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Caramel Crème Brûlée

It's been a while. The last couple months got crazy. I was cooking and baking in December, but was running out of time to blog, hence a backlog of deliciousness that I still must post. Then the new year happened somehow and my time became even weirder. I was barely even cooking. I got to feeling really "off." I'm still trying to regain balance and serenity and am only making food here and there. Hopefully I'll be back on track some time this week.

All that being said, I have some very untimely posts to put up, like this one. I wrote this on December 7th, 2011 and it's only making its debut now. In January. Here it is.

Tomorrow is Tyler's birthday. Treats are in order.

He and I have very different tastebuds, when it comes to sweet treats (salt and savoury, we're peas in a pod). I like dark chocolate, tart tastes like raspberry and lemon. He's the milk chocolate, caramel and apple cinnamon guy. Don't get me wrong; we indulge in the other's preferences all the time, but if left to our own devices, that's kind of our deal in a nutshell.

So what better day of the year than Tyler's birthday to try making caramel crème brûlée? The main thing freaking me out is the making of the caramel. I always get nervous about it burning, so I don't end up making it. However, I trusted the precise timing of Chef Michael Smith, to the very second, and I think it's gonna be great. Smells right, looks right, and is in the oven as we speak. Here's the original recipe.

Also, if you read my other post on the lavender version of this, you'll note that the method is slightly different, but the same.

The main thing that works for this: prepare and measure out everything you can in advance so the timing of the caramel is bang on.

The Ingredients:

• 1/2 sugar
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1/2 cups half and half
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla
• pinch of salt
•  4 egg yolks

The Method:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Make a caramel with 1/2 cup of sugar and the water by placing them in a large saucepot and bringing to a boil without stirring. The sugar will dissolve and begin to bubble. It'll look like this:

Then this.

And then this.

• Let it boil for about 5 minutes, watching carefully as the water boils off and it begins to turn yellow. Gently swirl until the sugar turns an even golden. Take it off of the heat before it gets brown. At exactly - exactly - 5 minutes, my mixture looked like this:

• Now, according to Michael Smith, at this point you do the following: "Quickly pour the milk and cream into the caramel along with the vanilla and salt and whisk until incorporated."
  
  Let me tell you, I did precisely that, and science happened. The cool milk/cream hit the caramel so fast that the liquid puffed up into a crazy substance that can only be likened to that "sea foam" candy. It was sort of like a hardened maze of bubbles. It shrunk back into the pot before I could get a good shot of it.

Here's a fragment of the science that happened.

• So I had the extra step of stirring and melting that hardened sugar back into the cream. Not fun, but it worked. I'm wondering if a step involving warming the milk is missing from the Smith recipe? Anyhow, onto the next actual step.
  
• Whisk eggs and then slowly pour the caramel mixture into them, a little at a time, whisking constantly so you don't cook the egg. This is called tempering.
  
• Pour into 3 or 4 ramekins or crème brulee dishes and bake in a hot water bath in the oven for 30 minutes, or until edges are set and centre is slightly jiggly. It took me a bit longer than that, actually.
  
• Once cooled, chill them overnight in the fridge so they firm up.
  
• Just prior to serving, sprinkle with sugar and caramelize with a blowtorch. I don't know how a recipe can say "blowtorch" without a crapload of exclamation marks following it or underlining it a hundred times. Recipes are so nonchalant.

The results of the dessert were pretty darn good. The creme didn't set quite a much as I would have liked, but the taste was really quite incredibly of caramel! Once I figure out the science, we'll be golden.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns

Yes, another pumpkin recipe. I'm blitzing!

These are super similar to my vegan cinnamon buns, but with some modifications in both flavour and moisture, to account for the pumpkin puree.

The Ingredients:

For the dough...

• 1 1/4 cups of warm water
• 2 Tbsp active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• extra flour for hands and kneading surface
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp margarine (or whatever thing like that you please), room temperature
• 1 flax egg (1 Tbsp ground flax + 2 Tbsp water + sit for five minutes)
• 1 15-oz can pumpkin puree or 1 ¾ cup fresh pumpkin puree

For the filling. Mix the following ingredients together in a small bowl with a fork and set aside:

• 1/3 cup margarine, room temperature
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 2/3 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp nutmeg

The Method:

