Monday: Let the Challenge begin

Monday, October 20, 2014

“No smoke!” I exclaimed as I saw Carson reaching for the fancy, smoky seasoning we like to put on eggs. “It’s not in the budget.” Startled, he put it back on the shelf and sat down to eat breakfast. The CalFresh Challenge had officially begun.

Ground rules

It was hard to decide what to count and what not to count in our $50 budget (plus the $15 Farmers Market Match lifeline). We grow a lot of our own food, but we pay for it through water, soil amendments, and labor. I decided to exclusively use fruits and vegetables I could buy at the farmers market on Saturday, to keep it simple.

What about spices and condiments? I know they’re expensive, but they’re infrequent costs. Most people have some sort of a pantry, right? I decided to allot $2 of the total budget to the spices I use most often: salt, pepper, oregano, basil, cumin, curry, cinnamon, and chili powder. I threw another $2 at condiments: mayo, mustard, and hot sauce.

The last big hurdle: I cook with a variety of oils and fats. I love the local Terra Savia and Stella Cadente olive oils and I spend a lot on those high-quality products, but I knew I couldn’t use them this week. I rendered my own lard when we bought half a pig last spring, and while cheaper than olive oil, it’s not technically free. So, this week I’ll allot a small fortune - $4 – to butter, lard, and organic coconut oil (which I got at the Grocery Outlet for a steal).

Our one freebie is honey. Carson is a beekeeper, so we would have access to honey no matter what.

What’s in the pantry?

I said yesterday that we try to eat according to certain values; however, we are not purists. If 80% of our produce shopping is done at the farmers market, 80% of our pantry shopping is done at the Grocery Outlet. And I feel good about that! Hear me out. The Grocery Outlet:

1. Has a lot of organic food
2. Sells food that would otherwise end up in landfills
3. Is incredibly affordable, freeing up our dollars to spend on local meat and produce
4. Is a locally-owned franchise that takes customer input seriously (case in point: my friend’s successful campaign for full-fat yogurt)

The other 20% is done at the Ukiah Natural Foods Co-Op and the Westside Renaissance Market, plus weekly day-old bread purchases at Schat’s Bakery. With all of our meat and vegetables purchased locally, though, we really don’t spend much at any one store.

Here’s what else we’ll be eating this week:

When I add in the $8 for other pantry items plus the $30 we spent at the farmers market, we’re over our $65 budget by 6 cents. Not bad.

Monday’s Menu

Breakfast: Fried eggs and toast; black tea

Conspicuously absent: bacon; coffee; smoky spice.

Lunch: Top Ramen and apples

Conspicuously present: sodium.

I’m not proud of this meal, but I’m not going to lie about it either. My lunch plans for the entire week leverage leftovers from the night before. Since we didn’t have any challenge leftovers yet, and also because I didn’t have time to make us anything more exciting, we ate Top Ramen. I will admit that this is something we sometimes do in non-challenge weeks. We all do the best we can, right?

Dinner: roasted chicken and potatoes; salad with honey mustard dressing

Conspicuously absent: wine; dark chocolate for dessert.

Yum! Even though we normally would have a bottle of wine with this meal, it still felt luxurious. This chicken is the most expensive thing we’re eating by far, but it will feed us four times. Carson would have liked to eat more chicken, but I filled him up with the rest of the potatoes and salad while I stripped the bird of its crispy skin – my favorite part. We weren’t stuffed, but we were satisfied. Carson was looking for something sweet at the end of the night, so he made some tea with honey.