no cooking food stamp healthy approach

[bvanevery]

Fair warning: my current dietary habit can seem severe. This is not for people who thrive on being "foodies," nice preparation, everything this way and that, etc. This is for people who see cooking as a burden, but still want to lower costs, not have things suck, and keep things fairly healthy. I often envision my car dwelling life as being like a luxurious version of what I imagined soldiers or explorers did in previous centuries, to some extent. I'm not exactly living off the land but it's pretty frugal within the context of a modern industrial society.

I am currently experimenting with some dietary ideas from my Dad. Basically, the big idea is that wheat is bad for you for various reasons. I'm also opposed to corn and soy, as the inorganic stuff is GMOed to emit the pesticide BT, and soybeans are reputed to be endocrine disruptors anyways. I have a provisional belief that what works for us, depends on what worked for our specific ancestors, what they happened to eat. I think my ancestors probably ate a lot of dairy so that's what my diet is mostly based upon. That of course is not going to work for everybody.

Other health ideas: proteins and fats are good for you. Carbs not so much, I've reduced them quite a bit although I still think it's important to have some and I do eat 'em. Sugar, not that great for you, should be drastically reduced. Even fruit counts as sugar, and as carbs. I eat some, not tons.

I'm generally opposed to canned foods as can linings contain Bisphenol-A, an endocrine disruptor. It leeches into your food, especially fatty / oily foods. I usually won't buy olive oil that comes in plastic containers or cans for the same reason. Needs to be glass.

Moral ideas: I'd like to be a vegetarian or even a vegan, but when I do vegetarianism for a few days my brain falls apart. Even after much experimenting I haven't figured out exactly what the problem is. Liverwurst fixes the problem. I used to think the heme iron was responsible, but I've managed to go increasingly longer periods of time without the liverwurst iron input, instead eating small amounts of other meats. I've evolved towards a position of "meat minimalism". I can't seem to stop the killing if I want to maintain the quality of my life, until I find a solution. But I don't have to do as much damage. It's worth remembering that animals are still killed to grow food on most farms. Burrowing animals are killed when fields are tilled, fish are killed for fertilizer, billions of insects are killed by pesticides, deer that want to nibble on things are shot, etc. If you grow everything yourself or pay a lot of money to a local farmer whose practices you trust, you could get past these realities, but many of us don't have that kind of option or money.

So, the diet.

Cheese, especially cottage cheese now as it's cheaper. Cheese has a good protein and fat profile. Not cream cheese though, as it's almost entirely fat. It's cheap for a reason, it's not worth that much as food. Yogurt if I can get it cheap. I can actually make my own yogurt out of milk if I'm willing to cook, but I haven't done it in the field. I've done it with a simple plastic gallon thermos at my Mom's house. Whole milk has a good protein / fat / carb profile, and good bang for the buck, but I've been resisting it as I prefer cheese. Also cheese and yogurt are cultured foods, milk is not. This may make some difference for the health of the diet, but I don't know how this affects me personally.

Lettuce, tomatoes, oil, vinegar. I mix these with the cheese and make cheese salads. I eat this stuff all the friggin' time and it's hard for me to get bored of it.

Peas. That's a very recent discovery. They cost $1/lb. frozen and they don't suck. They provide carbs in a form that isn't as nasty for you as the grains, I wager. Seem to have some smoothing vegetable fiber effects to them. They count as a small amount of additional coolant for your cooler. I eat peas when my body feels it's overloaded on the fats and proteins, when I know I'm craving some carbs.

Peanuts and raisins. Yeah, raisins are sugar, but they're replacing all the cookies and candy and other junk I used to eat. It's less sugar. Good peanuts aren't cheap but they last a long time. Good raisins are cheap.

Bananas. They're cheap and I find I need the potassium, even if they count as sort of a sugar.

LIverwurst, or some other meat, whatever you find. I eat very little of this. Liverwurst has tons of iron and that's why I've preferred it. However I've also gotten sick of it. I don't buy the cheap stuff, as I only need at most 2 oz. / day to keep my brain running. Better stuff is $4..$7/lb.

