Food Challenge Day 2

Mario Batali was right: “I’m fucking starving.” After crunching the numbers on yesterday’s meal using the super tracker I had only consumed 1200 calories. I set my goal of 2000 per day so I’m trying to tweak a few things but it isn’t easy. The only way I could see me getting close to that is by doubling my carbohydrate portion of the whole wheat pasta. It’s a tradeoff between getting the right proportion of nutrients I set for myself via the Harvard Plate or simply having enough to eat.

It’s a bitch to choose and I can’t imagine having anyone with a family and real responsibilities choosing any other option that satiety. If you’re struggling to pay rent, can’t buy your kid a new toy let alone new clothes I sure as hell would make sure he/she had a full belly. I opted to increase my whole wheat flour intake by a third to stave off some of the hunger pangs. I honestly don’t see a way to ensure 100% compliance with Harvard’s Plate. Vegetables are expensive and there are only so many times you can eat frozen peas, spinach or broccoli before you punch Popeye in the face and defenestrate the Green Giant.

 A Clarification and Public Service Announcement:

As a surprising number of people (more than 2) have read this blog, and have commented and assumed that I am some sort of hippie. I would like to clear this up.

I am not, nor ever will be some unshaven, unwashed, bleeding heart, tree-hugging, vegan, kumbaya singing, save the world acting, morally superior hippie. Hippies don’t contribute to the economy (no job or purchasing power) take up valuable real estate, and spend time bitching about something instead of finding realistic solutions to problems.

I am doing this project:

1. Out of selfishness to earn extra credit in class.
2. To satisfy my own curiosity.

I don’t realistically believe this blog is going to contribute greatly to the issue. At best I hope I, and some of my close friends will read and remark on the challenge casting a tiny light of awareness about food insecurity and the difficulty of living off food stamps.

Back to the blog:           

Besides the hunger thing, I ran into another pain in the ass issue with living off a food stamp budget: social life. After work I was with some of my good friends when they decided to go out to eat at Vapiano’s. I couldn’t join them simply because I couldn’t afford it. Honestly, it made me angry. Not at them (for being inconsiderate and not sensitive to my needs… some friends) but at me and my situation. I’m doing this by choice. I can only imagine the shame and anger one would feel if this was daily life at not being able to enjoy the company of others just because one can’t afford to eat out. Even such a simple thing like grabbing a beer was out of the question. (Large alcohol-related rant to come in future post)

Instead, I came home and made dinner. Even eating the same breakfast and lunch as the day before was becoming monotonous so I opted to make pea soup. I made chicken stock last night with ¾ of the chicken I had for this week. “Stock” or even “broth” is a pretty generous description of what was actually made. Chicken-ish water is probably closer to the truth.

Now, making stock is one of the simple joys of my life. There is something heartwarming and elegant about simmering mirepoix, chicken bones, and herb sachet for hours, lovingly skimming the fat and impurities off, until the entire house smells comfort and peace. When I have the time, I take it a step further to clarify, skim and refine the stock into a rich, lip-smacking consommé. It takes a ridiculous amount of time but it’s worth it.

PROTIP– Use the more gelatinous parts of the animal when making stock. I.E. chicken feet, knuckle bones etc… The higher the collagen content, the more of that lip smacking, tongue sticking to the roof of your mouth goodness you will get.

What I had to work with was nothing like that. Using “techniques” that any decent chef would scoff at and many of my former mentors would beat me for, I browned the chicken legs whole and then filled the pot with water. For this sin, I expect to walk down to street in the near future and be smacked in the head by a cast iron frying pan courtesy of my old stock-master Chef Lousourd.(The French are a touchy lot.) Once the chicken was cooked, I took it out, pulled the meat and stored it in the fridge for future use. No mirepoix, no herbs, no fun. But at least I had some semblance of stock and chicken meat to incorporate into my dishes. (Double Kill)

*Oh the shame.

I took some of the aqua pullus (Chicken water just sounded sad) and defrosted some frozen peas directly into the liquid. I then pureed the boiled peas in a blender to make pea soup. It was surprisingly flavorful and peas truly stand up well to flash freezing. Normally I would strain the pea soup to remove the shell and be left with a velvety smooth pea veloute but I left it all in. Why? Because all the bits were fiber and fiber keeps you full.

