Hi everybody! I know my posts have been sporadic, but I'm trying to get back into the swing of things!
Back in April I started volunteering at a church thrift store that also has a free lunch program and a small food pantry. It has been wonderful! Every couple of weeks, my youngest two kids and I do a shift putting together brown bag lunches that the store gives out to anyone, no questions asked. We get a lunch too, which is super helpful. It also gives us a chance to see what is coming through the thrift store that day, and if we find something we want or need, we get a volunteer discount. We can also take things from the food pantry. They are on a list for Gordon Food Service and sporadically get big bags of lettuce or other vegetables that the staff break down into smaller quantities and put into a reach in cooler where people can help themselves, no questions asked. So we have been eating a lot of salads, since she encourages everybody to especially take the lettuce as it's so perishable. At first I felt weird taking things from the food pantry part, but since volunteering, I have seen how much spoiled food gets thrown away if it isn't taken, so feel better about it. There are a couple of other organizations in town where people can go for help too, but they have a few more hoops to jump through. Of course, they are also able to have consistency that the thrift store can't since they only give out what they get, no garuntees. Like one week she got these big packages of frozen mac and cheese from GFS. Another week it might be hot dogs, you just never know. And the shelf stable items are all donated, so it is just come and see.
So that is where I start. I pick up a few things from the food pantry when we work there, then build my shopping list around what I bring home. This weekend I brought home a loaf of bread, hot dog buns (both day old) a can of pork and beans, green beans, corn, a jar of spaghetti sauce and peanut butter, a zucchini, some limes and a bag of celery. Right away what jumped out at me was some kind of pasta dish, so on my shopping list went pasta, onion and sprinkle cheese. The other idea I had was to make a hot dog and beans dinner, so put hot dogs on the list too.
For the pasta meal, I diced up the zucchini and onion and sauteed. Then I added the spaghetti sauce and cooked down a little bit and served it over pasta. The hot dog buns were a little stale, so I split them open and buttered them, then sprinkled with garlic and parsley and baked. They made nice garlic bread to along with the pasta.
Since the hotdog buns were turned into garlic bread, I thought I would use "poor man's buns" aka sliced bread haha, for the hot dog dinner. But then when we opened the pork and beans, we didn't actually like the sauce that the beans were canned in, so plan B. I drained and rinsed the beans and then made my own sauce with ketchup, vinegar and brown sugar. Its the same sauce I use for sloppy joes.
The limes and corn went into a more budget friendly version of this recipe for Cilantro Lime Chicken & Rice and slices of lime went into glasses of water for what the kids called "spa water" haha.
I also introduced the kids to a snack I had forgotten, celery sticks dipped in peanut butter! I ate this all the time as a kid, but somehow had forgotten how good it was. Some of the kids really liked it, some did not at all. That's ok, more for me!
How are you all getting by? Feel free to share some tips or hints, we can use all the help we can get.
Have a great weekend!
~Sarah
Comments
Post a Comment