Thanks to all of you who have responded to the post about Lenten plans. Several have sent recipes for cheap, tasty, nutritious food, and with your permission I'll post some of these.
Now that I'm thinking about the Lenten Poverty Experiment, grocery shopping is turning into a challenging brain exercise. Monday, while at Target, I decided to pick up some canned goods to take to the People's Resource Center. I spent $19.21--about 25% of the weekly food allotment for two (I had no idea how expensive fruit is!)--and here's what I bought:
- Progresso chicken gumbo soup (on sale), 2 cans, 8 servings, 28 grams of protein
- Diced tomatoes, 2 cans, 7 servings, 7 grams of protein
- Corn, 2 cans, 7 servings, 14 grams of protein
- Green beans, 2 cans, 7 servings
- Chili beans, 2 cans, 7 servings, 56 grams of protein
- Applesauce, 12 lunch-sized portions
- Sliced peaches, 2 cans, 7 servings
- Pear halves, 2 cans, 6 servings
- Pineapple, 2 cans, 9 servings
- about a day's worth of protein
- about a day's worth of grains (corn)
- enough fruits and veggies for four or five days (but nothing fresh!)
- milk, yogurt, cheese
- breakfast foods, bread
- meat, beans, eggs
- more vegetables
2 comments:
Forget the canned stuff. Just buy in season (unless you're a food pantry, of course).
Check out my last grocery purchase for produce:
5 small pears - $1.25
large bunch of celery - 1.39
approx 8 bananas - 1.11
1 lb fresh green beans - 1.06
sm bunch green onions - .69
Total FRESH produce - $5.50 for about 20 servings. (or 1 day's worth for our family of 6:))
According to the same government that sets the food stamp allowances (though no doubt a different department), the veggies you bought aren't nearly enough for one day for your family. Go to http://www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov/ and check out the recommended allowances. For you guys, that comes to 10 cups of fruit and 18 cups of vegetables each day (that's assuming four of you are rather sedentary and two of you--you know which two--are moderately active).
Or you could just go by the usual recommendation of at least 5 servings a day--in which case you're still 10 servings behind. Makes you wonder how the government thinks poor families can be healthy.
Now, go out and buy more veggies!
Post a Comment