Pastor Annette's Blog
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"OF ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS SHOWN ME, I CAN SPEAK BUT A LITTLE WORD . . . NOT MORE THAN A HONEYBEE CAN CARRY AWAY ON ITS FOOT FROM AN OVERFLOWING JAR."
~ MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, 13TH CENTURY MYSTIC |
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January 28, 2020
Beloved: I can count on one hand the times I’ve received as much feedback on my Tuesday notes as I did last week, concerning my $4-a-day food budget experiment. All were kind. Some shared their own experiences. One dear friend expressed her concern that I might be in need of a sabbatical. Be assured, sweet Charlotte, I am finer than fine and nowhere near starving. A church member commented that so many people don’t even have basic kitchen equipment for cooking, which got me paying attention there, and I discovered that the SNAP recipe website filters recipes accordingly, always noting what tools are needed for each recipe. So smart! Here is my current meal plan:
I fall off the $4-a-day wagon in other ways too. My husband popped in for a quick visit this weekend, taking a break from his “sabbatical,” and we didn’t cook a thing the whole time. We picked up Chinese Friday night and went out for pizza Saturday lunch. Saturday night we ate chili from the freezer and Sunday morning he brought me a bagel before he left town. All yummy, all amazingly rich. The cheesy pizza gave me a wicked tummy ache and Sunday afternoon I was back in the saddle again, scouring my almost empty fridge for supper. Pretending to identify with someone on a $4-a-day budget is a lie, so long as I can go out for pizza and order Chinese anytime I please. All the same, I consider it an experiment worth the effort in learning about my own assumptions and biases about poverty, health, and food, to name just three. As always, I welcome your feedback, especially your own experiences around shopping, eating, cooking, and reading about food. ~peace & prayers, pastor annette Egg & Black Bean Tacos for One Prep — 10 minutes Tools Required
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January 21, 2020
Beloved: In my continuing experiment to eat on a $4-a-day budget (my best guess at what the SNAP program allows), I offer the recipe below with notes. I started out using recipes I found on the SNAP education page of the USDA website which, in my opinion, is a gift to beginner cooks and shoppers. However, for my purposes, I do better taking inventory of my pantry and fridge, then going to the store hunting for the best deals. I buy my lunch box fruit based on what is on sale — grapes last week, apples this week. Organic is usually out of the question, but the organic apples were a great sale price this week. By the way, why are organic apples packed in plastic bags? I don’t always buy meat, but this time I found a 2.5-pound package of boneless chicken thighs for $7.55 that I thought could stretch into three recipes out of which I’d get 17 servings. After I made the burritos, I realized the chicken wasn’t going that far, so it ended up being 12 servings of protein at 63¢ a serving. Not bad, but I still have to find a protein for my third (rice) dish. Ordinarily, I would use cashews, but obviously cashews do not qualify on this budget. So I am thinking eggs, two of which I collect daily from the coop in these dark days of winter. I have eaten out twice in three weeks: lunch at Panera on the two Sundays I didn’t remember to pack a lunch. It was so good and cost $10 but I couldn’t help stirring through it and doing the math on the ingredients. I suppose figuring in labor, transportation, a profit margin and all that, $10 is probably about right. It’s not so much the math but the time it takes to make this budget work. Time I can’t imagine working families have to figure out recipes that are both affordable and healthy. Not only is organic food out of the question, so are most fresh vegetables. The bell pepper I wanted was $1.50. The 80¢ ones were green and wrinkly. I bought the beautiful one, but then only used half for my burritos and half for my rice. Ordinarily, I would use a whole one for each dish, as well as a whole onion. I love Fage 2% Greek yogurt but it is sooo expensive. The only way I justify buying it is by 1) counting it as one of my proteins; 2) using half as much at a time as I normally would; 3) buying no milk for my cereal and using yogurt instead. If I were feeding kids on this budget, no way could we have such good yogurt. So, early lessons: Portions are different. The burritos are very filling, but to stretch other dishes to the portions I need, I have to be very disciplined about portion size. It would be heartbreaking for me to do this with kids whose bellies should get all the way filled up, especially at bedtime. Again, time. Either a family has to have additional income to buy more food or the time to go gather up the available free food. Of course, that gathering also requires transportation, which means either a car and the gas to put in it or a bus pass and a bus schedule that will take them to the free food sources when those sources are open. Healthy food is so expensive. I already knew that, but not in the same way I do on this budget; and that makes me both sadder than sad and madder than mad that the government subsidizes the corporate end of the food industry while starving