1. In a medium bowl, mix the yeast and 1/4 tsp of your sugar in the warm water. Let sit for 5 minutes. It will look frothy when the time's up.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add all your dry ingredients: flour, rest of the sugar, and salt. Create a "ditch" in the centre of the dry mixture.
3. Add the yeast mixture to the ditch and begin stirring in the flour gently with a fork.
4. When you've almost mixed it together, add in the margarine, flax egg and pumpkin puree.
5. Knead together with your bare hands and feel awesome and powerful.
6. Once the dough is fairly consistent, move out of the bowl and onto a floured surface, knead for 5 minutes and shape into a ball.
7. Grease an extra large bowl (I just cleaned my original flour bowl and oiled it) and place the dough in there, covering it with a tea tow. Place it in a warm area (or a lightly pre-heated oven) for about an hour. You want the dough to double in size, generally.
8. Punch the dough gently and transfer onto a floured surface. Roll out into an 18×12 inch sheet.
9. Take your now-mixed filling ingredients and use two thirds of it to spread along the top of the rolled out dough, right to the edges. Make sure the filling is evenly spread. As far as I know, this can only really be done with your bare hands.
10. Starting on one end, roll the dough from one long width at the bottom up to the top edge. Gently cut the roll ever 2 inches or so. Place each piece in a baking dish that you've lined with margarine and the remaining 1/3 of the filling.
11. Cover and rise in warm room or warm oven again for 45 minutes.
12. Bake at 325°F for 20 minutes (maybe an extra minute or two).
13. Now here's the trick: I use a Pyrex baking dish that I just so happen to have two of the same size. When the buns are done baking, take them out of the oven, place the second clean dish over the buns and flip it upside down in one fluid motion. The extra sugar filling you lined the dish with will have become molten awesomeness and will coat the buns and seep between the cracks upon flipping, so that the bottom of the buns are now on top in a new dish. Be very careful not to burn yourself from the flip.

The results of the flip make the tops (formerly the bottoms) caramelized and delicious.

Makes about 12 large buns. I made 8 in one pan with the flip step (#13) included and 4 squished into a loaf pan that was just lined with margarine, which resulted in a simpler version (still stupid good).

Pumpkin Lasagna

Here's an experiment that worked out pretty alright - although next time I'm going to make more sauce. But the essential flavour of pumpkin, sage and nutmeg are great fall flavours. This can be made either vegan or not, depending on your preferences. The vegan options are mentioned below.

I based my recipe loosely on this one, but I riffed on it a lot.

The Ingredients:

Fresh pumpkin, seeded and peeled
Olive oil
2/3 brick of medium tofu, although next time I'd used a whole brick (to simulate ricotta)
1 Tbsp fresh sage, finely chopped
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Generous sprinkling of fresh ground nutmeg
Option: can either use real mozzarella or Parmesan, or go with a vegan cheese like Daiya
Another option: 1 egg for binding, but not critical
12 dried lasagna noodles

For the sauce:
2 cups of almond milk
4 Tbsp butter or margarine
1/2 Tbsp sage, minced
2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt (or more to taste)
Fresh ground pepper
Fresh grated nutmeg

The Method:

1. Roast your prepped pumpkin on an oiled cookie sheet until tender, maybe about 40 or 50 minutes at 400 degrees. (See this post for how to prep the pumpkin if you need guidance.)

If you've already got roasted pumpkin on hand, pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Boil a big pot of water with salt and toss in the noodles until al dente. When they're ready, remove from water (don't rinse in cold water) and toss lightly in olive oil so they don't stick together.

3. While the pumpkin is roasting and the noodles are boiling, prep the sauce. In a large saucepan, bring the almond milk to a slow simmer over medium heat. In a large pot, melt the butter/margarine over medium-low heat. Add the sage and garlic to the butter, cook for 30 seconds, then add the flour and stir.

Add most of the milk, and whisk vigorously to prevent lumps. Bring to a boil, while whisking continuously. Add the remaining milk and whisk again. Add the salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Adjust the heat to low to maintain a slow simmer, and cook until the sauce coats the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes, whisking frequently. I found I wanted my sauce a bit thicker, so I took a bit of corn starch, mixed it with water and then added to the sauce, while whisking vigorously. Remove the saucepan from the heat.

4. Prep the filling. Mash together the roasted pumpkin, tofu and seasonings and Parmesan cheese if you're using it. Set aside.

5. Assemble the lasagna. People get so hung up on what to put in each layer, but I generally do:
- Line the bottom of the lasagna pan with a bit of sauce
- Do a layer of noodles
- More sauce
- Noodles
- The "ricotta" and pumpkin filling (and sprinkle shredded dairy or vegan cheese)
- Noodles
- Sauce and cheese

6. Bake in the middle of the oven for about an hour at 375, covered with a cookie sheet. Then uncover and bake for about 15 minutes so it browns on top. Let the lasagna rest for a bit before serving so that it keeps its shape.

