Exploring how food-insecurity intersects with hunger, disordered eating patterns, and health outcomes via the culinary adventures of a vegan dietitian on a virtual SNAP budget.
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When you and your best friend are killers... #cairnterriersofinstagram #zombiegram #elvisgram
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Veg News potato tacos, slightly modified. #foodporn #whatveganseat #veganfoodshare #snapchallenge #tacotuesday
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My students often complain that eating a plant-based diet is more expensive than a traditional diet. Of course, it can be - but the same could be said about any diet. The key is knowing how to make good choices within the framework of a particular diet. In this case, the pile of vegan food on the left hand side can make several meals and costs less money than what my BF spent on his turkey hoagie (which was consumed in one sitting). Of course, this requires a certain comfort level in the kitchen...and what you save in dollars is then spent in time preparing food.
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Dog treats versus groceries for a week. Dog treats = 24.87. Groceries (including Assi Mart purchases, not pictured here) = 47.40.
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SNAP Project - Week Two Recap
So I’ve been a little under the weather with a couple of migraines. In real life, I’ve already made my Week 3 purchases, so allow me to take a minute to give a recap on Week 2 of the SNAP Project. As noted in my last post, I did part of my shopping at the Assi Mart (Tofu, Yam, Ginger, Coconut Milk, Ramen, and Pad Thai Noodles). The following includes the remaining items purchased from Week 2:
Rotini 1.00
Herr’s Chips 3.00
28oz Crushed Tomatoes 0.89
Chickpeas 1.18 (2 cans)
Tomato paste 0.49
Peanuts 2.50
0.73 lbs Broccoli Crown 1.45
7 Bananas 1.52
Potato 1.13
3 lb bag of onion *2 (B1G1F) 3.49 (More than I need but this will set me up for next week)
Scallions 0.99
Mushrooms 1.00
9oz raw cashews 6.99
Baby Kale 3.99
Frozen Strawberries 2.99
Almond Milk �� 2.79 (vs. Almond Breeze which was ON SALE for 3.00)
Wheat Bread 2.79
In addition to what I purchased during Week 2, I had the following items left over from Week 1: Carrots, Tomato Sauce, 2 crusts of bread, lentils, almond milk, and cereal.
I was able to make the Sweet Potato/Kale curry noted in my last post, a couple Kale salads, Pad Thai (photo at http://instagram.com/p/lyU5EKuuXk/, recipe at http://www.theppk.com/2013/09/everyday-pad-thai/), Mushroom and Tofu Stroganoff, Chickpea sandwiches, and Tofu scrambles.
As you may have noticed, the nutritional quality of my choices is declining. I found that my patience with the budget was seriously declining and I might have become obsessed with the idea of getting some potato chips into my diet. There were UTZ potato chips on sale, buy one get one free – however the price of one bag was $4.59! Have I just not been paying attention to the price of foods for years? At what point did potato chips exceed the four dollar mark? Fortunately, I was able to let go of the idea of getting a free second bag, since I was able to buy a bag of Herr’s chips for a modest three dollars.
Also, this experience led me to make my first "return" at the service desk of the grocery store. Upon completing my order at the store, I learned that I was three dollars and change over my budget. I thanked the cashier and then went out to the car to examine my receipt. I learned that my three pound bag of onions, which were supposed to be buy-one-get-one-free rang up at full cost. I ran right back in for my return. The girl at the desk was very nice about it.
As noted, when I started this project, I had a few days off of the budget for St. Patrick’s weekend but I stuck with the lifestyle as best I could. I did pack a couple containers of leftover soup from Week 1 and then demanded that my father and boyfriend paid for any food I consumed outside of those soups that weekend (EW got me breakfast out; Papa Chapes bought me a veggie burger and fries at an Irish Pub as well as some groceries to make Potato Leek soup and Vegan Shepard’s pie – I was able to get all of the ingredients for both dishes for <18.00 and dad was left with a plethora of leftovers and a bag of potatoes). Despite all of these deviations, I had a near-miss the Wednesday after I came back home from Connecticut. Blame it all on Vegan Treats’ Instagram – they were posting photographs of vegan cream eggs. I drove there after working in Bethlehem but there were no eggs available. The girl behind the counter apologized but I was secretly grateful because I totally would have spent 10 dollars on dark chocolate and would have to write the blog of shame afterwards.
