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@meditationsonpoverty
Serve scrambled eggs with cream cheese for a delicious twist on this traditional breakfast dish. Chopped fresh basil adds an aromatic note as well.
I love the internet. Since the fridge is broken, I'm just typing in ingredients that I want to use up now, and finding things to eat.
These scrambled eggs are pretty great.
The fridge is broken
The fridge in my house broke sometime last night (the freezer is fine, though). Nobody will come to repair it until Thursday.
I just went grocery shopping and had my whole week's worth of food in the fridge. Some of it will be OK in the freezer for later, but I was going to make a huge thing of soup (had a bunch of leftovers to put in it) and that was going to be my dinner all week. I can't keep leftovers in the fridge, and there isn't enough room in the freezer for all my food for the week and for the other two people in the house.
I asked my friend-who owns the house and the fridge-what people are supposed to do for food if they don't have a fridge to keep stuff in. He said eat out a lot. I said, what are poor people supposed to do?
I've already spent my food stamps for the month, I don't really want to dip into my savings to fucking eat this week. I can't just rely on fast food because I can't eat most of what fast food places serve.
I've figured out how I'll manage over the next few days. It will be a lot of rice and pasta and frozen vegetables. I'll need to cook daily in portions for only one meal at a time, which is time consuming but I'm lucky enough to have that time. I'm not going to starve or anything, and a pretty small portion of my food will end up going to waste because of the fridge breaking. It's just frustrating.
And it's one of those things that just illustrates how different my life is now than it was a year ago, when I wasn't one of the working poor. A year ago, a fridge full of spoiled food would have been annoying, but not really a big deal. I would have eaten out every day and just filled the fridge back up with new food after it was fixed. Now, though, it's incredibly stressful. And I at least have savings to work with if I'm not able to stretch my food out until I get paid next or get more food stamps. I at least have a working freezer and a pantry full of non-perishable food.
10 Things Food Banks Need But Won’t Ask For
Some items are in high demand at the food bank and you may not realize it. Because they aren’t essentials, the staff doesn’t publicly ask for them. A survey asked volunteers what items people would be most appreciative of and we’ve listed the top 10 below. If you’re looking for an easy way to help out, pick some of these up while shopping and drop them off at one of our area food banks.
1. Spices.
Think about it. People who rely on the food bank eat a lot of canned food, rice, oatmeal, white bread, etc. They love spices. Seasoned salt, cayenne pepper, chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, oregano, basil and so on.
2. Feminine Products.
Can you imagine being worried about affording these? Pads, tampons, panty liners, etc. Recommended: Buy in bulk at Costco for donating.
3. Chocolate.
People don’t need it, but think about being in their shoes and how nice it would be to be given a chocolate bar or brownie mix along with your essentials.
4. Toiletries.
Grocery stores are great about donating surplus or unsold food, but they have no reason to donate toilet paper, tooth paste, soap, deodorant, shampoo, etc. Food stamps often don’t cover these.
5. Canned meats and jerky.
This isn’t true of all food banks, but some struggle to give users enough protein.
6. Crackers and tortillas.
They don’t spoil and everybody likes them.
7. Baby toiletries.
Diapers, baby wipes, baby formula, baby shampoo, baby soap, baby food, bottles, etc.
8. Soup packets.
Sometimes you look at rice, beans, instant potatoes, and cans of vegetable and think, “What do I make with this?” Hearty soup is a complete meal.
9. Socks.
From a former homeless person: “Socks mean the world to you. They keep you warm, make you feel like you have something new, and just comfort you.”
10. Canned fruit other than pineapple.
Food banks get a lot of pineapple donated. Their clients love it when other kinds of fruit are available.
[SOURCE]
And remember! Food banks love cash donations because it allows them to buy whatever they need!
And for the love of god don’t donate canned tomatoes. I can assure you everyone else on the planet has already dragged them out of the depths of their pantry and given them over. Nobody wants them.
This list is pretty awesome. Let me add pet food to it, though. At least at my food ban, they'll hold onto pet food they get, and there's always folks who need it.
Though, if you can donate cash, food banks can buy more food with your cash than you can get.
And whatever about the tomatoes. You can put canned tomatoes in all sorts of quick and easy meals. I know that at my food bank, I'm pretty much always going to get rice, pasta, beans and tomatoes. I can use tomatoes in a really easy rice, pasta, or soup to add flavor. So if you've got tomatoes and you don't want them, then donate them! I'm not the only one who is happy to pick them up whenever we go.
Sorry I update pretty much never.
I just wanted to say that after some initial issues with signing up for health care, I finally did it and have free healthcare starting on the 1st! That is a huge relief (especially since I'm sick right now and keep thinking about how I can't go to the doctor if it gets worse).
Poor people, generally, make bad decisions, bad in the sense of their long-term physical, mental and financial welfare. But their bad decisions aren't the reason for their poverty. They're caused by it.
Foodbank recipes time: Cheesy potato soup
I got this big bag of frozen seasoned potato wedges from the food bank once. I don't know why I grabbed it. It was one of my first visits, and I felt like if I passed something up, I was being ungrateful. So it sat in my freezer for a long time, and then I was told I needed to start clearing out the freezer to make room for Thanksgiving stuff.
I really didn't want to bake them and eat them as is. So I looked up recipes for potato soups and eventually came up with an idea.
Forgive me, but I don't measure anything for these recipes. I just put some water on to boil and threw in some vegetable bouillon, onion powder (didn't have any real onions), and whatever seasonings I thought might be good (just a little, since the potatoes are already seasoned). I cooked the potatoes in the microwave for just a minute so I could break them into smaller pieces and put them in with the broth, then added some vegetarian meat crumble alternative.
