I don't want to inject too much of my politics into my (UMN) blog posts, but I should probably mention right away that I'm a strong proponent of nutritional assistance programs. (Well, also housing assistance. And universal healthcare. Basically, as far as I can tell, guaranteeing everyone -- even "freeloaders" -- the basics to keep themselves healthy should be within the budget of every developed country.) That said, SNAP is a program I don't know much about. So this assignment, to me, is particularly interesting.
I elected to actually make everything I planned out for the day of meals (as opposed to working through them on paper, then making something unrelated for my weekly assignment). I price out the ingredients and tally calories as I go. I do not keep track of vitamins, minerals, fats, sugars and so on; that seems like overly belaboring the point. I'm pretty confident that this set of foods constitutes a generally balanced day of nutrition.
These meals all ended up vegetarian, though I am not. This is mostly because meat is expensive. I wanted to make the dinner as exciting as possible on a limited budget. Cutting out meat gave me more flexibility to do so. (Additionally I have found that, since I am dating one vegetarian and sharing my kitchen with another, cutting back on meat just makes life more convenient for me.)
For convenience I'll be tallying the four-person price (up towards the $15 budget) and calories per person (shooting for about 1500 calories -- we're figuring two adults and two kids).
According to Wolfram Alpha, four bananas weigh about a pound. That's sixty cents and 100 calories in the bank. Two eggs for each person gives you another 100 calories each at a at a cost of about a buck ten. And finally, oatmeal. A serving of oatmeal pushes 200 calories and costs a dollar. We'll add to that oatmeal half a cup of skim milk is (50 calories; 10 cents) and a tablespoon of brown sugar (50 calories; 3 cents).
The total for breakfast, then, is 500 calories at a cost of just under three dollars.
A carrot (10 cents) packs ten calories, but it's probably loaded with all sorts of nutritional value. An apple is another 90 calories at the cost of two dollars. Two slices of whole wheat bread adds 80 cents and 200 calories; two tablespoons of peanut butter is another 200 calories and a tablespoon of jelly is another fifty. These cost 20 cents and 15 cents respectively.
At the end of lunch we've eaten a thousand calories at a cost of six dollars. Unfortunately, food so far has been pretty boring. Time for a big family dinner to bring us together!
This is dinner as I made it for eight; we'll tally up all of the ingredients first (then renormalize, dividing cost by two and calories by eight). After that I'll go through the recipes.
Mexican Rice (Bittman 461)
1 tbs butter (100 cal; 10c)
1.5 cups brown rice (900 cal; 80c)
1 small can diced tomatoes (90 cal; $1)
3 cloves garlic (10 cal; 10c)
1.75 cups broth (from a vegetable bouillon cube) (40 cal; 50c)
1 onion (50 cal; 50c)
juice of 1 lime (20 cal; 25c)
Enchiladas
1 sweet potato (200 cal; $1.50)
1 can black beans (400 cal; $1)
1 onion (50 cal; 50c)
1 bell pepper (30 cal; $1)
1 jalapeño pepper (40 cal; 20c)
8oz cream cheese (500 cal; $2)
8 oz pepperjack cheese (500 cal; $2.50)
1 large can diced tomatoes (150 cal; $1.50)
1 can enchilada sauce (100 cal; $1)
8 whole wheat tortillas (1000 cal; $3)
1 tsp each of cumin, cinnamon, cayenne (negligibly small cost)
5 cloves garlic (20 cal; 20c)
1 can black olives (40 cal; $1)
This totals in at eigteen dollars for eight people, so nine dollars for four; plus or minus a few cents, we're right on budget. In terms of calories these enchiladas are worth just over five hundred each. If we're shooting for 6000 calories total (two adults and two children) that puts us right about on the mark.
As for cooking, here's the scoop.
The rice is really easy. Put the butter and onions in a saucepan. Stir them once in a while until the onions soften, then add the garlic and rice. Stir them a bit more. Add the tomatoes, undrained, and let them come to a boil. Then add the broth and lime juice, stir once or twice, cover, and let sit until done. basmati rice would have been faster (and, likely, more delicious) but brown rice worked out just fine with about half an hour on the stove.
The enchiladas are a little more involved. I wanted to use Bittman's recipe for them (page 827). However, just looking at his recipe, I feel very confident that my recipe is better. His are sort of appetizers -- just cheese wrapped in a tortilla -- while mine are a bit more substantial. It's a recipe I've been toying around with for some time; I wrote up an earlier incarnation here but they have changed a fair amount since then. I'll just run you through the whole thing.
Dice your sweet potato, onion, pepper, and jalapeño. Mince the garlic. Shred the pepperjack. Crack open all of those cans and drain the beans and olives. Preheat the oven to 350F.
Put the sweet potato in a large pan with a bit of oil (I use olive oil for everything, but I don't think it really matters what you use). When they begin to soften, add the onions, garlic, jalapeños, and beans. When the potatoes are edibly soft, add the bell peppers and spices. When this is all nice and hot, add the cream cheese. It will take some time for it to soften and stir in well. When you finally get it all nice and smooth together, turn off the heat.
Pour about half the can of tomatoes and half the can of enchilada sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Glob into each tortilla a few heaping spoonfulls of the veggie mixture. Add some cheese on top, maybe a tablespoon, just to hold it together. Then fold in all four sides of the tortilla (making, vaguely, a long rectangle), and put it in the pan folded-side-down. Repeat this for the other seven tortillas. Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce and canned tomatoes on top of the enchiladas. Put the olives and the rest of the cheese on top of that. Then stick it in the oven for about half an hour. You're not actually cooking anything, of course; you're just getting the cheese all melted.
Despite how shrimpy it looks in that picture, an enchilada with something on the side is plenty of meal for an ordinary person. I've seen people eat two, but they usually regret it. (That plate is just huge.)
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