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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 2012)
Food Best Buy Meals A healthy shopping guide for low-income households, “Good Food on a Tight Budget,” has been written by The Environmental Working Group, a not-for- profit organization that marshals the power of information to protect human health and the environment. The book was done in collaboration with Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters, an organization that teaches families at risk of hunger how to get more food for their money and better nourishment from those foods. The guide contains lists of “best buys” that pack the most nutrition for the lowest cost in each food group. These include bananas, watermelons, broccoli, raisins, romaine lettuce, barley, tuna, lentils/beans, eggs, turkey and cottage cheese. Price was the primary concern for the group’s choices but experts then screened out foods that contain a lot of chemicals, like pesticides, or whose production cre- ates greenhouse gases. Your food choice is one of the most powerful choices that you make every day that affects your environment. Some of the guide's top tips include buying grains in bulk, cooking dried beans to save money, mixing your own cooking sprays and substituting yogurt for cream in recipes. Researchers based the weekly plan on the gov- ernment's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program budget of $5 to $6 a day. Healthy food is affordable, but it's definitely a different style of eating, It's a back-to-basics style of eating. There's not a lot of room for extras. It's chal- lenging W Fresh Salad Leafy Greens mixed greens romaine lettuce spinach a mix of what you have on hand Select veggies broccoli carrots red cabbage snow peas Tasty Toppings sliced almonds and tangerine slices avocado and cooked red beans leftover chicken, sliced resh cranberries and toasted sun- flower seeds diced pear and walnuts cooked garbanzo beans and homemade whole-wheat crou- tons— cut up and toast stale bread Preparation: 1. Rinse, drain and chop 4 cups of leafy greens. Put in a bowl. 2. Rinse and chop ½ cup of each of the vegetables and add to the bowl. 3. Add ½ cup salad dressing (recipe below). 4. Finish with ½ cup of the optional tasty toppings. SALAD DRESSING: Oil olive sunflower whatever you have Olive oil mixed with a low cost oil to add lots of flavor for little money. Citrus or vinegar lemon, lime or orange juice or mix 1 tsp Dijon mustard and vinegar Seasoning salt, pepper, garlic, fresh or dry herbs: parsley, rosemary, thyme, etc. Preparation: 1. Mix 2 parts oil with 1 part citrus or your choice of vine- gar. 2 servings is 5 Tbsp oil plus 2 ½ Tbsp of vinegar. 2. Flavor with your choice of seasonings, to taste. Page 8 The Portland Skanner September 19, 2012