I brought it to a boil and then cooked it on medium heat for about half an hour. My plan had been to thicken it with some flour and milk, but whatever they used to season the potatoes thickened the soup (there were no ingredients on the package). So I just turned down the heat and stirred in the cheese. I didn't need to add any extra salt or seasoning at the end because what was on the potatoes was pretty strong.
It was a very thick, slightly spicy, hearty soup. I wished I'd had some broccoli when I made it (I didn't think of that until after I started). I have to eat it with a salad or it sits to heavily in my stomach. But it made up enough soup to last me the week!
From the Perspective of the Little Girl I Sat Next to in the Fifth Grade
The truth is I slam poems in the shower because the words I speak are too heavy for paper I’m afraid that the spines of the books I try to keep them in will snap as if some superstitious child had stepped on a crack Because when I say that I grew up in the ghetto I don’t mean that I grew up in the middle of a suburban town I mean that I grew up in a place where no one could afford anything but black beans And my best friend’s parents couldn’t buy anything but black beans And my mother couldn’t buy anything but black beans The value of the dollar was something you learned not at your first job, but when the ten in your mother’s wallet was something you wanted to spend on toys And your mother wanted to save so maybe she could buy food Instead of telling you she wasn’t hungry for the fourth long night in a row
Poverty doesn’t give a second chance because your child could use a better breakfast Poverty eats at hope like the rats on your garden that are just as hungry as you are because there isn’t any leftover for you to throw out Poverty is a joke with no punchline It’s long and tiring and in the end, there’s no climactic end to make it all worth it
The premise of minimum wage, when it was introduced, was that a single wage earner should be able to own a home and support a family. That was what it was based on; a full time job, any job, should be able to accomplish this.
The fact people scoff at this idea if presented nowadays, as though the people that ring up your groceries or hand you your burgers don’t deserve the luxury of a home and a family, is disgusting.
^^
More on food stamps
I got my card and have successfully used it to buy food. Yay!
When I first applied, I was told I qualified for $97 a month. Then later, a person on the phone said I was going to get $103 a month. Then I got a letter saying I'm getting $92 a month.
<cut my own words>
Not sure where you are, but here’s how it works in most of the counties in PA:
Your disbursement date is determined by the last digit in your case record. If that number is “1”, then you get your stamps on the first...
An update!
It took me forever to get this taken care of because of a series of crappy events. But finally, all my documentation is in, and my food stamps are approved.
The card is being sent in the mail, so I should have it in 7-10 days. It will be automatically loaded with my food stamps money on the eighth of each month, even when it's a weekend or holiday (in my state).
This is coming just in time. I just paid off a bunch of medical bills, leaving my bank account pretty much dry, and found out I owe my old employer money. Blech.
Join the team that’s defending Obamacare today.
Fuuuuuuuuck
Apparently my old work paid me vacation time that I hadn't earned yet, so now they want me to pay them back $2000.
I don't fucking have $2000. I just spent about $1000 paying off medical bills. I have less than $1000 left in my savings.
I'm going to cry.
My housemate was going to throw out some tomatoes that he'd had in the fridge for a while. I rescued them (and froze them). They don't loo pretty, but they're perfectly fine for soup. I also rescued a can of diced tomatoes that have a "best-by" date in July. That's not too long ago! Pretty sure I'll be making something with tomatoes, kale and rice next week. I know, I eat a lot of soup, but it's just so easy to make and hot soup is so good when it gets cold out.
Not only that, but my housemates made roasted potatoes and butternut squash the other day, and were planning on tossing most of the leftovers. I have to admit, I love it when they cook too much now that I'm living here, but I'm appalled thinking about how much food they must have been throwing away before I was around to eat their leftovers.
I just can't believe how wasteful people are. I think my grandparents must have taught me not to throw food away too soon. After the Depression, they kept everything. And my mom was below the poverty level after my parents divorced, so she had to be really careful with food (even with alimony and a full time government job). I'm glad I learned lessons about not taking the best-by date too seriously early on.
Oh fuck you. Websites go down. Especially when there's overwhelming demand for them. Oh, and guess what, today it's working and suddenly people who couldn't afford to go to the doctor have that opportunity!
-_-
I have a friend who used to be an insurance salesperson. I'm going to ask them for help in figuring out what plan I should sign up for. There's a lot of options, and I don't really understand how to know which works best for me. But on the plus side, I can afford most of the plans listed.
PS
Couldn't check out the health exchanges today because my state's site was down.
Because I had a bad weekend: let's just talk about cooking today
My employers had a bunch of portabella mushrooms that they hadn't gotten around to using. The use-by date was two weeks ago, and they looked kind of sad, but not like they'd gone bad. So I made mushroom noodle soup. Which I think is a great way to use mushrooms that look a little icky (as they often seem to from the food bank).
I just filled up a pot of water and chopped up the mushrooms. I had some dried shitaki I could add too. Then I simmered it all for a couple of hours to get a nice mushroom broth. When I'm ready, I boil whatever pasta I have in it and throw in some salt and whatever else sounds good (rosemary this time).
I haven't mentioned this before, but I'm as vegetarian as I can be (it can be hard to be 100% vegetarian on a budget). I added some fake meat stuff to my soup
I theorize that cooking the mushrooms that much will ensure there's nothing on them that will make me sick. Haven't gotten sick yet! I have had a huge aversion to throwing out food for a loooong time, so I eat a lot of things I think most people would throw out (or donate to food banks, apparently).
