life is funny

[jennickels]

Once again we're pretty much broke and running low on food.  I find it very interesting what I can come up with when my normal stand-bys are long since eaten.  A few months ago I invented "Desperate Times Rice Wraps" which the kids have asked to have again.

Today I didn't have to come up with anything real elaborate but I did have to take into account what I plan to make the rest of the week.

So I made fish sticks and some cheap-ass french fries.  That didn't seem like enough for 6 people and my son really doesn't like this brand of fish sticks (something about the breading he doesn't like because he LOVES fish and likes most fish sticks).  I had 2 packs of chicken flavored noodles (something I don't normally make but my husband bought them for times like this).  So I cooked them up and decided to toss in some peas so they'd have veggies.  When the noodles were done I added a can of cream of chicken soup, a little garlic powder, sage and rosemary.  The kids ate it before it set up so it was like soup.  They said it was really good.  My oldest is just now eating and it's really thickened up so she's eating it as a side dish (which is how I intended it).  She likes it, too.

Since my son doesn't like fish sticks I made him some sloppy joes which was the last can of mix I had.  We don't have any buns (kids ate the last of the hot dog buns for lunch) and we only have half a loaf of bread.  But we did have 3 packs of English muffins.  So I heated those up in the oven (we don't have a toaster).  And the sloppy joes tasted really good on them and much better than bread (which gets too messy and falls apart).

Not sure what I'm going to make the rest of the week.  We have some orange chicken but it's not enough for all of us.  There's 1 tray of pizza bagels (not enough for all the kids).  We have some flat bagels for sandwiches when the bread runs out and plenty of PB&J so there's that.  We have like 5lbs of hamburger, 1 bag of mixed veggies, a LOT of peas, some stir fry veggies, a little bit of corn, a few more fish sticks, some canned chicken, boxed stuffing, rice and brown rice, 1 box of au gratin potatoes, chicken broth, some pasta (no sauce, though).

I'm sure I can make quite a bit with all that.  I'm thinking of making the orange chicken (which is pre-packaged) but add in the stir fry veggies and serve it with some of the rice.  We are out of eggs, almost out of cereal, getting low on milk, ketchup, mustard, bread and cheese which sucks.

I'm sure I'll get to pick up a few of our regular stuff because Jack is out of formula so we have to go to the store.  That means eggs, milk, bread, cheese, hot dogs, buns, veggies.  Things like that.

I'm glad we're not as poor as we once were.  I guess maybe that's why I can laugh at it.  I know it won't last and we'll go get a few thing and come the 20th we'll stock up again.

Comments

[thothmes.livejournal.com]

When I was little, both of my grandparents were out of the country (one grandfather was attached to the U.S. Embassy in Paris that year, and the other one was in charge of the American Academy at Rome for that year) when my parents (both of whom were still undergraduate students) separated, which meant two rents, and not much money coming in.

My mom, who is 5'4" and should weigh about 135 lbs. when healthy and well fed, got down to 95 lbs. She began to be seriously worried, and started to weigh herself regularly in order to keep tabs. In the spirit of trying to laugh, rather than cry, she'd get up on the scale and pretend to complain. "Oh, no! I'm too fat!" she'd say, flinging one arm across her forehead and leaning backwards like the fainting woman in the Edward Gorey montage on Mystery on PBS. Clueless, little two year old me would try to console her. "It's okay, Mummy," I'd say, flinging an arm around one leg, "I'll call you thin!"

She made sure I got fed at least one good meal by "just happening" to show up for a quick visit and a chat just when her friends fed their kids, rotating friends so the burden was never great. She fed me chicken liver - cheaper than chicken meat - raw (eeeuwwww!!!!) so no nutrients would be lost in the cooking. Those were the days of little fear of salmonella. Sometimes lunch was egg nog, made with one raw egg, some sugar, and a few precious drops of vanilla. She broke the hunger by creaming butter and sugar together and handing me a spoon. Raw carrots were cheap, and so were canned green beans, so we ate a lot of those. Oatmeal or baby food rice cereal was breakfast, because it was cheap and filling.

We made it without going on Welfare until my maternal grandmother came back to the U.S. and we moved in with her, but she was very disturbed by the way that for the first month or so, both of us unconsciously guarded our plates, and hunched over them like dogs with a bone.

I don't remember the hunger now. I remember the love. There was a feeling of security and being taken care of, because my mom took on the burden of worrying, and made sure I knew it would all be alright.

[jennickels.livejournal.com]

We've never been that poor. But I do remember distinctly a time when we lived in PA and I went to make dinner and the fridge was empty. I opened a pack of Saltines and sliced up the last of the cheddar cheese and that's what the kids (who were like 2 1/2, 3 1/2 and 5) ate for dinner. They thought it was fun even though they only had like 10-15 crackers each and 2 slices of cheese.

The next day I don't remember what we had for lunch. I think we skipped it after the kids used the last of the milk with the last of the cereal for breakfast. We at the last pack of crackers for dinner sans cheese.

They went to bed both nights crying they were hungry. I hadn't eaten much those two days and cried myself to sleep, too. The next day I told my husband we couldn't live like this anymore and we went to Wal-mart and charged $150 worth of groceries.

For 2 years almost all our food was charged. Didn't help our credit or situation any but the kids were fed.

We don't have credit cards any more. Everything is paid by cash. When the cash is gone...that's it. It's been interesting. There's been a few times since we moved that the cupboards and fridge were just about empty and I was scratching my head, trying to figure out what to give the kids until we got more money.

