Eat All About It

Egg crack/Rebekah Denn photo

An old friend was in town Monday, and I missed the regular meetup of former P-I employees at Aster coffeehouse. I didn’t skip it because of the United Way Hunger Challenge, but it did occur to me that I’d blow an uncomfortable percentage of my challenge budget if I did scramble to make the meeting. I missed the company as well as the coffee, though. Financial planners collectively ding the daily latte, but it’s a very enjoyable social ritual. And I came in enough under my $22 budget yesterday to loosen up and make some different choices today. At my beginning photography class, for instance, where I brought this egg picture today for an assignment, students often walk to Stumptown before class or during the break, and I decided to go ahead and join in. I used $2.75 of today’s food budget on that cup of French press. I enjoyed it more than caviar.

And the eggs? I invested eight of them in tonight’s dinner. Eggs cost more than they used to cost, but they’re still admirably inexpensive  and versatile, and I was pleasantly surprised to see I didn’t have to fight my ethics to keep them on the menu this week. A dozen cage-free, Certified Humane eggs from Stiebrs Farms were on sale for $1.99 at PCC (regularly $2.39), or 17 cents apiece — no more than the cut-rate eggs I had guiltily picked up earlier for the photo shoot. Normally, I spring for organic eggs, at double the price, but I was satisfied by the description of the Stiebrs eggs to go for these. (Wilcox Farms, also local, is Certified Humane as well.) 

I’ve been flipping through Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid books for ideas, and tonight’s dinner was a from-memory adaptation of their stir-fried cellophane noodles and eggs from Hot Salty Sour Sweet. (If you’ve got that wonderful book, you can let me know if I missed any key ingredients.) I sauteed two chopped shallots and a clove of garlic in olive oil in a big skillet, added eight lightly beaten eggs, and sprinkled on a few dashes of fish sauce. When the eggs were nearly scrambled, I added about 8 ounces of soaked cellophane noodles, and stirred it all together. I squeezed a lime on top and added a sprinkle of chopped bulk-bin peanuts.

The eggs were the most expensive part of the dish at $1.33, but the shallots were close behind  at 96 cents from Fred Meyer. Citrus can be expensive, but the limes were a mere 3/$1 at Fred Meyer.(The noodles were from a bulk Ranch 99 package from the pantry, and can’t have been more than 25 cents.)  And the fish sauce, which lent the dish so much flavor and  personality, was just pennies worth of my big $1.99 bottle. I’ve been using fish sauce more and more in recent months, adding it to stir-fries or sautes that need more punch or personality. The taste is strong, but — in moderation — holds together a dish rather than overpowering it. We ate the eggs along with two pounds of organic Yukon Gold potatoes ($1.49/lb at PCC) that I chunked, tossed in olive oil and salt, and roasted at 425 degrees for about 45 minutes. I also made about a pound of broccoli (58 cents/pound at Fred Meyer), which I also roasted and salted (it’s not just root vegetables that taste better that way). Everyone was happy and full, for under $2/person.

The challenge has psychological as well as practical effects, as Jane has pointed out so well in her comments on past Challenge posts. Like her, I find myself more mindful of waste. Our breakfast this morning was, once again, 83 cents worth of bulk-bin oatmeal with milk (lucky that we all like oatmeal, and have been in a daily rut of eating it for months) and 19 cent bananas. I finished off my son’s half-eaten banana, which I normally would have tossed in favor of a fresh one — and I’m more embarassed than usual to think of all the half-bananas I’ve wasted, and the whole fruits I’ve let spoil, when I wasn’t keeping close track. 

I’m also more bothered than usual at poor quality foods. Those bruised-up Trader Joe’s apples annoy me, even at 30 cents apiece. And the head of garlic I bought at Fred Meyer was a mere 34 cents, true, but it was a wasted 34 cents, because I threw it out after finding the cloves were yellow and soft. I never had that problem at the South 47 Farm.

I am, though, trying to overcome my inclination to be stingy on the milk. I want the kids to drink milk I feel good about, that I’m sure is as healthy and as responsibly produced as milk can be — but it’s $3.99 for a half-gallon, and they can drink it fast. Their pediatrician tells me they should be drinking even more. If I restrict the amount they drink of the “good quality” stuff, because of its higher price, am I causing more harm than I would be by giving them their fill of a product that’s industrially produced and full of growth hormones? So, today I decided to offer milk more freely. And — that’s the joy of feeding kids — no one was in the mood for milk today, and they drank tap water instead. 

Lunch was easy — leftovers from last night for my husband ($2), and a peanut butter sandwich and apple ($1) for me. 

My lunchtime conundrum for my older son also turned out well. I asked him how he felt about another peanut butter sandwich on homemade bread, and he was thrilled. It used the last of the bread (another loaf just came out of the oven), and he’ll probably be ready for a change by tomorrow, but I’m prepared. He also got an apple (30 cents) a baggie of about a quarter’s worth of cheddar popcorn from a $1.59 Trader Joe’s bag, and 50 cents to buy milk (milk that, ironically, probably wouldn’t meet my stamp of approval). Total cost: $1.75. Both boys had after-school snacks of Trader Joe’s yogurts (50 cents apiece) and cat cookies (25 cents apiece).

On to tomorrow. And check out United Way of King County’s blog for a look at how other participants are handling the challenge — as well as a discussion of a point we raised yesterday, how it’s a lot easier for a person with reliable transportation and a single job to handle this. I also realize how much my up-front investments are helping me out here. I wouldn’t be completely hamstrung if I didn’t have my $10 jug of Costco olive oil, but I would have spent a lot more than loose change on olive oil tonight if I’d had to buy a small bottle of equivalent quality from the supermarket.