That these types of considerations have become necessary, that I’m even considering them is a shocking testament to the stress and consideration that must go into living off a food stamp budget. I’m racking my brain every meal, 2-3 meals ahead planning and optimizing the preparation and exaction of my dishes. It takes up a larger than normal amount of time and if I was a single parent living off foods stamps I wouldn’t have the energy let alone the time to do this even if I had all the culinary and nutrition knowledge in the world.

Food Stamp Challenge Day 1

 

Eating to survive instead of eating to thrive is a concept to which I am wholly unfamiliar. It fucking sucks.

I’m used to restricting my diet and feeling hunger. I’ve had to do it many times for a variety of reasons so the hunger doesn’t really bother me. What’s actually difficult is the lack of choice. It’s stifling. The knowledge that I can’t go out buy coffee or a pretzel that I HAVE to eat in a limited variety with no room for extraneous items is both aggravating and depressing.

Adding insult to injury, cooking has been warped as well. Instead of cooking for flavor I’m cooking for sustenance. For example the pasta sauce I usually make would have been reduced to strengthen the flavor but I had to keep it watery to make sure it would last longer.

Breakfast was an especially sad affair. A one egg omelette with water used to add volume is possibly one of the most pathetic excuses for a meal I’ve ever seen. It’s a sad looking insipid yellow blob accentuated by the even sadder flecks of frozen spinach.

How’s the frozen spinach? Well…Frozen spinach is nutritionally a great option. It has much less water content than fresh spinach, meaning you get more spinach for your dollar, making it economically viable and retains much and possibly even more of its nutritional than bagged spinach.

Blasphemy! I’m sure the cult of unwashed, kale killing, raw food movement would rip me apart with their morally superior fair trade knives but flash frozen (Read loose, not frozen block spinach) is in most cases nutritionally better for you. Fresh spinach actually loses its nutritional value in a few days and will lose most of its nutrients in a week even in the fridge. Flash frozen spinach is frozen a few hours after picking retaining its nutrients and can be stored up to 8 month. So unless you’re eating fresh spinach literally hours after it comes from the ground (and not just talking about doing it in some hole in the wall-free wifi coffee shop) shut up.

HOWEVER, Frozen spinach blows. While it’s decent for sautés and convenience I miss the crunch and vibrant flavor of fresh spinach cooked properly.

PROTIP: Steam, sauté, or blanch spinach very quickly to retain its max nutritional value.

PROTIP-2: Use a little nutmeg if you have it. This psychedelic spice with a violent history pairs very well with spinach. (Use sparingly)

*Don’t ever ever ever ever touch my mise. I will cut you. (More on this rant in another post)

Lunch was surprisingly decent. The tomato sauce while watery was passable and the whole wheat pasta was a palatable alternative. Whole wheat dough is tough to work with. Actually there’s a better way to describe them:

“Whole wheat doughs are a bitch” -Chef Jerry

Chef Jerry is an old mentor of mine from my cooking days and I hit him up to get some tips on working with whole wheat dough. Normally I would use 00 flour, a ton of egg yolks, and barely any water to roll out rich, creamy yet delicate pasta. No such luck today. Armed with only water and whole wheat flour the texture of my pasta was how we say… merde.

Chef Jerry recommended using warm water and salt with a dollop of olive oil and I’ll be experimenting with that in the next few days.

Overall day 1 wasn’t too bad but I’m beginning to experience a sort of stress about food I’ve never had to endure. Cooking for maximum yield has begun to take some of the joy out of cooking and it’ be interesting to see what variety I can come up with despite the limited ingredients.

Stay tuned for tomorrow.

 

Breakfast:

Spinach and Egg omelette stretched out with water.

Lunch:

Whole Wheat Pasta with Tomato sauce

Roasted Cannellini Beans

Spinach

Dinner:

Chicken Leg

Steamed Broccoli

 

Food Stamp Challenge Day 0

Snap Food Challenge:

Total weekly budget: $31.50 $4.50day $1.50 per meal

1 day nutrition requirements:

Approx. 2000 calorie/day diet

50% Veggie/Fruit 25% Carb 25%protein split.

