Healthy Halloween School Snacks - Juice Box Ghost

In recent years, school policies regarding the kind of treats that parents send in for parties have required they either be healthy snacks or not food at all. I am fully on board with this, because the first couple of years of having a kid in school were spent incredulous at the sheer volume of treat bags my kid brought home.

Since Halloween is basically synonymous with candy, it felt important to do something good enough to distract the kids from the fact they're not getting any candy at their class's Halloween party.

I spent a lot of time at my place of worship on Pinterest, rolling my eyes at the complex, time consuming, super cute and crafty ideas from moms who either have far more time on their hands or, like me, sometimes forget to take their meds.

But I still wanted to do something for my son's preschool class, and the Mommy Who's Psycho Notably Enthusiastic About Halloween needs to deliver.

So I looked poked around the pantry and came up with this half-assed adorable idea for juice box ghosts that you can throw together in minutes. Enjoy!

Supplies
Juice Boxes
Coffee Filters
Sharpie
Glue Gun
Small Child (optional)
Coffee (optional... Who are we kidding. This should be the first item on every project supply list.)

He was super helpful. Super. Helpful.

Assembly

Step 1 - Draw The Ghost Faces
Ask the small child to help because he wants to help and drawing ghost faces on coffee filters seems pretty harmless. Immediately realize putting a Sharpie in the hands of said small child was a mistake.

Bonus Round: Realize after you've already done half of them that the Sharpie is seeping through the coffee filters and your countertop now features a series of little ghost faces.


Step 2 - Glue The Ghosts On
Plug in the glue gun to heat up. Sip coffee. Leap into action every time the small child tries to touch the hot glue gun.

Put a dollop of glue on two edges of the sides of the each box.

Bucket List Item: do a glue gun project and not burn my fingers

Important: Don't use too much glue, or the poor teacher will be cursing your name while 17 small humans ask her for help getting the coffee filters off so they can then ask for help putting the straws in.

More or less center the ghost face on the front of the box and lightly press the coffee filter into the glue. Burn your fingers and drop the juice box. Repeat as necessary.


I knocked out enough of these for a preschool classroom in about 10 minutes, managed to drop it off at school just in time for the class's Halloween celebration, and the teacher gushed like it was the coolest thing she'd ever seen.

Next time you're scrambling for a tribute to maintain your spot in the Cool Mommy Brigade, give this a shot.

Do you have any ideas for your own super simple Halloween themed healthy classroom snacks? I'm all ears!

Cutest ever army of the undead

Socials
I pinned this post to my Halloween Party Foods board.
I tweeted this post because I can't help myself. The Twitter, it's shiny.

One of These Things Is Not Like the Other: On Tater Tots and OCD

I've been prepping big batches of freezer meals lately because my sweet, beautiful, kind, generous cousin has Stage IV metastatic breast cancer. Since I live half a state away, this is one of the only ways I can do something concrete to help.

(If you're so inclined, you can donate here to help with living and medical expenses for her and her 10 yr old daughter.)

Since I'm staring down marathon training, I've also been prepping them in multiples because I'll be happy to have some easy freezer meals on hand once those long runs get reaaaaaally long.

Both of us being down to earth Midwestern girls with a foodie side, I've made a variety wide range of dishes for her freezer and mine. A recent week of chilly rain had me craving something warm and homey, which of course meant comfort food hall of fame contender Tater Tot Casserole.

I had about half the stuff on hand for a single batch. I hit the store to get stuff for a triple batch.

I ended up with far more than the triple batch I was aiming for, so winning!

But.

As I started with the tot layer, I noticed a problem.

Yes. I had to rearrange them for symmetry and retake the photo.
Because if I didn't, the world would end. Obviously.

If your brain is wired like mine, you will spot the problem right away.

If your brain is not wired like mine, you are rolling your eyes right now.

And let's be real, if you're not a Midwesterner or raised in a church social atmosphere you're probably wondering what the hell this and why anyone would want to eat it.

Figured it out yet?  No? Here's a hint...

Houston, we have a problem.

If your brain is wired like mine, you are now filing away the fact that these two distinct products exist so you will not find yourself trapped in the same OCD hell at some future date.

If your brain is not wired like mine, you are wondering how I survived this long and putting me on your mental list of easy targets in the zombies apocalypse.

It is exhausting living with a brain that turns something like this into a heart pounding, short of breath, paralyzed with indecision problem.

But it also makes us creative and resourceful. We do what we've gotta do. Even if that means an impromptu jigsaw puzzle session with frozen tater tots so the crazy people who live in our heads will shut up for a while.

It may be hard to live with, but at least we have the comfort of  knowing when the zombies come, we OCD folk will be the ones with generators and a freezer full of casseroles.

The Follweiler Cycle
This is how an OCD brain works, y'all.
And knowing is half the battle.

Socials
This post is pinned to my board Eavesdropping on the Party in my Head
This post is shared on my Facebook page ShesAlwaysWrite

The Great Apple Butter Sensory Experiment

Apple Butter Hand Pies

If you're curious how I came by the need to use up epic quantities of apple butter by fabricating hand pies, you can catch up with parts 1 and 2 of The Great Apple Butter Experiment.

If you just happen to have apple butter on hand and want to do something besides enjoying it on toast/pancakes/waffles/ham/pork chops/in pumpkin bread/with a spoon, read on...

Did somebody say sensory diet?

I stumbled across this application when searching for ideas on how to use up a few, um, dozen jars.  Preferably, I was looking for a kid friendly idea I could get Bear involved in.  I wasn't sure about this at first, but I figured if it's good enough for Martha, it's good enough for me. 

Recipe Sources
Though I openly worship at the shrine of Martha, I did not use her recipe on this particular project.  I already had the apple butter and I already had a preferred pie crust recipe.

Pie Crust versus Hand Pie Crust
When I decided to make apple butter hand pies I had recently fabricated nearly 200 mini pasties for a Halloween party (pumpkin pie, apple and a traditional vegetable beef. Yes, it was totally worth it.).

