the skin, now I’m going to have to start saving the chicken fat too, so I can try this.

Sounds like your Bubbie was a master seamstress. I used to have a very dear friend from Greece who could sew like that. I never even attempted to make a normal suit, but she did teach me many sewing tricks, and how to make my own patterns.

I did sew an entire and quite authentic Quaker outfit for my daughter when she was in elementary school. (She did a research project for school and had to learn all about how the early Quakers made their clothes including the kind of material they used, the colors of their garments, etc. All the students were allowed to dress in period costumes for their oral presentations. She was estatic when she learned that purple was actually a favorite color for many Quaker women, so of course she had to have her outfit made of purple cloth.) The entire outfit I made included all the garments including the skirt, jacket, hat, and all the muslin undergarments. It was all stitched by hand just as the Quakers would have done.

After making that outfit for my daughter, I can certainly understand how skillful your Bubbie was and appreciate what an expert seamstress she must have been to have been able to make a suit like that!

[seoul62]

My Mother fed a Family of Six, for Fifteen Dollars a week!!! We did not have the luxuries: Summer Camp, Vacations or the Fancy Desserts but we never went hungry and wore clean clothes. I wore hand me downs from my Elder Sister.

[FromTheSidelines]

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
1 5/8 cups water (room temp)

Combine it all together in a big bowl, mixing just until it's blended; small lumps of flour are OK! Takes about 2-3 minutes with a heavy spatula or wooden spoon. You want to mix it until it just pulls together into a sticky wad. It's supposed to look too wet and unfinished!

Leave it in the bowl; cover with plastic wrap and let it sit for 8-12 hours (even 18 is fine). Room temp should be at least 65 degrees. The longer it proofs, the more airy the final loaf will be (the more bubbles develop internally).

Turn the dough out into the center of a floured cheese cloth. Sprinkle some flour (I like to use some oats or other grains sometimes as well) on the top, then wrap the sides of the cheese cloth over it. Let it rise another hour like this.

30 minutes after the placement on a cheese cloth, start up the oven. Set it to 450 degrees, with a dutch oven (with lid) inside. We want it hot!

When everything is warmed up, just turn the dough into the dutch oven - no flour, grease, oil, or cornmeal needed! The dutch oven will be hot enough to "sear" the outside so it won't stick. Put the lid back on the dutch oven, and slide back into the oven.

Bake for 35 minutes at 450 degrees. After 35 minutes, pull the lid and bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes to brown the top of the loaf.

When it's done, turn out on a cooling rack, let it sit for 20 minutes, and enjoy!

If you want a softer crust, then turn the heat down to 400 and don't remove the lid of the dutch oven - cook the full 45-50 minutes in the covered dutch oven. Me, I like a good chew in the middle and crunchy, strong crust...;)