The results are a tasty twist on lasagna.

Pumpkin Soup

Typically, this blog is a documentation of trying out new things - the successes and the failures and the in-betweens. But here's a recipe for pumpkin soup I've used plenty of times, but wanted to share with you because it's delicious.

It also has an odd back-story. This recipe is a fusion of two recipes: one from my ex-boyfriend's mom, and one from Tyler's ex's mom. Ever so strange, but the combination of these two women's soups is fantastic. One year we made this for Thanksgiving dinner and my grandma asked if she could keep the leftovers... my grandma! The woman who does nothing but shove food into your face until the point of feeling sick and then sends you home with left overs - she asked if she could have the rest! I knew the recipe was a keeper.

The Ingredients:

1 medium onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

Some fresh ginger chopped

2 carrots peeled, chopped

4 cups of pumpkin peeled, seeded and cubed into 1-inch cubes

Sautee the above in olive oil (5 minutes or so).

Then add:

1 tsp curry

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp thyme

couple of bay leaves

¼ tsp hot sauce

Cook for 5 minutes or so.

Add water and broth or vegetable cooking water (4 cups of liquid in total)

½ cup white wine

Simmer 25 minutes.

Puree until smooth.

Optional garnishes include:
a swirl of sour cream, cranberry sauce and fresh chopped cilantro.

Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake

I was making room in the freezer in order to fill it up again. Coming across a container of rhubarb resulted in a modification of the pineapple upside-down cake from last Christmas. Follow the recipe, but sprinkle frozen-then-thawed rhubarb in, instead of lots of pineapple, cherries and pecans.

The real kicker: Serve it with a dollop of sour cream on the side, with maple syrup and fresh grated ginger stirred in (it's seriously awesome... best invention whim of the week!). Garnish with a bit of fresh basil if you want to get fancy.

Pumpkin Season is Back! Roasted Pumpkin Seeds.

We got an average-sized pumpkin the day before Halloween, but I opted to save it for cooking rather than sacrifice it to the jack-o-lantern-kicking children of the neighbourhood (although I kind of love carving pumpkins).

I've said it before, but, man, one pumpkin goes such a long way. I'm going to return to some of my favourites from last year, like the pumpkin feta muffins, as well as some new things, which you'll just have to wait and see.

First, there's the processing of the pumpkin, which is a heck of a lot work and sometimes I even take breaks. Cut it in half and scoop out the seeds and guts with a spoon. Separate the seeds from the slime and set aside on a cookie sheet. Compost the guts.

Cut the halves into more manageable wedges, a few inches in width. Then, with either a peeler or a knife, peel off the outer skin of the pumpkin. Now you've got pounds of pumpkin ready to roast, put in soup, etc.

Some people roast the pumpkin with the skin on, but it really depends on what you're making. If you're just going to puree the roasted pumpkin in the end, that'll be fine. If you want a particular size of cubed, roasted pumpkin (like in the muffins above), it's best to peel first.

I grew up eating roasted pumpkin seeds as a snack, but my parents always just dry roasted them in the oven with a little salt. This year, I kicked it up a notch and the result was good. I think next time I might add a touch more Worcestershire sauce or a bit of hot sauce.

Preheat oven to 325.

The Ingredients:

1 pumpkin's-worth of seeds
Small splash of olive oil
A couple tsp of brown sugar
Aprox. 12 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
Salt

The Method:

As I said, separate the seeds from the guts and spread the seeds out on a cookie sheet.

Stir the flavourings into the seeds and roast for about 40 minutes. Stir a couple times. Make sure the seeds are nice and dried out, without letting them burn.

I usually store them in a container without a lid on, but do whatever you like. They're good as both a snack and as a garnish on salads and whatnot.

Stay tuned for more pumpkin recipes!

Apple Spice Loaf

A few weeks ago was apple harvest time, and we gladly inherited lovely apples from Tyler's dad, who has a few trees in the backyard that produce delicious fruit. I started out by making a pot of apple sauce (which was loosely based on this recipe... I think... I just haphazardly whipped it up). Then I found a recipe for an apple loaf and adjusted it by: making it vegan, reducing the oil by using apple sauce, and throwing in way more autumnal spices. The loaf = awesome.

The Ingredients:

Bowl 1...

1/3 cup oil

2/3 cup apple sauce
3 flax “eggs”

2/3 cup white sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla

Bowl 2...
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. cinnamon

some ground ginger

some nutmeg
1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp. salt

3 cups apples, diced (don't bother peeling... peel's good for you!)

The Method:

Preheat your oven to 325°F.

