Taking the Hunger Challenge Part Deux: Last thoughts

This was not about me. Really. Yes really Amy.

This is about the United Way of King County's annual focus on hunger, public awareness campaign.

Think you know anything about hunger? We don't see starving children begging for food on our streets, yet 1 in 5 children in our community is at risk of going hungry.
Hunger and food insecurity affects 1 in 6 Americans. That's 6 people, sitting at a table, and 1 of them will either go hungry, or will not have enough food to sustain them! In the last four years, Seattle food banks have seen a 30% increase in the number of clients coming to them for help. At the same time, they've had a 31% decline in donations. Read up on this, and other dismaying facts at www.unitedwayofkingcounty.org/hunger

I think the Hunger Challenge was harder this year. It is the same $7 a day, yet food prices are higher. The more gas prices go up, the more food suppliers pass on the added costs to the consumers. This just makes me angry. Are there things I would do differently? Eat more simple bean and rice dishes, try to find cheap produce in bulk. And if I truly had to rely on food stamps, I doubt I would have a car. And I would forage, mmmmm dandelion greens. And I would try to grow some vegetables. And I would fish. But right now, I'm not going to stop talking about this. Hunger awareness needs to be talked about every day.

Day Five. Hunger is not a Game.

Last day of the Hunger Challenge. A review of the current box office smash hit movie
The Hunger Games says hero Katniss makes "impossible choices in the arena that
weighs survival against humanity and life against love."

Wow. Does it come down to that? When you have to make choices about survival, what happens to you? Odd food for thought. If you are interested, go back in this blog to Thursday March 24th, 2011. I mention and reference a book I've read by anthropologist Colin M. Turnbull. A fascinating and frightening account (not a work of fiction) of a REAL LIFE timeline of the displaced Ik people living in the mountains of northeastern Uganda. In his book The Mountain People, Dr. Turnbull describes the Ik as a people forced to carry out extreme personal practices in order to survive.

Frankly, my darlings I think we are all being prepared for real time roles in The Running Man.







Right, now where was I? Food for Day 5. Started the day with the last of the barley flakes, with just a splash of rice milk. Had this with a delicious smoothie; a banana, half of the leftover vanilla soy yogurt, and the last of the Rice Dream rice milk. Lunch: tofu salad and rice crackers. Dinner was what I was really looking forward to.

As Forrest Gump would say, "Shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbeque it, boil it, bake it, saute it. There's um, shrimp kebabs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, pan fried, deep fried, stir fried. There's pineapple shrimp and lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich...That's about it."

So I chose to stir fry it in olive oil with the last of the garlic and green onions, splashed with the remaing half Meyer lemon. And remember the pickle juice I paid so dearly for? I put that to very good use. The night before, after I squeezed out all the juice, I minced up the rind and let it marinate in the pickle juice. This I also added at the last minute to my shrimp stir fry. It was REALLY good. Had that with the last of my brown rice.

Midnight. Challenge over.

This is what I have left, Most of the tub of Melt, to use with the last of my popcorn, I guess. A package of lemon grass noodle soup. Smidgens of honey and olive oil. A few dustings worth of curry powder. About 1/4 left of a box of rice crackers, and enough yerba mate tea to make a least four good cups.

A dietary personal challenge for me this year, besides trying to eat mostly organic, was to stay away from wheat- and gluten-ladened products. I've discovered I'm wheat sensitive. How can I tell? I feel lots better when I don't eat wheat. No bloating, no gastrointestinal issues.

This could be very difficult for someone who has an allergy or intolerance to certain foods when trying to live on a very limited food budget. Most carbs for the buck contain wheat. Well, I say we food allergy suffers must stand up and show some pride!

Coming next, Conclusion of the Hunger Challenge. Stay posted.

The conclusion of day four. A Happy Ending Ending.

No Mr. David, not THAT kind of happy ending.


My last visit to QFC. Motivated by an advertisement of fresh caught wild dover sole for $4.99 lb. Except when I get there after 8 pm the fish counter is closed and the wrapped fish section does not have any sole. How sad is that? However, there was fresh wild caught USA shrimp on sale for $8.99 lb. Bought a very good serving size for $2.88. Exciting in the mouth drooling way.

Feeling sassy with still money in hand I bought a vanilla soy yogurt for $1.19 and a caramel fudge chocolate LUNA bar for $1.00. This was my very tasty late night desert mixed together. A very happy ending indeed.

Now any ideas on what I can buy with $0.32?


Next post will be about the last day of the Hunger Challenge. Right now the sun is out!

Thursday Day 4. A better day

What I ate.

Breakfast. You should always eat breakfast. I'll tell you why at the end of this Challenge -- and how I was able to lose 15 lb.!!! by eating. And this is BEFORE the start of the Challenge. One bowl of steel cut oats (I really like these better than rolled), chopped apple, splash of rice milk.

Lunch. Now this is a dish I often make for myself.

Washed and dried mixed greens, chopped green onion and celery, sliced carrots. Dash of olive oil, lemon juice (from the yummy Meyer) and a can of high protein, calcium rich, lemon cracked pepper herring. Salt and pepper and delicious.