I'm also feeding my dog. I don't believe in dog food, I say it's garbage. I used to feed him chicken gizzards, which are really high in protein and iron. However I've recently realized they're lacking in fat and calcium, so I might have been causing my dog some problems. I've now switched to sardines. They're high in protein, iron, and calcium, but there's no fat. Haven't quite resolved the fat issue. Bought some cheap expiring 73/23 grade hamburger the other week for him, but that option isn't available all the time. I've bought cheap olive oil for now, in a plastic bottle. It used to be easier to find cheap glass bottle sources, I've been having difficulty lately. The sardines are also canned, last ones I got were product of Morocco. Check your countries of origin carefully. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM CHINA. YOU ARE ASKING FOR IT IF YOU DO. My dog has had some serious itching problems, presumed mange, but possibly nutritional deficiency or even an allergy. So we're ditching chicken gizzards for now and trying the sardine diet. The cure is better than the disease at this point; I'll reintroduce gizzards after he's cured and see how he does.

I only got the food stamps recently and don't have a good sense yet of how sustainable my choices are. I think we might come close to fitting it within the allotted $190/mo though. We tend to score food in other way at times, like my dog finding a street pizza. I don't tend to deprive him of that stuff, as I'm taking the mange and nutritional deficiency theories more seriously than the allergy theory.

That's it. In summary: cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, lettuce, tomato, olive oil, vinegar, peas, peanuts, raisins, bananas, and liverwurst for me. Sardines, expiring fatty meats, olive oil, and trash can / ground scores for the dog.

I do have cooking gear. It has been cold the pats 3 weeks, discouraging me from doing it. When I do cook, I make bean chili and will probably hard boil an entire flat of eggs at once. Egg whites have pretty good brain revival value, they might reduce the amount of meat yet again. Egg whites also partly block the absorption of B12 from the egg yolks, so I will be eating the yolks separately. I'd feed extra yolks to the dog if I weren't doing the allergy experiment.

I forgot to mention the high end chocolate bars. It was my birthday recently and it's a vice. Also I was given some. When it runs out I may not buy anymore, or I may be sparing about it. Real dark chocolate (not the consumer branwash "looks dark" stuff) might have some antioxidant value. It also has loads of caffeine, and I've sworn off coffee to keep my Irritable Bowel Syndrome under control.

If you go crazy with the austerity of the diet, and you start craving that McDouble while you're mooching the free wifi, consider buying a "guilty pleasure" food at the grocery store instead. For us that's pepperoni. If you eat it with cheese, it's like having a pizza without the bread.

 

[Reducto]

Thanks for the post! Do you use lettuce because of the price or is it preferable to alternatives such as spinach or other mixes in some other way?

I've been eating prunes instead of raisins. As long as I remember to seal the container they last a while.

Always looking for ways to get some healthy variety to my diet. I know I should cut down on the canned chilli and mac&cheese but they're so darn cheap and easy!

 

[Zil]

Your dog could have a flea allergy it is very common. causes loss of hair near the tail and itching. Dogs need vitamins and minerals.
Good luck with your diet. I always feel better with less carbs. especially white stuff. Too much soy is bad for SOME thyroids.

 

[bvanevery]

Romaine lettuce mainly due cost + ability to wrap itself around items like cheese, as an alternative to bread or sandwiches. Raisins instead of prunes because raisins have usually been cheaper. Many house brand raisins are of good quality, although I don't think much of Walmart's version of that.

Canned "chili" I urge you to ditch. Look at the ingredient list, there's lots of crap in it, especially you're eating a lot of GMO soy. Cooking real chili is not difficult, it can be done en masse and then eaten cold over the course of a week. Of course that requires cooking. That's why the frozen peas and dry peanuts are valuable, they do a lot of the same job nutritionally as beans but don't require cooking. If you must go for the convenience of cans in the short term, I would urge "chili beans" rather than chili. It's a lot cheaper and there isn't nearly as much crap in it. Just beans, probably a nominal amount of corn syrup, and spices. No soy, no meat products, and no sugar. You're still getting your daily dose of Bisphenol-A eating out of a can though.