Combine and set aside the oil, apple sauce, flax eggs (1 Tbsp ground flax + 2 Tbsp water and stirred together and set aside for a couple minutes + 1 egg), sugar, and vanilla.

Sift flour, spices, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to oil mixture gradually. Add apples.

Bake in 2 regular loaf pans for 70 minutes at 325°F. Cool 10 minutes in the pan then place on cooling rack.

Moist and delicious and so very appley*!

*Not a word.

$4 Food Challenge: Day Six, the Final Day

Yesterday was the final official day of the food challenge, but this isn't the last day that I'll be thinking about the experience and seeing what I can do to help with food security issues for people in my community.

I started the day with steel cut oats for breakfast, and a coffee. Whether or not I'm on this challenge, I usually eat my steel cut oats with nothing but a pinch of salt. My mum tells me my Scottish side really shines in my preference. But this time around, I wanted some extra nutrients so I jazzed it up with some raisins I soaked in water for a minute to soften, some chopped and toasted almonds, and a bit of brown sugar. If you've ever had that oatmeal deal at Starbucks (I admit I have), it was kind of like that, but with delicious, chewy, organic steel cut oats. Yum!

This challenge ended with a special event called the World Food Day Human Library. The human library project entails different people acting as "human books" in which members of the public can "check" us out for a 15-minute conversation about our experiences on a certain topic. In this case, all of the books (about 9 people) were here to talk about food security issues, be it as a $4 food challenger, staff from Winnipeg Harvest, a person who currently lives on social assistance, and more.

What a fascinating afternoon! My head is still overwhelmed with all of the ideas and input the event created.

What ended up happening was small groups of 3 or 4 people would talk to a book at a time, since the attendance was fairly high. These groups were interesting mixes of people: those living on social assistance or disability spoke with politicians; higher-ups at food organizations met students. There were a few media reporters too. (Here's a brief article from the Winnipeg Free Press... not bad, other than the over-emotional photo they chose to go with the story. That's me in the shot. I was listening to an announcement about bathroom breaks when the photographer took the picture, but I sure do look "hungry" or "devastated," don't I?)

The main thing I've been pondering about in this challenge is what to do next. I've been thinking long and hard about how I can use this experience in a concrete way. The first step is talking about it, writing about, sharing it. Yes, it's important that people know what one receives on that budget and how that budget affects someone physically, emotionally, socially and I think even spiritually.

But what is the next action after that? This is what I've been obsessing about all week.

Let's start with a comment from my friend Jason, who works with street youth at a really great place called Resource Assistance for Youth (RaY):

"This is an interesting challenge. Part of me feels that if you 'succeed' that it gives ammunition to assholes who can say 'I told you they could live on this amount'. Since the assistance rate ain't going up anytime soon, perhaps what you learn from this challenge can be used to teach those who live on this kind of budget some nifty tricks. Good luck."

I agree. If I get through this week relatively easily (and perhaps fairly healthfully), how am I helping to raise awareness about how this low budget affects people on social assistance? Well, there are some really major advantages that I have that allow me to do this, aside from the fact that this is only a week-long challenge. Here's the list of advantages so far:

1. I have the skill set to cook well. Something like baking powder biscuits is really cheap to make, but what if you don't know how to make them? Maybe you didn't grow up in a house of people that cooked. Maybe you've never baked before. Not to mention meal-planning skills, nutritional knowledge and math skills to be able to make smart purchases.

2. I have the tools and the kitchen to cook with. I have pots and pans. I have a wide assortment of utensils like spatulas, a rolling pin, ladles, measuring cups, all things that make food prep possible. I also have a few fancier items, like a microwave, a stand mixer, a manual pasta roller. These give me even more recipe options. And, something I'm sure many of us don't even consider: I have access to a kitchen.

3. I have containers to store food in! Not wasting the food you have is a big part of eating cheap. If you don't have much money, are you really going to buy food containers or mason jars or ziplock bags? I doubt it. I do reuse containers and bags from products I've bought from the store, but that's in addition to my drawer full of jars.

4. It took a lot of time to price out my groceries, travel to a variety of stores, plan my week of meals and then literally cook the food. Making things from scratch can be really affordable in terms of money, but a lot of people - like single moms, for instance - don't have hours and hours of time to do food prep.

5. I also made use of personal transportation. We have a car and although I tried keep an efficient and local route to my original 5-store shopping trip, the whole time I was conscious of limitations one would face if they had no car, or bicycle, or money for the bus. You can't walk home with a big bag of flour and produce. It's also not practical to walk or bus to multiple stores. Sometimes the corner store is the "best" option, but there often isn't affordable or healthy food at a convenience store.