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Jillian, I spoke too soon.
So much has happened since the last time I blogged and there's so little time. Let me resume blogging with the story I am least happy to tell. We'll call this the Ramen Noodle Incident.
Last week on Thursday (March 13th, 2014), a group I volunteer for (The Tri-State Renal Dietitians Association) held their Spring Symposium. These Symposiums are a great chance to catch up on our continuing education and a great opportunity to network. Having been a volunteer with the Association for almost two years now, I've gotten to know many of the dietitians and enjoyed catching up with them last week. I caught up with our Membership Chairperson (that's Jillian, who I mentioned in the tile) and was telling her about my SNAP project. I talked about the budget, the challenge of obtaining nutritious foods within the budget, but how the set structure of foods had reduced my urge to binge-eat. That is, since I couldn't go outside of the food choices I had set up at the beginning of the week, I didn't have the option of seeking out foods I might binge on.
I told Jillian about the delicious peanut curry tofu dish I made last week and how I was still dreaming about it. Fortunately, I knew a place that was close by the Symposium – the Assi Mart – and this store sold six-pound tubs of tofu for only 4.99! Jillian suggested that I stop there on the way home to make the most of my trip out to Plymouth meeting for the Symposium. I thought - what a great idea!
The Assi Mart is an amazing little store that has all kinds of exotic veggies, cheap tofu (and seafood, if that's part of your diet), and techno music playing throughout the store. Upon entering the store, I was pleased to learn that the six-pound tubs of tofu were on sale for $3.99 (that’s about 70 cents more than I’d pay for one lb of tofu at my local Giant Superstore). I also grabbed some coconut milk (on sale for 89 cents), a yam, a hunk of ginger root, some Pad Thai noodles, and a six pack of Ramen noodles. Total spent = 9.21. I still had 37.99 to spend for the rest of the week.
The drive home from the Assi Mart was full of traffic since it was about 5pm and I found myself fantasizing about the Ramen noodles for the entire ride home. That night I discovered a couple of things: 1. I spoke too soon about not having the urge to binge and 2. The effects of food insecurity may be taking a toll on me. Five (count them – 5) packages of Ramen noodles later I had consumed about 1900 calories and that doesn’t even count the vegan margarine I used instead of the seasoning packets that come with the noodles.
There is an interesting article that talks about this phenomenon (http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-04-20-column20_ST_N.htm?csp=obinsite) – how food stamp recipients tend to choose poorly when their food stamp funds are replenished and then feel deprived at the end of the month. This sets them up to make poor choices out of hunger or deprivation. I experienced my Ramen shame only after one week of my SNAP challenge; I can’t imagine being given the entire amount of money at the beginning of the month without falling into the same trap. I already struggled to make good choices after one week!
A couple pics included below: one of the tub of tofu (only five lbs leftover at the time of this shot) and one photo of the Kale & Sweet potato recipe from Isa Chandra (http://www.theppk.com/2011/01/red-curry-soup-with-rice-purple-kale/). The latter was a good way to use up my leftover kale from the first week on SNAP as well as some of the leftover brown rice.
That’s my story for now – more to come.
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I survived the weekend and ate lots of curried peanut sauce
It’s not easy to blog on a Sunday night but I’m afraid to let too much time pass between posts; if I wait too long I might lose momentum. I realized that, while I took a photograph of the foods I got on Thursday night I never posted the entire list of groceries or the cost breakdown – seems like an easy enough topic to tackle before getting ready for my week to start.
