Oregon’s governor finds Polish sausage and hamburger helper staples of a food-stamp budget for dinner. What are good alternatives? Post your thoughts!
(Dry pasta is ok; Hamburger Helper, its kith and kin, and their generic relatives are way high in sodium & artificial not-so-nutritious ’ingredients,’ among which might be potentially melamine-adulterated gluten ’vegetable proteins.’) So how to live on $3 a day, in food, or less?
Here’s a start (skillet supper for two):
1 pkg vermicelli (39 cents)
1 large can spinach ($1.49 cents)
pinch salt
two pinches pepper
pinch nutmeg
two tsps butter or margarine (divided use)
1 clove garlic, crushed
water
3 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese (about 1/12 of a $3 wedge)
2 tbsps flour
1/4 cup dry milk
1/4 cup dry buttermilk powder
1 cup water
1/4 tsp vanilla flavoring
In large dry skillet toast flour; melt in 1 tsp butter; mix milk powders and flavoring into water and pour this into roux; cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Pour up, rinse skillet.
Strain spinach; add enough water to juice to make 3 cups, and bring this liquid to boil in skillet. Add remaining butter, spices and vermicelli; cover and cook 20 - 25 minutes over medium-high heat, until most of liquid is absorbed. Add spinach and heat through quickly. Pour onto platter, spinkle cheese over and top with sauce.
Breakfast muffins:
1 small can pumpkin or 1 large can crushed pineapple
or 2 cans sliced (drain these) carrots, (99 cents)
OR 1 1/2 cups applesauce (79 cents per pint)
1 pkg oatmeal muffin mix (Jiffy brand, $1 for two)
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup raisins or dry cranberries ($2 for 1 lb of raisins or $3 for 1 pkg dry berries; you will use about 1/4 of either fruit)
1 tsp vanilla flavoring
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
water
Preheat toaster oven to 375 F.
If using pumpkin, put canned pumpkin in mixing bowl and add 2 Tbsp water; mix well. Beat in spice, berries or raisins, then muffin mix and turn batter into buttered muffin tin, filling about 3/4 full per cup; bake 30 minutes or until toothpick punched into center comes back clean.
If using pineapple or applesauce omit additional water
If using carrots, lightly drain and mash them; omit additional water
The butter is for stopping the muffins sticking in the tins.
Lunch:
2 tbsp peanut butter (30 cents)
1 tbsp jelly (10 cents)
2 slices bread (50 cents)
1 orange or 1 banana or 1 apple or 1 pear OR 1 individual serving yogurt (59 cents each)
These menus assume that you have a pantry available and access to a stove, although not a microwave.
It used to be possible to keep butter or margarine and milk and eggs in an ice chest, but I am not sure if that is still a price-practical alternative to having a small refrigerator.
The yahoo story about the governor says he can’t afford coffee. That may not be true, but certainly he can’t afford Starbucks. Tea bags, particularly generic ones, are cheaper than coffee, and tea may be made by hanging bags into the neck of a jar or bottle of water. I don’t know if this trick also works with “Folger’s singles” but those are not an economical alternative to regular brewed coffee. In Texas you can buy fairly cheap store-brand coffee for about $3 a pound, and for one or two drinkers a one pound can will last a month.
When I was a (very broke — living on a VA stipend of $280 month, out of which had to come my rent) college student, I used to buy a cup of coffee every other morning at the campus cafe. This would cost me 49 cents, but give me a chance to stock my pantry: I’d slip six or eight extra packets of sugar and creamer into a pocket from the “help yourself” table. I also picked up, from time to time, salt, pepper, ketchup, and crackers. Thievery? Probably; but the cafe only charged a nickel for a pint of boiling water in a styrofoam cup. I could take one of those, a packet of pepper, half a packet of salt, and three foily-envelopes of ketchup and two packets of crackers and have soup for supper. They had a pizzeria line, so crushed red pepper and dried powdered parmesan were also on offer, but I found both of those very nasty. For an extra quarter, that pint of boiling water would come with two packets of ButterNut hot cocoa mix.
I’m no fan of beans-and-rice or generic mac-n-cheese, but I do like canned greens and vegetables or fruits, because you can use them different ways, and you can get them cheaply if you’re careful.
Of course, regular oatmeal is a bargain, too, even if you do the 3-Minute Brand or Quaker Oats; if you use apple juice in place of the water for cooking oatmeal, and add a pinch of spice, you can have a lovely filling breakfast or supper for about 75 cents per person.