6. When I'm not on this strict challenge, I also have the advantage of condiments and spices at my fingertips to kick any meal up to that really tasty level. Who's going to spend $20, $30 or more on a nice batch of spices? 

7. After speaking to a few women at the human library, they also said that their social assistance allowance for housing (about $350, I think? This could be wrong.) is too low so they often have to use money from their food budget just to keep a roof over their heads. One woman told me that she chose to be homeless a few years ago so that she could try to work on farms and eat good food. She's still doing that today. With this $4/day challenge, I didn't have to worry about getting evicted or staying warm. I have enough money for my housing costs and I was able to actually use my full $20 for food.

So. That's a lot to think about.

Like Jason says above, it's not super likely the food allowance will go up any time soon, so how can we as a community make this low budget more liveable for those who aren't willingly partaking in a week-long challenge?

I have some very small seeds of ideas I'm working on. Now this is all preliminary, still very fresh. But us non-$4/dayers could think about banding together to make everyone eat better.

One idea I have is helping out with "kitchen kits." I've been thinking about utensils, pantry items, spices and other kitchen things as "kitchen capital." These items are things we invest in when we begin a kitchen, whether that's moving to a new place or moving out for the first time. They're often one-time purchases, like a new set of pans or a spice rack. But it takes hundreds of dollars to establish this kitchen capital, money that you'd never be able to "invest" in your kitchen if you lived on social assistance. So I'd like to come up with some sort of kitchen kit drive. Putting together boxes of kitchen utensils and other items that many people take for granted. Many of us have pots, pans and other tools that we don't use. Maybe there's a way to get those things to people who could use them? Perhaps we could get sponsors to buy huge batches of condiments and fresh herbs and spices? Is this a good idea? A bad one?

Going hand-in-hand with this... I've also thought about offering free cooking classes, so participants can learn cheap and healthy recipes. It would also be a chance to cook with others. I don't know about you, but I love bonding over cooking. It would also give participants a chance to learn what they can do with those lentils they got from a food bank.

Also, I love community gardens. An urban crop-share kind of idea could be developed, although I think this has to go with cooking classes or other information, since plenty of people don't know what to do with kale, for example. You can't just hand someone produce and expect them to know how to make that enjoyable and palatable.

Phew. My brain is moving a mile a minute. What do you think? I feel like I've only scratched the surface here, but I want to keep this momentum going to hopefully create some change. Thanks to the organizers of the food challenge for asking me to participate in such an enlightening week.

$4 Food Challenge: Day Five

Yesterday went a whole lot better than "rock bottom Thursday." Rewinding a bit, I made dinner on Friday from that can of curry ($1.59) and those Indian roti (also $1.59) I bought at Lucky Supermarket. Flavour! Fat! It was definitely a highlight of the week.

Here's what I had for Friday dinner:

I parboiled some yam, started cooking some brown rice and sauteed up some onion and carrot in a pot.

After a while, I added some split yellow peas to the pot and added the green curry sauce (which had lemongrass, bamboo shoots and other delicious things!). Shortly after, I added some of the canned corn from earlier in the week, and the already cooked broccoli from a previous dinner. Then I cooked it until the peas were soft.

Salad was lettuce, olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and nutritional yeast on top.

The meal was satisfying, and I had lots left over for later, which means that I'll be eating this for a couple more meals.

So that's how Friday ended. Back to Saturday. I ate fruit, some raw almonds and coffee for breakfast.

Lunch was the same curry as the night before and another roti.

See how it's the same photo? Jokes!

Dinner was only a salad with the last of the canned tuna and nutritional yeast. I thought I'd want more to eat, but I suppose my stomach is shrinking a bit. Earlier in the week when the food wasn't all that great, I never had seconds. And since I can't afford snacks and desserts and alcohol, I figure I'm taking in less calories than usual. So yeah, yesterday I didn't eat much, even though I was feeling hungry. Just a small plate was all it took. I love eating so much and this is a very strange physical experience for me.

Oh, a social note: I had two drop-in visits yesterday... some friends and their little guy, and my parents in the evening. It's really weird to not have any food around that I can throw together as a snack to offer guests. I literally gave them water. They all know I'm doing this challenge, but still!

$4 Food Challenge: Day Four

Today I spent the last of my $20.

