dark chicken

dark chicken (i.e., thighs and drumsticks) are very affordable.  at our neighborhood Smart&Final, entire legs are sold for $1.39/lb, regular price.  when there is a sale, then the price drops, usually $.79/lb, but today to $.59/lb for just the thighs (drumsticks were available separately for $.89/lb).  it comes with skin and bones, but that's an added bonus.

we'll each about 2 lbs. of the chicken over 2 meals (dinner, and lunch the next day)  after you remove skin, bone, and account for shrinkage, that's about 1 lb of actual chicken.  so, that's $1.20 a day for chicken.  i'll followup with some different ways that we cook the chicken

we will also take the excess chicken skin & fat, and render it.  which gives us 2 things
- rendered chicken fat.  adds a great flavor to any sautéed vegetables, and also means we don't have to buy cooking oil
- cracklins.  crispy, crunchy, great tasting.  perfect substitute for bacon bits, or an flavor addition to any dish.

46 meals for $100

today lifehacker is featuring how to cook 46 meals for $100.

they mainly reference a blogger who shares her tips on cooking for a family of 4, cheaply.

well within food stamp budget

the cost of rice

this week one of the local markets is having a sale on brown rice.  15 lb. for $6.98.  that comes out to 6800g.  at home, we cook about 280g a day, that should last just over 24 days, which comes out to $0.145/person/day for rice.

given these numbers, I'll be using $0.20/person/day cost for rice in future posts about eating on a food stamp budget.

burrito de lengua

after working all day, I had a late night craving at 12:30am. so I walked down the street to one of the local taco trucks and order a burrito de lengua. usually, this isn't blog-worthy. but given my previous post, I wanted to note that a couple of things

1. the burrito costs $4.50
2. the burrito was huge, and I could finish only about half.

my point here is that if a taco truck can make a giant burrito that would satisfy one's hunger for an entire day, for $4.50 (ie less than the daily food stamp budget) and make money, then it is absolutely possible to live on food stamps, even on the westside in LA.

living on government foodstamps

there have been so many well known people (politicians, etc.) who have attempted a week of eating on a budget afforded by food stamps. they all make it seem so difficult to do so. I agree that it's difficult, if you're shopping at Whole Foods or other high end grocery store. it's also hard when you expect the food to already be prepared-- a huge part of that cost is labor. we eat out once a week, but when we eat at home, we eat within the food stamp budget, which is $149/mo/person in FY2012 in CA.  (but just to be clear-- we are not on food stamps)    I'll follow up with some posts about how we can do this. this follows my previous post on eating frugally.