Today I failed my 2012 Lenten resolution, but hey, it was a rare day off for me, and I slept until 1:30PM. It also made the fact that I spent a third of my food budget for the week on what's simmering now on the stove a little easier to stomach.
So let's talk about the chicken and bean stew for a second. This is part one in my goal to prove that we don't have to turn to the miles of aisles of cheap processed foods in order to feed ourselves on a budget. Sure, it helps to have a little kitchen know-how, but this dish is so simple, anyone could do it. And I'm planning on stretching it for three separate dinners this week, which, once the math is done, makes each serving come to a whopping $2.30 per person, per meal.
I started with $90 for five days for a family of three. I immediately subtracted $15 bucks so my kid can get hot lunch at school all week, and that left us with $75. This stew I'm making cost $20.68 total, and all but two ingredients are organic. It's got a little over 4 pounds of organic chicken wings, drumsticks and hearts, a pound of Flageolet beans (the so-called "caviar of beans"), a couple of onions studded with cloves, some Bay leaves, a little dried thyme, carrots, celery, and salt, and at the end I'll add half a can of diced San Marzano tomatoes, a few cloves of chopped garlic, and some fresh chopped parsley to the mix. It's a great basic stew, no doubt, and I got the recipe from one of my culinary heroes, Jacques Pepin.
One night this week, I'll add some organic sausages to the leftover stew to make it into more of a casoulet style dish. I'll also probably make some cornbread to go alongside. Hopefully there'll be enough left for a third meal. We shall see, but meanwhile, I'm starting to sweat about the rest of the week. I thought this was going to be easy. Clearly, I have deluded myself. By the time Friday night rolls around, we may be eating rice and nothing else. For now, I am salivating, stomach grumbling, ready for a beautiful bowl of this delectable stew that is fogging up my kitchen windows. I promise you, we will savor every bite, and scrape the bottom of the pot before it's all over!
Sam, this is impressive! We just had a Marketing Committee meeting, and our Hunger Challenge participants were not dropping words like "Flageolet" and "casoulet." I was more dropping "celery" and "peanut butter." You're making me hungry...I did make a pea soup tonight, though!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Sam. I think it's important to consider a few questions, as it's really easy for us to overlook our privilege in situations like these. Where did you get your ingredients? Is it a place that is accessible to many of those in the population that utilize food banks (e.g. on a bus line, open late hours, etc)? Or is this food you could easily get anywhere in the city? Also, are your recipes culturally passed down, or from a book or the internet? Realizing that many people don't have access to cook books or the internet is important -- they can cook only what they know. One detail that also struck me was the cooking time of your meal. Many families work long hours or multiple jobs and do not have the time to spent more than 20 minutes on a meal, if that. Even on weekends. I think this is important to keep all of these things in mind when we discuss our playful dabbling into life under the poverty line. We need to continue to see the small privileges we have, even when challenging ourselves. We may never in our lives experience the complexities and struggles that the populations we strive to serve do. I'm not saying that you don't think about these things -- I am sure that you do -- and I really don't mean to be a downer; just providing a small critique. I think it's worth mentioning these things more, and intentionally, in your posts about this challenge.
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