My mom was super poor when she was a kid. She as the 3rd youngest of 11 kids. They were on welfare her whole life. She didn't talk much about it but she remembers eating stale crackers and ketchup for dinner and lunch for days in a row. If they got anything at all. My dad says she had never had a steak until he took her out to eat when they were dating. She didn't know what to do with it. She had never eaten so much as she did when she met my dad who grew up working poor...the didn't have much but they always had something.

I, on the other hand, have NEVER gone without. No matter how bad off we were financially my dad always made sure we had plenty or food even if it meant not paying other bills first (crazy thinking).

Payday is the 20th so we're trying to stretch what we have. We'll probably pick up a few things to get by but with gas prices rising we have to have enough for my husband to get to and from work. The kids, though, don't get it. They want to eat like the food is endless no matter how many times I tell them this is all we have. They want seconds and thirds and there goes lunch for the next day. So then the next day their whining because there's nothing to eat. It's very frustrating.

[cschick.livejournal.com]

How many pounds of hamburger do you need to feed everyone for one meal? One possibility I see above: hamburger becomes meatballs, make up a roux if you have some butter + flour (melt three tablespoons butter, once melted, mix in three tablespoons flour), add the 1.5 cups of chicken broth + any spices you have, make some pasta. Then you have have meatballs, a chicken/spice-flavored white sauce, and pasta as a meal (or, you can also serve this over rice). Make some of the frozen veggies as a side. You'd probably need less hamburger for this than a meatloaf.

(You didn't mention anything about baking supplies, do you have any? I have additional ideas but some of them depend on like having two cups of flour+baking powder for hamburger pie ... there were a few times during my childhood when my parents pantry got like this, but my mom always did keep baking supplies around so we had that basis to work from.)

[jennickels.livejournal.com]

That actually sounds pretty good, Dee. It takes like 2lbs of hamburger to feed my family with a little leftover. I have beef bullion cubes. That would make a nice gravy, don't you think. Cook up the meatballs with the last of the onion. AND I have some potatoes that may or may not be good, lol. With the last of the veggies that would be a good meal.

Thanks for the idea.

[cschick.livejournal.com]

I use beef bullion cubes or the powder to make gravy pretty often. In fact, since I HATE tomato sauce myself, when I make pasta+tomato sauce and meatballs for the males, I'll sometimes whip up a little bit of beef gravy for myself using whatever "beef" flavoring I have on hand.

[jennickels.livejournal.com]

I don't particularly care for tomato sauce either. I'll eat it if there's nothing else but I'd rather have alfredo sauce. I make my own [sort of] alfredo which is just white sauce with parmesan cheese in it.

My husband liked the idea of the meatballs. I actually forgot I used to make my meatloaf recipe up then divide it into meatballs, brown them and toss them in the slow cooker. And last week my husband wanted meatloaf so we bought all the ingredients, I just never made it. hmmmm.

We did go buy some groceries so I now have all my standard supplies. I should be able to come up with stuff to last until the 20th. This week was worse than normal since the kids were on spring break so we had to feed all 4 for breakfast and lunch (normally they eat at school).

[jennickels.livejournal.com]

I do have baking supplies. At least rudimentary ones since I baked for Christmas but my spice rack is lacking. Since the move I really haven't had money to stock up on everything I want. I usually just buy as needed.

We actually had cheeseburger pie for dinner the other night (there's still a helping in the fridge that I think I'll snag for dinner). It's become a standby for us using boxed mashed potatoes (which taste so much better than the ones I remember from when I was a kid...although it was very rare that my mom used them). It was the only thing I had all the ingredients for the other night. Problem is Meagan won't eat it for some reason even though she likes everything in it.

I just get really lost without cheese, milk and bread in the house. My dad keeps telling me to invest in some powdered milk for such occasions.

I do find it interesting the meals I come up with when we're down to bare bones. Combinations of stuff I would have never considered otherwise. It's kind of fun...until you run out of all your basics (like milk and butter).

I can't remember a single time when I was a kid when our cupboards were this bare. Our house was always fully stocked with food growing up.

[cschick.livejournal.com]

A few times in grammar school (so, before you met me) my dad went through times of unemployment and times of underemployment. Our cupboards got pretty bare, but you know, I now know that eating Ramen every day for lunch should be a clue you've got nothing, but as a kid, I liked eating Ramen for lunch. (Our grammar school was also still open campus back then, you went home mid-day for lunch.)

I also know how to cook without milk or cheese, but that comes of having half your family either lactose intolerant or allergic to milk.

[jennickels.livejournal.com]

I forgot about the Ramen. We have a bunch. We keep it around mostly for my husband for quick meals. I try to keep the kids away from it because it's all salt but they'd eat it every day if I let them. They did cook up several packs for lunch this past week.

And I remember practically living off Ramen in college. That's probably the only time I was more broke than now. I was only working like 20 hours a week and making just enough to pay my rent. If it wasn't for working in one of the school cafeterias I would have starved. Almost the only time I ate was at work. I got free meals, thankfully, so I ate my fill at every one. That was lunch and dinner M-F and breakfast and lunch on Sunday. Saturday I fended for myself...when I wasn't picking up shifts for people (I went 3 weeks without a day off once).

That was, of course, after I started working full time. Still didn't have money for food, though.

[cschick.livejournal.com]

Ramen is actually quite good if you order it at a Vietnamese restaurant (and still "cheapish" too, I believe that most of the ones around my college campus sold this gigantic bowls for about $3). It's the noodles, broth and just LOADS of fresh veggies. I guess that's how Ramen is actually supposed to be served. They also serve it spicy-hot or normal.

But yea, I bet even that version is still overloaded with salt.