Posts Tagged ‘food dollars’

Food Stamps Cooking Club: Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia?

July 28th, 2010

 

I HEART CHIA SEEDS...and these amaranth seeds, too!

No doubt you’ve heard that annoying jingle for the green and living Chia pets…what you may not know is that those little seeds are powerhouses of nutrition and flavor!

Renita, who is a frequent contributor and Club Member, turned us onto these beauties.  She found a recipe for Chia Pudding and the stampede to get these seeds was on!  We offer her recipe here and cannot overemphasize how delicious and nutritious it is.  PLUS-and this is critical for Food Stamps Cooking Clubbers-it is economical. Furthermore, it could become your family’s new favorite comfort food!

RENITA’S CHIA TAPIOCA PUDDING

2  cups almond milk, rice milk, coconut milk or fruit juice

1/2  cup Chia seeds

1/3  cup honey  *Or use 15-20 drops Stevia

1/2 – 1  teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

1/4 – 1/2  teaspoon cinnamon

Stir.  Use raw Cacao Powder for chocolate flavor if desired.

Keep in fridge and use for breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks!

Here are some facts about Chia seeds you may find interesting:

  • Chia seeds are rich in Omega 3 – it has 700% more than wild salmon!
  • Soaked Chia seeds are gelatinous, so are ideal for adding to soups and puddings
  • Considered to be a Superfood, Chia seeds soak up 9 times their weigh in liquid.  Add 9 teaspoons of water for every teaspoon of Chia seeds you put into any dish.
  • For baking, make a gelatin and replace 1/2 the oil in your recipe with the equivalent…if your recipe calls for 1 cup of butter or oil, you would use 1/2 cup of oil or butter and 1/2 cup of the Chia gelatin
  • Chia seeds can be ground in a coffee grinder or food processor to be used to dredge meats before frying or baking.
  • Chia seeds have 500% more calcium than milk; 200% more iron than spinach; 1400% more magnesium than broccoli; and they are rich in fiber, protein, selenium and phosphorous!

Wouldn’t it be fun to make up a batch of this yummy-ness and pour it into ice cube trays so you could give your kids “cubes” of pudding? Kids are going to love this stuff and you’ll be happy to have them eating such a healthy snack!

For users of SNAP or WIC or Angel Food Ministries, this could really be helpful.  If you utilize a food pantry or have food commodities Chia seeds could help you stretch those food dollars.  If you are frugal and health conscious you will be delighted to have Chia seeds on your pantry shelf.

Boy, do we ever owe Renita for this one!  Thanks again, Renita!

We hope you will send your food ideas to foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com because we love getting mail and we love, love, love getting your comments here!  Thank you for your participation!

Connie Baum

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Posted in Cooking, Recipes, snacks

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Food Stamps Cooking Club: Number of Members is Climbing

February 6th, 2010

USA: Food Stamps Users Numbers are Climbing!

More peeps on food assistance?  More users of SNAP, WIC, and food commodities as well as food pantry foods?

THAT’S NOT NEWS!  THAT’S REALITY!

Our question is:  Who ya gonna CALL?  HINT: Food Stamps Cooking Club! Angel Food Ministries!

People are hurting.  Parents are worried and hungry.  Children deserve to know there will be food on their family’s table!

That’s where THIS little band of merry makers comes in.  The Food Stamps Cooking Club is, as our faithful followers are keenly aware, is a soft place to fall.  It is a place where frugal foodies and people who need to know how to become more frugal in order for their food dollars to do the most good can hang out and share.

We are not alone in our effort to help people live within their means, regardless of what those means are!  There is a cute little newsletter that’s been coming our way called “Living On a Dime” and a recent issue included an entire menu designed to celebrate Valentine’s Day with flair.  Here’s what Tawra Kellam had to share with her readers:

“CHEESY RICE AND TOMATOES

3 cups cooked rice
3 Tbsp. oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 cups cooked or stewed tomatoes
2 cups cheese, shredded
1 tsp. salt
dash of pepper

Cook rice if uncooked. Sauté in a pan with oil, onion, celery and green pepper. Add tomatoes, rice, cheese, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer until cheese is melted. Serves 8.”

This budget friendly and healthy foods recipe came from Living On a Dime. We appreciate all Tawra does for so many.

We deeply appreciate all the mail you send our way, too: foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com   All our Club Members have so many good, thrifty, creative ideas and are so generous to share.

Comments fuel our fire, too.  You can leave yours at the end of this post, if you please.

“Joining” the club is as easy as dropping your name and email addy in the box on the upper right hand corner of this page.  There are no meetings or dues, so there’s no pressure!  grin  We do send along messages-a series to begin with-followed by infrequent broadcasts.  We were happy to connect with members who may have missed seeing fresh posts when we encountered techy issues.  Doncha hate when that happens?

Please feel free to share us with those in your sphere of influence.  You may also like to know that we have other spots on the Web which deal with issues of health and making money at home.  If you like what you are reading here, you may like to drop by these blogs, too:  The Healthy and Wealthy You and Mother Connie Sez. If you are interested to add income to your household you might find these spots helpful: Rapid Cash Review and Work at Home Freelancing.

Connie Baum

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Posted in Food News, Recipes

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Birthday Party + Turkey Day Fun?

November 10th, 2009
Can you BELIEVE this woman is 33? Oh, yes...and THEN SOME!

