by Sena Brothers , Guest Blogger
These are listed as “super
foods”: oats, eggs, potatoes, cabbage, tuna, beans, rice,
bananas, olive oil, lemons, tomatoes.
They
add fiber, nutrients, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, protein, and essential
fats as well as being cheap.
Except
for the potatoes and eggs, they can be purchased in a readily edible state –
beans, tomatoes, and tuna come canned; bananas, cabbage, lemons, and tomatoes
can be eaten raw; oats (old fashioned rolled oats, not instant oats!) and rice
simply require hot water to pour over (and then cover and let soak for 10
[oats] - 40 minutes [rice]). Eggs and potatoes do require some cooking, which
means access to a heat source and a container in which to cook them.
This
means that these "super foods" are accessible and affordable for the
poor and/or homeless.
It's
not the best diet, but it's certainly a diet that will keep you alive and
relatively healthy.
I
think it needs the addition of a sweetener – honey, cane sugar, and a few herbs
and spices to make it palatable:
cinnamon, salt, pepper, onions, garlic, parsley, and some greens like
turnip or mustard or spinach.
I
keep tuna, canned beans, rice, and oats at work and in my car as emergency
foods in case of getting iced in. I also have rice noodles (they only need hot
water poured over them, like the oats and rice, to be edible). If I have access
to hot water (boiling temp hot), I can eat well, if somewhat boringly, for very
little money.
Sometimes,
you have to get a little creative with these, and there are equally inexpensive
alternatives: canned chicken costs
almost the same now as canned tuna, so they can be alternated for variety.
While bananas are good, apples are equally as good. Lemons can be traded for
oranges or grapefruit. Sometimes, other seasonal fruits and vegetables can be
cheap. I like keeping celery and carrots on hand because they add flavor, color
and more nutrition to change things up.
A complete super foods/poverty foods shopping list would then look like this:
- Old
fashioned rolled oats
- Eggs
- Potatoes
- Cabbage
- Tuna
(or canned chicken or ham)
- Beans
(red kidneys, pintos, turtle or black beans, black eyed peas, split peas...)
- Rice
(long grain jasmati, texmati, basmati are tastiest and still inexpensive)
- Bananas,
apples, seasonal fruit
- Olive
oil, butter, canola oil
- Lemons,
oranges, limes, grapefruit
- Tomatoes
- Greens
(mustard, turnip, spinach, bok choy...)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Parsley
- Garlic
(fresh or spice jar)
- Onions
(fresh or spice jar)
- Cinnamon
- Optional: a brick of cheddar cheese.
There
are tricks to make these foods palatable when this is all you have to eat. One
trick I like using is toasting the oats. Toasted, they can be used as a crisp
topping, like croutons on a salad or a soup, or to add depth of flavor to other
dishes, and as a “breading” for tuna patties. The oats can be toasted in a dry
skillet over medium heat or on a baking sheet in the oven at 425 degrees F. It
takes 3 – 8 minutes to get them toasty brown, and they need to be stirred often
to prevent scorching.
Potatoes
can also be used like croutons for salads and soups. Simply dice the potatoes into small pieces,
brown them in the oven or a skillet over medium heat with a little bit of olive
oil until they are crispy and richly brown.
The oats can be cooked very simply and practically fool proof by adding a pinch
of salt and pouring boiling water over them - ½ cup of oats and ¾ cup boiling
water, covering it and waiting about 5 minutes.
You can use less or more water, depending on how thick you want the oats
to be. Once the water is absorbed, mash
half a banana in to sweeten it, and maybe a ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon – cheap, healthy,
tasty, and fast, with no dirty pans to wash – you can make this right in the
serving bowl.
A
simple “cookie” can be made of the cooked oats mashed with banana and seasoned
with a bit of cinnamon – simply drop the cooked oats by the teaspoonful onto a
lightly oiled baking sheet, flatten slightly, and bake at 375 degrees F for 8 –
10 minutes, until browned and crisp on the edges. They'll still be slightly
chewy.
