Not any more.
These days, we only pay money into credit cards. Purchases may only be made with cash or debit cards. So that meant I couldn't do my usual Friday meal plan and supermarket trip.
This new state of brokeness coincided neatly with Mr. B's having to go out of town for work, taking our one and only car. So I couldn't have gone to the budget supermarket even if I'd wanted to. There's another supermarket within walking distance, but it's much more expensive, and I'd have to walk down some busy streets without sidewalks, which I'd rather not attempt with my precious Baby B in the stroller. Ah, America. The car is king; no sidewalks for you!
So if you're finding yourself without money or vehicle, what do you do for food? You scrounge about in your refrigerator, freezer, and cupboards, of course! (Yet another sign of our privilege, since we have food left over at the end of every week.)
In the refrigerator, I had:
- 1 broccoli crown, wilted
- 1 very ancient bunch of parsley with only a few edible bits
- 1 smallish carrot, wilted and rubbery
- 1 stick celery in a similar condition
- odds and ends of dairy products: a little bit of milk, half a stick of butter, some grated cheddar, a little bit of a Parmesan wedge, half a tub of yogurt
- 6 eggs
- 3 apples of questionable crunchiness
- various condiments
In the freezer, I had:
- frozen corn kernels (lots)
- frozen peas
- half a bag of frozen cherries
In the cupboards, I had:
- the makings of bread: white flour, whole wheat flour, yeast, salt, sugar, oil, etc
- various bags of rice, both brown and white
- various types of dried beans: cannellini, pinto, black
- various odds and ends of pasta shapes
- a can of diced tomatoes
- my handy spice-rack full of interesting spices
- 2 large onions
- half a head of garlic
- steel cut oats, enough for several days
- peanut butter
- quick oats (can't stand these for porridge, but I had them for some recipe or other, and they're bound to be useful for something)
If I'm to be strictly honest, we could survive for an entire week on this stuff, even if it meant we didn't get enough protein and greens. Luckily, I don't need to survive for this long, only three days or so. But this is what we're going to eat.
Breakfasts:
Steel cut oats with frozen cherries and a scoop of plain unsweetened yogurt
Snacks: apples, OR, if they're gross and inedible by themselves, I'll probably improvise an apple crisp or apple muffins.
Lunches: peanut butter sandwiches with homemade whole wheat sandwich bread. Or maybe a cannellini bean dip, if I can stir myself to cook some beans and onions and garlic and blend them with some spices. I don't really have a recipe for this, but if I figure out a really good one, I'll post it.
Dinners:
1) this savory corn pudding recipe, side of steamed broccoli
2) mixed pastas and tomato sauce with grated Parmesan, side of peas
3) pinto beans cooked in the crock pot all day, then sauteed with some onion and spices (probably cumin, or chipotle chile pepper) and served on top of steamed brown basmati rice, side of peas
Then I'll have money, and a car, and I can make a new meal plan. I sometimes think it's a very fine thing that I like eating the same things over and over all the time.
Observations: frozen corn kernels are so, so cheap. Since I probably can't do anything about America's glut of corn and the massive, illogical subsidies given to corn producers, I can at least enjoy the enormous bags of kernels we can get for 78 cents at the budget supermarket. Corn isn't my favorite vegetable, but it's certainly a versatile one. Corn fritters! Corn chowder! The aforementioned corn pudding, of which I have high hopes!
What's more, I'm super excited that our supermarket's store brand canned tomatoes don't have BPA liners. For years, I didn't buy a single can of tomatoes (or many cans of anything else) for fear of health risks associated with BPA. Mostly, only the pricey organic brands do BPA-free cans, but I guess our budget supermarket is so budget that they didn't want to shell out for the liners. Big win!
No comments:
Post a Comment