Strengths - Link Lovin' #1

I don't know how many people are familiar with Strengths Finders 2.0, but knowing my strengths has been indisputably helpful in my life.  So everyone gets their top 5 strengths, one of mine is "Input".  Simply stated, it means I like to collect and share.  In my case, I am usually collecting and sharing information.  So Link Lovin' is my way of sharing with you.     

Noncircular Gears are Mesmerizing:  The titles says it all, but these were really astonishing to watch. 

Veggieworld: Why Eating Greens Won't Save The Planet:This article takes a scientific look at the argument and raises some good points in my opinion.

America the Mood Ring: Social Media graph thing.  Plus! Plus!

New Eco-Friendly Fast Food: While McDonald's is everyone's favorite bad-guy in terms of health and ecology, this seems promising. 

Other Blog(s) of Note:

• Cat Versus Human:  This relatively new web-comic is super funny if you have ever met a cat, and if you are like me you have met lots of cats.  

Sushi - Yum!

So this is a few pics worth sharing from a "Sushi Party" that I had with some friends a while ago at our house.  What many people don't realize is that Sushi is actually the definition for the way the rice is prepared, not the raw fish - that is Sashimi. 

A friend of mine and Huzbun's taught us how to prepare and roll the rice, but it's still takes a while to prepare - so we like to have a "party" to do all the work.  All that to say, I can't take credit for all of these, but they did turn out lovely.      

You can put so many different things in Sushi - that the sky is the limit... these have vegetables and cream cheese.

Peanut bits on the outside... avacado and cucumber on the inside.

These were ultra spicy - I have no idea what the Huzbun did to them. 

Oh and these have caviar sprinkled on top.  I love that addition, I also like how they are arranged. 

Hosting a sushi party is ultra fun, because I love seeing my friends personalities come out in their food.  It also is way cheaper than going out for Sushi.  In terms of overall at-home expense, sushi has a couple upfront costs that are most likely not in a standard American pantry.  Bamboo rollers, Seaweed sheets (Nori), and short grain rice.  However, none of these are exactly expensive.  In terms of additions - Ahi Tuna, and Sashimi Grade Salmon are not cheap...however there are many good additions that fit many budgets - such as imitation crab, cream cheese, cucumber, carrots, and avacado.  Depending on what additions you add or subtract you can eat sushi on many different types of diets .   

One downside of a the Sushi Party approach is you may have more Sushi than you can eat.  We always seem too.  Of course, if this is the biggest downside... it isn't much of one.   

Naan Trial #1

After having some mild success with other bread making ventures, I got the not-so-crazy idea that I could probably make Naan too.  Do you know what I am taking about?  The doughy flaky bread that tastes fluffy and delicious.  Best served warm.  The only place I've had this before is at Indian and Nepalese restaurants, or one time in Jamaica while visiting an Indian family.  I'm guessing it's available at grocery stores somewhere, but part of the enjoyment is eating it warm and fresh.   

Too come up with "how to make naan", I watched a half-dozen or so videos and read a few recipes.  It's been stated on here several times that I am not much of a recipe follower, however for something new I often read many recipes before deciding on one, or in this case using a combination of techniques and ingredients.    

Naan requires yeast - these packets are great if you are a not a regular yeast consumer and end up costing about $0.45 each.  Otherwise one teaspoon of yeast is about the same, and depending on how you purchase it, it can be less than $.05 for a teaspoon of yeast.

Sprinkle the yeast into a cup of warm water.  Temperature words like warm can be quite scary, but key here is not to over-think.   Just get warm water right out of the facet... warmer than for lemonade... cooler than for dishes.  Another helpful thing you can do is put some water in the dish - microwave for 1 minute... dump that water out.  This will keep your dish warm, and will be less likely "shock" the yeast, and more likely to incubate the yeast.   So - after a minute in your warm dish - your yeasty water should look like the photo above.

Sweeteners and Creamer.  Similar to coffee you need to add something to sweeten and cream your yeasty mixture.  In my case I used about 1 tbs sugar, and 1/2 cup of soymilk.   Other for sweetener include:  honey, sugar in the raw, and maybe artificial sweeteners.  Other options for cream include:  any other milk, or yogurt. 

After that's all mixed start throwing in your flour (and a sprinkle of salt).  Add enough that it all stays together in one ball, but remains pretty sticky.

This is still "too" sticky, but getting close

When the dough get to the correct consistency - start to knead it around.  Do this for about 6-8 minutes.  

Have fun with this step, and beat out some aggression in the process.  Also, you can set a timer for the 6-8 minutes if you must - but just beat it around until it feels pretty consistent.  Adding a couple tablespoons of oil here could really be useful but I (whoops!) did not do that.  

Once your dough glob, as we'll call it, is all kneaded up - let it rest while covered for a bit.  (20mins to 1 hour)

Ba boom!  - It's magically huge.  

Okay, smack that thing back into shape (umm - I mean pat it down), and knead it around a bit.  Then make 4 - 6 mini dough globs.  

  I did five, but next time I would do more. 