Tasty, tasty heavy work.

Thing is, I made them with a finicky delicate pain in the ass standard pie crust recipe, blissfully ignorant of what should have been this blindingly obvious fact: hand pies typically call for a sturdier, kneaded crust.

If you're confident working with typical pie crust then by all means, go for it.  I can personally attest that the tender, flaky results are worth the effort.

But if you are not either A) experienced with pie crust, or B) a certifiable foodie, then Imma recommend you check out Alton Brown's hand pie crust recipe. 


Step 1: Crust

Make a bunch of pie crust.  Hand pies are labor intensive, so I won't do less than a quadruple batch. I want plenty to freeze for later so I can experience the pleasure of eating one without hours of work.

I'm a big fan of the food processor for blitzing up pie crust.  My processor easily holds a double recipe, so I can have 4 to 6 crusts worth of dough (depending on how motivated I'm feeling that day) thrown together in under 15 minutes.

I recommend prepping all the dough rounds before you start filling.  I do this in batches, stacking the rounds between wax paper in the fridge.

Never again

The size of your round depends on how big you want your hand pies.  For mini (two or three bite) pies, you can use a big cookie cutter.  I was going for the "suck it, Hostess" size and found the lid to my smallest sauce pan worked perfectly.





Step 2: Filling and Shaping

Mixing egg wash for fine motor practice

Just follow the basic rules of filling hand pies and you'll be fine:

- use less filling than you think you need
- leave the edges clean so the pie will seal
- a little egg wash for glue
- gently press the air out as you fold over
- cut a steam hole

Why yes, this IS too much filling

I received these nifty hand pie presses as a gift, but they only work for one size.  It happens to be the perfect portion for an apple butter hand pie and it's easy for kids to use, so I went with it.

If you don't have one just do what I do the other 90% of the time I'm making variously sized hand pies - fold over and gently crimp with a fork.

Bake or freeze? Eat or save?

Line your pies up on a sheet pan.  Make a couple of steam holes either with a knife or scissors. Place pan in the freezer until the pies are rock hard.  I put them in a plastic food storage container, but a freezer bag will work as long as you don't bang it around too much (the edges will crack off).

Until you've had a lot of practice, you'll probably find the assembled pies start to get overly squishy waiting for the pan to fill.  When this happens I stash the pan in the freezer and simply move the newly assembled pies to it as I complete each one. And it probably goes without saying that I only bring a couple of dough rounds out of the fridge at a time.

Because the apple butter doesn't offer resistance like other fillings, it can be a pain to cut the steam holes without squishing the pie.  I like to let them firm up in the freezer just a bit before cutting the holes.  The trick, of course, is not forgetting to cut the steam holes before they freeze solid.

Step 3: Baking

So excited to eat it we forgot to take a picture first

Bake them off in a 400 degree oven. Times will depend on size and if you started from room temp, fridge temp or frozen.  Start checking on them around 20 minutes; if starting frozen will generally take around 30.  In this case the filling is already cooked, so it's all about browning the pastry.

I like to bake off about a half dozen and freeze the rest.  That way we don't eat ourselves silly and have hand pies at the drop of a hat for weeks.

I love to pop one on my small stoneware pan and stick it in the toaster oven.  Paired with some warm cider or hot chocolate, you have the perfect snack for kids getting off the bus on a cold day.  Or bake off several in the oven for the whole family to enjoy after a Saturday afternoon of sledding. 


Regarding Yield

I can't offer a reliable count on yield because it depends on how big you make your pies. I get roughly four 6" pies from each individual pie crust batch.  I used about 16 ounces of apple butter to make about 16 pies (which makes sense now that I think about it - 2 Tbsp is a reasonable filling quantity for a 6" pie).

If you are going to have the kids help build hand pies there's one last piece of advice I have to offer: make sure you've got more jars on hand than you think you need.  I used two jars to make the pies... and Bear simultaneously ate two jars.  Because all that sensory diet stuff works up an appetite.

The Great Apple Butter Experiment: Part 2

Making and Storing

Start here: The Great Apple Butter Experiment: Part 1, Ingredients and Preparation

MAKING APPLE BUTTER
Before embarking on this experiment I read dozens of apple butter recipes and learned there are two very different ways to prepare it, and it's a decision you need to make in advance.  We tried both and while the results are equally delicious, I came out with a strong preference for one method.

I was frustrated that none of the dozens of websites that talked about making apple butter actually laid out the pros and cons of the two methods so a novice could make an informed decision.  It will become clear why I feel this is an important consideration and why I decided - if all else fails - this can be the mark I leave on the apple butter blogoverse.  (Shut up. It could be a thing.)


Option 1: Stove Top Method
Place all the ingredients in a large, deep, heavy bottomed pot.  It's important that the vessel be as deep as possible. 

Simmer for 1.5 - 2 hours, stirring constantly, until apples are broken down and it reduces to the desired consistency*.

Keep the heat as low as possible (if you've got a simmer burner, use it).  The higher the heat, the more it sputters and splatters. It sticks to skin and burns badly.  If you have a splatter shield, use it.

We ended up wearing long dish gloves over long sleeves, because even using a deep pot and a long wooden spoon, we still suffered spatter burns.  At least one person caught some on the face.  I was cleaning apple butter splats off the walls, cabinets and ceiling for weeks.

We think the recipes that claim 1 to 1.5 hours with this method must have very deep pots that can contain the spatter that comes from more intense bubbling with higher heat. Or possibly, asbestos skin.  We found that the heat had to be very low not just to minimize the risk of burning the apples at the bottom of the pot, but for it to be safe to stir it. That stretched the reduction time out for 2+ hours.

We did eight 10 pound batches of apple butter in one day using this method. It took about about half a dozen women taking turns with the constant stirring to pull it off.  

