Stretching Comfort

Participation in the Food Blogger Challenge has not only taught me about how hunger effects all of us on different levels, it's also taught me about my family and given me a new appreciation for the meals that my mom prepared. Growing up, our family was often at risk of hunger because my father's job as a construction worker was, as my Mom would say, a "feast or famine" line of work. According to the Capital Area Food Bank, statistics show us that one out of every two people will fall on hard times at least once in their lifetime and will take advantage of SNAP, even if it's just to get them through an emergency. Luckily for us, my Mom was a genius when it came to making our food stretch and keeping us all fed. One of the things that she relied on to feed both our family and friends was the casserole. Whether it was for a birth, a death, a sickness, a potluck or simply a meal at home, comfort would come in the shape of a 13x9 pyrex casserole dish. It usually consisted of a starch (rice-potato-pasta), a protein, and some leftover or canned veggies, all bound together with a can of "cream-of-something" soup and baked for 20-30 minutes so all the flavors could meld.

These days I find that if I can avoid that canned cream-of-whatever, I will. But I also believe that casseroles can still be made thriftily, healthy, tasty and stretch into the next day's lunch (even better after the flavors sit in the fridge overnight). Many clients of the food bank get cans of veggies, soup, rice and beans. Working with a "mystery pantry box" each week could seem daunting. Thanks to the Capital Area Food Bank, there are nutritionists that offer classes, recipes and tips to make a food basket go as far as it can. We also have the opportunity to give back and that makes all of the difference in the world to someone who is hungry. So whether your on a budget, feeding a large family or find yourself needing assistance from the state, casseroles are still a great "go-to" dish for stretching comfort. I'm jus' sayin'!



When I was a kid I would love it when my Mom made Taco Casserole. I mean, what kids do you know that will turn their nose up to tacos? (This dish costs approximately $8.00 to make and ended up making 13 servings.)

Taco Casserole
1 lb ground turkey
1 diced onion
2 cans of corn
1 can of diced tomatoes (drained)
1 can of black beans (drained)
2 packets of taco seasoning mix
2 boxes of jiffy cornbread mix
1/2 cup of grated cheese. (optional)
Brown turkey meat in a skillet until fully cooked. Drain. Add the onion, corn, tomatoes, black beans and taco seasoning to the skillet. Let simmer 10-15 minutes. While meat mixture is simmering, make the cornbread batter per the instructions on the package. Preheat oven to 350º. Pour meat mixture into a 13x 9 inch casserole dish. Spoon the cornbread batter over the top of the meat mixture. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top (optional). Bake for 25-40 minutes or until cornbread is golden on top.

Another go-to casserole that is inexpensive (about $7.50 to make) and makes good next day lunches is the good old Hash Brown Potato Casserole.

Hash Brown Potato Casserole
1 bag of frozen hash browns
3 oz. cream cheese
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup of grated cheddar cheese
1/2 c. of onions
1 can cream of any soup.
dash of pepper.
*optional* To make a healthy protein-based casserole, stir in one of the following: 1 cup of cooked lean meat (such as chicken or pork tenderloin), 1 cup of broccoli floweretes, 1 cup of cooked shelled edamame or 1 can of diced tomatoes.
Set oven to 375º.
Grease a 13x9 in. casserole dish
Cook onions until tender, not brown.
Stir in cream cheese, 1/2 cup of the grated cheese and soup. Mix with the potatoes. At this point you could add your optional ingredients.
Pour into prepared casserole dish. Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Bake for 5 more minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Here's a little video that might give you a little idea of just one of the tools that the CAFB and the CHOICES programs offer.


Food for Thought
The next time your checking out at the grocery store and you see one of those large "Stamp Out Hunger" bins or pre-packaged bags for the food bank, ask yourself this question - "Is hunger acceptable?" If your answer is "no" then what will you do to help make a difference?

SNAP! Two Great Causes Come Together

What if I gave you $16.00 and told you that you could spend it anyway you see fit? Would you spend it on a nice lunch for yourself? Maybe buy an extra latte and surprise a co-worker? How about a couple extra gallons of gas in your tank? Now, what if I changed that and told you that you could have that $16.00 only after you filled out an 11-page application with all of your personal family information? Oh, and by the way, that $16.00 needs to be used to buy food for that week since the basket you just received from the food pantry may or may not stretch as far as you'd hoped. Sounds crazy, right? Well this is the reality for many families as they try to make ends meet right now. It's a balancing act and unless we’ve walked in the shoes of that person, how can we truly understand what they face?

Last year, I took part in my first food bloggers’ challenge where I got an inside look at my local food bank, the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas. It was through this project that I was able to re-educate myself and truly put to rest the stereotypes that I had held to be true about who the actual face of hunger was, and more importantly, still is. Something I will never get my head wrapped around is how wide-spread hunger is in this "milk & honey" country. Like so many others, it’s my heartfelt desire to see an end to this and I will continue to educate myself and try to make a difference.

