Food Bank Challenge Wrap Up

I'm not dead (and not for sale.) I was hungry occasionally on the challenge, but that was my own damn fault for not having thought farther in advance.
I got reinforcements on Sunday:

For $6.63, which brought my total to $32.09, only .59 cents over the limit, which ain't too bad. (Although if we must count the beer, like Andrea insists, I totally failed by uh, day 1.) However, I still have half a jar of peanut butter, 3/4 of a canister of oatmeal, most of that bag of spinach, two bananas, most of the broccoli, and a serving of collard salad and chickpeas left. SO I calculate each meal to have come in under $1.50 each, it's just that we have to put money down up front.
For more accurate results, the challenge should probably be a month long with about $126 per person. That is a lot to ask of people to do voluntarily, though, but it would drive home the fact that there are a lot of people who do that out of necessity. One problem I had with the challenge was that the rules asked that you not accept food that was offered at functions, or by friends. If I were on food stamps and I were hungry, I'd eat as much as I could for free! I'd be sneaking crackers and expired candy into my pockets constantly.
Point is, it's tough. I certainly cut back a lot on how much I ate, was a lot more vigilant, and mindful of each chew. In this way, it was funny - like a diet or a cleanse, I had to think about every bite. But on a diet, that's a choice to eat a certain way. People who may run out of food at the end of the month if they aren't careful NEED to consider that. It's really sad. Not to mention that now that schools are almost out for the summer, kids who get free lunches won't be able to for 2 1/2 months!
Also, I didn't do daily updates for you guys because I basically ate the same thing every day: banana, peanut butter, raw collard salad, carrots, chickpeas.

This is a little bit of a change - chickpeas, jalapenos, spinach, zucchini tossed with tahini dressing.

Tonight's "still roughin' it" dinner: zucchini and broccoli in tahini sauce.
I tried not to deviate much from my normal meals, but I definitely feel like my vegetable intake went way down. I also typically buy almond butter rather than peanut but that shit is like 6 dollars for a cheap jar. I didn't feel deprived, really, but the monotony got to me.
But yo, chickpeas > tofu. Or any dried legume, really. ALSO, raw > cooked. Cooking food makes it such a smaller yield! I could eat this raw collard salad for five meals, or cook it and eat it all in two days.
I don't know what to do at a grocery store now. Do I go wild and buy cherries and Gardein? Do I torch all my money and live under a rock nibbling on carrots? Guys, I have no middle ground to run to here. Thank goodness I still have my no-Whole Foods plan to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Food Bank Challenge: Having Fun on a Budget

AYYYYYY. Okay a couple of days thus far have acutally been a challenge because I had pre-made plans. On Thursday G and I went to a queer comedy show at BAM. I met him in the area after walking around Ft. Greene Park for a while and we went to a Mexican restaurant, Habana.

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Outdoor seating!!! This was before it started to POUR and I slipped on the floor bruising my arm.
It's not especially expensive for a Mexican place but I didn't want to drop the rest of my dollahs on the second day, cuz duh. So we split a guacamole burrito (no queso) and got a side of sweet plantains.

                                                        served with pickled jalapenos

This was about 6 dollahs for me. The burrito was good, the plantains not so much. Also a couple a dese:

Kelso (local Brooklyn) beer for 3 bux each, not bad. I am NOT counting beer on this challenge, though!! For one, you can't buy beer with food stamps anyway and two, I drink a lot of beer.
Batmobile ride in the seating area:

Yeah!!! Anyway the show at BAM was pretty funny. Below is a picture of Tig Notato, who was hilarious.

Phew. Then, Saturday, I went to a Mets game with a friend. I started the day with the usual coffee and almond milk, and then ate some overnight oats soaked with a spoonful of peanut butter. I mashed a banana in in the morning.

This kept me full enough through the game.

It was a gorgeous day for a game, even though the Mets lost. Even when I'm not on a tight budget, I don't often buy food at a ballgame because the prices are insane. I did have a couple beers, though, because in the words of Homer J. Simpson, without beer, "I never realized how boring this game is."
I got kinda buzzed and since the day was so beautiful, I walked the last third of the way home.