Can you BELIEVE this woman is 33? Oh, yes...and THEN SOME!

If you missed fresh posts here-and I dearly hope you did because I missed our chats-it’s only because your humble blogger has been partying down to celebrate being 33.  Again.   The party has ended as parties do and we are back to the fun of helping you feed your families on a shoestring.

Some interesting encounters have taken place during the hiatus of the posting…I have met some people who were interested to help our cause and that was gratifying.

I also came across a most interesting radio program about food. I would not go so far as to say they will help us save food dollars because the subject today was Greek food and they spoke of expensive, elegant Greek cheeses.  Tasty, I presume,  but way outta my price range.  How about YOU?  grin

No, if you are eeking out menus from food commodities and the food pantry, or using your EBT card from SNAP or WIC as wisely as possible or even if you use Angel Food Ministries or the money you earn from the sweat of your brow you probably have not put Greek Yogurt on your shopping list.  Maybe someday…

Church groups all around the country are preparing foodstuffs for people who find themselves in need.  I’ve been thinking about how families could stretch those items and I came up with a couple of notions or tips.  Here’s hoping you find them helpful.

First of all, just being grateful does not give us any right to overstuff our guts just cuz it is Turkey Day.  Let’s resolve to limit our serving portions so everyone at the table gets their fair share.  With any luck, there might be leftovers to recycle!

Secondly, the wise hostess will put out nibbles for the diners so they don’t get too hungry.  You might like to fix a plate of celery and carrots or a dish of  pickles and olives.  SIDEBAR:  Watch for bargains!  I bought a large bottle of olives for a song at the corner dollar store recently!  END SIDEBAR.

Serve the salad FIRST when mealtime arrives.  Make sure there are toast points to go with it, so that will help to fill impatient dinner guests’ tummies!

Our shopping list for the Turkey Boxes included a packet of gravy mix.  It would be wonderful if people learned how INEXPENSIVE gravy is to make.  Those packets have so much toxicity in them we should avoid them, for the most part.

The other thing is that Thanksgiving is not so much about FOOD as it is about family.  Take time to listen to one another.  Learn to show ways you care.  Make lists of your blessings on a big whiteboard or on fabric-we used the tablecloth for one Turkey Day celebration.  It makes such a delightful memory of our day together.  Even if you have an inexpensive plastic cover for your table or disposable cover you can write your guests’ names and some of their blessings.

Above all, HAVE FUN TOGETHER.

It will be fun for you to scope out our sister sites, if you have not.  There is Mother Connie Sez, The Healthy and Wealthy You, and Rapid Cash Review.  We want to mention our partners, too:  Rapid Cash Marketing and ToothSoap who can help you boost your bottom line.

By the way, while you are having fun preparing for Thanksgiving and while your guests are in your home, we will make sure to direct any Fun Police away…grin

Connie Baum




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From the Recipe Box and a Tip?

October 12th, 2009

Oh, boy!  Do I have some fun things to share with you today!  Spending the weekend as guests in the homes of people who really know how to make things happen has been invigorating!

This is the time of year when those pesky gnats find your cut watermelon or the slices of tomato you have managed to get out of your garden before a ridiculous 17″ snow happened!  Velda showed us the definitive way to avoid those critters:

Gnat Solution:

Place a small amount of apple cider vinegar into a small dish.  Custard cups would be ideal for this but any dish will do.  Drop a wee bit of dish washing detergent into the vinegar.  Soon you will see that the mixture has attracted the little critters and they are piling up on the bottom of the dish!

One of our Food Stamps Club Advisory Board members, Lynne Osborn, taught us a wonderful way to easily and inexpensively prepare meatballs that are good enough to offer to guests:

Lynne’s Scent-sational Meat Balls

1 jar ready-made salsa

1 jar orange marmalade, peach preserves or apricot jam

1 package prepared, frozen meatballs

Place everything into a crock pot.  You could also put it all into a baking dish, cover with a lid and place it into a 325 degree oven til everything bubbles and is thoroughly heated.

These were prepared early in the morning and when we opened the door at noon, the aroma was simply divine!  You really must try this dish very soon!  It is so delish!

Here is MY version of that, taking into consideration that prepared foods eat up your budget.  This is especially critical if you are using an EBT card from SNAP, WIC funds, or you got your food from a food pantry or Angel Food Ministries-or if you use food commodities.

Home made salsa is probably preferable for saving money and there are some mighty fine tasting home made salsas in the cupboards of kitchens around!

If you have home made preserves or jams, so much the better for saving money and eating organic!

Frozen, prepared foods not only spendy;  they are likely to have toxic additives.  I suggest you make up your favorite mix for meat loaf, form little balls and use those.  It will take more time to do but the yield will be much greater and the cost will be more in line with managing food dollars.

There have been a number of ideas and recipes sent to foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com and we are deeply grateful for each one and the senders!  We certainly expect to use them, so stay tuned.  We are also working diligently to bring you a little somethin’-somethin’ as a small token of our appreciation for each of you.  Stay tuned for that, as well.

You have been visiting our partners.  They are happy about that and you will be happy, too, if you get involved with what they offer.

Please continue to advise those who sit in your circle to enter their name and email address here on this blog as well as our sister sites:  The Healthy and Wealthy You and Mother Connie Sez.  We are asking for your comments at those sites, as well.

Connie Baum

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