Published: September 06, 2008 12:02 am      

I’m skinnier and my wallet is fatter

Every Wednesday, I enjoy leafing through the food advertisements and food columns in the paper. But I notice that usually, most of the items for sale are luxury, quick foods, often more packaging and advertising than nutrition.

My Mom raised us seven children on a pretty bare-bones, (figuratively and literally) budget. She paid a lot of attention to filling, nutritious foods and even cheap meat pies or TV dinners were a big treat. I was in my twenties before I realized that I didn’t even like either of them. When I ran a recent experiment on how well a family of four could eat on $75 dollars a week, I recognized that I am conditioned to buy some foods as staples that were luxuries when I was growing up. Here are some things I found interesting from my experiment.

First, I realize that every time I buy a loaf of bread or a package of tortillas or a box of cereal, I’m paying someone else to prepare my food. A good quality loaf of bread or pack of flour tortillas has less than 50 cents worth of ingredients, and the rest is overhead for the preparation. My live-on-less budget requires me to bake bread, spinach tortillas, cinnamon rolls and muffins to keep on hand for snacks and quick breakfasts. My family didn’t complain when I placed a warm cinnamon roll in front of them instead of the usual bowl of cereal. An after school snack of a thick slice of homemade bread instead of greasy frozen stuff, went over well, too.

I didn’t want my children or husband to feel cheated or like they were force fasting as I ran my experiment, so I concentrated on offering filling, nutritious foods that are easily prepared from scratch and inexpensive. I bought brown rice, red and black dry beans, vegetable pasta (the colorful kind) and 10 pounds of potatoes and a box of oatmeal. I used about 10 pounds of flour, 7 pounds of meat, 3 pounds of peanut butter, six loaves of store-bought bread, two dozen eggs, 8 gallons of milk, 6 pounds of onions, two heads of cabbage, 2 pounds of carrots, 5 pounds of fresh plums, 9 pounds of bananas, and canned spaghetti sauce, soup, tomato products and spinach. The list is incomplete, but that’s the bulk of it.

I started the week by cooking up a mixture of 2 pounds of dry beans. That made enough for a foundation for four meals. The next night, I cooked two cups of brown rice, which made about 5 cups of cooked rice. These prepared foods cost a total of $3 and supplied the foundation for one meal of chili, one meal of burritos, one meal of red beans and rice with homemade turkey sausage and another for Hawaiian Haystacks. The potatoes doubled for mashed potatoes with hamburger gravy and potato salad.

I learned that cheap ground turkey makes a delicious sausage (recipe off allrecipes.com). I use a spinach wrap recipe that I developed myself, so I’ll let you in on the secret. Add three tablespoons of vegetable oil to three cups of flour, (half can be wheat flour) with half teaspoon of salt, half teaspoon of baking powder and a 14-ounce can of spinach (with liquid), pureed and heated for a minute on high in the microwave. Knead together to form a nice ball, (add a little more flour if it’s too sticky) and divide into 16 little balls. Let rest 15 minutes and then heat a dry griddle to medium heat, (cast iron if you have it).

Roll as thin and round as you can, using a little flour to keep it from sticking to the rolling surface. Lay on the hot dry griddle for a minute while you roll out the next one, flip when bubbles start to form and cook for 15 more seconds. Lay tortilla on plate and keep covered. These will stay nice and soft for at least a week and the nutritional value is high.

We ended up well within the $150. I allowed for two weeks and I find that I am continuing some of the money saving practices I tried out. I am using up the ingredients in my refrigerator much more efficiently and the meals I offer are better balanced than before.

The unexpected bonus is that I lost weight without really paying any attention to eating less. I found I was full after meals, had less appetite at the end of the day and was much less likely to overeat when stress might have inspired it. My 16-year-old son noticed that he had more energy with the higher complex carbohydrate snacks. Overall, it was a resounding success and I recommend it to anyone with a pinch in the check book.

BETH STEPHENSON is an Edmond resident.