For dinner, now I'm feeling good about eating well; a bowl of rice penne pasta with steamed broccoli and the last of my zucchini, sauteed with olive oil and minced garlic. This satisfies my carb urgings too, in a healthy way.

My next posting will be about a shopping spree with $5.00 and change, and a happy ending.

Wednesday. A not so good day.

But at least I've been enjoying my coffee, Dude.

Thanks again to Diana for the tip on stretching coffee beans. Grind on 'espresso' setting, then use in a French press. Enjoying two cups per day, and will have enough coffee to make it through this Challenge. This is something I can believe in. I'm not a nihilist.

So coffee in the morning, then tea in the evening. This is a fine cup of yerba mate.

Yeah, I know, it's an elephant cup. Don't mess with it.

Cooking and then eating. Had barley flakes for breakfast, sliced banana, splash of rice milk. I thought of toasting the barley flakes, but because they are a hardier grain, I thought not. You even have to cook the flakes a little bit longer to make them truly palatable.

For lunch and nibbles, good with rice crackers, I made a tofu salad. I steamed the tofu for about 8 minutes or so. This gets rid of the beany taste. I drained it and chopped it up with some minced carrot, green onion, celery, curry powder, salt and pepper, and pickle juice. Not bad, actually, pretty good.

I made a sad attempt at zucchini patties. But hey, when you don't have something to bind them, it's a bit harder. Grated zucchini, a little minced garlic, fried in olive oil. I should have also tried to squeeze out more liquid but I was in a hurry to get to work. They tasted okay.

With this I took the rest of my black beans, refried, with some slices of an oven roasted sweet potato and a few pieces of steamed broccoli. Truly woofed this down at work.

Ah, some woofers are better than others. And hey, if you have someone with eyes like this staring at you to step away from the computer and please take me for a ride? What are you going to do?

Day Three, sidetracked by pickles.

Should have never seen this. "I don't want a pickle. Just want to ride my motorsickle"


Shopping visit to Central Market. Don't know why, but I always wind up spending more there than I intend to. They have a way with food layout. I had this craving for vinegar something. Did not want to buy a bottle of vinegar or a whole jar of pickles, so I had this idea I could just buy a very small amount of pickle juice and a few chips of pickle to dress up salads. Humph, 0.17 lb. @ $9.99/lb. (! forgot to look at price) cost me $1.70. Now where is my vintage Ducati Cucciolo?

Other items purchased, 0.08 lb. of almond butter for just a taste to go with a few crackers or celery. Rice penne pasta. Wish I had some of Diana's tomato sauce :( 0.06 lb. of mixed greens, one nice sweet potato, a small Meyer lemon, steel cut oats,and a new twist for breakfast, barley flakes, on sale for $.79 lb. A forty cent difference from all the other oat and grain options. I mean come on, $1.29 lb. for oatmeal? Total outlay for this trip, $4.67.

And I have to ask, does anyone remember Arlo Guthrie?

Playing Ketchup. For day 2 on day 4!

Without the ketchup. This is why I think I'm a terrible BLOGGER! I can't seem to get it together to make entries in a timely manner. You know, work, sleep, and not to mention COOKING. Which, sorry Martha Stewart, does take time. I really can see why people eat out, eat on the run so much. It's a time crunch thing and it is not healthy.

One has to give thought to food. What is the end purpose? Eating. And by the way, if you've never heard of Mindful Eating (which is the OPPOSITE of Mindless Eating!) look it up. There was a great article in the New York Times a few weeks back.

Started DAY TWO with the dilemma of boring oatmeal again. The fix, toasty roasting. Dry on a pan in a 325 degree oven for about 5-8 minutes. Watch closely! Burning is bad. Unless you need the charcoal. Toasting gives a nutty sweetness to grains. Add to that sliced banana and a splash of rice milk. Good. Martha and Wilford would agree.

Later in the day, I think I had the most delicious cheap meal ever. A $.50 package of Lemongrass Rice noodle soup with a few pieces of olive oil panfried tofu. (1/4 package). Total cost about $1.04.

I did another foray to a different Grocery Outlet. Mostly disappointing. Where is all the cheap hot sauce, I ask? No one has an answer. Just three good items. An 8 oz bottle of organic apple cider. Something to add flavor to plain old water. An interesting find and splurge for $2.98, "Buttery Spread." Made with an organic mix of oils including coconut oil... and look closely and read the fine print, my vegan friends: butter. A happy break down for a prepared food, a package of Dal Tadka. Okay, so not organic, but wheat free and full of wonderful spice which I've been longing for. I brought this home and heated about half of it up and had it over the brown rice I cooked up. Delicious. I imagined I had mango chutney with this. I can dream.

Late night snack. Air popped popcorn with melted buttery spread and a fine drizzle of honey. Heaven! Good to eat while even watching gruesome scenes from CSI. I'm a nurse, nothing daunts me.