Ba -boom! They are big again.  

If you haven't caught on - it helps when you say Ba-Boom!

Now flatten these out into Naan shape (i.e. flat and round).  There are many techniques to do this, but I found a rolling pin to be pretty successful.  This could also be read as I found "pretending I was a pizza twirler" pretty unsuccessful. 

Once you get them into the desired shape - Bake them in the oven @475 degrees F for about  5- 10 minutes.  Watch them closely and flip them about half way through point on the baking sheet. 

Here's my semi-circular finished Naan.

Here's how I ate it.

Naan re-cap:  Don't forget the oil - however, it will not ruin the Naan, just make things more difficult for you.  Naan is uber cheap.  The yeast is the most expensive aspect - but if you buy it in larger quantities - less so.  

Cost of Naan

3 cups flour $0.30

1 pkg yeast (.25 ounce) $0.45
1 teaspoon salt $0.01
Olive oil  $0.14
Water $0.01
Sugar $0.02
Soymilk $0.15
 
Total $1.07

In terms of health - Naan doesn't exactly get a gold star.  It's high in calories, low in nutrients.  It's filling and delicious though - right?!  Also, because you made it yourself - it's preservative free and sodium low.  I also used organic - unbleached flour - which I think makes it tastes better and improves the health of it just a bit. 

Kirkland Gallery Blogger Event

A group of Minnesota bloggers was welcomed to a event at the recently opened Kirkland Gallery in downtown Minneapolis, MN.  Liz @ The Kitchen Pantry Scientist did a wonderful job of coordinating food.  We had sushi and spring rolls from Wholefoods as well as wine from Byerly's.  It's worthwhile to note that the Sashimi used in the sushi came from sustainable sources.  Liz talks more about that here on her blog.  I thought the spring rolls were divine, and loved the added touch of mixing in raspberries, which I have yet to see elsewhere - but will have to try myself.  

Not being an astute art critic these days, I was happy to be given a tour (along with everyone else) by James, the gallery owner.

The artist were really diverse and made use of various mediums and styles.

These horses really grabbed your attention... it was neat how they were made too.  A mixture of concrete and steal bits.  They are capable of withstanding the elements when placed outside. 

This piece was made to resemble a Rubik's Cube, which is perfect for the nerdy side of me.  And by side - I mean a large portion of me.   

Lenore @ Mom Culture, also put together a kids art "side show."  What a cute idea!

Overall, this was a super delicious, and fun event.  I feel pretty lucky to have met so many neat people via blogging, and this time was certainly included. Some really good conversations with fellow bloggers and the gallery owner too.   

An Extra Treat

At the end of the event there was plenty of leftover sushi, and no one was claiming it.  

So I took some over to where my Huzbun was hanging out with his friends, and boy was it appreciated.  I might of had a few more too.

Re-Focusing

Since, I don't feel like eating for less than $5/day for the rest of my life, but I do want to blog for almost the rest of my life - I've decided to change the focus of this blog up a bit.

The title of this blog is Foodalyst.  It's what you get when you cross a geek and a foodie, besides the beginning of a cheesy joke.  It will be about all the things I love food-wise (like tomatoes - um do you like my new header?) with hopefully a bit of analytical slant to it.  I am pretty analytical by nature, so this should come rather easily.  More importantly I want to continue to talk about affordability and health aspects or the things that affect "real world day-to-day" meal preparers.  Now, hopefully the words "day-to-day" didn't scare you off to much (I admit - I shuddered a bit), there is nothing to fear -because operating within a budget doesn't have to be boring! Eating healthy doesn't have to be bland! All this can be fun and interesting - and more importantly creative.  In fact - I would say creativity is necessary. 

Also, the tagline of this blog is "analyzing food and life".  Food is a pretty big part of our life, so I think it's all related in that sense.  However, this sort of gives me the leverage to talk about whatever else I fancy on here.  I can't provide a discrete list, but I can guarantee it will include:  blabbing about my new healthy hobby: running, perhaps a couple-non-food DIY projects,  and maybe (but hopefully not too much) talking about my crazy cats.

If this sounds like the kind of thing that interests you.  Stick around, or visit me repeatedly now at www.foodalyst.com - (should still be reachable by fivedollarfoodblog.blogspot.com for the time being).   Also, if you want more, you can follow me on twitter (@rubyleigh).

Day 90 - The End

or is this just the beginning?


So. In Conclusion we made it.  Sort of - we had a few cheats.  However, the good news is that I estimate we spent $468 less than we normally would in the last 90 days.  That figure includes all "allowed" eating out, and the "cheats".  If you go with the fixed $5/day value than the savings sounds much more dramatic - but not a full picture.   

What did we enjoy? or not enjoy. 

We enjoyed eating at home more.  Of course we enjoyed this before as well, but it really wasn't a habit.  I think this challenge converted us.  I think we will still be the types of people that eat out twice a week er so, but that is still and improvement.  

I enjoyed making coffee at home, but I certainly prefer it with "must be bad for you" liquid creamer, and "must be bad for you" liquid creamer was not always an option. However, even with "must be bad for you" liquid creamer... it's still much cheaper than the Caribou Coffee sold at my work for $1.75/cup. 