Unfortunately I got kinda lost.... these are some photos I took along the way, but turns out I was in the same area my roommate actually INTENDED to be last week, and she wrote a pretty crazy post about that, with better pictures than I take.
NEEDLESS TO SAY when I finally got home I wanted to eat everything but instead took a nap, haha. And THAT's how to save money on food. Drink beer instead and sleep it off.

Food Bank Challenge, day 3

Variety is the spice of life, for sure.
Another b-a-n-a-n-a--n-a-na- for breakfast. A carrot for a snack. Leftover collard salad. THEN MY FRIEND GAVE ME A GARLIC SCAPE and dinner was fun again.

Thanks Jon! After wearing it around my neck for a while and petting it like a snake, I cut it into little pieces, like I would never do to a snake.
Chickpeas mashed with tahini, Braggs, olive oil, cayenne pepper, and the scape made a nice filling for a collard wrap. Tomatoes on top.

So far my advice for interesting, healthy food on a budget is to cook up a large batch of something that will last a while in the fridge and play around with it during the week. Chickpeas, for example, are good on salads, can be roasted, can be smashed into a sandwichy filling, made into hummus, or using ingredients that are most likely found at any given time in a well-stocked vegan pantry (buy bulk to save more!) turned into chickpea burgers or falafel!
And ya know where you can buy garlic scapes now? The Farmers' market! (Though this one was from a local co-op.) I walked through the Union Square market today (briskly, so as not to be tempted to spend the rest of the budget at once on a pint of blueberries) and saw the EBT stand.

You don't need to use up yr food stamps getting canned beans and chips from the bodega. A lot of farmers markets will accept them and change them for tokens you can buy on fresh vegetables.(Though I assume this would still be a splurge for most people.)
Speaking of garlic scape usage, after a night that somehow became Jon and I drinking at 2 am at weird bars in Ridgewood and him, starving, we stopped at his apartment to get his groceries that we would cook at my place. He grabbed mustard greens, a garlic scape, and a carrot. I provided chickpeas, spinach, Braggs, and a pan. I drunk-chopped and he drunk-peeled the skin off all the chickpeas (!!!!) and picked up what I dropped on the floor, haha.

It's not a fabulous picture (beer, 2:30 am) but it's a funny story and a filling, tasty meal that hopefully soaked up some of the Spaten. ALSO SORRY RANDALL FOR COOKING AT 2:30.

Food Bank Challenge, day 1

THE CHALLENGE HAS COMMENCED.
The groceries I bought thus far (collard greens, spinach, 4 bananas, dried chickpeas, a bag of carrots, peanut butter, tomatoes, and oatmeal) have cost $19.46 alreadyyy. I'll start taking bets on how long before I waste away starving or cave and order an entire vegan pizza.
Luckily I'm never super hungry in the mornings so I just had a spoonful of peanut butter with my coffee (and almond milk.) (Does coffee and milk count?) (Sorry no exciting pic.) (Sorry all the parentheses.)
Banana at work around 12:30

Lunch was a third of this raw collard salad: onion, collards, olive oil, salt, apple cider vinegar, and tomatoes with nooch.

We can use condiments and spices that we already had, so thank goodness for that. Otherwise I'd be gnawing on a raw leaf.
Two carrots as a snack later.
And dinner. I had soaked dry chickpeas in the morning and was pretty hungry by the time I got home but luckily the chickpeas cooked up pretty quickly.

Raw spinach, cooked chickpeas with pickled jalapenos and cumin. Way, way too spicy and not enough salt but I wasn't going to let that get between me and my dinner.
Also here is a picture of Haxan from monday. I didn't get much accomplished that day because it was raining so much but I think my proudest and most productive moment was getting her to stay still for this abuse. Bandana Baby!!!

Food For Thought

Hey guys. Just some thoughts today on some books I've been reading lately that I thought were pretty interesting and kinda in their own way pertain to vegan food blogging.
Well, first of all, I went to the book release of The Riot Grrrl Collection by Lisa Darms at the Fales Library at NYU, which holds the original RG zines AND houses Kathleen Hanna's old filing cabinet, covered in stickers.
As a huge fan of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre as well as other RG bands (AND a fan of zines!), this was so super incredible to have attended. Kathleen read from her Bikini Kill zine, Johanna Fateman (of Le Tigre) read from hers, Artaud Mania, and Ramdasha Bikceem read from her zine, GUNK. Each documented the punk movement in their own ways: Bikini Kill expressly feminist, Artaud Mania art-school punk satire, and Gunk, a punk look at the New Jersey scene in the 90s through a racial filter.

