This is the time of the year connected with joy, celebration and feasting. Yet for many of the less fortunate, it can be a time of sadness, hardship and despair. Enjoying delicious, handcrafted meals is often associated with increased costs; costs many would deem an unaffordable luxury. Indeed, socioeconomic level is inversely correlated with a healthy diet and subsequently good health. Those with the least suffer the worst diets and a greater proportion of illness. But it need not be so. With some ingenuity, planning and a little effort, great food can be had on a budget. Great food the Grassroots Gourmet ™ way, not only great tasting but great for you!

Impossible, you say? Well, as the proof would literally be in the pudding we have undertaken a seven day food stamp challenge. Checking the food stamp allotment, now known as the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) for a household of two we come to a figure of $367.00 maximum per month in 2012[i]. Dividing by four weeks, we arrive at $91.75 for two people for one week.

To get started, the basic game plan is to have a basic game plan. Whether it is the operating room or the kitchen, you need a plan-a little something we call mise en place, from the French and translating roughly as “everything in its place.” Then shop around. While the mega chains may have the staples at the best prices, great bargains on fresh, wholesome foods can often be found at Farmer’s markets, produce stands or specialty shops. Finally, execute the plan. As you’ll see as we walk through the example prepping the food, the order of the meals flows logically from the use of items, so next to nothing is wasted. This is what transpires in professional kitchens, and it should in yours as well.

·Make a Plan: From the menu that follows you can see that we built a lot of the week’s food around several items. For example, the chicken is broken down on day one. The breast is prepared and served for dinner. The legs and thighs are used creatively later in the week. By utilizing different spices and flavor profiles we can create interesting and tasty meals with contrasting textures and tastes from limited stock. The carcass of the chicken is used to create four quarts of stock for use throughout the week. Homemade stock is not only significantly cheaper, but much healthier for you containing no additional sodium or other preservatives or additives. Some of the tastiest meat on the chicken is found on the carcass. Exploiting this fact, the chicken meat recovered after the carcass has been used to make stock is added to the red beans and rice to give it some additional zing.

·Shop Around: The bulk of the items were obtained at the local grocery store. However, substantial deals were found at the local produce stand. Another advantage was getting fresh local vine ripened tomatoes. There was also a great deal on some just picked green beans. Finishing up at the local fishmonger’s shop, there were some even greater values. There were some small count fresh gulf shrimp that were on sale. Since these were to be used in shrimp cakes and ravioli stuffing, this is one time when size didn’t matter. Perhaps the bargain of the week was the grouper cheeks. Grouper is one of my favorite fishes and incredibly delectable. However, the fillets were also $17 a pound. But who needs a filet for some blackened grouper fish tacos? Grouper cheeks, which pack all the flavor and then some, were $5.99 a pound.

·Execute: By doing some smart and comparative shopping, we got some great quality items and stayed within budget. We had a budget of $91.75 for two people for the week and we came in at $91.00. Bringing all the items home, it is time to execute the plan. We start that tomorrow. Stay tuned all week long for an exciting, instructional and most importantly incredibly delicious week of food – all on the SNAP budget.

Ready to go!

The Tab; within budget!