I gather!

Yesterday was an active day for all. I was so busy, climbing trees, dining with neighbors and gathering the fruits of the earth, that I didn't get a chance to post my two cents. It was a great relief to see my sweet love, James, up on his feet again and starting to eat! Produce could not have returned to the picture at a better time. Oooh, to have something ripe and fresh again that you can really savor with all your senses...... it was FRUIT and VEGGIE TIME. (I started the hunt for produce that afternoon in our own garden with the tomatoes, onion and edible flowers pictured to the left....that is a days worth this time of year)

Upon hearing of James illness, our wonderful neighbor, Sam, invited us to a waffle breakfast at her house with her adorable baby Ezra. I wasn't sure if it exactly fit the guidelines of our experiment but she comes from a background ( as do I ) where you bring food to the sick. So we accepted her generous and delicious offer. Homemade Belgian waffles covered in fresh fruit and syrup with a wonderfully nutritious acai drink (Mona Vie) to go with it. The food and company were deeply good! Thanks Sam!

The kids and I were only in the mood for light grazing around lunchtime, since our breakfast was closer to brunch. So we had bits of free restaurant baked goods and some yogurt. James came home from work ( yes, he WORKED the day after being that sick!! ) and went out to the store for all the goods shown below. A word about shopping bags. We use cloth shopping bags about 70% of the time. The other 30% we just plain forget to take them out of the trunk. A tip: after unloading your groceries, hang your cloth bags on the doorknob of the front/or garage door that leads to your car and you will always have bags in your car when you need them. Anyway, I think when James walked in the door with all those boxes of ..... em, cereal.... the kids made their peace with this whole experiment. They thought, they might be deprived or something throughout the coming weeks. What they didn't know is that they will probably never see this much sugar again in their childhoods! Either way, it was time to visit the organic gardens at the colleges.

We had soaked some pinto beans for our traditional beans and rice dinner, but I really wanted some peppers to go with it. Down in the garden, not far off from the chicken yard, I spotted some gorgeous figs. While in the belly of the fig tree, I also picked these grapes (pictured above in the canopy of fig leaves) that were positively dripping from the vine that danced in and out of the fence surrounding both the fig tree and the gardens themselves. There were so many earthly delights that begged to be enjoyed. We found a fertility statue amongst some squash, a few ripe raspberries we devoured along the pathways, a pumpkin patch wildly inter planted with edible flower and amaranth and herbs. Our ten year old HAD TO HAVE this one strawberry that was just an inch beyond reach. I was his anchor, and he got it. Sweet success!

Now what did I come here for again? Oh yeah. A pepper. And there it was, hiding safely under a swatch of tomato plants just under the giant sunflower by the gate. Who's a tasty little pepper? You are! Yes you are!


The days harvest included some purple basil, a fine zucchini, figs, grapes (we froze some for later.... mmmmmmm), bell pepper, jalapeno, green onion, strawberry, and nibbles here and there along the path like raspberries, chard and herbs. Getting lost in a garden is good for the soul! Maybe even as good as a morsel of fine chocolate. I'll take both, thanks!


My favorite moment of the day? When this tiny hand magically appeared in the finished photograph above! That little hand stayed in the bowl until most of those grapes were gone, gone, gone!

Live well,
{{{Aleli}}}

Some hunt, some gather, some coupon shop at Vons!

Ok folks, time to add my 2 cents to the pot today. I just want to put on record that food cost yesterday for James was zero dinero! I might have picked up a food poisoning “bug” somewhere along our mis-adventures in food. Yesterday was very rare for me as I was rather ill and could not hold down my cookies so basically I did not eat anything until 2am. I found a bowl of leftover pesto bowtie pasta in the fridge and that was it. Aleli, the love of my life took great care of me and made sure to keep the steam going on the blog. I have to make one correction to her posting. I was a vegetarian off and on for about 6 years, maybe 1 year in total! As a vegetarian I would eat McDonalds French fries from time to time (see quote of the day). Anyway, starving myself came naturally for me while being sick on Saturday. At first I thought I was experiencing some type of healing sickness. That’s where you change your diet overnight and feel terrible the next few days for doing it. I’ve had a few of those experiences. I’ve gone 7 days on a juice fast once and there was a stretch of time when I drank gallons of carrot juice. Papa Lee J thought I was coming down with jaundice when my skin started turning orange. That’s a nibble of food history for me. I also was a service manager at a grocery store and know a thing or two about coupons. CHECK this OUT!