For the next 7 days I will be embarking on the SNAP challenge or more commonly known as the food stamp challenge. While this challenge fails to adequately express the difficulty and true struggle that nearly 1 in 7 Americans face daily it will be a valuable insight and experience.

In conjunction with the SNAP challenge I will, to the best of my ability, try and fulfill a 2000 calorie per day requirement utilizing the Harvard Guide to Nutrition’s My Healthy Eating Plate’s recommendation of a 50% vegetable/fruit, 25% carbohydrate, 25% protein split.

I will note the price, recipe, and nutritional content of each meal through USDA’s super tracker website.

Before I begin I must address a few critical advantages I will have.

1. I have the knowledge and education on what a nutritionally balanced meal and diet is.
2. I have formal chef training from Le Cordon Bleu Paris as well as limited experience cooking in the restaurant industry to draw upon including culinary techniques, budgeting, meal planning etc…
3. I have previous experience planning and portioning meals
4. I have free time to cook and prepare meals

I will write and try to post a short video recap of each day and its unique struggles in the hope of bringing even a small spotlight on the issue of food security and nutrition in the country.

This being the first post I opted for a dry and factual tone. For the rest of the blog posts it will be a stream of consciousness style of writing. I suspect with the difficulty and stress involved with the challenge that my posts may devolve into swear laden rants and complaints.

http://frac.org/initiatives/snapfood-stamp-challenges/

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/supertracker-tools/supertracker.html

Post Shopping Update. WHERE IS THE BACON

I can already tell this is going to suck. Me and my big mouth had to make it harder than it needed to be.

“Were gonna follow the Harvard Plate and try and fulfill all the nutrients needed on a food stamp budget”

I.D.I.O.T.

I wont crunch the nutrition data until the end but I can already tell that Ill fall short. There simply wasn’t enough in the budget to get that many vegetables let alone ANY FRESH PRODUCE. Or garlic, basil, herbs, spices, bacon.

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BAM! For the past 3 hours I’ve been hopping between grocery stores to compare prices and crunch the numbers for an alarmingly long time to ensure that I had a meal plan that wasn’t  too removed from the Harvard plate and had enough calories.

Planning my meals so thoroughly was stressful, mind numbing, depressing all at the same time.

I can only imagine the psychological toll it would take on a person who had to struggle to get food on the table week in and week out.

————————————————————————————————————–

I ended up going to the Foggy Bottom Whole Foods (Bougie for a food stamp challenge no?) and spending 31.59. Yes, its 9 cents over my budget. No, I don’t give a damn.

There are actually some valid reasons for me choosing Whole Foods as my grocery store.

1. While Whole Foods in undeniably more expensive for many items, its frozen and canned food prices actually are better than the local Safeway. Shocking. I.E. WF 365 Canned Black Beans 89 cents, Safeway Brand 99 cents (for 14.5oz)

2. I wanted the best quality possible in my budget

3. The Watergate Hotel Safeway was under renovation and the next closest Safeway on Wisconsin was entirely too far. I would have cabbed it but thought it would be against the principle of the challenge. And walking sucks.

Grocery list:

Item	Price	Total Quantity	Total Price
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour	2.99/2lb	2lb	2.99
Chicken Leg	6.17	4.15lb	6.24
Frozen Broccoli (365)	1.49/lb	2lb	2.98
Frozen Peas (365)	1.29/lb	4lb	5.16
Frozen Spinach (365)	1.69/lb	2lb	3.38
Whole Canned Tomato (365)	.85/lb	3.5lb	2.98
Beans: Cannellini-Garbanzo, Black (365)	.89/can	5.4lbs (14.5oz can x 6)	5.34
1 Dozen Eggs	2.49/Dozen (Cheaper than Safeway by 50cents)		2.49
		Total lb: 19.5lb food + 1 dozen eggs	Total: 31.59

This means I can have about 2.8 lbs of food per day. According to the USDA, the average American eats 4.7lb of food per day… This is going to suck.

*A quick note on the whole wheat flour. While its more expensive than the processed wheat its better for you. A major complaint is that whole wheat pasta is coarse and gummy. A way to mitigate some of that is to use pastry flour which is ground more finely than all purpose flour thereby resulting in a lighter texture. It is however higher in starch and lower in protein content than whole wheat AP flour.

Proof:

Stay tuned for the next post.