Grocery List:
Popcorn: 3.49
Olive Oil: 4.87
Dried lentils: 1.39
15oz diced tomatoes: 0.69
Kidney beans: 3 * 0.59
Chickpeas: 2*0.59
Cannellini beans: 0.59
Crisper Cereal (Generic Chex): 2.69
28oz crushed tomatoes: 0.89
Brown rice: 0.99
Marinara: 1.39
7 bananas: 1.50
Green pepper: 1.57
Red pepper: 1.17
Sweet Onions: 2.61
Jalapeno Peppers: 0.32
Cilantro: 0.99
Chives: 1.99
Grape Tomatoes: 2.99
2lbs carrots: 1.79
Kale: 2.99
Frozen strawberries: 2.99
Silk Milk: 1.99 w/coupon
Almond Milk: 2.79
Nature’s Own Whole Wheat Bread: 2.79
A lot of students ask me if it is more expensive to eat a vegan style diet. Just as the price of meat can vary (eggs and canned tuna vs. salmon and steak) the price of plant-based proteins can vary. At 59 cents a 15oz can, you can’t beat the price of beans; the savings magnify if you are willing to prepare dried beans. In my own shopping list, the most expensive items were Olive Oil and Popcorn – both items that aren’t unusual to find on an omnivore’s shopping list. I know that protein isn’t going to be the big expense for me – coffee will be the killer.
I’ve been sticking with the diet as outlined in my earlier blogs. One meal that I feel is worth mentioning is the Curried Peanut Sauce Bowl from the Isa Does It cookbook (http://veggie4ayear.wordpress.com/2014/01/22/curried-peanut-sauce-tofu-and-kale-from-isa-does-it/). This is the most delicious thing I’ve eaten all week and it was hard not to eat the entire pot on my own in one sitting. No fancy equipment required, no weird ingredients – this one is a winner in case you are looking for anything new to try out.
My boyfriend went to our local bar yesterday for drinks and lunch. Initially, I was pretty sad that I had to skip out on the experience because they make a mean veggie pita with French fries. Then today, he ordered Chinese take-out but I stuck with my SNAP food plan. Later, as I went out for an evening walk, I found myself reflecting on my attitude towards the set meal plans I have for the week and I’m getting to be OK with it. The whole process of buying my food ahead of time and being restricted to the budget/prior choices may be diminishing my urges to binge. The whole thing reminds me of when I was a little kid and meals were planned for me; I didn’t have (much of) a choice as to what would be packed in my lunch or what would be served for dinner so I never had to think about food much. It wasn’t until I had money of my own to spend on food – that’s when I would get myself into trouble with poor food choices and excessive intake (and began to ritualize the experience of binge-eating). I’m also reminded of the experience of my transitioning to veganism. I remember the girls at book club asking me if it was hard to give up cheese – initially it was the hardest food to give up – but eventually it was liberating because I didn’t even have to think about making the choice anymore. Cheese wasn’t an option I had to consider anymore, so I didn’t have to feel guilty about the likelihood of my binging on it. Of course, here we are a few years later and I’ve clearly found vegan foods that have taken the place of cheese in my world. I’d like to end with some brilliant observation about all of this but I’m still figuring things out. While I continue to process everything, do yourself a favor and get to work on that curried peanut sauce bowl.
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Food Miser
Today was the first FULL day of " restricted" intake. I actually ate quite well - I'm not hungry at all at the end of the day, however I spent the day worrying that I would become hungry. I feel like I'm already starting to behave like a food hoarder.
First of all, at work today we had a lobby day where we handed out fruit cups to the clients that came in. The fruit cups were made from canned pineapple chunks and frozen blueberries. While I was making the fruit cups, I actually poured out the pineapple juice (made with water and splenda so only 40 kcals per cup) to save/drink instead of just draining into the sink like I normally might. We also had about a half a can of pineapple chunks leftover after making all of the fruit cups and I took these (otherwise would have been discarded) to use in a fruit smoothie tomorrow. At lunch when I told people about this SNAP challenge I found myself saying "so if anyone has any coupons they want to throw my way..." One of my co-workers gave me several creative ways to reduce expenses for the sake of this project [e.g., tie a string around a quarter and re-insert it into a newspaper dispenser (do those even exist anymore?) to get the weekly coupons without paying the full price for the paper; he gave me additional suggestions for some humorous but illegal methods of food procurement that I won't be considering anytime soon].
The girls at work noted that they went to get Ice Cream at "The Cup" in Bethlehem and I immediately thought "I should go to Vegan Treats for some soft serve" and quickly remembered that this would not be happening for some time, given the restrictions I've imposed upon myself.