That's a 65% savings!!!!!!!

Back in the day while working for the supermarkets you could find shoppers with over a $100 in groceries and getting that down to $10 with coupons. I can even remember a few times when the store had to pay the customer. Today we took advantage of a few Vons Super Saver Coupons that should really help breakfast for next week. Unfortunately the best deals are usually the products that are sugar loaded. As a kid I use to put sugar on my frosted flakes and I turned out ok. Sugar loaded cereals are not usually a part of our breakfast of champions these days. However, getting a $4.79 box of Kix for $1.50 comes out to about 14 cents a serving. That works well within our budget and General Mills claims that these cereals are a good source of Calcium and Vitamin D. Kid-Tested, Mother-yet-to-be-Approved.

A few other Supermarket tips: Check on the dates behind the products that are faced towards the front. Sometimes moving a few products aside to reach back an item or two can get you fresher product by 3 to 5 days. And never feel obligated to buy the 2 for $3.00 specials. Most often you can get just the 1 for $1.50.

Calcium and Vitamin D, It must be good for you!

Day Two aka Peace, Love and Tomato Soup!

So today the tab came to a whopping $5.35! Breakfast was nothing more than a few huge gourmet blueberry and apple muffins we ate on the run to a free movie viewing in the morning at the local indie film theatre. These we acquired for free last night as end of the day left overs from a sustainably minded restaurant. Ditto lunch! Lunch was a perfect bowl of tomato soup garnished with fresh basil from our garden and paired with a gourmet cheese muffin. All saved from what is sometimes thrown out. Many restaurants around the country that cook fresh daily have some amount of wasted food by days end. Ask for it before it is just thrown out..... unless you are prepared to dive for it ( I'll pass, thanks ). Sometimes they say yes and sometimes they say no. Having said that, there are still no free lunches though! Our girl was in desperate need of some yogurt. So we caved and spent the 50 cents on that for her! Totally worth the price of admission though just to see that banana flavored yogurt mustache stretched across the center of her face! Love that kid!

We snacked on some of yesterdays saved free samples from the ribbon cutting and popped a couple of free vitamin samples from a new health food store in town too. Dinner was simple again. With some herby eggs on leftover rice and some pesto pasta ( an absolute favorite of the ten year old!). A bit of frozen peanut butter cup for a dessert, some juice and everyone was stuffed. Although we are omnivores now (James and Aleli were vegetarian for about 6 or 7 years each), we tend to eat meat very sparingly anyway. So these mainly vegetarian meals are regularly featured guests at our table.

It's absolutely wild how differently we are eating when cost is the primary concern! We would love to eat as healthily as possible during all of this as well. But if it weren't for the fact that we have simple tools at our disposal like a stove, a fridge, and a group budget, it is doubtful that we could eat for a dollar a day at all. How do the worlds homeless do it?!!!! We normally have a far wider range of options at any given meal, more fresh produce, and more organic offerings. Free samples and finds have really stretched what is possible..... even just in the first two days. As we start to forage in local gardens we hope the meals will be cured of their bad case of "the beige" ( grain on grain on, oh yeah, more grain ).



Which leads us into our Thought of the Day:

Well, it's more than one simple little thought actually. It's an article by one of Aleli's favorite great minds right now, Frances Moore Lappe. She is the author of several books, articles and movements, including the well known/loved Diet for a Small Planet. She continually dispels the myth of scarcity as the reason for the worlds hunger and "shortage" issues. There is in fact more than enough to go around! We've already begun to see that there is abundance everywhere...... especially in this country. Anyway, please read and enjoy the article on the link below from this amazing thinker, visionary and humanitarian. You'll be glad you did!