Don't eat canned baked beans. About a million pounds of sugar in those.

Straight up canned black beans are the most palatable of "pure beans". They have the advantage that because they're black, nobody adds EDTA "to preserve color". It's still canned food though, do it sparingly.

I do occasionally buy other fruits when they're on sale, if I like them. For instance, a grapefruit can be eaten just like an orange, you don't have to put it in a bowl and use funny spoons. Sometimes mangoes are very cheap and I'll buy tons of 'em. Sometimes avocados become cheap but not usually.

Regarding fleas, we have years of experience with the possibility of flea contact dermatitis. This recent thing over the past 6 months is an order of magnitude worse than anything I've previously seen, with huge wrinkly patches of skin developing on the ears, armpits, and groin. The sulfur based mange medication from Happy Jack seems to be working, has gotten rid of much of the wrinkling, and the skin seems to be healing. Bad nutrition may have allowed mange to get a strong foothold to begin with. I wouldn't dismiss a chicken gizzard allergy either, will reintroduce in a couple of months and see if anything happens.

 

[Ilyana]

Some aspects of raw food diets might help you find some more options, things like sprouting, adding sources of omega 3 like hemp seeds, adding in some other nuts/seeds to get a variety of nutrients. Of course (and sadly), the raw food universe is full of crazies, but Dr. Gabriel Cousens has a very good book called Rainbow Green Live Food cuisine, it's basically a greens-heavy, ultra-low-glycemic vegan diet meant for healing from disease, candida, etc., and has 3 versions, Phase 1 is basically no sugar at all and you start there, then move up the scale to maintain. I'm not saying to go raw vegan here, but the book has a ton of science based nutrition which might be helpful.

I've been veg for 28 years now, so my activist days are very very long past, but I think that if your motivation to change your diet is just moral, and doesn't work with your body chemistry, then don't torture yourself trying. I really feel that even though it works beautifully for me, it most definitely doesn't work for everyone. Of course, it might work better for you in a year, or 5 years.

 

[bvanevery]

I could stand to look into sprouting. Realize though, I intended this thread to help people with very little money (on food stamps for instance), who don't want to cook or want to minimize it, or other kinds of preparation / futzing, and still they want to be healthy. Also I'm in a car with limited space. With sprouting I'd have to design a container that is very unlikely to spill. Maybe I'm a bit "survival paranoid" but I consider spills to be a fairly big deal. If it's cold it harms your ability to stay warm. If it's warmer but not warm enough to dry out, it creates mold. I don't like discovering the need to do "mold abatement" 3 months later. Last time that happened I wasn't rolling my windows up high enough during rain storms, I was too blase about small drops coming through a 1" crack. It needs to be barely a slit of a crack to keep the rain out. Those drops added up over time and I got a whole floor of mold. Drying, vacuuming, and vinegar to cure it, eventually.

I will look to see if there's another thread already about sprouting. If not I'll start one and ask about it.

 

[Ilyana]

Sprouting seeds are very cheap, 1 teaspoon will completely fill a quart mason jar. And there's nothing to spill, you do an initial soak of your seeds for a few hours and then afterwards you just rinse 2 times per days, they do very well in cold weather. They're eaten raw (no cooking) need minimal attention (no futzing) and are incredibly healthy. You might even be able to get them with your food stamps if you can find a food co-op that accepts them, they're often sold in the bulk section so you can start with 50 cents worth to see if you like the process and end result. And the jars are usually available right in the same area, no need to reinvent the wheel. I've even seen hemp sprouting bags that are designed to be hung on a backpack, so I feel confident that this is entirely do-able for someone in a vehicle.

The only problem I've thought of (can you tell I've thought of this a little bit? lol) is high temps, sprouts can go "off" when it's too warm, but in summer you'd be able to get inexpensive greens from more places, and would gently force some variety in your diet.

try sproutpeople.org for lots more info.

 

[Suanne]

Because I'm living out of a car, I decided to forego refrigeration (or even a cooler) to conserve space. And the only cooking I do is to add heated or boiling water to the ingredients. I heat my water in a 12v mug while the car is on. Or, on a butane stove while camping. About half of my meals do not require heated/boiling water. Also, I shy away from most canned goods because they take up too much space and add weight.

