About this Blog

Welcome! Thanks for checking out On Food Stamps.

I created this blog in 2009 when I began working at the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank. My work at this organization opened my eyes to food justice issues in America, and I had a strong desire to better understand the difficulties many people face when trying to access healthy food on a limited budget. So, I embarked on my own Food Stamp Challenge, living on $31/week as a vegan. I used this blog to chronicle my experience.

While my Food Stamp Challenge project has come to an end, you can see what I learned from it by reading the Greatest Hits posts linked to the right side of the page. Please excuse any out-of-date links, as I am no longer updating this blog on a regular basis.

Stay Hungry,

Julie

Monday, May 18, 2009

Big Mistake

Ouch.

I made a huge error just now.

I wanted to cook one of those yams I bought last week for dinner. I popped it in my toaster oven and left it to cook. When I came back 30 minutes later, I realized that I had left 2 precious granny smith apples on top of the toaster and they were now roasting from the bottom up. If I cut the "cooked" part off of the apples, they would have quickly browned and not been too good to eat any longer. I essentially ruined two perfectly good apples that would have been in my lunch tomorrow and Wednesday.

The only option was to cut off the cooked part and eat them right away. So, I made a new type of vegan burrito with the apples. It turned out to be really delicious, but I ate more than I should have (just for the sake of using them up) and really wasted food. This reminds me of a post I read from the Congressional Food Stamp Challenge where on Congresswoman spilled several days ration of milk - she wrote that the phrase "No use crying over spilled milk" didn't really apply to someone on a strict food budget.

Well put. I agree.

I have now experienced first hand just how catastrophic a small kitchen mishap can be when one must carefully ration food. All of a sudden dropping something on the floor, or breaking a jar is a huge problem.

Vegan Burritos with Green Apple:

1 whole wheat tortilla
1 avocado
1 green apple
pinto beans with paprika and lemon water (see earlier recipe)
cracked pepper and salt

Heat up the pinto beans.
Spread the avocado on the tortilla and crack pepper and salt over it. Add a layer of thinly sliced, tart green apple (granny smith is best). Finally, layer on warm pinto beans and roll up.

1 comment:

  1. Did you have any lemon or lime juice? Many times I have preserved apples that were cut by putting a little lemon juice on them, and it works perfectly. I usually have the juice on hand for salads, or cooking, or to add to my water.

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