Making a difference seems to fall right into place with this next bit of news. I am proud to say that I’m now a member of an amazing new non-profit, the The Austin Food Blogger Alliance (AFBA), which was formed to bring our local food bloggers together and where one of our tenets is to support our community through social, educational and philanthropic outreach events. I have accepted the role of Philanthropy Committee Chair and consider it both a privilege and honor to work closely with local charities in our community.

For the AFBA’s first Philanthropy event, it made perfect sense to return to the CAFB one year later and do an Anniversary Challenge Project. This time we are focussing on the Texas SNAP initiative (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), or more commonly referred to as food stamps. SNAP provides qualified applicants with a minimum of $16 per month and the average family of four receives $306 per month in SNAP benefits.. The only problem with this program is that it's not at all a snap to get. Though changes continue to happen, it seems more and more that clients need to rely on other sources, like the food banks, to help them get through all of the application paper work. Hopefully, in time, this will change along with the growing number of children that leave for school hungry and end up going to bed hungry as well.

Another amazing resource that our CAFB offers is a CHOICES Nutrition Education Program. From after school snack classes with kids to adult education healthy choice classes, the food bank is showing clients that they can take that $16.00 SNAP money and make healthy "stretchable" meals. As AFBA members, our challenge was to come up with some healthy recipes that the CHOICES group could add to there reprotoire. Since breakfast seems to be the meal that is all-so-important to get our brain functioning in the morning, I thought I would start there. Cause after all, if you’re in a hurry, at least breakfast should be a SNAP... I'm jus' sayin'!


Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Shake
1 cup milk
1 packet instant oatmeal
1 banana (the riper the better)
1 cup orange juice

Cut banana into chunks.
Place all ingredients in blender container.
Blend until smooth.
2 servings


Breakfast Cookies (a cross between banana bread and warm oatmeal)
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
2 ½ cups quick oats (Gluten free Oats work well in this)
1/3 cup honey OR ½ cup sugar
1/3 cup oil OR applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp cinnamon
Mix all ingredients together thoroughly and allow to sit for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
Drop by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet, flatten into cookie shape.
Bake for 20 minutes or until brown.
About 3 dozen cookies.
VARIATION: Add 1 cup of chopped dates & reduce the oats to 2 cups.
TIP: If your kids like to eat raw dough, this dough is yummy and it’s safe to eat this way (no eggs)



Cinnamon Orange Yogurt
4 oranges peeled and sliced
1 carton of plain or vanilla yogurt
2 tbs. Orange Juice
2 tbs. Lemon Juice
1 tbs. Sugar
1/4 tsp. ground Cinnamon
Combine the juices, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Toss the syrup with the oranges. Arrange in individual bowls and serve with plain or vanilla yogurt on top.

The Face of Hunger

So today is Earth Day and in honor of that, I am starting my week-long commitment to a cause that covers not only the Earth, but more specifically, each of our home towns. I was absolutely humbled when I was asked last week to take part in a joint Austin Food Bank/Austin Food Blogger project. Mission impossible? Not quite.

Our introduction to the project officially took place last night, where I met with a group of new (to me) and amazing people here in Austin at our local food bank. We toured the facility and learned more about how our local food banks support the community. We learned about "the face of hunger" and that each one has their own personal story. We got a hands-on at the programs that supply food pantries all around town from this warehouse. We walked through the organic gardens set up on the premises that are used to educate future supporters in starting their own gardens to help provide fresh produce. I, like the rest of my fellow bloggers, was humbled by the statistics of hunger, the effects it has on our nation, and the simple-yet-effective ways that we can all help out.

The project that we have agreed to take on - in a nut shell - is this: Take a typical list of what a client would receive from the food bank and cook with it for a week.In our case, the list was derived from what was available at the Pflugerville pantry on a specific day last week. Along with this bag of groceries, we can buy additional items based on the few extra dollars that would come in the form of a Lone Star Card from SNAP (the Texas food stamp program) and/or if you qualify for WIC. We were each told to go about this as our own personal journey so that we would have many unique perspectives to share with our readers.

So I've initially chosen to go about this as if my husband (the main bread winner) were to have lost his job and we were depending on my part time job to make ends meet. Here is the interesting part to me - more than half of the clients at these pantries fall into this category. So how will it feel to have a job, insurance, a car and a roof over our head, but possibly not enough food at the end of the day to sit down with our family to a good meal? That's a good question and what I'm about to find out. Follow me and other Austin bloggers as we journal our perspectives on the face of hunger and try to uncover ways to bring more awareness to your table. Maybe then, we can all find a way to change the face of hunger. I'm jus' sayin'!