Saturday, January 5, 2013

Day 4 the Food Stamp Diabetic Project

16 cents, I woke up remembering to the penny that I was 16 cents short today. I begin with 4.09.

A simple repast of whole wheat/white mix bread I baked, cheese and butter with fruit and coffee.

Bread .10
Coffee .10
Pomegranate .50
Butter .09
Cheese .30
Total 1.09
38 grams of carbohydrate.

The bread was carefully portioned so as not to drive me over my carb limit. I will likely have a bit of bread twice today to try and drive my calories up. Yesterday I had too few.

I had 23 grams of carbohydrate at Costco. For a type I diabetic that would mean two units of insulin from sampling corn chips, taquitos, and tortellini. Those little bites add up to 230 calories. The food was not high quality but it was free and by writing down everything I ate I could track it accurately.

It was actually a trip to PetSmart for cat food. But as long as I was there....I could not carry home too much so I limited my costco to canned tomatoes, organic ground turkey (2.49 a lb) butter, which I broke up and shared with a neighbor I found shopping 2.00 a pound and pomegranate. Plus my hot links, we will get to those.

I tried to share the 8 pack of lettuce the 5 lbs. of green beans etc...but my neighbor is not a big vegetable eater, shared butter was the best I could negotiate.

However I had red beans all cooked and ready for me at home when I returned.

I pureed half and added water to make a soup, then two of my Louisiana hot links sliced thin sauteed and stirred in.
Beans (free)
Onions .20
Hot links 1.40

Small pot of soup 1.60 and I can easily get 4 nice servings from it.

Post Costco lunch
Soup .40
Iced tea .03

Total .43

New Column I am writing went live, a great if expensive salad recipe read here.

I am not sure what I will do for dinner...I've a show to go to at 9:30 and want to go to the gym before that. Can't eat out...I need to head to the kitchen and seek inspiration in my meager pantry.

The only thing that caught my eye was the tuna but I didn't want to carry a sandwich around so I opted for another bowl of soup before I left.

Good show...comedy troupe Fuct, the last time I saw them it was a little sloppy and under rehearsed, I think Jack Daniels had directed that show. Last night it was much more tight and funny. I was enjoying myself so much I didn't think about food. Until the show was over.

Oh man I was hungry... as I walked home from the subway I passed the fried whiting place, the smell was amazing, the Chinese take out, mmm. McDonalds...not so nice.

I got home and grabbed 3 of the frozen dumpling I made and popped them in water, turned it on high and stood there waiting for them to cook.

It was enough. Cabbage, shrimp and pork dumplings can do a lot to ease empty stomach. 

Late night meal of dumplings .60.

The soup had 40 grams of carb spread over two servings and two hours, so that was a good choice. The dumplings had 11.

Today's total food.

2.19 and while I revel in cost savings it cost me calories 1,290, and nutrition. I do have 1.90 to carry over and see if an extra two dollars can allow me to meet both.






5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I find it interesting how food stamp aka SNAP money differs from place to place.

Here in RI I believe it's $200 a month which means an average of $6.66 per day.

But I love that you're doing this. It shows how generally meager SNAP benefits really are.

Of course I'm one who says instead of just doing 30 or 40 cents rises in the minimum wage, double it to $14 or $15 an hour. The economic benefit to that would be interesting to watch.

Karl said...

I completely agree about a significantly higher minimum wage.

In RI the MAXIMUM benefit is 200 a month. Most food stamp recipients work and every dollar (based on the gross, not the net) lowers the benefit. According to your local food bank the AVERAGE is 138 a month or 4.60 per day.

Yanon said...

The recipe you link to is awesome, but yes not cheap.

I am amazed by your creativity on each day, your diet is not perfect yes, you are not eating enough, yes but you are varying your diet and enjoying your food.

Catherine said...

i don't think that going to Costco is fair, they do not take food stamps. stick to the retail stores that actually do take food stamps.

Karl said...

Catherine Costco does in fact accept the Snap card here and I believe in all locations now. They did not used to take it but that has changed.