Click the link http://www.progressive.org/mag/lappe0708

Perhaps tomorrow, we'll visit the farm together............ until then, as the Iranian proverb goes:

"Eat little, sleep sound."

One, two, three.... GO

Happy August all and welcome to our first day of fun with food. Before we share some points of the day though, we'll tell you a bit about our little experiment.

Most months this year our family of six has conducted some unofficial life experiment. One month we went without television, another month we expressed a daily gratitude, etc. In all our brainstorming, we somehow thought it might be interesting to attempt to eat for a dollar a day per person. Food is just that basic common thread among ALL living things and so there are limitless possibilities to learn, explore and understand.We agreed that there would be no dumpster diving and that we will tap into every resource available to OUR family. We realize not every family would have the exact same resources at their disposal, but most US cities are abundant with untapped goods. Enough about that for now.

Sticking with the classics for breakfast day one.

DAY 1

Our first day was definitely a learning day. We started by using what we had on hand along with some staples we had purchased especially for this quest. Nothing should go to waste. MMMmmmm, mmmmm goood oatmeal! Goes down smooth with brown sugar, maple syrup, raisins, cinnamon butter and milk. Although one serving costs us about .07 cents per person before all the comfort fixins', we still came in at around $1 for the entire family meal, complete with a shared grapefruit, some free toast (day old restaurant bread) and a tall glass of crystal clear water.

No hat, no spoon.... no service!

Lunch at home with Aleli and the kids was a simple pasta with pesto and some tomato from our patio garden (nicknamed the food jungle). Lunch for five cost about $2.25. James ate a little something at work for free. By this point the kids were already craving sweets. So we whipped up some chocolate chip oatmeal cookie dough to freeze (Pillsbury log style) with the promise that we would use it only when absolutely necessary. For the moment, licking the bowl and spoon was enough.

Stalling with cookie dough. Baby absolutely LOVED all the mixing, pouring, tasting and chatting that are integral to cookie "doughing".

Bonding and sugar, both deeply important in the baking world.

Things were looking...... "absolutely necessary" by snack time! Fortunately James walked in the door with some oooh so lovely Belgian brownie samples from a ribbon cutting ceremony that was just starting at a new shopping center in the heart of our village. The plan was to go there in the early evening and enjoy as much free food as possible right around dinner time. And that's just what we did! The free Jamba Juice smoothies, Coldstone icecream cakes, gourmet burgers and fries (blanched in duck fat and absurdly tasty!) from a new pub, italian osteria cookies, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf teas, organic breads, macaroons and other snackies completely hit the spot. We even came away with a pack of sugarless gum for each kid, courtesy of the new dentist in town. There was hardly any mention of "what's for dinner?" (even from the 10 year old growing one) after that free glut of random yumminess. Thank you corporate America!

The girl enjoys the first "fruits" of our scavange. Not giant scissors in the background.

After walking the lively, music filled streets of our corner of the world (Friday night Art Walk), we headed home for a simple light meal of brown rice, grilled corn and a sprinkling of cheese. Wash it all down nicely with organic grape icey ( a classy way to water down any juice. The kids think it's special.) Dinner came to about $1.50 with plenty of rice to spare for tomorrow's breakfast or maybe even some rice pudding in the near future.

After dinner James did a quick pick up of leftovers from a restaurant soup pot and bread shelf. Plenty for tommorow's lunch perhaps.

In the next couple of days we'll be harvesting some fresh fruits and veggies for free from organic gardens at our local colleges and maybe some zucchini from a friend"s yard. Unfortunately, I think we may have missed our opportunity for 10 bunches of free grapes from our local "freecycle" yahoo group. We'll check in the morning to see if there are any still available. For today, please enjoy the food for thought video when you get the chance. It's totally worth the time for a bit of inspiration! LOVE that Dervaes family!

Peace, Love and Abundance!