Despite my fear of not having enough food and my moments of feeling deprived, overall the day went well and I feel the meals and snacks I ate were substantial (Generic Chex w/Almond milk, Coffee, Leftover Rice & Beans, Pineapple Juice, Banana & Peanut Butter, More Almond Milk, and Breaded Eggplant w/Pasta from Isa Does It). I haven't done the nutrient analysis on this yet, but my best guess is that the caloric intake was more than adequate.
On the exercise front I did end up getting 6000+ steps in yesterday. Today, I jumped on the stationary bike for 30 minutes and did a little walking at the farmers market and again with the dogs. One of the patient care technicians at my job also got an UP Jawbone and joined my "team" - my boss is thinking about getting on board with the Jawbone as well. Solidarity people! It's a great motivator.
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Meals from Friday, March 7th. Not shown - snack of peanut butter and banana, glass of Silk Almond milk, and a glass of low sugar pineapple juice.
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Shopping on a SNAP budget
I made my first weekly trip to the grocery store today with list in hand. My general plan for the week is to eat peanut-butter toast or cereal with a fruit smoothie for my breakfasts. Perhaps a mix of chickpea sandwiches or leftovers for my lunches; maybe a salad or two. Dinner will be red beans and rice (tonight), an eggplant pasta dish, chili, curried tofu, black bean soup, cannellini tomato soup, and something random with all the leftover bits and pieces thrown together – my charge nurse from Philly used to call this kind of meal “garbage soup.” Of course, I had to get popcorn too in case (ha) the urge to snack hits.
I spent quite a bit of time at the grocery store, weighing items and adding up the costs of food to make sure I stayed on track with my budget. I found the process stressful and felt like I was in the way of the employees with my weighing and calculating. In the end, I was able to get almost everything on my list; I had to pass on the avocado, put back one can of kidney beans, put back a can of black beans, and I could only afford a gallon of Almond milk (I had a coupon for a dollar off of the Silk) vs. the 1.5 gallons I had planned on getting. The cereal I chose was high in vitamin D, so I’m hoping that I can survive without that extra half gallon. The whole process of weighing out foods, calculating, and deciding what to leave behind took such a long time I got a concerned text from my boyfriend: “Hey baby, which Giant did you go to? The one in Timbuktu?”
Well, the goal was to keep my costs down to $47.20 and I came close. My total bill came out to $47.63, a whopping 43 cents over budget! I got home and took a few pictures – the receipt and the pile of groceries – also look at the great job my bagger did distributing the weight of heavy items across the bags! First meal prepared was a vegan red beans and rice recipe from the Fat Free Vegan (http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2012/11/easy-red-beans-and-rice.html) minus one can of kidney beans that I had to leave behind to stay on budget. This was enough to feed both my boyfriend and I for dinner tonight and I packed a Tupperware container for lunch tomorrow. The meal was incredibly satisfying and I’m looking forward to seeing what the rest of the week brings.
The one thing I’ve been struggling with is fitting that physical activity in – yesterday was a failure and today isn’t looking good either now that it’s 10:30pm. I’ll let everyone knows if I can make some magic happen in the remaining hour and a half of my day. Thanks for reading!
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Kickoff: Vegan SNAP Project
The Mission:
March is National Nutrition month and the time of year when dietitians at my job have to do a little something off of the beaten path to celebrate. I have decided that my project will be a blog, exploring ways to maximize the budget from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly the Food Stamp Program). As an adjunct instructor at one of the local community colleges, I have worked with similar projects in the academic setting. There will be several differences between the project I administer in school (a virtual experience) versus the practices I’ll be engaging in at home. Students aren’t required to purchase and eat the menu they develop in their project, but I will be taking this step as best I can. Allow me to elaborate further:
Similar to the project at school, I will be working with the most recent budget available at http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodCost-Home.htm. As of today, the most recent food plan available is from December 2013. My students are allowed to use the “low cost plan” for their age-gender group; Since I am a female between the ages of 19 and 50, this will allow me to spend $ 47.20 per week on foods (this doesn’t include paper products or health & beauty care products which would have to be purchased out-of-pocket anyway). It is assumed that students have condiments, flour, coffee, and tea on hand and this will not be included in their budget – since I hate to waste food, I am going to allow myself to use the food I already have on hand which includes fresh spinach, a little Almond Breeze, a little Orange Juice, 1.5 lbs of firm tofu, and eggplant, some wilting celery, some mango chunks, a shrinking lime, peanut butter, 2 cans of black beans, some dried grains, and a variety of condiments, sauces, margarines, and such. When I run out of flour, coffee, and condiments, I will have to pay for these out of my 47.20 budget. If I use any previously-owned food during this experience, I’ll make sure to mention that. In many ways, this might be somewhat true to the experience one would have transitioning from a more liberal budget to a SNAP budget as circumstances might require; Of course, I am aware I have the privilege of engaging in this project as an option rather than a requirement – this probably deserves a closer look as the blogging moves forward.
