Experiments in Change; Inspired by Food Inc.: Um, Hi.

Oh, come on. Don't act so surprised. You knew it was going to happen. There I was posting two, even three times a week and then *bam* nothing. What can I say? I get distracted by shiny things.

First of all if you haven't seen the movie yet, our friends at PBS are helping you out. Tomorrow they are premiering Food, Inc. Seriously, watch the darn thing. It's not gross, but it is scary. There's no reason why you shouldn't know exactly where your food comes from. You only put it in your and your family's mouths everyday.

Secondly, is that how you spell mouths? It doesn't look right.

This is a big week in the environmental, sustainable world. Earth Day is on April 22. We'll be doing a special post here where our friend Troy joins us again. He'll tell us which packaged goods are actually OK (impossible!) to buy. In turn, I'll rip apart everything he says. It should be a good time. Come watch!

In the meantime, I'm still hearing about how expensive it is to eat right. So here are some tips from chefs and foodies on how to eat right; even if you're using food stamps to buy your groceries. (Original article here)

I will sum the article up for you: Eating well is about planning, planning, planning

I'm not going to lie. I think about food a lot. Like a lot, a lot. But if food doesn't consume your every waking moment (and I'm not sure what else you would waste your time thinking about), here's what you should be considering:

Multi-use proteins
Chances are, you need to reduce the amount of protein you're eating. A serving size of meat is between 3-4 oz. That's the same size as a deck of cards (short and squat) or a checkbook (lean and longer). When's the last time the chicken breast (hamburger, steak, pork chop, salmon filet, etc.) you had for dinner was that size? Be honest...

I just doubled the amount of protein you have without costing you a penny! Split the protein in half and use it twice during the week. And speaking about that...

Cook once, eat twice
So now you have two pieces of chicken breast because you slyly (there's another weird spelling) portioned out your food. Grill both pieces up and have one for dinner and chop up the other for a grilled chicken salad for lunch.

And you told me you didn't have time to make a lunch to bring to work. I wish you weren't such a liar.

Chicken is the easy one to figure out, but you can do it with anything. Sausage for pasta one night and then breakfast burritos the next morning. Hamburgers for dinner one night and then Mapo Doufu for dinner the next. Yum! (They use ground pork, but ground beef is an easy substitution.)

Choose your menu ahead of time
This is the important one. Choose the menu BEFORE you go food shopping. You'll buy what you need and not spend extra money on random items. And since you know you have twice the protein (step 1), plan your menus around using the main ingredient twice.

Choose a menu that incorporates ingredients you already have on hand. Spices are a money suck, but chances are you have some jumble of them already in your pantry. Choose a menu that includes spices you have on hand.

Choose a menu with a cook time you can actually commit to. I get it, not everyone wants to or has the time to prepare a dinner for 1 hour. Most magazines (and yes, there's THAT show on Food Network) have recipes dedicated to quick cooking. Start there.

Eat ethnic
In case you weren't aware, America is sort of well off. All things considered, we're pretty much living high on the hog. Not everyone eats massive amounts of beef, chicken, pork, etc. daily. Take your cue from them.

Mexican: rice and beans. You can't get any cheaper and more delicious.

Chinese: lo mein. Noodles. You probably have a package somewhere in your kitchen now.
Think soup
This is really the biggest dollar stretcher I can think of. You can put a soup together from just about any ingredient and you get a lot of servings out of it. Add a protein for some heft and you've got a great dinner/lunch.