Or, instead of using cooked oats, use 1 cup toasted oats, mash with one banana,
¼ teaspoon cinnamon, a pinch of salt.
Mix until crumbly and spread out in crumbles across a lightly oiled
baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees F for
8 – 10 minutes, until dried and crispy and browned. Let cool, and you have a simple crumb topping
to eat as is for a snack, or to sprinkle onto hot applesauce or fried apples,
or scatter over a tomato soup or a salad.
Using
just the toasted oats (no banana!), you can mix in a can of tuna and an egg to
make tuna patties. One can of tuna,
mixed with ½ cup toasted oats and 1 whole egg will give you 6 patties. Fry them in a lightly oiled hot skillet, and
serve with rice and greens for a super food, delicious, and cheap meal. You can
also mix the tuna with cooked rice to make patties – or mix rice and canned
chicken for chicken patties. The patties
can also be used as a filling for sandwiches.
Rice can be cooked the traditional way, but I find I have really good results
cooking rice the same way I do oats – pour boiling water over the rice with a
pinch of salt, cover and let it sit for about 20 minutes or until the water is
absorbed. For ½ cup of raw rice, use
about 1 to 1 ¼ cups boiling water. The rice doesn't burn, doesn't develop that
crisp bottom layer (which I adore, as it makes for a lovely bowl of Singing
Rice Soup...), and usually comes out fluffy and soft.
Cooked rice forms the foundation of many meals, and can then be stir fried with
greens, carrots, onions, garlic, and a drained can of chicken for a meal
suitable for 4 people – densely nutritious, filled with fiber, and cheap.
Beans
are equally as versatile. They can be cooked tender, drained, and mashed to
make bean sammies: spread on bread, top
with some optional shredded cheese, run under a broiler just long enough to
melt the cheese, or with diced tomatoes and spinach, and you have a super
nutritious, cheap meal.
Beans can be added to nearly anything – they make great spreads, soups, dips,
“meatloafs” and desserts. Chili is a great favorite with beans – they can stretch
a pound of ground turkey or beef from 4 servings to 8 or even 10 servings
without sacrificing flavor or nutrition.
Potatoes have entire cookbooks devoted to them. My favorite is to shred a
potato, mix in an egg and some salt, pepper, and ground celery seed, then fry
it in a bit of butter and top it with cold applesauce. Potato soup, chowders,
mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, there are so many ways to eat potatoes.
A filling breakfast is to shred a couple of potatoes, press them into a lightly
oiled 6 portion muffin pan, tear or chiffonade some spinach and press that
on, then crack an egg into each one, sprinkle on some chili powder, salt,
pepper, and put it in the oven at 350 degrees F for 3 minutes or until the egg
is set to your preference. Sprinkle on
some diced tomato and cheese to serve.
And one last recipe:
Mayonnaise
1
egg yolk
juice
of half a lemon
1
cup cooking oil (olive, corn, canola, safflower...)
Reserve the egg white for another recipe. Whisk the yolk and add 1 or 2 drops
of lemon juice. Continue whisking. Add a drop of oil and whisk some more. Now, while whisking madly, slowly add the oil
a few drops at a time. As the mixture
begins to come together, add the oil in a slow trickle. Keep whisking! Whisk until all the oil has
been added. It should now look like mayonnaise. Whisk in a few drops of lemon
juice to brighten it up. This is enough mayonnaise for a potato or egg or tuna
salad or a couple of sandwiches. It will
keep in the refrigerator 2 or 3 days. It takes about 10 – 15 minutes of mad
whisking to make this and it's so cheap!
It's
good to know that being homeless or poor doesn't mean eating badly or starving.
Today
I made an "oven stir-fry" cabbage and tofu that also
included chopped onions, tomatoes, and diced jalapeno pepper. Vegans
such as myself often make stir-fries with tofu, but people who prefer
meat could use beef or chicken in this cabbage stir-fry. This was an
impromptu recipe that I created with ingredients that were in my
fridge rather than having to go out and buy special supplies.
Actually, stir-fries are ideal because these are tasty when you use
up veggies, tofu, or meats you already have.