Examples of meals-with-heated-water include instant oatmeal w/dry milk, walnuts, raisins or dried cranberries. Because it's cheaper, I buy larger quantities and make small zip-lock-bag packages of meal-size portions. I'll do the same with small pre-made soup servings packages (low-sodium chicken bouillon, freeze-dried veggies, dehydrated tomatoes, dried garlic & onion, spices, freeze-dried refried beans, and instant rice). Sometimes I'll add ramen noodles (without the flavor/salt packet). Or, I'll make a cream soup by adding dry milk at the end. When I'm running low on my pre-made packets, I'll take a day and go to the market to get the dry ingredients, then go to a park (if the weather is nice) and assembly-line the serving-size packet meals. If the weather isn't so nice, I use the top of my bed. Maybe my assembly process is more "futzing" than folks want ... but, it's certainly frugal

I've also done "thermos cooking" with dry beans in my 12v mug. First I get the water and beans very hot in the mug in the morning (1.5 hrs), unplug, wrap in blanket to retain heat, season and eat for the evening meal.

Sometimes, if I have guests, I fix a store-bought rice or pasta meal (just add water and simmer). I'll often stir in a small can of meat, packet of tuna, or veggies if close to a market (like a bag of frozen/thawed broccoli). It makes too much for just me, tho'.

Meals and items that I eat that don't require heated water include canned meat/fish/peanut butter on low-sodium triscuits (tuna packet, salmon packet, canned smoked ham), unsweetened applesauce or fruit cups, nuts and any dried fruit, muslix with dry milk (add water). I'll also drink low-sodium V-8 juice.

If I've access to a market, I supplement with fresh fruits & veggies, and meat & dairy for the day.

Suanne ... who has sprouted, but never acquired a taste for them

 

[bvanevery]

freeze-dried veggies, dehydrated tomatoes, ..., freeze-dried refried beans,

Sounds the opposite of cheap, unless you're doing the freeze drying yourself.

When I do prepare dry beans for cooking, I soak them multiple times in the bottom of a plastic jug, to remove as many phytates as possible. Several days soaking, changing water. (That of course assumes access to clean water.) I made a funnel out of a plastic bottle to pour the beans into the jug.

and instant rice). Sometimes I'll add ramen noodles (without the flavor/salt packet).

Doesn't sound nutritious. I realize we all have our dietary theories, but mine don't even include whole grain rice. They're a high glycemic load carb, and the husks soak up arsenic.

any dried fruit,

Not cheap, especially compared to bananas and raisins. Also watch out for sulfides. They're in just about every lower cost dried fruit.

 

[Suanne]

Yes, freeze dried, dehydrated and dried items aren't as cheap as their fresh counterparts, but buying in bulk helps a lot. Check out food co-ops. Good idea about soaking beans prior to cooking, BTW.

 

[offroad]

Have to re read this all. But bookmarking an interesting discussion

 

[VanDwellerMod]

From Moderator: I split the last posts on this thread to the "Traveling with Pets" section. So, if you want to comment on "Feeding dog frugal/healthy" go to that thread. Thank you.

 

[Coffee Tim]

The kind of fat that you get from avacados is grreat brain food. About a third of a medium one daily will help quite a bit with clear thinking.

 

[bvanevery]

That's it. In summary: cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, lettuce, tomato, olive oil, vinegar, peas, peanuts, raisins, bananas, and liverwurst for me. Sardines, expiring fatty meats, olive oil, and trash can / ground scores for the dog.

I added eggs and dropped the liverwurst. Fewer intelligent animals killed that way. I think the magic ingredient in the liverwurst might not be iron, but cholesterol! The book I'm reading says it's important for brain function.

Started eating a bit of sardines or canned salmon, as I'm more willing to kill a fish if I'm going to kill something. I think the omega-3s in that are probably helpful. I will try flaxseed oil at some point, to get the ALA omega-3. However ALA is a precursor to the DHA and EPA that fish oil provide. It may take 10x as much ALA to make the DHA and EPA. I don't know if it'll work for me; I'll find out. I've read that it won't work for a dog really.