We missed steak - sorry can't help but say that.  However, we learned how to cook whole chicken and chicken broth.  Two things I would do in the future.

Enjoyed getting more comfortable in the baking arena - with things such as bread, tortillas and pizza dough. 

I enjoyed blogging (and hope to continue).  However, I am happy to longer feel obligated to report nearly everything that goes into my mouth.  That has been tiresome at times.

Will we continue to eat on less than $5/ day?


Short answer - No. However, I think we will be eating for less each day than we were, as we really enjoyed eating many facets of the whole eating on the cheap program.  Our previous cost for food was about $20/day (or $10/person) - This was largely due to eating out frequently, some food waste, and a fair amount of pre-packaged easy to prepare food.  I perceive that our cost will go up the $5/day, as social lifestyle makes it difficult to avoid eating out (and I'm not saying that isn't fun), and few other factors that may make for blog posts of their own. 

What were the hardships? 

Aww... not really - as I've already talked about.  However, there was a pretty unique circumstance:

Our roommate was most definitely eating our food.  While the effects on us cost wise during the challenge are hard to quantify.  I am pretty sure my coffee-mate creamer would have lasted longer, along with Huzbun's cereal... and I do wish those skinny cow ice cream treats (purchased pre-90 days) hadn't decided vaporize.  Many other food-related items were taken as well.  Worth mentioning, one batch of chicken broth was sabotaged, a pan was broken (one that was luckily under warranty), and a kitchen scale was melted (yes-melted).  In case you are interested, we no longer live with this person, which is an even longer story that doesn't presently relate to the theme of this blog.

Will I continue to blog?

Yes - I have had so much fun blogging my way through this experience, and have met a bunch of people as result - both virtually and IRL.  Details to follow, but I hope to continue this using this space to talk about economic factors and food, (hopefully) delicious recipes, new challenges,  and maybe boring you with some more running tales!  Most of all I hope to keep learning - as this experience has connected me to so many intriguing places in the blogosphere.

Day 89 - How "Challenging" is this really?

Today (or Day 89) brings us to the almost end of our challenge... and perhaps we are just at the point where $5/day eating has become "natural".  I naturally made my coffee in the morning, as opposed to purchasing it somewhere.  I naturally thawed some meat in the morning... so I wouldn't be panicked when I came home from work and was mad starved as well desperate to resort to restaurants.  The food we ate today wasn't incredibly interesting, but it was good.

My Huzbun had a bowl of cereal, I had a breakfast bar.  I ate Lean Cuisine for lunch... not sure what Huzbun had.  Then we grilled chicken and steamed vegetables for dinner.

I hope to do a longer piece on what we learned, what we liked and what we didn't like in the future... but I will keep myself to one observation for today.  Although we have labeled this a "challenge" and at times it has been challenging, days like today make it feel pretty easy.  It's really not hard for me to make coffee at home, it doesn't take that long, it generally tastes as good and sometimes better as coffee from a shop.  I thought we would have to give-up more meat, and while steak was not really in the budget - we seemed to eat plenty of meat. 

Between all the free BBQ food and food sharing we still ate pretty well.  Not to mention Huzbun's business food, roommate taking us out for dinner food, and people being just generous.  I hope that none of this generosity was brought on by our self-imposed situation (as we can in fact afford food)... and I do hope to pay it forward in the *near* future.

Talking about "paying it forward" brings me to some of the key reasons that I did this "challenge" in the first place.

1) Needs.  American society consumes much more than we need to.  We don't need coffee creamer.  We don't need steak, and dare I say it we don't need Taco Bell.  Eating on $5 / day has caused us to think about our consumption more and what we really need.  Also, not just our consumption of food.   

2) Money.  Probably a fairly obvious one, but to explore it further... money is a very transferable form of value.  For example, if I give you five dollars it will be worth five dollars to you.  However, if I give you a beanie baby (which I paid approx. $5 for) it could be worth any range of values to you.  That means that the $2 I save making coffee at home, the $30 I save by choosing to eat dinner at home... the few hundred dollars I've save the last couple months... as well as countless other examples could  translate directly into the scholarship fund at the college I work at or starving children in Haiti, not to mention many other worthwhile causes.  While I know this is not a perfect explanation, it's nearly impossible for me to escape the reality that money is like a closed loop system in which I am often choosing between Starbucks coffee or the welfare of others (or myself for that matter).  

3) Proving.  I think I wanted to prove that food was enjoyable - even on the cheap.  So many food blogs and cooking shows (all of which I am a major fan) choose to improve food only by upping cost, when much food can be improved by doing the exact opposite.  (Such as homemade bread, and pizza dough)  Perhaps I proved this.  I would also add here that there are ways to dress up food without spending too much extra (albeit more).  A little secret here: I hope to do more of this in the future (challenge or not)
  
Thoughts - what's difficult about eating cheap?  what's easy?  What makes eating affordable a good idea? (or is it?)