Major kudos goes out to Gwyneth Paltrow and the #FoodBankNYCChallenge! I do not believe in any way that she failed or cheated. I believe her interesting shopping list for a week brought attention to a few issues that plague the food stamp program and grocery shopping in general.
If, by chance, you have been able to escape the latest celebrity news, I'll give you a quick recap. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow was challenged by Mario Batali to do food challenge of living off of $29 worth of food for a week. They say the $29 is what the average food stamp recipient receives, per week. Obviously, different situations will bringer higher or lower numbers but the average is $29. Here is a photo of her shopping list...it is so very nicely laid out and pretty.
If, by chance, you have been able to escape the latest celebrity news, I'll give you a quick recap. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow was challenged by Mario Batali to do food challenge of living off of $29 worth of food for a week. They say the $29 is what the average food stamp recipient receives, per week. Obviously, different situations will bringer higher or lower numbers but the average is $29. Here is a photo of her shopping list...it is so very nicely laid out and pretty.
My first reaction was pretty much the same as everybody else's.....what are all the limes for?! Geez but then I thought back to my own bottle of fresh squeeze lemon juice in my refrigerator and guessed maybe she was going to have lime water after she made guacamole. My second reaction was how in the world was she going to eat off of that for a week?? How many different ways can you wrap a tortilla or eat beans and rice?
Then I started reading the comments. First of all, a lot of people need to not put their pictures or names next to comments....and yes, you need to care. People get fired for some of the hateful, uncalled for things that are said on the web. That is an entirely different blog for a different day but seriously...there are some mean, unhappy people out there and jealousy looks horrible on everybody. So many comments regarding how out of touch with reality she is and for her to stop pretending to know how the poor folks survive. Numerous times it was posted for her to just donate her money (which she did) and stop with her latest publicity stunt.
I decided since I am a single mother that knows the struggle all too well, I feel I can test this out and see what exactly comes out of her shopping list and give an honest opinion on it. I'm not on assistance so there are times that I have to figure out how to make $30 work for two people. So let's go shopping....
Then I started reading the comments. First of all, a lot of people need to not put their pictures or names next to comments....and yes, you need to care. People get fired for some of the hateful, uncalled for things that are said on the web. That is an entirely different blog for a different day but seriously...there are some mean, unhappy people out there and jealousy looks horrible on everybody. So many comments regarding how out of touch with reality she is and for her to stop pretending to know how the poor folks survive. Numerous times it was posted for her to just donate her money (which she did) and stop with her latest publicity stunt.
I decided since I am a single mother that knows the struggle all too well, I feel I can test this out and see what exactly comes out of her shopping list and give an honest opinion on it. I'm not on assistance so there are times that I have to figure out how to make $30 work for two people. So let's go shopping....
My layout isn't as pretty as her's...I also forgot to put my bag of rice and bag of veggies in there. The grocery store's sweet potatoes were fairly small so I bought two that looked like it was the equivalent of hers. I should have bought spinach instead of the romaine but I just went with it. My tortillas came in a bag of 30 but I only used 18 to match what she did. Still confused with the amount of limes but as I started putting stuff together, I figured a squirt of lime would go with just about anything I made at this point. I started prepping after I got home from work about 6 and finished up everything at 10:50 pm. This would normally be done on a Sunday but I was ready to start my experiment. I also did not buy the jalapeno because I'm still fairly new in the kitchen and I have no time for medical expenses incurred from setting my hands and eyeballs on fire with jalapeno juice. :)
My cost breakdown was this:
Dozen eggs = $1.98
Romaine lettuce = $1.58
7 Limes = $2.31
Green onions = $.98
Cilantro = $.48
Black beans = $1.67
Avocado = $.50
Garlic = $.43
Onion = $.88
Sweet potatoes = $.70
Corn = $.25
Kale = $.98
Frozen peas/carrots bag = $1.00
Tortillas = $1.89
Tomato = $.83
Rice = $.99
Grand total of $17.45....it's cheap to live in Texas!
It was time to meal prep all of this stuff that I still had no clear direction on. Something started happening though as I prepped each food item.....it seemed to multiply and there were more beans than originally thought and a small bag of rice goes a long way!
My cost breakdown was this:
Dozen eggs = $1.98
Romaine lettuce = $1.58
7 Limes = $2.31
Green onions = $.98
Cilantro = $.48
Black beans = $1.67
Avocado = $.50
Garlic = $.43
Onion = $.88
Sweet potatoes = $.70
Corn = $.25
Kale = $.98
Frozen peas/carrots bag = $1.00
Tortillas = $1.89
Tomato = $.83
Rice = $.99
Grand total of $17.45....it's cheap to live in Texas!
It was time to meal prep all of this stuff that I still had no clear direction on. Something started happening though as I prepped each food item.....it seemed to multiply and there were more beans than originally thought and a small bag of rice goes a long way!
My menu that I decided on was this:
Breakfast:
2 scrambled eggs with green onions and kale wrapped with a corn tortilla.
Lunch:
Black bean and corn salad w/ cilantro lime rice over a bed of lettuce with one tortilla. A small side of guacamole and salsa.
Supper:
Black bean/sweet potato/brown rice patty with cilantro lime rice and mixed veggies.
I was able to get 18 meals out of this selection, which comes to $.97 a meal!
Breakfast:
2 scrambled eggs with green onions and kale wrapped with a corn tortilla.
Lunch:
Black bean and corn salad w/ cilantro lime rice over a bed of lettuce with one tortilla. A small side of guacamole and salsa.
Supper:
Black bean/sweet potato/brown rice patty with cilantro lime rice and mixed veggies.
I was able to get 18 meals out of this selection, which comes to $.97 a meal!
I did look on Pinterest for recipes but everything called for stuff that I did not have in the picture...the lime, onions, garlic, and cilantro all added flavors to the food. So I didn't really follow any recipe.....I just started putting stuff in places. The patties were 1 cup of rice, 1 cup of beans, and 2 sweet potatoes mashed together and baked at 350 for about 15 minutes. I squeezed three of the limes into the rice with a handful of cilantro. Everything was basic when putting it together. I did use salt when cooking the rice and beans because you just never cook either of those without rice or beans. After the first day, I decided to tweak her menu since I have a little more money left in my budget. It needs a 3pm snack! So I bought bananas, honey, and cinnamon which brought my grand total for the week up to $28.74. |
Whether it is Gwyneth Paltrow "out of touch with reality" grocery list or the mother in the grocery store loading up her cart with nutritionally void, processed foods, it is very easy to not get the most out of your grocery money. I've also noticed that people are just as quick to attack a celebrity for her food choices as they are the stressed out single mother paying for a cart of junk food with food stamps. In both cases, it could be that they are only doing what they know.
Rita
Rita