Stove Top Pros:
- can do large quantities in a single day
- can have multiple pots going at once (if you have people to stir)
- can get a batch done quickly (relatively speaking)
- constant monitoring offers tight control of final consistency

Stove Top Cons:
- labor intensive (you really do need to stir it constantly for 2+ hours)
- spatter burns are practically guaranteed
- not only is it not kid friendly, it's almost 'do not attempt with children on the premises'


Option 2: Crock Pot Method

6 quart slow cooker fills completely with 10 lb recipe

Place all the ingredients in the crock pot.  Lid on. Turn on high until you achieve bubbling around the edges, then switch to low.  Let it go until the desired *consistency is achieved.

If you want to feel like you're doing something, give it a stir every couple of hours.  Time will vary depending on your type of slow cooker, the moisture content of your apples and how thick you want the final product to be.

I like to take the kids apple picking on a Saturday, set this up Saturday night after dinner and have apple butter ready the next morning (leaving Sunday afternoon for preserving).
 
Minimum cook time is probably 8 hours, I average 12 and have gone as long as 16.  If it's not thickening up for you by 8 or 10 hours in, crack the lid to facilitate evaporation.

This photo of my last batch was taken 13.5 hours after the one above. I did end up cracking the lid the last couple of hours to achieve this final thickness because it hadn't reduced enough overnight.

Finished apple butter

Crock Pot Pros:
- safe and easy
- low maintenance
- kid friendly

Crock Pot Cons:
- takes a really long time
- due to appliance load on average electric circuits you generally can't do multiple simultaneous crock pot batches, so one weekend = one 10 lb apple batch


*Consistency
You have a choice in the consistency of the final product.  Once the apples have really started to break down, you need to decide which way to go with it.

1) Rustic chunks - leave it alone, it will do that on its own.
2) Mostly smooth with small chunks - use a potato masher
3) Very smooth - use a stick blender (or alternately, puree small amounts at a time in a blender)

Worth mentioning... if the apples you use are all softer varieties (often described as good for sauce) you will get a much smoother final product.  If you want a chunkier product, make sure to include some firmer varieties that will hold their shape better (often described as good for baking).

Important: Go easy with the mashing or blending! Leave it a bit chunkier than you're looking for because the apples will continue to break down.  More than once I've gone overboard (because frankly, stick blending is fun) and wound up with a final product as smooth as baby food. Great if that's what you like, but I find it unappealing.  I like a chunky sauce.

If you choose option 2 or 3, the newly mangled fruit releases more liquid and more time may be required to finish the reduction.  I tend to do it 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through the expected cook time to account for that.

Which method do I use?
I'm inherently lazy and love to involve my children in the kitchen, so I prefer the crock pot method. I love that the combination of apple machine and crock pot make this a kid friendly activity we can manage in a weekend.


STORING APPLE BUTTER

Now that you've got a couple of quarts of newly minted apple butter, I suppose you're wondering what on earth to do with it. Because who can eat 3 quarts of apple butter in the 3-4 weeks before it will go south in the fridge?

You have two options for long term storage. And yes, I have a strong preference for one of them. I'll (briefly) address them both because I suspect most people are not interested in my preference.


Option 1: Freezing
Portion your apple butter into appropriate freezer storage containers.  If you want some for easy use in recipes you can portion into jumbo muffin tins and then chuck the frozen pucks into a freezer bag. This is nice to do with at least some of it because you don't have to open and defrost an entire container to get a small amount for a single recipe.

Pros:
- quick and simple
- anyone can do it
- no special equipment necessary
- estimates vary, but I've read it can freeze 6 to 12 months

Cons:
- freezer space is generally at a premium
- 6 months isn't long enough if you make a lot
- the defrosted product will likely be a bit thinner/watery, may need to take into account depending on final use


Option 2: Canning

I knew all along I was going to can (aka "preserve" aka "put up") my apple butter because I grew up in the boondocks canning with my mom and already had the equipment and experience.

Canning basics are amply covered in many places, and I'm simply going to link to a credible source or two rather than offer my amateur take on it.

Suffice it to say I like that I can store canned jars in my pantry for a long time. Some estimates say 1 year, most say 2 years, I just used some that was 3 years old with no problem. It tasted like the day we made it.

Storage Containers

 4 oz and 8 oz jelly jars are the perfect size for canning apple butter. They're also perfect for gift giving and you don't have to can them to do so. BUT...



Gift Giving and Food Safety
Many people will assume something in this type of jar is preserved (canned) and expect it to keep a couple of years in their pantry.

If you choose to give gifts without canning, PLEASE BE VERY CLEAR with recipients:

- that it is not preserved
- that is must be refrigerated
- when it expires (about a month from the day you made it)


Regarding Food Safety. Seriously. Read This Part.
Just a few days ago I was horrified to find a food site discussion thread in which many home cooks confessed to skipping the canning process on the assumption that it would be fine, having just cooked the apple butter and it being hot and all. 

I know you're probably thinking "I can see their point. Botulism is something they just say to scare us and the odds of getting it are so low it's not worth the trouble to worry about it."  Except that it is.  Know how I know?

I am an OCD nutjob.  I use plastic gloves with raw meat, have designated cutting boards and sterilize cooking utensils in the dishwasher.  And I am NOT a germophobe - I firmly believe the science that demonstrates growing immune systems need a hobby to mature properly, and I wouldn't be caught dead doing all that hand sanitizer at the park type nonsense.  But there are some things you don't screw around with, and food safety is one of them.

This is Karma. She's dead now.  She broke into the heavily defended garbage can and ate something. The vets bills were around $2000.  She lived just long enough for the culture to come back and tell us it was clostridium botulinum. You know it as botulism. The same microbe that can thrive in improperly processed canned food.  The same reason you don't give honey to infants under a year old.

No matter how careful you are, you have to assume the spores are there.  And I'd rather tell you about the unfortunate death of my beloved dog than have you tell me about the tragic death of your beloved grandchild. So don't take shortcuts with canning - either do it right or don't do it at all.  And FFS make sure anyone to whom you give jars of homemade food know precisely how and for how long they can be stored.  Are we clear?  Good.  Moving on.

