Interesting to see the cereal selection, in past focus groups with low-income kids in New Haven, I found that many eat cereal almost exclusively (plus candy and soda). The teenagers I have spoken to had kitchens, but did not want to take (or did not have) the time to cook anything (although many helped their parents to prepare large meals shared with extended family over the weekend and knew how to cook). The time factor seems to be the biggest change for me as well. I had been eating out (subway, burrito,etc) almost daily over the last few weeks as I have gotten busier with school and work. If I did not have the money to do that, I may have switched to cereal instead of cooking.

I am not living in a dorm, so I am well set up with a kitchen, pots and pans and tupperware, which makes preparing real food possible. However, if I were moving around a lot and living with other people, I would not have these kitchen supplies.

I also agree that the social function of food and the culture of "eating out" is a major social problem during the challenge. I skipped a party tonight because I did not want to be around the food. I am not sure that this is as much of a day-to-day problem in general as it is for the challenge. If everyone I knew was living on a food stamp budget, our social interactions would not be set up in the same way. What this does highlight is the enforcement of class segregation through the use of consumer- or food-based extracurricular activities in organizations that have a chance at fostering cross-class relationships, such as schools. If I am friends with people at school and they all go out to eat together on the weekend and I don't have money to eat out, I'm not going to get to be friends with them outside of school.

Anyhow, today I had:
Breakfast: 3 eggs
Lunch: leftover rice, yellow split peas and spinach
Snack: Apple (small halloween candy from friend)
Dinner: 1/2 sweet potato and 1 carrot sauteed, black beans, brown rice
Snack: Corn tortilla and black beans



I noticed that I have been adding more salt than usual to the things I am cooking. I can't decide whether this is because I am not eating the fake meat products and canned beans, or because I am making up for lack of herbs and vegetables by adding salt.