Dropped raisins because they're a lot of sugar... then ended up developing a Russel Stover's candy habit! Think I oughtta add the raisins back in, for cost if nothing else.

 

[creative_life]

Look at a paleo / primal diet. Our chiropractor just made a video about cholesterol and how we need it for healthy functioning. Don't be afraid of fat. Good omega 3 fats are good for your body and they help you feel full especially when you ditch the grains and wheat. Berries have less fructose / sucrose than other fruits. We usually find avacados on sale here for like $1 each. Drink a lot of water. I know peanuts are cheaper, but they can cause inflammation and aren't easily digested. http://whole9life.com/2012/09/the-legume-manifesto/. Try replacing them with other types of nuts.

 

[Starlight]

I've found a lot of good information through Douglas Kaufmann and his tv program "Know The Cause" -- he has written several books, and has a Phase Diet that helps reset your health, similar to the one mentioned in this thread. One of his books is "The Germ that causes cancer." His theory is that anti-biotics are destroying our health. Probiotics -- yogurt, acidophilous capsultes, fermented foods like sauerkraut help our body recover health.

You mentioned wheat and sensitive stomach. This may mean that you avoid fiber. Oatmeal and oatmeal milk was once used for nutrition when a person could not eat. Oats have a less irritating fiber than wheat, and a most desirable effect on the stomach with protein value. I have heard it said that if one is craving sweets it is because they need protein.

I saw a video by a whole food bread manufacturer east coast way -- I can only think "Red Hen" or something. Well he was giving a tour bragging about his bread and the type of yeast he used. What he said was that his wheat bread was allowed to raise in a slow rise not a quick rise... which allowed the glutens in the wheat to break down into a more digestible form.

Lentils that you buy in the grocery store can be used for sprouting. I think any bean or seed sprout can be eaten... but don't quote me. They contain a living enzyme.

I doubt that I will ever eat fish again. The oceans are endangered. I limit my meat to about a pound a week, and buy it only at a store that I trust. Sprouts is dependable enough for me. If you've ever cooked meat that smelled like ammonia, it is because there is an additive meat that is often added to it called "pink slime." How many times have I taken meat back and tried to make them admit to doctoring it. It shouldn't smell like ammonia. It should smell like good healthy fresh meat.

I onced survived for months eating fried eggs, corn tortillas, and picante sauce -- without ever tiring of it. Now, I buy a bunch of parsley cheap and add it to anything for my greens intake... better than lettuce or even spinach. Cilantro is also cheap and very good.

Spices are the best tool... for cheap eating... and can substitute for buying fresh onion, garlic, peppers, parsley... to avoid waste.

My tricks: (cheap eats)
pancake mix -- add water only -- stir in some oats -- sprinkle w/sugar
tomato sauce -- add equal parts hot water, garlic, onion, chili powder
crackers -- bake them in the oven just a little longer w/oil and seasonings
popcorn -- keeps well for snacking
instant coffee from dollar store -- not bad
hit the grocery stores in the morning to look for marked down meat
hit the dollar tree store to find $1. bread (Nature's Own 12 grain)
instant rice, scrambled egg, meat pieces, parsley, garlic, onion,
almond milk (since Fukushima... need to monitor dairy foods)
although california pistachios were rejected by Japan for cesium levels
V-8 is great -- w/ carrots, spinach, etc in it -- great w/ crackers

For my vitamin guarantee, I buy a can of vanilla protein powder w/ vitamins and enzymes in it and mix it with anything, even juice from canned fruits or a soda

 

[GotSmart]

My mother taught me how to cook, and one of the secrets is growing a good spice garden. If you have access to health food stores and farmers markets, you can find a ready supply of fresh spices you can dry in a paper bag and powder yourself.

I will be taking with me about a pound of spice mix on the road. (What I can hide from my kids! Maybe 1/4 lb if I am lucky.) I add it to everything, and I find I do not have many of the problems others do. It keeps my digestion from erupting, and is quite tasty. The original mix was from a pasta recipe that came from Sicily about 110 years ago. My Grandmother got it from her mother. I just took the amounts of the basic spices, dried them. and mixed them together.

