Being Poor and Eating Healthy: It might not be as easy as it seems

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Permalink Reply by Compound Egret on August 4, 2009 at 1:52am

Starla said:

Compound Egret said:

3rd night of quinoa experiments down. It kind of feels like the first time I tasted beer; there was all this buildup and then a sense of "is that it?" It's bland on the nasty side, even with stuff like garlic, butter, spinach, hot sauce, and soy sauce added into the mix, but it does fill you up. Maybe y'all can do better than me.

Add some cooked, dried cranberries and chopped mint to it. Tastes pretty good : )

Thanks for the ideas. I think I may donate the last bit of the superQ to local birds and stick to the brown rice.

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Permalink Reply by Boudica on August 25, 2009 at 4:01pm

I decided to just link this here instead of making a new post:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1917458,00.html

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Permalink Reply by Rochelle on August 27, 2009 at 5:04pm

I've seen articles like this for a long while now. When I think about it, it seems worth it to spend the extra money to eat right- I would end up spending that same money for health expenses anyway from not eating right to begin with (colds and such).

I'm a college student, so I have to come up with creative ways to feed myself cheaply. I do notice, however, that when I spend a little bit of extra money to eat right, I feel a lot better than when I start basing my meals around the Dollar Menu.

There are a few discount supermarkets in the area that I go to to buy fruits and vegetables for cheap. The Save-A-Lot is not very good quality, but if you look hard enough, you can find some decent produce for super cheap. (I also shop at this place called J-Mart down the road from my apartment.

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Permalink Reply by Madamoiselle De Sade on August 27, 2009 at 9:09pm

PuellaExMachina said:

I've seen articles like this for a long while now. When I think about it, it seems worth it to spend the extra money to eat right- I would end up spending that same money for health expenses anyway from not eating right to begin with (colds and such).
.

Good point. The long term health complications that sneak up on people kinda cancel out the idea of "saving money" on over processed food. There seems to be to me a lack of care about what goes into the body from most people. And anyone who does care gets called negative names like obsessive and picky and told to eat what everyone else eats, basically. It's more bullying to bring people down.

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Permalink Reply by Compound Egret on August 27, 2009 at 10:18pm

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/health/nutrition/09recipehealth.h...

more recipes here

March 10, 2009
Recipes for Health
Black Beans: Nutrition From South of the Border
By MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN

Many of my vegetarian dishes were inspired by the savory, brothy black beans I lived on one summer in Oaxaca, Mexico. Today, when I yearn for Mexican food, I know I am really pining for black beans. If you’ve spent time in Central and Southern Mexico, in Guatemala or in Brazil, you know how wonderful a bowl of black beans can be if properly cooked.

Beans are nature’s health food. They have an exceptionally high fiber content, and they’re a fine source of protein, as well as calcium, iron, folic acid and potassium. Black beans stand out because in that shiny black coating, there are at least eight different flavonoids, which are antioxidants. Called anthocyanins, they’re found in red grapes and red wine, red cabbage and other dark red fruits and vegetables. Black beans also contain small amounts of omega-3 fats, three times as much as other legumes provide.

Any successful dish made with black beans begins with a great pot of beans, sufficiently seasoned and slowly simmered with lots of onion and garlic until the beans are soft pillows suspended in a thick, inky, savory broth. There’s no comparison between that pot of black beans and the black beans that come in a can. Canned beans lack both flavor and nutrients.

Simmered Black Beans

The key to a great pot of black beans is using enough onion, garlic and salt for seasoning, and then cooking the beans for a long time at a slow simmer. In Mexico, a sprig of epazote or a few dried avocado leaves are usually added to the pot. Those ingredients aren’t as easy to find as cilantro, which is what I routinely use to season the beans.

1 pound black beans, washed and picked over for stones

2 quarts water

1 tablespoon canola oil or extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4 large garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup chopped cilantro, plus additional for garnish if desired

Salt, preferably kosher salt, to taste

1. Soak the beans in the water for at least six hours. If they will be soaking for a long time in warm weather, put them in the refrigerator.

2. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy soup pot or Dutch oven, and add the onion. Cook, stirring, until it begins to soften, about three minutes. Add half the garlic. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about one minute. Add the beans and soaking water. The beans should be covered by at least an inch of water. Add more as necessary, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, and skim off any foam that rises. Cover and simmer one hour.

3. Add the salt, remaining garlic and cilantro. Continue to simmer another hour, until the beans are quite soft and the broth is thick and fragrant. Taste. Is there enough salt? Does it need more garlic? Add if necessary. Let sit overnight in the refrigerator for the best flavor.

