Though its the longest setting on the bread maker. The president wanted me to talk to you about my diet. He said that among all the former gerbils out there I eat the best. (Pres. g.w.Boob used to call some of his surveilance herd gerbils, actually I wonder if quite a few people aren't sharing organs somehow)
Anyway, for now at least a ten pound bag of flour is cheaper than the equivalent number of loaves of bread you can buy, especially if you price it at specialty bread, though for dietary rationing plain sliced bread you buy is better as it is lighter and sliced thinner. I get seven slices out of a one pound loaf of french bread, eating the heels when it is hot and the five other pieces as one piece of toast a day in the morning. Its really chewy as toast and the recipe is just flour, water, salt, sugar and yeast so its the simplest of the breads with no fat until you butter it.
Greens are the cheapest most nutritious veggie around. One one dollar bunch of greens makes for 6 half cup servings of greens, while a one dollar bag of frozen broccoli is four servings if you ration perfectly and three if you aren't a nazi.
Beans beans beans beans beans. And while we are on the subject of beans, and greens, we need to talk about pressure cookers. I have an electric one, it can do two bags of beans or two bunches of greens at once. Greens and Beans need to cook nearly all day but can be done in less than half an hour in a pressure cooker. I cook collards at about five minutes under high pressure and then let the pressure come down naturally, meaning for the last 20 minutes of cooking, I'm using no electricity. With beans its 15-20 minutes at high pressure depending on type (soaked over night) and then coming down naturally to finish cooking.
Beans done this way subtract about a dollar from any recipe that calls for beans, or more, depending on how many beans are called for.
I like to keep a ten pound container full of rice, in case war breaks out. Again I have a rice cooker that can handle different types of rice including brown, which is what I filled my container with this time (at a dollar a pound, though I can remember seeing it cheaper). I have a rice cooker with a timer so in the winter when I walk in the day and don't do much at night, I can set it to have steel cut oats ready for me when I wake up (though the last time I looked at them they were 3.99 a pound though a pound goes a long way and its comparable to box cereal).
Thats the basic stuff, and once its taken care of I add things like chai tea, at $25.99 a pound and curry at $2.29 an ounce, though both will last me two months or more. I mix the chai heavy on the milk, which is whole milk because I mentioned before that if I cut out the fat, which cost the same as the milk without fat, I want to buy other things with fat that cost a lot of money, so I get free fat with my milk and my body needs some.
I eat cheese and crackers after walking if I'm really hungry or boxed cereal if Im not too hungry and both if I'm extremely hungry. I tried ice cream but I discovered I don't really like it better though I do like snickers better so I avoid giving in to that craving.
I add extra tomatoes to my curry, a lot of garlic and onions. It goes good with greens and pickled beets if they are on sale or cheap.
I try to skip things sometimes if my body will let me get away with it, but there are times when I need to eat more than this.
I also add chicken and fish to my diet if I'm not budgeting too tightly. And fruit or tomato juice.
A lot of people have their diets worked out to their budgets and circumstances. This is just one way to do it. Some people learned from their moms, others are adapting some kind of macro biotic/freegan synthysis. Its just whatever works and keeps you stable.
*I forgot breakfast for supper, I don't eat a lot of eggs because its hard to get fresh ones around here, but when I can get a dozen non broken eggs that dont scare me, I make a scrambled omelete with frozen hash browns and some chopped turkey ham and chili garlic sauce, with onions if I have them and green pepper would be nice but they are crazy expensive*