Labeling for Storage
I can't see going to all this trouble and then slapping on labels with masking tape and a Sharpie. Avery 5294 are self-adhesive 2.5" printable circle labels that work perfectly with standard wide mouth canning jar lids. There's even a free Word template so you don't have to fuss with formatting the circles yourself.

You can get as complicated as you like with graphics, just be sure to include the important information if giving away (things like expiration date, Keep Refrigerated if not preserved or Refrigerate After Opening if it was). I used free clip art of an apple 'cause I'm fancy that way.


A Note On Yield
Our extensive experimentation revealed that we get slightly less than 8 oz of apple butter for every 1 pound of apples.  So, an average 10 pound batch will generally yield 8 - 9 jars (16 - 18 if you're using the 4 oz model).  Your mileage may vary, but for me it's been a reliable ballpark for jar planning.


Now that you've successfully made and safely stored a supply of delicious apple butter sourced with local ingredients, you're probably starting to wonder what you can do with it.

Tune in next time for the final chapter in the epic Apple Butter trilogy: Apple Butter Hand Pies.

The Great Apple Butter Experiment: Part 1

Ingredients and Preparation

A while back one of my girlfriends asked me about apple butter.  She shared the same frustration so many of us have with supermarket foods: the store options all contained High Fructose Corn Syrup.

I felt naked, y'all. Because while I do have significant square footage designated to canning equipment and supplies - and I may lose my redneck license for admitting this - I'd never actually made apple butter. 

But I'm game for anything in the kitchen, so we quickly decided to conduct the experiment together. Which turned into making it a great big thing with half a dozen girlfriends, which turned into a comic opera of planning and procurement. Not that any of us minded. Countless people asked for the recipe at the time (and since - can't believe it's been 3 years).  The catch was that we experimented with multiple versions across multiple batches, so it took a while for us to taste them all and decide which version we preferred.

Now that we've finally eaten our way through all 94 jars and I put this year's apple picking on my calendar, my thoughts turned to the pile of apple butter post-it notes stashed in my recipe binder.

(Yes, I said 94. Jars of apple butter. Because the crazy people who live in my head believe anything worth doing is worth way the fuck overdoing.)

Anyway.

After painstakingly reviewing dozens of recipes on the interwebz, carefully choosing our ingredients and making 9 variant batches, this is the recipe we settled on:

Honey Apple Butter

This is the 100 pounds of apples that made our first 94 jars.

INGREDIENTS

10 lbs apples^1,2; peeled, cored and sliced³
3 cups apple cider⁴
1 1/4 cup honey⁵
2 tsp cinnamon⁶
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp fresh grated nutmeg⁷
pinch of kosher salt


Notes

(1) I recommend sourcing your apples like this. But if you don't have a small child to provide free labor, your local orchard and/or farm stand will be happy to sell you bulk apples.  Many will offer a steep discount for a bushel of bruised specimens, which is ideal for this application.


(2) To ensure a well rounded flavor profile, get several varieties of apples.  Most orchards post a chart of which apple varieties are best suited for which culinary applications.  Here's an example - but varieties vary by region, so check your local sources.

What 10 lbs of apples looks like

(3) You can manually peel, core and slice your apples if you don't plan to do this very often.  If you work with fresh apples on a regular basis, I strongly recommend getting a hand crank apple peeler/slicer. I got this model at my local Meijer for $15, and it was worth every penny.

(4) Fresh pressed apple cider is probably available from the same place you got your apples. If not, grocery stores usually have fresh apple cider on a seasonal basis. Check the refrigerated section. (If you're really lucky, you have a friend with a cider press... but that's a whole 'nother thing.)

 (5) Look around for an apiary - you'd be surprised how easy and affordable it is to find fresh, local honey.  The one near us charges by the pound - we just bring in our own mason jars and stick them under the tap.

(6) These spice quantities are based on apple butter of average (thick applesauce) consistency and is well spiced. If you prefer less bold flavor and/or plan to reduce to a very thick consistency, simply dial back on the honey and spice quantities.

(7) You wouldn't go to all this trouble and use canned nutmeg, would you?  I didn't think so. Not sure where to find the real stuff? I get it from the Atlantic Spice Company - it's a great price but enough to last a lifetime, so you may want to coordinate with friends.

PREPARATION

Now that you've sourced all your ingredients, it's time to prep the apples.  This is another place where that free child labor comes in.  (But only with the relative safety of an apple machine for small kiddos, or if you're lucky enough to have ones old enough to trust with knife work.)

I never cease to be amazed how fast the "silly apple machine" works through 10 pounds of apples.  Even hampered  assisted by my awesomesauce sidekick, a total clutz like me can whip through each apple in under a minute.

Someday I hope to get my act together enough to make apple jelly from the peelings... but that's another episode.

No problem if the apple goes on the crank a little crooked and a few seeds get left behind - just clean it up a bit before you drop it in the pot.  I like to cut them in half just to facilitate the fruit breaking down, but it isn't really necessary.

Tune in next time when I actually tell you what to do with that giant pile of honey, spices and peeled apples...




The Great Apple Butter Experiment Part 2: Making and Storing

The Great Sensory Experiment: Apple Butter Hand Pies

Day 7 of the SNAP Hunger Challenge!

By Chef Terri

(Said with my best Strongbad impression) It's over!!!

This has been one heck of a long week. Today's menu was a little dull, consisting only of my PBJ breakfast and leftover mango, chicken, and black bean stew over rice.



Dinner...well, I made the mistake I always make when I tried to make fried rice. Allow my failures to be a lesson to you! When using leftover or frozen veggies to make fried rice, it is good to sautee them before you add the precooked rice (this is a great way to use up rice from leftover Chinese takeout, if you have it on hand). The part I always mess up is the part where you need to scramble the eggs on the side and THEN chop them up and add them to the rice. If you don't, and instead just dump the eggs on top of your delicious sauteed vegetables and rice, you end up with...gloppy, sad, mushy rice. I ate a little bit of it for dinner, but couldnt stomach more than I absolutely needed to in order to stop the hunger pangs.