Note: If you can get hold of a sprig of fresh epazote, add it to the beans in step 3.

Yield: Serves six

Advance preparation: The cooked beans will keep for three to four days in the refrigerator and will freeze well.

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Permalink Reply by kifaru on September 22, 2009 at 7:20pm

Stamps for fast food?!!? Fast food lobbyists had to advocate for this.

jahluv said:

Just got a bit harder...

-props to the LA Eastside blog for the info...

Jack takes food stamps now... WTF!? When I was a kid and my mom had to use 'em for about a year or so, the cashiers at Boys market would act as impromptu nutritionist - yanking every unhealthful item on the belt 'cause it couldn't be paid for with food stamps. Now you can get your grease on?!

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Permalink Reply by GodsavetheQueer on October 19, 2009 at 4:50pm

If I didn't have food stamps I don't know what i'd do.

Can I just say how pissed I'd be (or am, since it's apparently in practice) if fast food places allowed food stamps??
Payless takes EBT too. Some gas stations do too, which I coulda used a few months ago when I was bummin gas money to get to work.

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Permalink Reply by PurpleZoe on October 26, 2009 at 3:03pm

Groceries used to be ridiculous investments before I started eating a vegan menu. If you're not buying all the meat substitutes it's far from pricey, contrary to popular opinion. After I got used to cooking from scratch (which was totally foreign to me), I found myself amazed at how cheap it is. In this day and age though, growing ones own food is the move. The aerogarden might be a worthy investment. Organicaseed.com sells a variety of non-genetically modified (a.k.a poison) seeds.

As far as food pricing goes beans are highly recommended and crazy cheap (soap them in bulk in huge soup pots, blend them for fryable black bean burger batters and freeze them, etc). You can do just about anything with them: blackbean burgers (flour, water to desired consistency, beans, garlic, onion) , chikpea burgers (see previous), chikpea tuna (add kelp and vegenaise), blackbean brownies (add chocolate powder), Boston baked black beans (add ketchup, mustard, and maple syrup... it's bomb despite the odd ingredients), Blackbeans over regular pasta (bomb). Bean flours (technically you can dehydrate them and grind them to powder at home) can be used for anything regular flours can be used for, like flat breads and etc. They're much easier to make than they seem and you don't have all the extra nonsense added in.

You can do alot with rice as well, including making your own rice milk by blending 1 part rice to 3 parts water, and straining the rice out. Add a bit of salt and syrup to taste and you can achieve a homemade version of Rice Dream.

I think the more we get back to making things from scratch the better off we'll be where food prices are concerned. It's definitely healthier.

Unintentional but relevant plug: Issue 6 of purplemag has a mini green Soulfood cookbook in it that can help with utilizing inexpensive staples. Also useful is the Dirty South cookbook.

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Permalink Reply by Madamoiselle De Sade on October 26, 2009 at 4:31pm

PurpleZoe said:

Unintentional but relevant plug: Issue 6 of purplemag has a mini green Soulfood cookbook in it that can help with utilizing inexpensive staples. Also useful is the Dirty South cookbook.

I sure could go for some spring rolls or some salmon croquettes (not vegan but another southern invention of poverty that is relatively healthy).

It helps to read stuff like Paula Dean's magazine and some kinda fair thing I read for easy, simple recipes for hearty food.
The hardest thing about eating healthy is some people's insistence on "bird food".

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Permalink Reply by Sekou on December 27, 2009 at 2:07pm

I live on 99 cent bean burritos, tortilla chips, salsa, avocados, soyrizo, etc.

but I also have stock staples...rice, canned black beans, large cloves of garlic, green tea, ginger roots


so, you can be poor and eat healthy....most people dont really think of food diversity, they just say "fuck it...Im broke...lemme get a cheap Taco Bell taco and call it a day"...but why?

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Permalink Reply by LesYpersound on December 27, 2009 at 5:18pm

soyrizo?!
i want.

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Permalink Reply by kifaru on December 27, 2009 at 8:28pm

I hear ya but on the real most premade burritos or full of fat and sodium. Likewise yeah you can can eat a mostly bean diet but other vegetables are expensive. I live in greensbor and small haas avocados can cost as much a $2. The prices of veggies go up in the winter too. I'm with you, I'm just saying it ain't easy.

BTW
Where you been?

Sekou said:

I live on 99 cent bean burritos, tortilla chips, salsa, avocados, soyrizo, etc.

but I also have stock staples...rice, canned black beans, large cloves of garlic, green tea, ginger roots


so, you can be poor and eat healthy....most people dont really think of food diversity, they just say "fuck it...Im broke...lemme get a cheap Taco Bell taco and call it a day"...but why?

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