Rosemary
Oregano
Sage
Sweet Basil
Thyme.
There is a lot of other things that go into the sauce, but this is the base of the mix. I use a lot of dried onion and garlic also. A pinch of this and two of that will make any cooking chore into a pleasure.

 

[frickinducky]

I think I may be lucky in what I actually want to eat. Never liked pasta that much, picky about bread, not a fan of sweets. Per packaged stuff leaves me cold and afraid. But I love food. Wish meat and seafood were safer - I limit both. Cheese is my friend. I will have occasional soy just cuz it's tasty and fermentation improves the situation. I am so grateful that when I needed food assistance, the local food bank had stashes of relatively healthy food because most people didn't want it. I really wish you well with this project (though I'm keepin' my apron.). I am hoping this summer to delve into pickling if I can figure out space. Pickled eggs, asparagus, cabbage, whatever - though eggs, yum. Heck, even my dog is named Pickle. Good luck.

 

[offroad]

$190 a month for food stamps? Do you get that plus your SS income ?

 

[Catalyst1]

Romaine lettuce mainly due cost + ability to wrap itself around items like cheese, as an alternative to bread or sandwiches. Raisins instead of prunes because raisins have usually been cheaper. Many house brand raisins are of good quality, although I don't think much of Walmart's version of that.

Canned "chili" I urge you to ditch. Look at the ingredient list, there's lots of crap in it, especially you're eating a lot of GMO soy. Cooking real chili is not difficult, it can be done en masse and then eaten cold over the course of a week. Of course that requires cooking. That's why the frozen peas and dry peanuts are valuable, they do a lot of the same job nutritionally as beans but don't require cooking. If you must go for the convenience of cans in the short term, I would urge "chili beans" rather than chili. It's a lot cheaper and there isn't nearly as much crap in it. Just beans, probably a nominal amount of corn syrup, and spices. No soy, no meat products, and no sugar. You're still getting your daily dose of Bisphenol-A eating out of a can though.

Don't eat canned baked beans. About a million pounds of sugar in those.

Straight up canned black beans are the most palatable of "pure beans". They have the advantage that because they're black, nobody adds EDTA "to preserve color". It's still canned food though, do it sparingly.

I do occasionally buy other fruits when they're on sale, if I like them. For instance, a grapefruit can be eaten just like an orange, you don't have to put it in a bowl and use funny spoons. Sometimes mangoes are very cheap and I'll buy tons of 'em. Sometimes avocados become cheap but not usually.

Regarding fleas, we have years of experience with the possibility of flea contact dermatitis. This recent thing over the past 6 months is an order of magnitude worse than anything I've previously seen, with huge wrinkly patches of skin developing on the ears, armpits, and groin. The sulfur based mange medication from Happy Jack seems to be working, has gotten rid of much of the wrinkling, and the skin seems to be healing. Bad nutrition may have allowed mange to get a strong foothold to begin with. I wouldn't dismiss a chicken gizzard allergy either, will reintroduce in a couple of months and see if anything happens.

Hi Bvanevery,
I have a dog allergic to beef. It took me years to figure it out, too. Visited 5 different vets, & thousands of $ later, they had not helped. If your dog is allergic to chicken gizzards, she is allergic to chicken protein. Chicken allergies are common in domesticated dogs. Also, dogs are omnivores. Your dog is not getting a balanced diet on just canned fish & or gizzards. Bags of dry dog food are balanced for dogs (if you buy brands from a pet supply, not at grocery stores). I mix dry food with canned food for mine in a.m., then canned food with veges for them in p.m. I get Evanger's in small cans (online)--it is the purest meat I can find for dogs. Dogs do need some vegetable material in their diet. Mange is caused by mites, but generally healthy dogs won't pick it up. Their immune system keeps the mites at bay. As for your diet, not bad, but best if you vary the veges each week a little. Eat different colors of things at meals. I'm with you on the hormones, chemicals & food additives. I cook fresh whenever possible.