I did an evaluation of my main foods, like rice, beans and veggies, to see if I could make them stretch to Sunday. All was well. So with my remaining cash money I went out to fix my problems from yesterday. I needed to find something with flavour, maybe a little fat. Something that I would look forward to eating! Well it all worked out. Here's what I got:

1 small red pepper, $0.23 (Lucky Supermarket)
5 onion Indian roti, $1.59 (Lucky Supermarket)
1 can of green curry, $1.59 (Lucky Supermarket)
Small handful of raw almonds, $0.75 (Bulk Barn)
Sultana raisins, $0.33 (Bulk Barn)

Total cost: $4.49


Total amount spent this week on food: $20.12

12 cents over!!!!!!! I'm not too worried; I realized that I'm actually eating on this budget for 5.5 days, so I'm okay with a slight increase.

Breakfast was a pear and coffee, again. I know, I know, totally not a balanced meal. I eat breakfast so late in the day, that it's usually only an hour or two until I eat lunch. Which, by the way, was total junk food: I had the instant noodle soup that cost me $0.33.

That's alright. I look forward to making a healthy and delicious curry and side salad for dinner.

$4 Food Challenge: Day Three

I've been experiencing "food swings."

Things started out fine yesterday (Day Three). CityTV came to my house to interview Anna Weier - a friend of mine and one of the organizers of this challenge - and me about how it was going and why we were doing it.* Well, I felt like I said good things; it was all fairly focused, honest and genuine. I talked about how it was tricky but that I felt that doing this challenge helps create a dialogue with people who've never given welfare food rates a second thought. I don't represent what this budget is actually like for those on social assistance, but at least it's a peek into some of the issues. I was feeling positive.

But by the end of the day, I was sort of grumpy and weird and really not handling this challenge well. At all. My stomach and taste buds were taking me to weird, weird levels.

While I was being interviewed, I was asked to cook for some contextual shots of me in my kitchen. Since this budget is so specific, I had to prep food that I'd plan to eat later. I cooked up my dry pinto beans. Then I used a cup of flour and an egg to make a small batch of pasta. I hung the pasta on wooden spoons between two chairs to dry for my dinner later.

Such a productive way to start the day!

Once the reporter and camera operator left, I dipped into my first major meal of the day.

Things started fine. My lunch was simple but good. Salad with half a can of tuna, nutritional yeast sprinkled on for flavour and tossed in olive oil and lemon. I finished up the yam chips and a biscuit on the side. An apple was my snack later on.

Then I headed out for my afternoon of errands and exercise, returning home with a immense appetite. I polished off the biscuits, peanut butter and half of my last banana. It's never tasted so good.

Then dinner happened.

Thinking about it still degrades my sense of self-cookery.

I sauteed some onion, garlic and added some of the Dollarama tomato sauce. I threw in some of the cooked pinto beans from earlier. There was a bit of cooked broccoli from yesterday; I added that too. No herbs to enhance things, just salt. I cooked up the pasta, and tossed it in the sauce to cook together for a minute. To use up my baking powder "flat bread" I rubbed it with raw garlic and oil and popped that under the broiler. I felt pretty proud of my invention of toasted garlic flat bread.

Well. The pasta was so dull. I kind of burned the flat bread, just enough where you don't really want to eat it, but it's all you got. I called it "flat bread carbonara" to convince myself it was fancy. Funny enough, it didn't work.

With the crappy pasta and the burned bread, I was feeling like I needed to add something. But what? I fried an egg. I figured with the extra exercise the protein would help. Plus, I'm craving fat like crazy. I only realized this afternoon that other than the spoonful of peanut butter and the olive oil, I have no fat in my diet. Anyhow, let's just say the egg didn't salvage anything; it just made it weirder.

This tasted so bad I had to take a break from it.

All in all, it was depressing. I even broadcast it on your friendly neighbourhood social network. My status last night:
"I'm officially starting to find this $4/day food challenge depressing. I've begun to feel like a horrible cook. I know it's not true, but consecutive lame meals become pretty convincing."

How had I resorted to a public cry for sympathy? How much I've changed in three days!

Yesterday was a strange, emotional day. The end.


*The CityTV story doesn't really convey much of what we were hoping to get across, but you can watch it online here.

$4 Food Challenge: A Couple Thoughts

This challenge isn't about saving money, or a cool way to lose weight because you can't afford fatty things like cheesecake. This about some people having very little money for food and others gaining some insight into what that's like on a daily basis.

$4 a day. Think about it.

With this budget, I can't afford to buy healthy organic food.

With this budget, I can't go out with friends for a meal, ever.

With this budget, how much things cost is always on my mind. I can't "relax." I'm constantly keeping track so I have enough to eat later in the week.

With this budget, I can't have treats like a glass of wine or chocolate. It would take up too much of my precious money for food I actually need.

