#foodstampchallenge Wednesday Wrapup

Wednesday was tough. I got up too late to put together breakfast, then the darn TastyCake people were handing out free mini-donuts... So I drank a lot of water and by lunch things were back on track. We ate:

Bill                         Beth                  

Breakfast 
 ------                       Cereal & Milk    $0.34
Lunch
Ham Sandwich      $1.22       Chicken Salad    $1.03
Banana            $0.33       Banana           $0.33

Dinner
Chicken Frittata  $1.39       Chicken Frittata $1.39

Total             $2.94                        $3.09                                    

So we made it another day.

Thoughts:

I though the ham sandwich was going to be a good way to break up the monotony of leftovers for lunch. It turned out to be incredibly boring. After a morning in the office 'fridge it's texture had become completely uniform and there was no real differentiation of flavors. In retrospect I shouldl have warmed it up in the microwave.

That's it. On to Thursday!

#foodstampchallenge - Monday: Penne w/Eggplant

Adapted from @mariobatali this is one of the most expensive recipes I'll make during the challenge. But it makes eight servings with about 490 calories and 7 grams of fiber each. The official Mario version can be found at Penne al Forno con Melanzane. I've reduced the amount of olive oil used by baking the eggplant rather than frying it (as suggested in the corresponding TV episode) and used plain bottled tomato sauce instead of making Mario's Basic Tomato Sauce.

Ingredients

2 pounds eggplant, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds (about 2 medium eggplant)
4 Tbs (approx.) Olive oil
1 pound penne
2 cups tomato sauce
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/3 cup grated caciocavallo or pecorino fresco (not the hard dry kind)
4 or 5 sprigs fresh Basil
Salt & Pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Sprinkle the eggplant slices with salt and stack them in a colander. Top with a plate and weight it down with a brick or a big can of tomatoes. Let them sit for at least an hour, then rinse and pat dry. Brush the slices on both sides lightly with olive oil, distribute in one layer on a baking sheet and bake until lightly browned.

Cook the penne according to package directions but cut the cooking time in half, about 5 minutes. Drain and  toss with 3/4 cup of the tomato sauce.

So It Doesn't Stick

Brush the bottom and sides of a 9x13 baking pan with olive oil and pour in just enough tomato sauce to cover the bottom. Sprinkle with half the bread crumbs and a little salt and pepper. (The pan in the pictures is actually 10x15 so things are a little spread out.)

Half Way There

Spread half the pasta on the breadcrumbs and top with half of the eggplant. Cover with half the remaining tomato sauce and half of the cheese and half the basil.

Repeat with the remaining pasta and eggplant then spread on the remaining tomato sauce, cheese, breadcrumbs and torn Basil leaves. Drizzle 2 Tbs olive oil over the top and bake for 1 hour.

30 Minutes to Go!

Let it rest for 20-30 minutes before serving.

Incidentally, those keeping score at home may recall that my shopping list didn't have eggplant or tomato sauce on it but it did have $6.98 of budget remaining. On the way home this evening I stopped at Superfresh and bought:

1.95 lbs eggplant                    $2.91

Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce             $2.00

1 lb rice                            $1.55

                                     =====

                                     $6.46

So now we're done - whatever food we have has to last through Sunday.

#foodstampchallenge - Fair Food Farmstand

A quick planning note to my fellow GPFSC participants:

Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market provides SNAP recipients with double dollars up to $10 per week when they pay with their SNAP card. Challengers can spend up to $20 at F.F.F. and only take a $10 hit on their budget for the week.

Philadelphia Food Stamp Challenge - What Does Food Cost?

While thinking about the GPFSC I realized that I don't know what most of the stuff I buy at the grocery store costs. On the tape from this morning's grocery run:

• 1% Milk - $3.56/gallon ($0.028/oz)
• Store Brand long grain white rice - $3.19/2 pounds
• Whole Wheat Bread - $3.59/1.5 pound loaf -18 slices + 1 end.
• Dry pasta all shapes - $1.59/1 pound box
• Large Eggs - $1.99/dozen ($0.17 each)
• Peeled Italian style Tomatoes - $1.50/28 oz can
• Store Brand Italian style sausage - $3.99/1 lb. package of 5 links
• Sorrento Brand "fresh" Mozzarella - $3.99/8 oz ball.
• Store Brand unsalted butter - $2.99/pound ($0.19/oz)

So from this run I can see breakfast as something like:

• 2 eggs - $0.34 (180 calories/12.6 grams protein)
• 0.5 oz (1 Tbs.) butter to cook the eggs -  $0.095 (50 calories)
• 1 slice toast + 0.5 oz butter - $0.20 + $0.095 (90 + 50 calories, 4 g. protein, 2 g. dietary fiber)
• 8 oz Milk - $0.23 (110 calories, 8 g. protein)
• Total: $0.96

Not bad on cost at less than a dollar. There are 480 calories there, 24.6 grams protein, and 2 grams dietary fiber. That's roughly a third of the day's protein for a 200 lb. person but less than 6% of daily fiber need (about 35 grams per day is recommended). And a lot of those calories are from fat.

You can make a baked pasta dish from that list using a pound of pasta, 1 can of tomatoes, the mozzarella and the sausage for a total of $11.07. It makes eight large servings at $1.39 each. (I've rounded up the unit costs in all of the examples.) I'm not sure what eggplant costs right now, but you could substitute an eggplant for the sausage for a rather healthier version.

Of course at this point there's no fruit, the only vegetables are tomatoes, and there's about 4 grams of fiber in the bread and pasta (6 grams if eggplant replaces the sausage).

Edit: Eggplant is $1.69 a pound. So a medium sized eggplant would be about $2.50, saving $1.49 and a boatload of fat and calories and adding about 16 grams of fiber.

Philadelphia Food Stamp Challenge 2012

Beth and I have talked about doing this in the past and this year we're going to go for it. The rules are pretty simple: $64.40 for 2 people for a week not including spices and condiments. Our goals (in addition meeting the basic rules) are a little more complicated:

• Make nutritionally sensible meals
• Make interesting meals with as much variety as possible
• Come in under $64.40 for the week

Most of our fellow Philadelphians eat meals that are far too high in fats and far too low in fiber with large servings of animal protein and virtually no vegetables. So we're going to be going for high fiber, relatively low fat (and much of that from olive oil), vegetables, fruit, rational size servings of protein, and all the spices we can work in.

We've got two weeks to plan...