I've been keeping detailled nutrition information for each day that I've been on the Hunger Challenge. Instead of boring you with every day's total, I've averaged the food consumed in the last 7 days and tried to give you a snapshot of what I've been eating vs what I "should" be eating. All of my numbers have come from sparkpeople.com, where they have a great recipe calculator and lots of relevant nutrition and fitness information (plus, it's free!). My goal numbers are listed in parentheses.
Calories:1568.8 (1730-2080)
Total Fat: 60.2g (44-70g)
Saturated Fat: 16.11g
Cholesterol: 343.1mg (less than 300mg)
Sodium: 2714.9mg (less than 2300mg)
Potassium: 2439.9mg
Total Carbohydrates: 192.8g (223-322g)
Fiber: 31.4g (20-30g)
Sugars: 28.7g
Protein: 77.9g (60-173g)

I fell short on my caloric goals, overshot my cholesterol and my sodium levels, but managed to get enough fiber and protein to help keep me going. My carbohydrates were also below where they should be, and I should be aiming to the lower end of the fat spectrum. However, the only reason I KNOW any of this information is because I have reliable access to a computer, knowledge of a website where I can gain this information, and education to understand what the numbers actually mean. Most Americans, whether or not they are on SNAP, don't have these sorts of luxuries. To compare, here is the caloric information for 2 McDoubles, 2 small french fries, and a large Coca-Cola from McDonalds. All of this information was located on their website. Again, my goals are in parentheses alongside.

Calories: 1560 (1730-2080)
Total Fat: 61g (44-70g)
Saturated Fat: 20g
Cholesterol: 130mg (less than 300mg)
Sodium: 2180mg (less than 2300mg)
Total Carbohydrates: 209g (223-322g)
Sugars: 99g
Protein: 50g (60-173g)

It is pretty devastating to compare what I could have bought for approximately $5 a day to what I worked really hard on to feed myself for $5 a day. It is true that SNAP money does not work as currency at fast food restaurants, however, it does work at most convenience stores and dollar store sorts of establishments. This means that it is far easier to access cheap, minimally time consuming calories for my shopping dollar than it is to work so hard to get my needs met through a lengthy process in the kitchen. I cannot express how frustrating it is to know that, and to know that most people in this country don't know enough about basic nutrition to understand why the brown rice and beans keeps me feeling fuller for longer, even if it has the same calories as the large french fry.

At the end of all of this, I wonder what the purpose was. I know several friends of mine have been amazing and have given me tons of support, encouraging me to succeed when I could have easily cheated or fallen off of my task. But what else are we doing? Are we talking to the people we know and love about what they're eating? Are we doing so in a kind and compassionate manner?

How can you make a difference in someones life? I took this challenge to help broaden my understanding of the struggles people on SNAP face, and I never expected I would learn so much...but it isn't enough. I'm talking to people more about the food they're eating. I'm donating higher quality food to my local food pantry. I'm continuing to work with an organization that thinks it is of vital importance not just to provide food to the hungry, but to provide HEALTHY food to the hungry while we strive to end hunger in our community.

Go do something today. And tomorrow. And the next day. I'll be right there cheering you on.

Day 6 of the SNAP Hunger Challenge!

By Chef Terri

Oh man, oh man...only 24 hours left. I can do this. I totally got this.

This morning was pretty exciting, as it was the only day this week I was able to have something OTHER than PB&J for breakfast. I also managed to feed my partner off of this meal, so that was really awesome! I scrambled up 5 eggs, a quarter cup of cheddar cheese, and 2 cups of spinach with a little bit of salt and pepper and served it with toast and jam on the side. The thing that saved the cheese from being "not enough" was adding it just at the end, right before the eggs were done. That way, I could still SEE pieces of it in the eggs, which helped me perceive its taste better. It really is the little things, like choosing extra sharp cheddar cheese for its extra flavor, that have made it easier to get through the challenge.



Since breakfast was really more of brunch, I only ate a handful of tortilla chips and PB&J for lunch, which wasn't too bad. It held me over until dinner, and inspired me to come up with YET ANOTHER way to use my black beans to fill my belly. This time, I used my lime to pep up the flavor a bit.



1/4 C of onions, finely diced
1 t of vegetable oil
1 1/2 C of black beans, cooked
1/4 C of water
1 Roma tomato, diced
Juice of half a lime
1/2 t salt
1/4 t black pepper

Sautee onions in vegetable oil for 3-5 minutes or until tender. Add black beans and water, and using a fork, mash approximately half the beans in to the water to cook. Allow to boil, thickening the water slightly, and add tomato, lime juice, salt and pepper. Serve with a fork, or tortilla chips!

By eating mine with a few tortilla chips, I got extra crunch and flavor, but I was otherwise happy wolfing this down with a fork.

It was odd tonight, going to a party where my friends were serving delicious cheeses and taco dip (one of my favorite things) and all sorts of other edibles, and having to turn them down in favor of a glass of water. It definitely limited my time at the party, as I knew that in the battle of wills with the cheese platter, I would eventually lose. On one hand, I am thrilled and delighted that tomorrow marks the last day of my hunger challenge. On the other, I feel more sad and frustrated than ever for the people for whom this isn't just a week, or who don't have a choice to stop doing this at any time. I'm debating trying to raise money as well as awareness after this week is over, something tangible I can give to my food bank and feel like other people shared in too. You've all been so helpful to me through this, do you think we could reach out and help a few other people in need too?

Day 5 of the SNAP Hunger Challenge!

By Chef Terri

Today was...not at all easy.

As I said, I had my wonderful friends ben and Nadja in from Champaign last night, and I woke up fairly late in the morning. They had a craving for Ethiopian food, so we headed out right away to Demera, my favorite place in the city. I had been really set on sticking to the challenge though, so off we headed with my partner and my roommate...and my PB&J. It was really not fun (for most of us, I assume) to sit there and not eat while they all scooped up delicious bites and my stomach rumbled. But the conversation was great, the people were better, and at least I got some free smells out of the deal!