With this budget, I can't afford simple things that help make food taste better, like fresh herbs or balsamic vinegar, for example. If food doesn't taste as good as it can, I'm not nearly as happy as I could feel. I'm already not really looking forward to my next meal as much as I usually am.

Try this for a week and see if you think about welfare differently. I've only completed day two and I'm finding this challenge challenging.

$4 Food Challenge: Day Two

So far today's going fine. Coffee and a pear this morning (I know, not a huge breakfast, but I didn't feel like steel cut oats - one of my five pantry items).

Lunch is leftover soup and biscuits (with no butter of course, too expensive). I can already see how flavour monotony could be a lame side effect of living on $4 a day. Making big amounts of food is cheaper, but wears down your tastebuds after a while. Don't get me wrong, I'm a massive supporter of leftover food and a mega-hater of throwing it out, but you only want to eat the same meal over and over again for so long.

This afternoon I "splurged" and bought a lemon. It cost $0.69, which is a lot for a non-calorie food. But it's gonna be great. I'll enjoy salads! I'll use the zest in things! I'll add a quick squeeze to add a bit of flavour to dishes. I also came across a tiny bag of two apples for $0.30; one was kind of bruised up and the other was fine. Lastly, I came across 4 eggs in the back of our fridge and have "purchased" them at the rate at the local grocery store (6 eggs for $1.55... so 4 eggs are $1.03). If you were paying attention, then you'll note that I've spent another $2.02, bringing my grand grocery total to $15.63.

Dinner features a very simplified peanut sauce, minus traditional ingredients like sesame oil, chili sauce or lime. I cooked up some brown rice, broccoli, salad and yam fries (just thinly sliced, baked on an oiled cookie sheet with a bit of salt sprinkled on top).

I took the bruised apple, chopped it up and threw it in a ramekin and baked it with brown sugar on top for dessert. I had the oven on already for the yam fries, so why not?

Now, in actuality, I don't really recommend this recipe. It tasted good considering my constraints, but I'd really suggest you add hot sauce or fish sauce or sesame oil or lime or all of the above.


The Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup brown rice, uncooked (1 cup water)
• 1 small bunch of broccoli, cut up and steamed
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1-inch cube of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 big spoonful of peanut butter
• Salt to taste
• Small spoon of brown sugar

The Method:

Start cooking the brown rice, since it takes a while. Also steam your broccoli.

In a small saucepan, gently cook the chopped garlic and ginger for a couple minutes, on medium low. Add some salt.

Stir in the peanut butter and thin it with water until it's a bit runnier than you'll want in the end. It'll thicken up. Toss in a bit of sugar, and salt if it's not balanced. Just remember to taste it to get it right.

Turn it up to a boil really briefly, then bring down to a simmer so it thickens. Serve on top the broccoli and rice. Serves one with a bit left over.

In the end, the sauce was good, the yam chips were alright and the apple dessert thing was lame. Don't make that part. No cinnamon and no butter and no oatmeal prevented this from being a delicious mini-sized apple crisp, alas.

Total meal cost*: $1.56

*That is the literal cost, counting every tiny thing.

$4 Food Challenge: The Initial Grocery Trip

Yesterday was the big shop. All week I've been strategizing about how to tackle this challenge: what can be bought and repurposed for a few meals; what will cost less in a can than fresh; what foods still give me the nutrients I need for the week. Since the challenge is so short, spanning Tuesday (yesterday) to Saturday, I've got five days to feed myself on $4 a day, which comes to a whopping $20.

So, I headed out with my $20 bill and a grocery bag, along with a very strategized list and game plan. I plotted my list around meals I thought would be cheap: soup and biscuits, pasta, stir fried vegetables, roasted veg, etc. Then I brought a pen and paper and did some mega price-comparison shopping. I went to five stores that are all on one route, so I didn't have to go all over the city. The price comparisons were pretty astounding in some cases, and definitely helped me make the most of my shopping money (I've never been so excited about saving 10 cents). However: I realize if someone is actually on social assistance, and say they're a single mother, are they really going to have the time and fuel to see where they can save a few cents here and there? Probably not. Although it's possible.

I grew up pretty poor - I was a Manitoba statistic in that we grew up below the poverty line (not sure what that was in the '80s, but we were a family of five on half an income, and at one point, almost no income). So I've got money-saving chops. My parents taught us to buy bulk food, buy day-old food, buy semi-rotten but still good food, to grow food, to make food. All of this takes time though, to hunt around for deals or to think ahead and make your own bread for cheap rather than buying a loaf for 3 bucks.

Yup, time is always a factor.

