The Tools to Get Started Off Right

Thanks, mom.

As I begin this 5-day SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) Challenge, I am so grateful that my mom taught me the value of cooking and being frugal. We shopped at the day-old Hostess bakery, or “the bread store” as my brother and I used to call it, for not only bread, but Twinkies, fruit pies and cupcakes, before the days of all things partially hydrogenated.  It has a particular smell that still makes me nostalgic, pure sugar and love.  My mom was a member of a fruit and veggie co-op, not because she was a hippie (she’s a life-long Republican), but because she recognized the cost savings of buying fresh in bulk.  I remember going to the public library to pick crabapples off the trees, picking peaches and plums from the tree in our suburban back yard, and gathering all the pecans from the huge trees that graced the front. She canned, pickled, and preserved.  We never lacked for quality, delicious food, and that was largely because my mom took meals seriously.

I respect meal time just as much as my mom, and that means breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The kids and I never leave the house without having some kind of breakfast, and I try very hard to make their lunches every morning.  The evenings are incredibly busy, but we regularly sit down at the dinner table to eat together, even if that means eating at 8:30PM. I’m a coupon master, and I never go to the grocery store without a list.  I guarantee you I can make a delicious meal, even if you think there is nothing in the house.  I buy the store brand when I can, unless it is Jif peanut butter, Smuckers grape jelly, or Hidden Valley Ranch, three things that my hubby insists on having the name brand.  But we do eat far too much convenience food, and I sometimes feel like I am throwing away and wasting more than I should.

When I headed to the store on Friday with a $20 budget for 5 days, I was nervous about being able to buy enough so I wouldn’t be hungry and/or bored.  But as the Legacy dietician, Sean Barrett, made suggestions on how to stretch my purchases by using recipes to keep things interesting, I realized that my mom had given me all the skills I needed to make this work. I’ve spent a few hours today preparing food, which includes potato salad with my 3 lbs. of my 10 lbs. of potatoes, 3 of my 12 eggs, and half of my bag of frozen broccoli.  I’ve also boiled an entire chicken for the first time ever, in hopes of using the stock for recipes throughout the week, and the chicken in sandwiches, soups, and whatever else strikes my fancy.  And there weren’t even gizzards to dig out of the chicken!

At this point, I’m feeling optimistic.   I have my list, just like I do at the grocery store.  And if I run into trouble, I know just who to call. I wish everyone were so lucky.