Lunch was kind of a hastilly cobbled together affair. Half a cup of salsa, 3 oz of tortilla chips, a tomato, and a one ounce hunk of cheddar cheese was enough to fill my belly up this time. It was actually kind of nice to be able to munch idly on the tortilla chips while I read my book, lazing on the couch with my partner. It struck me then how many activities I engage in on a regular basis that center around, or at least involve, food. I go out to eat with friends a lot, sharing many plates of different foods, passing them around and telling stories. When I go to the movies, there is ALWAYS popcorn. If I'm spending a lazy afternoon reading, I love to have some animal crackers and a cup of tea. When I was reading, I realized I hadn't had my daily cup, and that had contributed greatly to my headache and overall sense of annoyance. One large cup of tea later, I was feeling much better than when I initially embarked on this blog post.

During the hunger challenge, I've had to change the way I socialize a lot. It would feel really isolating to me after a long period if I had to keep turning people down for meals out, or couldn't invite people over for a home cooked meal. In some communities/groups, SNAP is already a somewhat stigmatized label, something that people take to mean that you are lazy, or somehow couldn't manage to make ends meet through the good old American concept of "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps." I cannot stress enough that the people I have met through my work who are on SNAP, the friends and family I have had that have spent time on SNAP, are NOT lazy. They are not reaching for a handout. This is a supplemental program designed to help people that are in serious need. I'm so grateful that it exists, because without it, some people I love very much would be faced with some (even more) frightening choices. There have been brief periods in my life that I could be defined as "food insecure" (something one in six people in Cook County share), and without the safety net of SNAP, I could have gone without food.

My roommate and my partner went out to the local pub for dinner, thankfully sparing me the unpleasantness of having to watch them eat and sip my water. I used a little bit of culinary know how to make myself something rib sticking and filling for dinner, even though I wasn't particularly hungry. I knew that since I was going out to spend time with friends later, I'd want the food in me now. By caramelizing the onions, I was able to change their flavor a bit, make them very sweet, which was a complement to the nutty brown rice and the bright spinach.

1 T of oil
1/2 C of thinly sliced onions
3 T of water
1 1/2 C of precooked brown rice
1 C of spinach

Over low heat, cook the onions until golden brown and sticky (approximately 20-30 minutes). Splash 3 the water in to the skillet to scrape up any of the tasty brown bits from the bottom of the pan and add the rice until just heated through. Pile the spinach on top and stir to incorporate. Season with salt and pepper to taste.



By not continuing to cook the spinach after adding it to the hot rice, I allowed it to retain some of its crispness and all its bright green color. The caramelized onions were a different shade of brown than the rice, which added some variety to my bowl as well. Eating on a very limited budget is challenging, but this dish provided a lot of color and texture and flavor for very little money or time spent in the kitchen.

Day 4 of the SNAP Hunger Challenge!

by Chef Terri

I am out of exciting things to write about PB&J. Just know that I had it for breakfast, again, like I do every weekday even when I’m not on the challenge, and it was still kind of weird because of the high fructose corn syrup jelly. It’s tough to pass up the stuff I know I love in the door of the fridge every morning.

Lunch, on the other hand, was AWESOME! Even though it was just leftover beans and rice with some shredded cheddar on top, I can’t even explain the way I felt after getting to eat enough food that I felt like I didn’t want to eat more food. Americans tend to have a problem paying attention to their bodies and noticing when they feel satisfied vs when they feel stuffed to the gills. By ignoring those crucial signals, we tend to overeat. Here are a few tricks I’ve had to start using over the last few years in order to eat slowly and listen to what my stomach is telling my brain. (Hey, after 7 years in professional kitchens, you learn to eat whatever you can, whenever you can, as fast as you can!) These are also generally good tips to actually learn to enjoy the food you DO get to eat, as opposed to wolfing it down and still feeling dissatisfied.

1.) Turn. Off. The TV. By playing music, working on the internet, eating through your lunch break every day at the office, watching a movie, AND trying to check our cell phones, we take all of the focus off of the food itself. Remove distractions that are not related to other human beings actually sharing the meal with you.
2.) Eat off of a plate, at a table, with silverware. Even on nights when I order Chinese takeout, I pour it on to an actual plate and eat it with my own chopsticks, at my table. By pouring your food on to a flat surface, instead of eating it out of a carton, your eyes have a better ability to gauge portion. When your eyes say, “Wow, that’s a lot of food!” you’re already on the path to your belly signaling your brain to slow down or stop eating. Even snacks, like potato chips, need to be poured out in to a real dish, at least.
3.) Be hungry for a bit. Not starving, not terribly hungry, just enough. Note what your body feels like in that state. Then give it something very small, like a banana or an apple. Wait 20 minutes. Notice the difference. Eat something again, a piece of cheese or a little bit of chicken. Wait 20 minutes. See how you feel. Eating in small stages, and noting the differences in physical sensation in between each stage is a great way to get acquainted with the sensation of being satisfied.
4.) Go to the bathroom. In the middle of your meal, get up, go to the bathroom, and come back. Breaking up your meal even by a few minutes gives your stomach crucial time to get word to your brain that maybe an extra sandwich isn’t the best idea.
5.) This last trick might sound a little silly, but it’s worked for me. When eating food, even if it’s a grilled cheese sandwich I’ve made a million times, I try to think of a new word to describe it. By forcing my brain to think about something other than “Put the food in your mouth RIGHT NOW,” I have to play a game in between bites, really savoring each taste and texture so that I could describe it. My goal is to be able to describe what I’ve eaten in so many rich, colorful words that even someone that has no sense of taste can understand what I had.

