Poor mamas: How well do you guys really eat?? - Page 6

[Ruthiegirl]

Originally Posted by mum4boys

We also focus a lot more on whole foods versus organic etc. because of price issues. We have really had to cut back in the last 4 months as we lost 60% of our income but its been hard to cook from scratch as I had c-section complications, had a uterus infection (out of commission for a week), a baby who was hospitalized twice, youngest son's JA got worst, and the death of my mom (July 5th. : ). Things are looking up for us though emotionally etc not financially like dh is going to days starting August 13, so I have some to hold our high needs baby while I cook dinner. Anyway, one of my favorite recipes is following which is so cheap to make.

I couldn't read your post without offering a big hug. What a rough few months you have had.

[Ruthiegirl]

Originally Posted by forthebest

I don't have any money after food and bills,I mean zero, my ds has 2 pairs of trousers both ripped to shreds at present so I have to clothe them for school soon.I run a motor cos I always have and we've moved a lot in the past, we had to live in one car for a while,we live 19 miles from supermarket out in the sticks,but we are much closer to town than we we used to be, we are 4 miles from village shop which I could not afford for weeks shopping, it costs a lot keeping a car but I did a college course for a year in mechanics so have more of a clue now, it gets me and my dd to work, shops, camping,see friends etc. I hope my dc have developed some good food habits that they will take into later life. We used to live on the road and have always had untreated water as we have now thankfully, we live 1000ft above loch ness, sorry to be so gross but we had to into homeless accomodation once and it was tap water for 6 weeks, one of my dc ended up with a tapeworm!!! via that treated water and we were all pretty sick and rundown.

for the best -- your post brought tears to my eyes. Single parents are my heroes. I am glad you have good housing for your family and wish you well.

[Kaitnbugsmom]

Originally Posted by mum4boys

We also focus a lot more on whole foods versus organic etc. because of price issues. We have really had to cut back in the last 4 months as we lost 60% of our income but its been hard to cook from scratch as I had c-section complications, had a uterus infection (out of commission for a week), a baby who was hospitalized twice, youngest son's JA got worst, and the death of my mom (July 5th. : ). Things are looking up for us though emotionally etc not financially like dh is going to days starting August 13, so I have some to hold our high needs baby while I cook dinner. Anyway, one of my favorite recipes is following which is so cheap to make.

Meatless Lentil Chili
2 1/3 (1 pound) lentils rinsed
5 cups of water
16 ounces of Tomatoes or tomato sauce
1 packet (1 ounce) dry onion soup mix
1 ½ teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon cumin
In a large sauce pan bring lentils and water to a boil, then simmer with dry onion soup mix for 30 minutes add the rest of the ingredients and simmer 30 minutes more or after simmering lentils and dry onion mix add rest of the ingredients place in a oven proof casserole bowl and bake on 350 degrees for 45 minutes. I prefer to bake mine.

You can serve over pasta, rice or corn chips. It makes a great dip. I serve as a burrito with warm tortillas, cheese and sour cream.

this sounds absolutely yummy. I'm going to try it as my DH's going away dinner on Wednesday night

Hugs to everyone who needs them, myself included. There will be no money here for two weeks or more, however long it takes the Army to pay DH for his first half week/week of his 3 week training. So what's in the cupboard is going to have to last us awhile. I only know of one food pantry near us and I wouldn't venture there with my kids. It's at a church we used to attend and the place gives my 8 year old Autistic dd fits due to the horrid treatment she got there.

I do the best I can. Not all organic by any means, and we are still breaking the mc donalds addiction. I cook alot more than I used to, buy in bulk when I can, especially Eggs, pancake mix, maple syrup, regular syrup, cereals, oatmeal, etc which are our staples. But the other night I got a ramen craving. Yeck but I figured we never eat it so once in a blue moon isn't going to kill us and its alot less sodium and fat than what we'd get at Mc D's or whatever. And easier on our strapped finances.

TBH, most of the time I try to stock up on the outter perimeter items {fruits, fresh/frozen veggies, eggs, breads, deli meats when we can afford them, and other minimal process stuff] but if it comes down to either processed or going hungry, I'll feed my kids crap once or twice a week or whatever if it's the only alternative short of hunger.