And I got the book signed by them all!!!!!! Sorry the pic is kinda blurry; I was shaking and crying, haha. (I also wanna note that there was wine and food afterwards, and they specifically made a point that the food be vegetarian! These are obviously very smart people who realize that animal rights is a feminist issue. The food may even have been vegan - I didn't actually stick around. Pretty sure Johanna at least is vegan.)
Riot Grrrl was so important to people because it provided a strong, supportive community for people who felt theretofore voiceless, either due youth or gender or race. You really got this if you attended the release. There were a lot of tears and a lot of THANK YOU SO MUCHes. And not to get all sappy, but I think food blogging is very similar in its sense of community. I've always thought so but I was particularly struck by this since I was simultaneously reading another book, Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity by Emily Matchar.

There's a chapter in the book about blogging and the rise of domestic chic, which understandably struck a chord with me. While I think I'm pretty honest on the blog about what a fuck-up and a mess I am, and I'm obviously not trying to make any money off this thing or get a cookbook deal (just zines! buy my zines!) it is kinda scary that I basically only show you what I want to show you, and frame my life in a certain way, and in doing so perhaps glorify homecooking or inspire self-comparison.
I am by no means rich but I do live comfortably enough to have time to blog, time to cook - something I actually enjoy but am grateful is no longer expected of a woman - , money to spend on treats like cacao nibs or vegan cheese. I'm grateful for these privileges but I totally understand that some people don't enjoy cooking, some people have three kids to take care of and a full-time job, and some people are rural vegans who have more limited food options and occasionally slip-up in food choices. I'm also incredibly grateful for generations of feminists for having fought so hard to allow women the choice to cook or not (among countless other things.)
When I read in Matchar's book that "blogs' influence and trust level drive purchase intent" I started to feel a little uncomfortable and questioned how honest I truly am, or if I put a positive spin on certain food or products or restaurants, even unconsciously. (Is this the desire to be liked? To need to be nice, like women often feel they do?)
If I influence people to go vegan and eat more salads, that's cool but I'm not a spokesperson for a corporation and just because I eat a lot of Justin's peanut butter cups doesn't mean you necessarily should too. You know?? Maybe I am just especially impressionable but I definitely have bought products just by seeing the on yr blogs, even without a word to recommend them. So this month, I've been purposefully trying to cut back on "products." Unfortunately we live in a capitalist society and it's impossible to entirely get away from corporations: I'm not going to grow an almond tree, harvest those almonds, and make my own almond milk because I honestly don't have time or the abilities or the desire to do that. Matchar writes very eloquently on how cultish and judgmental extreme DIY can be. However, I have stopped shopping at Whole Foods since June 1st so I'm not tempted to grab convenience products, and I won't go to WF again until at least the end of the month.
This personal challenge ties in nicely with the Food Bank of NY challenge I was emailed about a couple days ago. To raise awareness about the sad state of an impoverished standard of living, people are asked to attempt to eat on a food stamp budget: in New York, that's $31.50 per person per week. From the 12th through the 18th, I'll be attempting to eat for $1.50 per meal.
While Matchar doesn't specifically highlight vegan blogs, I think both challenges will be interesting because vegans are typically seen as privileged people (see Cadry's great post on that here) but it is beyond that. It's not about superdomesticity or holier-than-thou. It's about a lifestyle of compassion for fellow animals and humans and raising awareness about suffering, be it by women of the world, non-human animals, or the impoverished because we can. Fuck speciesism, classism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism...
It's a sick sad world but we have a duty to make it better: "from each according to [her] ability, to each according to [her] need." Has anyone else tried an extreme budget challenge like this? Anyone else reading anything thought-provoking? I highly recommend both books (and I'm not even making any money for saying that! Though I do selfishly want someone to talk to about them more.)