I will have to plan three square meals daily and attempt to meet my nutritional needs according to a nutrition analysis program used by the school. I can eat the same breakfast seven days in a row if I want (but I get bored easily so that won’t likely happen). All other meals can be repeated no more than three times within a seven-day stretch. Snacks are allowed and can be repeated as frequently as desired.
My Weakness:
So I tend to be the Liz Phair of dietitians in terms of my willingness to confess my deep, dark, nutritional secrets. While I will try to keep the TMI factor somewhat minimized, I should acknowledge that I do have some troublesome eating behaviors that rear their ugly heads when I feel like I’m being too restrictive with my diet. As someone close to me used to joke “I’m a binger not a purger.” For this reason, if I there are times within the course of my blogging that I feel I need to eat outside of the plan, I will be kind to myself and allow it to happen. While this may be less satisfying to the reader (let’s admit it, it’s always kind of fun to see the main character struggle a little bit), these moments can provide an opportunity to explore psychosocial issues that might pop up in the context of food insecurity. Plus, I’m going home to visit my parents for St. Patrick’s day weekend and I know I’m going to go off the path at that time.
My Nutritional Needs:
Today, the first day of the blog, is Ash Wednesday. While I’m not a practicing Catholic, I enjoy the Lenten traditions associated with this time of year and have decided to not only abstain for alcohol (a big money and calorie saver), but I will also be adding 20 minutes of physical activity daily (I even bought a Jawbone and a Blood Pressure cuff to monitor some health outcomes – if this Jawbone thing will ever charge, that is). I also have been following vegan dietary guidelines for almost three years now and will continue with this practice (an important note since many students believe that vegan eating can be cost-prohibitive). Based on this level of physical activity and with the help of my nutrition analysis program, I have determined that my nutritional needs are as follows:
2400 kcals daily
80g protein
45-65% kcals from carbohydrates
20-35% kcals from fats
<7% kcals from saturated fats
33g fiber
700mcg vitamin A
1.1mg thiamin
1.1mg riboflavin
14mg niacin
1.3mg vitamin B6
2.4mcg vitamin B12
75mg vitamin C
15mcg vitamin D
15mg vitamin E
400mcg folate
1000mg calcium
18mg iron
8mg zinc
320mg magnesium
700 – 1000 mg phosphorus
4700mg potassium
2000mg sodium (I know that the new recommendations are as low as 1500mg but since most hospitals use 2000mg as their goal for “low sodium” I am going to use this as my guideline for a bit more flexibility. Plus I have a “salt tooth.”)
So that’s my introduction for now. Tomorrow I hit the grocery store and we’ll see how it goes from there! If you took the time to read this, feel free to leave comments, questions, or suggestions - I will be checking back in daily for the duration of the month and promise to respond!
*Note: Working on a Vegan SNAP project is not a new original idea, having been done elsewhere (e.g., http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/06/22/skinny-bitch-author-rory-freedman-takes-vegan-food-stamp-challenge, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vegan-Food-Stamp-Challenge/139443152891000, http://life-firsts.blogspot.com/2012/12/pondering-privilege-journey-toward-snap.html) but my hope is that as a vegan/renal dietitian who walks the line with disordered eating behaviors, I might have a slightly different perspective to offer.
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