[Kaitnbugsmom]

Originally Posted by forthebest

I have 3 dc and am a single mom, we don't eat meat. I cook all our meals from scratch, lentils, beans,pasta, wholegrain rice, quinoa, I bake bread, but they also like the crap white stuff so I must get unbleached flour,cakes, biccies etc. No-sugar muslee, supermarket muslee, bran flakes, I never buy soda or coke type drinks, ever. They get that from other people very rarely, I don't see how 13 or so tablespoons of sugar in one glass can be a treat.Trying to lower intake of dairy. I'm not that good a cook but I try and my dc say they like what I cook! I need to vary what I cook, I get tired of thinking of stuff to do, my shopping list never varies cos I can't afford to buy more expensive stuff, it's all offers mostly. I used to get bulk stuff from our wholefood warehouse and must start again but it's storing it and we got mice but our cat does what he can. Our Wee Health Shop is very pricey.I need to get more dried stuff in bulk like rice and flour cos we often run out depending on bills. I've got a polytunnel and will be putting it up soon for next year, very little sun this year in Scotland, then we should get some variety on the veg front and have fresh organic food but oh, I'm so tired. I very rarely buy junk food, I'm sure some of it is actually plastic,but will get them chips and pizza if we are going to a film , I try and not feed them sweets too much, it's mostly fairtrade chocolate, and I know too much fruit juice is not good for teeth. I find sometimes the best meals we have is when we are really low on food and they can't be fussy about what I cook and I can put things together I don't normally cos someone doesn't like, courgettes, lentils, pepper's etc. My dc love food, they all love veg and will eat raw carrots,celery(this I buy organic cos ds loves it)as snacks, eldest dd is tomato mad and loves quinoa, youngest dd discovered she likes brown lentils but still they eat too much rubbishy sugary stuff. I don't have any money after food and bills,I mean zero, my ds has 2 pairs of trousers both ripped to shreds at present so I have to clothe them for school soon.I run a motor cos I always have and we've moved a lot in the past, we had to live in one car for a while,we live 19 miles from supermarket out in the sticks,but we are much closer to town than we we used to be, we are 4 miles from village shop which I could not afford for weeks shopping, it costs a lot keeping a car but I did a college course for a year in mechanics so have more of a clue now, it gets me and my dd to work, shops, camping,see friends etc. I hope my dc have developed some good food habits that they will take into later life. We used to live on the road and have always had untreated water as we have now thankfully, we live 1000ft above loch ness, sorry to be so gross but we had to into homeless accomodation once and it was tap water for 6 weeks, one of my dc ended up with a tapeworm!!! via that treated water and we were all pretty sick and rundown.

couldn't read this without giving hugs. do they have anything like social assistance {called shop with a cop here} where you could sign your children up for free donated school clothes and supplies

[mum4boys]

Originally Posted by forthebest

I , we live 1000ft above loch ness, sorry to be so gross but we had to into homeless accomodation once and it was tap water for 6 weeks, one of my dc ended up with a tapeworm!!! via that treated water and we were all pretty sick and rundown.

I man that is awful. Hugs Forthebest.

[mum4boys]

Originally Posted by Ruthiegirl

I couldn't read your post without offering a big hug. What a rough few months you have had.

Thank you Ruthiegirl. Our lives have not been great for a while but we got this precious baby girl that my whole family is focussed on to make things shine. Nothing like a baby laughing to brighten everyone's spirits.

[Sol_Solved]

For us the biggest difference has been 1) buying only non-processed foods and 2) eating Indian food and buying its staples at the Indian store. Now, my husband is Indian, so he of course loves Indian food, but I just can't believe how those recipes can stretch a few dollars. I can make tomato soup (rasam) with just a handful of pigeon peas (bought a full pound for $2 at the Indian store, plus, pigeon peas are very very mild flavored, go well with everything and usually all kids like them with a bit of rice) and three fresh tomatos or one can, plus Indian spices. Then, we just add rice (again, 20 lbs for $7 at the Indian store) and a vegetable curry with whatever vegetable was on sale that week. Usually I make this soup once a week (or any other lentil-based gravy dish) and three curries and that's enough for DH's every lunch and dinner.

We do buy everything organic at the supermarket, but I look for produce on sale, and I know that we won't waste any of it. I freeze and rotate the curries and soups if I made too much. I also cook and freeze the lentils and peas beforehand if I know I won't have time to cook much, then I can make a full meal in the 15 minutes while the rice cooks. I imagine the same could be said about staples from a lot of other countries, So, don't forget to check your local ethnic store!

[serenetabbie]

Sol Solved, I would LOVE it if you could perhaps post ehre or make another thread with some of those Indian recipes. I do not live anywhere near any sort of "ethnic" food stores, although some of the stores have small latino or Indian selections. Is there perhaps something that could be made with items sold at a more mainstream grocery store? I have really enjoyed almost all of the Indian foods I have tried, in particular anything with spinach, and would really like to learn how to make some!

[Sol_Solved]

Serenetabbie, sure! I can start a thread somewhere with recipes. Since you just mentioned spinach, DH's favorite spinach curry is also super simple: I put a Tbsp of oil in a skillet, a few mustard seeds (they're a staple for us, but I imagine you could just use some garlic and onions for a twist, or replace with cumin seeds or poppy seeds or anything), and just add a package of thawed frozen spinach (usually $0.90 at QFC here) with all the liquid and let it cook, once it's done, I wait until it's not too hot and add two Tbsp of lime juice and mix well. The lime juice goes really well with spinach, and it's a very fast recipe.