Dinner was a fun experiment in how to make beans and rice a little bit more exciting. I still have a large part of my onion remaining (let’s hear it for supermarkets that price produce by piece, not by weight, because otherwise that onion would have cost me a pretty penny), and a mango, so I combined those, some beans, water, canned fire roasted tomatoes, and my last chicken breast in a pot and made a tasty stew. By ladling it over a bit of rice, I made it even more filling, and this actually meant that my partner and I BOTH managed to eat this for dinner and feel satisfied! Pretty sweet deal. I wish I had made the beans and rice earlier in the week, as I now have a bit of food I can nibble on that isn’t part of my plan.

I had forgotten until yesterday that I had two really awesome friends coming in to town this weekend. I panicked for a little bit, wondering how I was supposed to feed them and take care of them on this plan. Now, I think Im just out of luck with it comes to providing dinner for them on Saturday unless a miracle happens and the Food Fairy deposits something in my fridge, but I’ve got some creative plans for brunches for two days. Stay tuned and see if I can manage to create a total of 29 meals on a $35 budget!

Day 3 of the SNAP Hunger Challenge!

by Chef Terri

Today has been a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, I woke up with a nasty headache from low blood sugar. This meant I got kind of irritated because I couldn’t adequately explain my calculation methods of costing to people. For example, while some people believe that they can calculate their food cost just by saying that a sprinkle of dried oregano would only cost a cent or two, I think that the initial cost for a container of spices or herbs ($3-$6 per jar) would be too cost prohibitive on a SNAP budget. I don’t believe that most people in Chicago on SNAP, or most of Cook County have the ability, time, or space to raise an indoor herb or vegetable garden. I don’t think that most people in Chicago on SNAP have the access to grocery stores teeming with “free samples” that so many people are encouraging me to take. I don’t think most people in Chicago on SNAP have the ability to comparison shop, coupon clip, or afford the initial cost of bulk purchasing. I don’t think most people in Chicago on SNAP are able to purchase a week or more worth of groceries at a time, as carrying them home on public transit is such a challenge.

Even more frustratingly, I don’t believe most people in Chicago have the education or access to be able to make healthy food choices, prepare food in ways that retain or enhance inherent nutrition, or try things they have never have before.

For example, I know that if I put peanut butter in a skillet with a little bit of water, salt, pepper, and onions, it will make a palatable sauce. Most people look at peanut butter only as a sandwich condiment or a dessert item. Salsa can be a flavor adding agent to salads, or scrambled in to eggs. It doesn’t just go on chips. The list goes on and on. There are even tricky ways to cut food so that it makes your eye think there is more than there is on the plate. But do most people on SNAP know these sorts of things? Do they have the time or access to learn them? Probably not.

On the more cheerful side of things, people have been really supportive. My coworkers are really nice and feel guilty that they’re all going to go out for lunch today and have a root beer float as a snack and I can’t. My partner has encouraged me over and over again, reminding me that the whole point of this challenge is to gain more than just sympathy for people in need, but to have a chance to gain even a tiny bit of empathy for their suffering. My family has reminded me to use MY history, MY inherent privileges (such as having a car with which I can access many grocery stores, living in a neighborhood that HAS many grocery stores, being educated as a chef, and being brought up in a middle class household that could afford to expose me to different foods as a child, to name a few) to help educate and reach out to people that don’t have what I do. The text messages throughout the day from friends and loved ones just saying that they’re excited reading these updates, and proud of me, also really help. It makes me sad that a lot of people on SNAP probably aren’t as lucky as I am, specifically when it comes to how great my support system is.

Today’s menu worked out pretty well for some reason. Maybe it was just out of desperation, but my PBJ sandwich seemed to last longer in to the day today than it had yesterday, so I didn’t start feeling too hungry for lunch until about 10:30, which was snack time. I had an apple and a one ounce piece of cheddar cheese, that made me able to stay full until lunch rolled around. In order to stay as true to the challenge as I could, I made my lunch last night threw it in the microwave. The trick I used to keep the chicken breast juicy was twofold. First, when I cooked the chicken, I cooked it in a little bit of vegetable oil on one side to get some color, and then when I flipped it over, I added water to the pan about halfway up the chicken breast. Then, I put the chicken in a 350 degree oven for about 7 minutes, until my thermometer (ESSENTIAL to not overcooking things like a thick piece of chicken) told me it was 160 degrees. I took it out of the oven and let it sit on the stove, resting in the juices, for 5 more minutes. By letting it rest, the muscle fibers in the chicken had a chance to retain their natural juices instead of slicing it right away and letting all the flavor run all over the board. Then I sautéed my frozen veggies in the same pan so that they could pick up some chicken-y flavor. To reheat the chicken, I set the microwave to its lowest power setting (I just want to warm my food up, not cook it much more) and added about a teaspoon of water to the Tupperware before zapping it for a minute. By keeping the lid loosely closed, it retained steam, which heats all the food very quickly. It still dries out a little from being in the microwave, but by using low power and shorter times in the microwave, it was still pretty tasty.

Dinner was downright exciting. I had intended to have beans and rice yesterday but didn’t remember to soak my beans in advance, so I thought I was out of luck and had to change my plans. Upon further research, I found that I could have cooked the beans without soaking them, but that is neither here nor there. I cooked them in water with onion, salt and pepper for about 60 minutes, boiling and then reducing to a simmer. Alongside, I cooked the brown rice in water as well, but added about a half cup of salsa. Sadly, the beans were done about 30 minutes after the rice, but my patience didn't last that long...so I mixed the beans and rice together, and got a complete meal with lots of fiber, protein, and carbohydrates, and...vaguely chewy beans. The squirt of lime juice over my bowl at the very end was delicious. I wish I’d had a spicy pepper to add to the mix, or even some cumin or vinegar to add to it, but next time.

Now my roommate is trying to tempt me with canned cinnamon rolls he made. I can't justify it. I can't justify it. I'll just enjoy the smell. Or something...

Day 2 of the SNAP Hunger Challenge!