Food Simple

A bowl of oatmeal


Okay, so that's pretty boring. Rolled oats. So good for you in a boring kind of way. Yawn. The Wikipedia search for Quaker Oats Company has a underlining disclaimer, "Not to be confused with Quakers" Unless you refer it as thee oatmeal. Actually, Quakers don't come to mind as much as I think about Wilford Brimley and how I would like to have a talk with him about diabetes.

These were plain rolled oats. Need fruit. I cut up one of my large fuji apples, saving skin, and cubed it up. Not having lemon on hand so I could prevent it from turning brown, I drizzled a little of the raspberry honey into it. Sort of like a fresh compote. Ta-da! Fruit to dress up boring oatmeal. With a splash of rice milk, real good. How's that Wilford?

Now get cooking. Soaked black beans the night before, cooked up easy in the morning. Long grain brown rice, done in 20 minutes. Add to that vegetables. Zucchini, garlic, bits of green onion and chopped red pepper from Fresno thank you. All cooked in about a teaspoon of olive oil in a cast iron pan. Dinner to go.

I brought some carrots and rice crackers for a later snack at work but didn't feel hungry yet. I had a cup of yerba mate tea and I think it squelched my appetite. I may be on to something here. I've read mate is good for bone formation. With my sponge bones I'm all for that.

Home, now hungry. Ate 10 little crackers (approximate serving) and 6 baby carrots. Then my sweet tooth struck about forty minutes later, dun,dun, dun!!!!! Break open the chocolate brownie cliff bar. Snipe off about half of it. Add to that a third of a sliced banana and a splash of rice milk. Happily temporarily satiated.

Day two: waking up, still.

A blessed day off. Time to gather my thoughts about this year's Challenge. I recognized I was cranky from the start, not just because I felt like I didn't have time to prepare, but truly because I was anticipating being without what comforts me so. FOOD. When I want it, how I want it and how much I want. Granted, I do not normally go to excess. My addictive qualities do not gravitate so much toward food, well except for chocolate maybe. What disturbs me most is where this takes me. To periods in my life, especially as a child when I  either did not have enough to eat or what I could get was substandard and very unsatisfying. Not to mention the social degradation of not being able to enjoy what I thought most people never gave a thought to.

This aside, let me tell you where my day began in the Hunger Challenge Part Deux. Actually started the day before with shopping. First stop, as always (it's their motto, Shop Here First) Grocery Outlet. A bit disappointing this time around. No cheap hot sauce. :(  I did find rice noodle Kitchen Lemongrass instant soup for $.50 each. Not a lot of protein but I can add to that. One can of Lemon Pepper Herring. Mmmm, good stuff, protein, calcium and all. One box of gluten free onion and chive rice crackers. Yum. Happy find as they will help in the salty-nosh-craving category. Total cost for this trip, $3.75!

QFC was my next stop. The great search for cheap organic coffee.  0.31lb @ 7.99 lb of medium roasted Guatemalan . I love Guatemalan. Love you Mario. :) Add to this a fabulous orangic zucchini, 3 sticks of celery (yes you can do this, anything that is sold by the pound right?) 2 bananas, 1 lovely fuji apple and out of impulse and thoughts of fulfilling a future need, a Chocolate Brownie Cliff Bar, gluten free and mostly organic. (Note: for future reference, produce and most other food stuffs I buy will be organic unless otherwise noted.) Add to that one box of Rice Dream rice milk, so important. Total outlay for this trip $8.35.

Next stop Fred Meyer, more produce. Green onions, lots of ways to use them. A few cloves of garlic, essential seasoning!!! Another lovely Fuji apple. ( Have you ever just closed your eyes and smelled an organic apple?)  A happy find of a 12 oz bag of mixed broccoli florettes and baby carrots! Two small red jalapeño-like peppers, not organic but from Fresno. Love my Bobby. Total cost $3.75

But wait, there's no breakfast! So one more stop after work, Town & Country Market in Ballard. Open 24 hours and another good place to look for bulk items.  Black beans, brown rice, rolled oats. Popcorn, the uncooked kernel kind, remember those from the days before microwave bags? My beautiful daughter (in-law) gave me a hot air popcorn popper for Christmas.. Makes amazing popcorn without oil. A few kernels will fill up an entire bowl! Lastly, in bulk thank you, local raspberry honey, Napa valley olive oil, and yerba mate tea. An addition of a 16 oz. package of firm tofu. Lot's of ways to enjoy this, really. Yes REALLY Amy & Seth.

Total cost, $6.08.

I have $13.07 left. Next shopping search will be more protein.
Please check later in your regular unscheduled time for the next post. I'm going to tell you how I am putting this all together. You know, money (food) where my mouth is.

Taking the Hunger Challenge Part Deux

                     This year I'm putting my money where my mouth is.


Though not too close, money is dirty! Now there's a double innuendo. I don't mean to sound cranky on my first day of this great mind opening United Way Hunger Challenge, but I am. Woke up late. Feeling ill prepared to make this day successful as far as getting good nutrition today.  Then again, when I think of someone who must live in the reality of living off the equivalent of $7.00 per day I have to remember I really don't have it so bad.