Saturday, January 19, 2013

Day 18 the Diabetic Food stamp project

1.63 leftover gives me 5.88, a veritable fortune.

I was craving pizza all day yesterday. Fortunately I had the opportunity to satisfy that craving...momentarily.

This morning in my e mail is a tip from a woman who is dealing with widowhood, 3 teenage sons and no money, she also makes her own pizza. Her suggestion was to bake in a cast iron skillet for a perfectly sized pan pizza wit a seriously crisp crust.

What choice did I have, I had to make a breakfast pizza.

Even with my bad photography I know that looks good.

My reader was right, the size was a perfect onsie, the crust was super thin and very crisp and I loved every bite.

I've the feeling breakfast blew my budget, let's add it up.

Pizza crust (homemade) .08
Sauce (half a can 4 for 1.00) .12
Leftover 1/2 tomato .25
Cheeze (the last of the Zabars special) .30
Bacon (two slices) .34
Total 1.09

However I also had 1/2 cup of pomegranate and coffee while the pizza was baking.

1.69

Not too bad for an excellent filling meal.

Carbs 48. I am pleased and satisfied. I have a long day ahead, to day is Long Island City so I've a drive to make. I have to leave in a few minutes so I need to quickly scrounge and find something that travels.

I ended up taking with me some dried cranberries and sunflower seeds but eating neither.

Yes I was taken out again today, and I have no regrets. I had driven a friend out to his childhood home to visit the grave of a famous artist Mark Rothko a very good friend of his Uncle's, also a highly respected artist. After the excursion he took me out for a bowl of the most amazing creamy clam chowder I had ever tasted. My arteries are still clogged, and I don't regret one bit.

Carbohydrate 38 grams
Fat 74 grams

I typically don't share the fat grams, but this dish was so rich, so creamy, so buttery I had to talk to the kitchen and get what went in it...fat, fat, and more fat.

Fat is currently 63% of my calories for the day. I must have a slim dinner.

I have to look at my dinner and plan carefully as my day thus far has been almost fiber free.

...and unfortunately it stayed that way. When I surveyed the refrigerator contents I had the leftover 1/2 of the chemical noodle pack and the tuna I had marinated. In the veg crisper I had gai lan and cabbage, along with the fennel bulb I had picked up in midtown.

I chopped the leaves of the gail lan and added them to the noodles...then thought...why not, I tossed in the tuna and made it a tuna casserole. I topped it with cheddar cheese and popped it in the oven.



Leftover noodle side .17
5 ounces tuna 1.25
Gai Lan .25
Cheddar (8 oz for two dollars) 1 oz .25
Total 1.92
Carbs 30 grams


Day Total 3.61, with 5.88 to start I have 2.27 to move into the morrow.

1,938 calories with 56% of them from fat. Can you begin to understand now why the poor eat fat? To get enough calories to sustain you day you are either going to go with fat or carbs or both. The health costs of our food problems in the US are staggering.

I have gone to the gym 6 out of 7 days a week for most of my adult life, and I skipped it two days in a row. I was so darn tired. 


3 comments:

Anne from the Baptist Church Group said...

I took your 116 Street tour which was very crowded and we did not get a chance to talk.

I am still on a very tight budget and am appreciating all the tips you have to make, stretch and use foods in different ways. Inspiring to me as a widowed mother.

At a point not long ago I applied for food stamps. My husband had just died and at the time the only income I had was 400 a month. I had a house I cleaned weekly for a lady on the East Side.

I put everything on my application including my cash income. When I went down to food stamps I was told that I needed to provide 'proof of income.'

Here I was telling the truth about what I made instead of keeping the cash quiet and they wanted me to prove it. They told me I had to have a letter from my employer stating what I made, the terms of the income etc.

I was almost trembling when I asked for it. When she asked what I needed it for I had so much shame, but I told her and she fired me.

I was given a lecture about living off of her tax dollars and being on the public dole and if I wanted so badly to be a welfare queen I clearly did not need this job.

I was devastated. I called the social worker out on Brooklyn somewhere who had my case and told her, she told me to go back to the office on 125.

When I got there and told them I had been fired they put me in the same 7 hour waiting room as before and called me to a documents counter. I told them I no longer had income and what happened and they then told me that I needed a past management letter describing my previous income and the circumstance of my termination.

I was only a widow 3 weeks, and I felt like I was being slapped down at every step.

I needed to do something and I needed a job and I needed to feed my child.

I finally wrote the damn letter myself and printed it out and took it down. 7 hours later I was able to submit my documents.

When finally approved I had to come back for fingerprints and photos. Each time you come to be seen for 3 minutes the wait is 6 to 8 hours.

The entire process is so dehumanizing. It took about 8 months to complete some job training and during that time I moved in with my sister (another day of paperwork to change and prove address).

I don't make much and we try to economize at every turn. But I got some good job training and was one of the lucky ones to get a job.

Rent kills me, but for my daughter's sake we do have our own place. There is so little leftover after rent, we have no cable and use the lights as little as possible but gas is included so we cook together.

It's a hard world now and the hateful attitude of everyone down at food stamps just makes it harder.

Anonymous said...

Anne - wow! That's messed up. But I learned long ago, providing authentic documents to government authorities is easy if you have access to a laser printer and photoshop.

Karl said...

According to a Social Worker I interviewed the demand for paper documents has reduced the number of people who can get benefits legitimately and increased the fraud.

We are in an increasingly paperless society and their demand for paper, paper, paper is ridiculous.