It probably took me 2 hours to buy $14-worth of food yesterday, but I think I got a good haul. Here's the breakdown:

What I got for $13.61

I broke it down into food groups(ish).

Fruit and Vegetables:
2 lb carrots, $1 (Valu Lots)
796 mL Primo Tomato Sauce (with herbs), $1.25 (Dollarama)
Canned Corn, $0.88 (Superstore)
1 Gala Apple, $0.52 (Superstore)
1 Banana, $0.58 (Superstore)
Head of Lettuce, $0.98 (Superstore)
1 White Onion, $0.58 (Superstore)
4 Bartlett Pears, slightly bruised so %50 off, $0.87 (Superstore)
1 Medium Yam, $0.79 (Superstore)
2 Small Bunches of Broccoli, $0.88 (Superstore)

Grains or Starches:
Couscous, $0.89 (Bulk Barn)
Brown Rice, $0.54 (Superstore, bulk)
1 Package of Mr. Noodles, veg flavour, $0.33 (Superstore)

Flavour Additions:
Nutritional Yeast, $0.30 (Bulk Barn)
Golden Sugar, $0.24 (Bulk Barn)
1 Head of Garlic, $0.13 (Superstore)
Fresh Ginger Root, $0.13 (Superstore)

Protein Sources:
Peanut Butter, $0.45 (Bulk Barn)
Canned Tuna, $0.88 (Superstore)
Dried Pinto Beans, $0.42 (Superstore, bulk
Dried Split Yellow Peas, $0.35 (Superstore, bulk)

Other:
Baking Powder, $0.57 (Bulk Barn)

Total Cost: $13.61, leaving $6.39 for later in the week!

So my main concern for the week is flavour. Spices and condiments are a real advantage to enjoying your food, you know? I'm already so thankful for the 26 cents I spent on garlic and ginger. But if I could re-state my 5 pantry items (which I won't, that's sort of cheating), I would have swapped out salt for some sort of chili sauce, or mustard or something with flavour and then bought a smidge of bulk salt. Yeah, not a lot of "sauce" possibilities here... I bought canned tomatoes with "herbs" to help that out a bit when I make pasta. But other than that, it's tricky. So my remaining money will likely go to a lemon (total splurge, still haven't decided), and a bulk spice... maybe curry? Then I think I could use a handful of almonds, maybe TVP (texturized vegetable protein) and a few eggs to make my own pasta.

Anyhow, my first dinner on this budget is Carrot Ginger Soup and Baking Powder Biscuits.

Start on the soup and while that's simmering, start the biscuits.


The Soup Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• 1/3 white onion, chopped
• 5 carrots, chopped
• 2 stems of broccoli, chopped (May as well use them in a soup! No wasting this week!)
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• A big nub of fresh ginger, peeled and grated in with a rasp
• 1 veg. bouillon cube*
• 2 cups water
• 1/3 cup dried yellow split peas
• A large splash of canned tomato sauce
• 1/2 can of corn

*At the bulk store, there were only meat-based or MSG-based bouillon cubes, so I did a micro-cheat and "bought" one from my cupboard. It would be about $0.15 normally.

The Method:
In a small pot, sweat the chopped onions, carrots and broccoli stems.

After a couple minutes, toss in the garlic and ginger.

Dissolve the bouillon cube in water and add to the veg.

Splash in some tomato sauce, add the split peas and bring up to a boil for a second, then let simmer while you make the biscuits. Don't add the corn yet!

Once the soup has cooled down (and the peas are soft - try one!), blend smooth with an immersion blender and then add in the corn.

Preheat your oven to 425.

The Baking Powder Biscuits Ingredients:

In a large mixing bowl:
4 cups flour (half and half whole wheat and white is good)
2 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

In a measuring cup:
1 3/4 cup water
1/4 cup oil

The Method:

Stir wet ingredients into dry and form into a dough. Roll it out and cut into shapes with a knife.

Bake at 425 for 10-12 minutes.

Yield: about 30 biscuits

There's no way I'd want to eat 30 biscuits this week, so I did a half recipe and rolled some of the dough really thin and cooked whole, to make a flatbread of sorts, which I broke apart into pieces for snacking.

The soup was pretty good, considering I desperately wished I could add curry powder or coconut milk. The biscuits were just like mum used to make. I've got plenty left over for lunches. First day results: not too bad.

One note: Remember yesterday when I commented on how I thought perhaps this low food budget would affect me socially? I've already had to decline a dinner out with friends because of this budget. I felt a little weird and alienated (by choice of course, this is a challenge I accepted), but only one day in and I'm already seeing the effects of food differences on a social interaction level.