po boy meals

PO BOY MEALS
Almost as if I am glorying in your disapproval, there is another subject I have already covered. But, hey, at least I rewrite it every time even if the subject is the same. Look at Steven King, he keeps writing about pretty much the same fears and phobias ( and how many stories were about the angst of writers? ) but we don’t read him for the subject but his excellent character portrayals. And, yes, I did go there. Without a big enough ego to think I’m that good I wouldn’t be giving away a large section of my life for pennies an hour.
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Last night I decided I wanted tacos. But the expense of shredded meat, lettuce, olives, cheese, etc. was not in the budget ( I budget Christmas a year in advance and then unexpected bills pop up through others peoples greed and stupidity- I can’t win for losing ). But I still wanted corn tortillas. I was having a graving, most likely due to a couple of donut/pastry breakfasts that left my body needing whole grain instead of white flour and sugar. I took a couple of soy burgers ( the $1 a pound frozen patties at Wal-Mart that are beef/beef hearts/soy meal ) and after cooking crumpled up into a half can of refried beans and throwing in a dash of salsa I spread like a paste on heated corn tortillas. I ate almost two dozen tacos. I said I was really craving corn tortillas. After all the ingredients I think I spent about $1.25 ( of course, the tortillas were free, your cost would have been a bit over two bucks if they were bought in bulk ). Putting the tortillas between a damp paper towel in the microwave negated the need to steam them or fry them.
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I don’t think using crap meats on a regular basis is that great of an idea. I buy a box of fake hamburgers only about once a year. Sausage is about once a month. Try to use mostly real ingredients. They have enough hormones and pesticides and other nasties as it is. Throw in soy or nitrates or other garbage and long term you are costing more in health than you are saving in money. The soy burgers are a buck a pound, real hamburger $1.75. Not much difference. Just substitute more meat with beans. Or dairy. Or animal fat.
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For breakfasts, you can make a one or two week menu and have plenty of variety just from wheat, corn and oatmeal. Pancakes, waffles, corn muffins, fried corn mush, etc. For lunches, just eat your whole wheat flat bread ( make up a non-sticky dough of just flour and water, roll very thin, place on very hot skillet, flip when brown spots appear. Or just take a moist dough and spread on ceramic and microwave for a few minutes ). You can make up a weeks worth at a time. They are portable, fast, filling. That is two meals where you don’t need meat, just small amounts of dairy or fat. Literally nickel or dime meals.
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Dinner is usually everyone’s big meal of the day. I prefer a meat and potato dinner but lately as a result of all of Al Gore’s trips by jet to preach global warming the droughts have cut into grain harvests, and from Bush and his ethanol program where Mexican peasants pay twice to three times as much for their daily staples so California SUV drivers can add 10% alcohol to their gasoline and pretend they are Green, I can’t afford as much meat. So instead of a big healthy slab of dead animal flesh on my plate I am forced to eat one quarter or at most a half of pound of meat instead of a real portion. Instead of trying to satisfy my protein need with a small pathetic lump of flesh that wouldn’t fill up a house cat after a stomach stapling, usually I just cut it up and throw it in with a starch to stretch it out. Bastards. Under a free market without agricultural controls that would make a Farm Czar envious of our Five Year Plans our food supple would be much cheaper and I could eat my fill. But, nooooo. Just like the 70’s when inflation cut into my meat consumption and my teenage growth spurt was cruelly cut short, today the asinine policies of our Fearless Leaders are making life a lot tougher.
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You don’t even need meat every night. Talk to the butcher and see how cheap they will sell you chunks of fat. Freeze, take as needed, use to fry up potatoes and what not. Or fry up with butter. As cheese reaches four bucks a pound, butter is still staying at two. Buy as much as possible and freeze. Cut back on frying too much during warm weather and increase during cold. It will be cheaper than heating the house to seventy degrees. Let your body burn fat to heat itself ( fat people dying of a lifetime diet of McDonald’s please disregard this advice as my estate, as vast as it is, can’t absorb the loss of a lawsuit ). Other nights, instead of meat just combine beans and whole grains for your protein. You can easily keep your meat bill under five bucks a week per head.
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Bunny food can be sprouts and small scale potted gardening for city dwellers. Here is just a general strategy to eat healthy cheaply. Again, dinner can be quite a variety out of just a few staples. It does help sticking to a weekly menu, both for stocking the ingredients and cooking ahead. Pasta and rice, potatoes and corn. Meat, beans, fat and dairy. Try noodles with cheese. Noodles with hamburger. Fried noodles. Rice and chicken. Rice and beans. Rice and hamburger. Fried rice. Potatoes with hamburger. Potatoes with sausage. Potatoes fried up in beef fat. Mashed potatoes with hamburger. Corn bread and beans. Fried corn bread with hamburger. Corn tortillas and refried beans. Right there is two weeks of dinner ( of course, mix up meals so the starch varies every night ). I didn’t even try hard, few ethnic picks, little vegetarian. You could probably make a months meal just with the above picks. You can handle quite a bit of inflation in your food budget just from this advice. Yes, yes. You are welcome.
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As much as I rag on Yuppie Survivalists, I won’t deny that Survival Blog is useful on a regular basis. They just had a short article on bewaring pesticide use in cargo containers. To all of you sending info and ideas, thank you. Even if I don’t use it or take forever with it, don’t take that the wrong way. I still love you.
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