the poverty assistance end of the healthiest food available. (More on this in another post.) Finally, as someone pointed out Sunday, I have a kitchen. I have an amazing kitchen in fact, with every imaginable tool and appliance. How would I produce actual meals with nothing more than a can opener and a microwave? I’m under no illusion about the illusion of an affluent woman feeding only herself pretending to identify with people for whom this experiment is reality. I question the wisdom of writing about it here. Still, my idea for our Lenten reflection is a study on what the everyday experience of food and eating might teach us about privilege and the non-physical ways we also feed ourselves. I’m looking for a book to read along the way as well. For now, I invite you to consider whether the subject interests you and if you might like to join some part of the study. In any case, have a joyful day of faith, beloved. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette Baked Chicken & Black Bean Burritos - 4 servings
Reserve half the cheese for topping. Saute garlic, onion, and peppers until translucent. Add beans and chicken; cook until heated through. Portion mixture into 9 tortillas, top with a sprinkle of cheese, wrap, and lay tightly in a greased 9x13 baking dish. Cover burritos with the green sauce and sprinkle with the reserved cheese. Bake uncovered about 30 minutes. Serve with sour cream or Greek yogurt. January 14, 2020
Beloved: One by one, the baby adults have packed up and gone back to their usual lives. The youngest took her dad with her for her last term of art school, so I am the sole human in the house for the next nine weeks. So far I don’t hate it. Last night, Carl and I talked on the phone while cooking our respective suppers and then exchanged pictures of our respective plates. We also compare the weather: he walked six miles in the 80-degree sunshine yesterday; I walked a few thousand steps inside my warm house. I’ve three intentions for my time alone. The first is to feed myself well and cheaply. The second is to read. The third is to go to bed by 9 pm. As if I am my own four-year-old. Of course, we raise little kids this way for a reason – so they will be healthy and able to function at their best. Go figure. Left to themselves, the four-year-olds I have known would feed themselves juice boxes and Oreos all day long, with a chicken nugget here and there. They’d only sleep when they fell over from exhaustion and be hateful the last three hours before that. Trade coffee for the juice boxes, fast food for the Oreos and voilà – the normal working adult. I can’t help but call it a spiritual matter: either pride or a lack of gratitude. It’s not like I’m curing cancer here. I am pastoring a little flock of believers, doing for them what they can just as well do for each other. They love and appreciate me, but they do not need me at the cost of my own health. To think otherwise is prideful and probably deceitful, a way of avoiding some truth my self doesn’t want to hear. Also, it’s simply ungrateful to mistreat this body of mine that works so hard every single day. This beating heart, these pumping lungs, bones, muscles and a brain that keep going whether I feed and exercise them well or not. It’s an offense to God to be anything less than grateful, and kind. And according to the experts, cookies and television binges do not qualify. Sleep and good food and, yes, even exercise, is the gratitude that counts. It’s a beautiful day to be alive. May you be full of joy! ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette A cheap and yummy recipe I made up
Brown turkey meat in oil in a pot, add onion, cabbage, carrots, and garlic and cook until tender. Add in everything else and cook about 20 minutes. It can be soup or stew, depending on how much broth you add. Freezes really well. January 7, 2020
Happy New Year, Beloved! As she kindly offered me two new year’s resolutions (she didn’t call them that), my doctor said, “Each of us only has so much willpower, so it’s best to have a plan." And, KABOOM! my mind was blown. How had I never put those two things side by side: willpower and a plan? Be it my pantry or my relationships? Somewhere in me I already knew this and needed to hear it all again in a new context, I suppose, regarding a different topic. I went on to different things, but the day seemed to slow down and expand a bit. Just hearing her say that I have choices left me less stressed out. I paid some bills and made some lists and tidied up my workroom. I sorted things that needed sorting and knitted a few rows. I ate soup with apples and cheese and eventually went to bed and slept good sleep for the first time in forever. So much struggle and hurt happens that we cannot fix or change. So much happens that we can fix or change by accepting the reality of our own choices. Even tiny ones, my doctor says, can have big impact over time. So I am going to take her advice on two things she suggested. Just these two, she emphasized, and we’ll see where things are in a month. I look forward to moving into another new year with you all. As we go, I pray you will find your own path toward new forms of gentleness, toward yourself and toward each other. ~peace & prayers, pastor annette |
I write a Tuesday morning devotional to members and friends of UBC. It is also posted here.
Enjoy! Pastor Annette Copyright
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