[Ruthiegirl]

Originally Posted by serenetabbie

Sol Solved, I would LOVE it if you could perhaps post ehre or make another thread with some of those Indian recipes. I do not live anywhere near any sort of "ethnic" food stores, although some of the stores have small latino or Indian selections. Is there perhaps something that could be made with items sold at a more mainstream grocery store? I have really enjoyed almost all of the Indian foods I have tried, in particular anything with spinach, and would really like to learn how to make some!

Yes please!!! I love, love Indian curries, but get a little overwhelmed at the lengthy ingredient lists sometimes.

[kittywitty]

Originally Posted by wonderwahine

There are some areas where the water is bad, but the majority of it is gret, It would be much smarter to buy a $20 tap filter than buy soda or bottled water (which both cause plastic waste)

I kinda agree. I have never lived anywhere with good water, though. Madison has pretty good water (but I don't live there!).

The town I am in now has huge issues with cyanide in the water (my midwife just informed me!), and it tastes like rotten skunk. Tap water in IL is not worth drinking in my experience! Eastern NC water was ok, not bad enough for me to buy a filter.

[wonderwahine]

Originally Posted by dnw826

Tap water in IL is not worth drinking in my experience!

really?? they just tested our water in the state recently, and the western suburbs near chicago got the higest quality of water. So good that the filtering manufacturers said there really was no point in filtering it unless you were looking to filter out other chemicals regularly put into water. It was in one of our local papers a month or two ago.

They did it because there was a scam company going around pretending to test water and acting like it was the worst water they had ever seen to sell their $300 water filtration system.

Personally, our water tastes better now that we use tap vs the bottled we used to get.

[mum4boys]

Originally Posted by dnw826

I kinda agree. Eastern NC water was ok, not bad enough for me to buy a filter.

When we lived in Eastern NC our water had nuclear waste in it. All the fish in the Neuse river died...there was literally 6 feet of dead fish along the shores of the river.

[mum4boys]

Originally Posted by Ruthiegirl

Yes please!!! I love, love Indian curries, but get a little overwhelmed at the lengthy ingredient lists sometimes.

me too.

[mamimapster]

Originally Posted by wonderwahine

really?? they just tested our water in the state recently, and the western suburbs near chicago got the higest quality of water. So good that the filtering manufacturers said there really was no point in filtering it unless you were looking to filter out other chemicals regularly put into water. It was in one of our local papers a month or two ago.

They did it because there was a scam company going around pretending to test water and acting like it was the worst water they had ever seen to sell their $300 water filtration system.

Personally, our water tastes better now that we use tap vs the bottled we used to get.

Yep, I Live in the near western suburbs and although I do use a Britta, I like the taste of tap better than bottled and always have ( I grew up in Chicago). However, Milwaukee water is YUK!

[wonderwahine]

Originally Posted by mum4boys

When we lived in Eastern NC our water had nuclear waste in it. All the fish in the Neuse river died...there was literally 6 feet of dead fish along the shores of the river.

EWWWW that is one place I will definatly buy bottled at!

[serenetabbie]

Thanks Sol Solved! That does sound really quick and easy. I do have mustard seed on hand actually, I use them mostly for making pickles They sell them in bulk at the mennonite spice stand at my local farm market.

I had spinach and (I want to say wheat, but I am not sure) balls with potatoes in a yellow curry sauce that was fantastic that I would like to learn how to make. Anything with paneer is good too; palak paneer... MmmmmmMMM! I have a recipe for paneer already, but have not tried it yet

I am really looking forward to the Indian Food Thread . Will you let us know if it will be here or in the Meals forum somewhere please?

TIA!!

[boogiemonster]

Saag paneer. OMG this gives me shivers just thinking about it!

[Mom2Joseph]

Originally Posted by serenetabbie

Sol Solved, I would LOVE it if you could perhaps post ehre or make another thread with some of those Indian recipes. I do not live anywhere near any sort of "ethnic" food stores, although some of the stores have small latino or Indian selections. Is there perhaps something that could be made with items sold at a more mainstream grocery store? I have really enjoyed almost all of the Indian foods I have tried, in particular anything with spinach, and would really like to learn how to make some!

oh my word, yes! Please start a thread, and let us know where, of all these great recipes! Could be an intro to simple, thrifty, Indian cooking....

PLEASE! TIA

[AngelBee]

Originally Posted by Daisie125

Whole foods are much cheaper than processed junk. We cannot afford organic, but we eat pretty well on a VERY small grocery budget (around $30/week).

For instance, I can make homemade noodles with herbs just as cheap as Ramen packs are, and they taste SO much better.

I am going to follow you around for a meal plan and recipes :