What a diet of a family of four could look like.

I was recently challenged to shop for myself on food stamps which I successfully accomplished. Plus I am testing out LinkedIn's Newsletter feature as I write this. This got me thinking if I had to feed a family of four on food stamps, a budget of about $680 per month, how would I go about it? Here is how I would approach it. Nearly all my shopping would occur at either Sam's Club, Walmart or Costco. Packaged and ultra-processed food is costly, so most of it has been removed from the budget. Instead, I would focus on minimally processed food for snacks and meals. To make meal cooking easy, I have focused on pre-sliced veggies for the majority of meals. Weekly meal prepping would include Baking potatoes, boiling rice and eggs. Here's a tip - boiled rice freezes extremely well. All you have to do to reheat is take it out of the freezer, place it on a pan with a pat of butter, and cook for a few minutes and then serve with veggies and protein.

Costco sells organic sliced 5.5lbs of veggies for under $10.00! Sliced veggies are great to reduce meal cooking time. I love individually wrapped protein because they are easy; just take it out of the freezer, defrost in the fridge, and when ready to cook, use a drop of olive oil, lemon pepper seasoning, and cook at 400 for about 10 minutes. Done.

After going through this exercise, there is an opportunity to reimagine what food pantries should look like for food-insecure households. I would love to see a movement moving away from ultra-processed food to minimally processed food. Move families away from buying orange juice to eating oranges. It's less expensive and better for the body. Move to canned proteins like salmon, tuna, beans, lentils, chickpeas. Move to minimally processed grains like rice and oatmeal. Move to frozen fruits and veggies. Arm families with nuts including walnuts, almonds, pecans, and peanuts.

Breakfast?would be a rotation of baked oatmeal or pancakes.

Baked Oatmeal Recipe (layer a small dish with coconut oil, then frozen berries, 1/2 cup oatmeal, and in a separate bowl, whisk 1/2 cup almond milk with 1 tsp vanilla and 1 egg). Pour mixture over oatmeal and frozen fruit and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. Done!

Lunches?would be a rotation of turkey or almond butter sandwiches with fresh fruit, an organic juice box, hummus, veggies, and raisins.

Dinners?would consist of many rice bowls made up of organic veggies, protein (rotation of beans, chicken, and fish), and rice, of course!

Curried Chickpeas over Rice Recipe: Cook two cups of rice and put to the side. heat up olive oil and toss in some garlic, one full chopped onion, a can of diced tomatoes, curry, salt, pepper, and sautee for 5 minutes. Then dump in 1 can of full-fat coconut milk, spinach, and 2 cans of rinsed chickpeas. Simmer for 10 minutes and serve over rice. Easy and so good!

Snacks?would be hardboiled eggs (2 per person per day plus one for baked oatmeal), lots of fresh fruit including apples, oranges, and bananas, carrots and hummus, baked potatoes with sour cream, roasted almonds, popcorn, toast with almond butter, peanut butter, or Nutella with organic jam and organic hot cocoa.

We would make fun desserts using bulk pancake mix, tossing in frozen berries, and topping with Nutella and non-dairy whipped cream. And of course two special nights a month of brownies!

Grocery list

Produce

11 lbs of organic frozen vegetables

6lbs of frozen organic blueberries

3lbs of frozen carrots and peas

4lbs frozen strawberries

5lbs of sweet potatoes

18lbs of naval oranges

8lbs of apples

15lbs of Russet Potatoes

4lbs of spinach

2lbs of Coleslaw mix

27lbs of bananas

10lbs of carrots

6lbs of onions

Three lemons

Six avocados

Four heads of lettuce

Refrigerated Foods

Four sticks of butter

Non-dairy Whipped Cream

Non-dairy Coffee Creamer

Sour Cream (1.2 lbs!)

Chopped Garlic

Hummus (48 servings)

Protein

176 ounces of turkey breast (58 servings!)

18.5 lbs of frozen chicken breast (about 6o servings)

12 cans of black beans

30 dozen eggs

Six cans of salmon (salmon patties over salad mix)

12 servings of frozen cod

2 lbs of lentils

Eight cans of chickpeas

Beverages

40 count organic juice boxes

60 organic tea bags

Eight half gallons of almond milk

Instant Coffee (210 cups, better for the environment!)

Organic hot cocoa (38 ounces)

Pantry

10lbs of plain oatmeal (also serves as bread crumbs)

10lbs of pancake mix

local honey

20lbs of rice

32 ounces organic chicken stock

6 15 ounce cans of diced tomatoes

8lbs of organic raisins

42 ounces almond butter from Costco

2 28 ounce containers of natural Peanut Butter

1lb of organic blueberry jam (NO CORN SYRUP!)

4.5lbs of organic chocolate chips

Nutella (big twin back!)

Seeded Bread (6 loaves)

2.5 lbs of Roasted Almonds

Microwave popcorn (88 bags)

Worchester sauce (reduced sodium)

2lbs Pure Maple Syrup

Organic lemon pepper seasoning

Three cans of coconut milk

Mayo (x large size!)

Curry

51 ounces of Organic Olive Oil

14 ounces of Organic Coconut Oil

2 ounces Organic Vanilla Extract

Brownie Mix (x 2 organic)

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