By Chef Terri

Spinach and Chicken Salad with Hardboiled Egg, Onion, & Lime

Approximate breakdown of my lunch cost today:

$0.60 for the 2 oz of chicken I reserved from the breast I sautéed last night

$0.12 for the egg I hardboiled

$0.67 for the 3 oz or so of spinach

$0.10 for the sliced onions

$0.14 for the third of the lime juice and zest I used

Approximately $1.63 total meal cost

Approximately 154 calories in the meal

Approximately $.01 per calorie consumed

In an average 1 oz bag of potato chips, there are 160 calories. Those potato chips require no time to boil the eggs, no preparation of product, no saving chicken from the night before. The average 1 oz bag of potato chips costs $0.33 at Jewel, meaning it would cost even less than the $.01 per calorie that my salad cost me to consume. Now, of course the potato chips don’t provide much of any of the nutrients I’ve eaten here. Spinach is high in iron and vitamin C, I gained lots of tasty protein from the chicken and egg, and lots of flavor from my lime and my onion. In total, I was able to eat almost 4 cups of total food volume, which is far more than the heaping cup of chips would have taken up in my stomach. However…I’m still really, really hungry.

Last night was really rough for me, sleep wise, and I decided to have an extra bag of hot tea this morning. Since I usually only use one tea bag (and get two cups of tea worth out of each bag), I had a total of 4 cups of tea today on a very empty stomach. My snack of a banana, while super tasty, was less filling than my baby carrots were yesterday, and didn’t do anything to slow the absorption of caffeine in to my system. I think that by increasing my caffeine consumption while not increasing my food consumption (instead, decreasing it sharply from yesterday), I’ve also increased my sense of jitteriness and overall irritability. I am wide awake, but none too pleased about it.

Dinner was easy to prepare, and very flavorful, but not particularly filling. Two eggs scrambled with salsa, and a piece of toast with an ounce of shredded cheddar cheese.

I upped my overall consumption of vegetables for the day by using the salsa, but I’ve already exceeded my total recommended consumption of egg yolks for the week, boosting my cholesterol consumption significantly. We know that there is an overall connection between poverty and ill health, and poverty and obesity, which I’ve certainly begun to understand more personally in the last 2 days. I’ve lost three pounds in the last 48 hours, but I know that if I keep up this intensely calorie restricted method of eating, my body will attempt to store everything I eat as fat, increasing my likelihood to suffer from obesity related illness. While I’m struggling to eat healthily this week, I’m already hearing the sirens call of just eating the whole bag of tortilla chips for dinner. I could have purchased a significantly greater volume of food, things like potato chips and ramen and soda for the same amount of money as I spent on the fruits and vegetables and lean protein I bought this week.

Just thinking about the food I can’t eat today is making me grumpier, but simultaneously more grateful for the luxuries I do enjoy. I can’t imagine being this hungry and not having my laptop or a good book to distract me. If I had to be this hungry in between working two or more jobs (as lots of people on SNAP do) or while raising children (again, a large percentage of SNAP participants have children), I don’t think I could manage it.

Day 1 of the SNAP Hunger Challenge

By Chef Terri

Day 1 started bright and early as I fumbled through my kitchen to make my PB&J. I skipped past my Skippy Natural peanut butter and jumped right in to the peanut butter I could afford this week, loaded with partially hydrogenated fat. The jelly was...of an upsetting consistency. While it's first ingredient was, in fact, strawberry, it was followed up with high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, and pectin. I have become much more accustomed to 100% fruit spreads, and stuff with high fructose corn syrup just moves differently. But, I measured out my portions, spread them on my bread and ate it gratefully because I knew I wouldn't have any food til much later in the morning if I didn't.

Off to work, where at every turn, there was food offered to me. Today, it wasn't too hard to turn it down, although when it came time for my midmorning snack, I certainly had a craving for something more substantial than baby carrots. However, it was exciting to taste how great, how crisp and fresh the carrots were because I was genuinely hungry. It also made me happy to think of the fact that I'd only spent 49 cents on the whole bag that might get me through most of the week.

Lunch was a bit of an adventure. I realize that I have options available to me in preparing my lunch that most people wouldn't, given that I work in a professional kitchen, but everything I did could have been done in advance and still tasted alright. I toasted my whole wheat bread and shredded my cheddar cheese, melting it on to one piece of toast. Then I sliced up my tomato (handy trick for tomatoes on sandwiches, always make sure to put the tomatoes on the bread AFTER a protective element like cheese or lettuce. If you put it right on the bread, it gets mushy) and added two fried eggs. A little bit of salt, and the sandwich was good to go! The significant problem was the fact that I had put my tortilla chips in the same ziploc bag as my bread. This meant that the moisture from the bread went in to my chips, making them chewy and soggy. My go to trick for reviving them was popping them in a 300 degree oven for about 10 minutes, restoring most of their crunchiness. Paired with salsa, it made a great meal.

Dinner was a new recipe adventure! I'm a big fan of big flavors, but without any spices to work with, I had to get pretty crazy inventive. It turned out alright, if not very attractive.

1 chicken breast, chopped in to bite sized pieces
1 t vegetable oil
1/2 C diced yellow onion
2 T diced tomatoes and their liquid
1 T peanut butter
1/2 t salt
Pinch of black pepper
1/2 t lime zest

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat with vegetable oil. Once heated, add diced onion and sautee for 2 minutes, until beginning to turn translucent. Add chicken and tomatoes, sautee for 3 minutes further. Spoon in peanut butter, salt, pepper, and lime zest, and stir to incorporate. If the sauce is too thick, add a tablespoon of water at a time until it reaches your desired consistency. If too thin, allow to cook for 1-2 more minutes until it thickens up. Serve immediately.

There was a LOT of flavor in this bowl, although if I had my way I would have added a bit of fresh parsley at the end and some lime juice to brighten the sauce, but it was awfully tasty. And being able to turn out in under 20 minutes after a day of work? Not too shabby if I do say so myself. I'll have to add nutritional facts of my days menu tomorrow (I forgot the tally at work), but it wasn't too bad. By drinking plenty of water, I was able to keep a lot of hunger pangs at bay. We'll see how tomorrow goes!