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I have suddenly and rather unexpectedly found myself unemployed.
No, no pity, please. I don't mind. Really. It's a blessing in disguise. But for one thing.
Unemployment is hard for a foodie like moi. It means I have to cut down on the fine dining, and spend less money than I'd like on quality ingredients and fine wines and fancy cheeses. No dinner parties. Fewer organic fruits and veggies.
The obvious thing to do would be to stock up on ramen noodles. But I really kinda hate ramen noodles. Especially in large quantities. Plain old pasta is almost as cheap, but that's a lot of empty carbs for almost no nutritional value. (Then again, I am saddled with an un-cancellable gym membership and I'm about to have a lot of free time. Maybe I should just carb load and start training for a marathon. Yeah, right.) The dollar store in Suburban Station has a whole frozen foods section, but very rarely is there anything both delicious and nutritious in the freezers there. Most fast food restaurants have dollar menus, but still, same concerns as the frozen food. And the healthier options at fast food restaurants tend to cost a lot more than the deep-fried fatty ones.
I'm trying not to make too many sacrifices. I'm trying not to stop going to restaurants entirely. But when I do go out to eat, I try to order items that I can't finish at once. That way, I can take home what I don't eat and get two meals for the price of one. (Note to readers: For whatever reason, Monk's will NOT let you take your leftover mussels home, no matter how many you've got left.) When I know I'm going to be going out for dinner, I try not to buy lunch. And I almost never buy breakfast anymore. I've also gotten really good at scoping out happy hours and food specials. McCormick & Schmick's has a $1.95 bar menu. McGillin's has two tacos for a buck on Wednesday night if you can stand the karaoke. (I can). Mad Mex in University City offers half-price on selected menu items after 11 PM. Sure, it's all bar food, but it's much, much more satisfying than ramen.
When I go grocery shopping, I find that I'm buying condensed soup rather than the ready-to-eat variety, because I can get more soup out of each can that way. Off brands over name brands whenever I can stand them. Regular wheat bread instead of some sort of artisan loaf. Dried herbs whenever I can get away with using them instead of the fresh kind. I buy dinner ingredients and cook large quantities of foods so that I have leftovers to eat all week. Sometimes, I even make enough that I can freeze a few servings, as my own TV dinners, and eat them a few weeks later, when I get tired of eating the same thing every night for a week.
Oh, and most importantly? I will not turn down a free meal. So if any of you readers out there feel like taking a down-on-her-luck blog editor out for a quick meal, odds are, she won't say no.
Image via Uncle Harry's General Store.
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One thing I might suggest is that you don't cut out your meals (like breakfast and lunch) but actually divide your meals into more meals.
Eating only one mean a day can trigger the body's starvation reflex. As a result, it will try to store more glyogen as fat thinking the "food supply" is limited. This means you get less bang for each calorie buck you eat.
It you eat a lot of little meals (a slice of toast with PB for breakfast, maybe a yogurt midmorning, a banana or other fresh fruit late morning, a glass of skim milk midafternoon, etc, etc) your body will believe there is a constant food supply. As a result your body will use each calorie more effectively for energy instead trying store fat. Some weightlifters and athletes will eat 6-10 mini-meals a day for just this reason.
Thus you won't be as hungry when you do go out to eat and you can maybe get three nights out of those leftovers instead of two!
If you are in the neigborhood, stop in. We will be glad to feed you.
The first rule of ramen is to ditch the flavor packet. If you've got homemade stock, use that instead. Can't speak to college inn or any of that stuff, but really, making stock is as easy as boiling water with a bunch of picked clean bones in it. Or buy chicken feet from Reading Market.
Anyway, boil stock instead of water, toss in some garlic, raw or sauteed, and whatever herbs you may have on hand. You can always finish it off by adding meat if you've got some or dropping in an egg when it's nearly done.
I am in a similar predicament. I also eat ramen, sans flavor packet. However, I find what works best for me is to mix some of my favorite soups with some organic pasta, going relatively light on the pasta and the portions and then eating four or five small meals a day. This is so boring it makes my brain cry, but it keeps my metabolism going just enough to type up comments and articles on Phillyist!