Viva Vegan: Not Just an Excuse to Buy Beer

Viva Vegan was another awesome cookbook I've had since it was published and had not made a damn thing out of. That HAD to change. First up was salads, because, you know, I gotta.

This is Spinach-Brazil Nut salad (it was supposed to be served with gazpacho dressing but I was hungry and unprepared and just threw tomatoes in there and hoped it'd be okay. It was.) Also in the salad are hearts of palm, black beans, and sliced onion. A nice change. Hearts of palm are kinda creepy, though, no? Just me?
This is the gazpacho dressing, once I finally got around to not being lazy. Really pretty pink color.

Not exactly sure what the difference is between "gazpacho dressing" and "putting soup on my salad," but I'll take it. Very garlicky, just how I like it. Here I put it on kale salad, with avocado and raw tempeh.

It's been hella hot recently but I braved the oven and made Quick Red Posole with Beans:

Garnished with sliced radishes and avocado, both of which were incredible additions texturally. Looking forward to eating the rest of this soup later this week. It was my first time ever eating or buying hominy. That stuff is bizarre.

The posole liquid is diced tomatoes cooked down and beer! So of course I had to sip on a couple of these Pacificos with the soup. Nice contrast.
I later rewarded the sweating in the kitchen with Real Brown Sugar Limeade (Agua de Papelon.)

So perfect! I added sliced jalapenos, inspired by Jackie's post here. I think it's worth noting that although my corner bodega does not sell pickles or unscented cat litter, they do sell papelon.
Today it cooled down a little, so I cooked Swiss Chard with Raisins and Capers, apparently a classic Spanish combination, and paired it with Zesty Orange Mojo Baked Tofu, based on Cuban flavors.

I kinda overbaked the tofu, but both dishes were really delicious.
I had underestimated how warm the kitchen would get, though, so I was lucky to have saved uhh...two of the Pacifico six-pack. They went to good use in a Michelada, a spicy, salty beer. I had never had one but Terry writes they are "especially suited for fans of beer, Bloody Marys, or salted margaritas." Yes, yes, and yes, thank you!

All these dishes were awesome successes and it was cool to get a taste of Latin veganism. I have a ton more recipes from Viva Vegan highlighted, including the Coconut Tres Leches cake, but that needs a serious celebration, like a wedding or something.
That said, Latin food is pretty heavy and not really my normal food preference. I'll probably skip the entire empanada section due to the insane oil usage and the tamale section because I'm lazy. I really, really wanted to make tostones because plantains are awesome but I can't justify frying. My loss, I know. The Micheladas, though, that I can do. Ya gotta pick yr vices.
This definitely reminds me I still want to pick up Vegan Eats World. Anyone have that and want to recommend certain dishes?

Vejibag

It is awesome to get sent free stuff in the mail, but it is especially awesome when that stuff is practical and eco-friendly.
The kind folks at Vejibag sent me their product to review and, unlike a food item I don't usually eat or will eat but not exactly want to buy again, the Vejibag was a product I'd buy.

                                        It comes with instructions and how-to-use graphics

To be honest, I had seen similar products on blogs for a while and kind of thought it was unnecessary but the bag really does make a difference in keeping vegetables fresh. I especially like to use it with herbs, which wilt so quickly before I can think of how to use up the whole bunch.

                      Parsley looking - dare I say - more fresh than when I first put it in the bag

I feel like I also put a less than fresh head of lettuce in the bag and it came out looking even better than when I bought it. The website says the vegetables stay fresh for up to a week but I usually use the produce before then. The bag definitely helps cut back on wasted food that's gone bad.

The vejibag is also great with greens you simply forget about, or even farmer's market produce that always looks so enticing that you buy too much of (guilty as charged.)

                                          FarMar scallions and kale I had to grab. So green.

It's also nice that it's cotton and easy to wash and I appreciate that it's made by a small *women-owned* company.
Thanks to the folks at Vejibag for the opportunity to try the bag out. I would definitely recommend it to people who don't always have a chance to use up their vegetables in a timely fashion. Though I got the bag for free, it retails for 16 dollars, and I think it's worth it if you consider how much money (not to mention natural resources) get wasted when we trash vegetables that have gotten slimy.
The only problem now is that I still don't know what to do with the rest of those scallions. Ideas?