During recessions, prices go crazy. It's called inflation. Food becomes super costly. In such hard times, we need to plan frugal meals, grain-based to a large extent and with costly vegies and protein as sidecars. If you avoid sugars and refined grains, there are no insulin munchies. You don't need to eat as much or as frequently as you did in the good ole days of the Great society when you had sugary cokes, juices, ice cream. But you do need to EAT!
One way to get your aminos is to find complimentary amino acids (like beans with corn tortillas actually have all the aminos.) Two starches but it will pass the hunger test, trick the pancreas into believing it actually ate protein. WHOLE grains can do that as they do have aminos & fill that protein bill. (Read the famous book, "FOOD FOR A SMALL PLANET" by Frances Moore Lappe. and the sequel, RECIPES for a Small Planet. Buy them used at ABEBOOKS. using the SECRET METHOD to get books at bottom dollar.
SECOND, start now filling the larder with GRAINS. Buy barrels of barley, wheatberries, lentils, pulse, beans. You place a piece of dry ice in the sealed barrel to maintain freshness and grains can be kept fresh for years. Get a VITA MIX grinder and MAKE BIBLE BREAD. Very high protein. Make your own cheese and you're home free. Grow OLIVES on your trees and that's an opulent diet.
Sure, the super rich will go on having steaks and lobster, clams and scallops. Let them have the cholesterol! They can afford the $$l00,000 dollar coronary BYPASSES. You can't yet you will eat very well. The soaring MILLENIUM inflation can not cause hardship for the middle and lower classes if they combine whole grain aminos.
The ultimate trick and a fun one is to train the
whole family to HIT THE FISHING HOLE.
OK.
Jump into the Boat. I'm taking you home. JUMP!
Right now at the lip of the recession, I can buy frozen TILAPIA fillets at 3$ a pound in pretty bags in the freezer section of super market. The other ritzy types of fish are much more money. the CHINESE supermarket has POLLOCK at $1.50 an lb, in a 3 lb bag of fillets. Only every few weeks they put it on sale, FROZEN ALASKAN POLLOCK at 99c. an lb. I buy two bags, keep in freezer and make my ORIENTAL FISH SOUP with SESAME OIL. BROCCOLI, GINGER and SOBA buckwheat noodles. Pollock is so cheap, cheaper than TILAPIA and is a cold water fish. Great stuff. Bass and Halibut are roughly 10- 15$ an lb depending on where you buy it. Swordfish is more. If you can't go fishing, START being aware of LOSS LEADER items on sale. Ferinstance, my VALLARTA MARKET chain occasionally has sales on thawed, previously frozen WHOLE TILAPIA at 99c an lb. That's a buck a fish. I can hit the store, order a dozen fishes and beg butcher to give me frozen ones, not thawed. Then, I fill my freezer with each fish plastic wrapped. To feel posh eating tilapia, I make tartar sauce out of mayo and relish mixed. I fry up a potato and dream I'm back in London. But POLLOCK is better, always a fillet, never a bone!
Have your family learn HOW TO FISH off your local coast, or in nearby lakes, rivers. My kids use Hawaiian Slings and spear Corbina in the surf. Once you all learn to fish, then give the neighborhood kids a FISHING LESSON --- Maybe at some time, you could segue to popping ducks, but stay away from deer. Too much mad cow in American herds now. Turkey would be ok.
Hunting and Fishing would be an adventure that will enable neighbors, pals/ kids to master FOOD SURVIVAL for coming hard times. You've heard of HARD TIMES, haven't you? It's when food costs more than you can afford, so you can't buy it. You have to MICKEY MOUSE your food sources.
In addition, I'd grow my own fruits and vegies year round. GARDEN ARCHIVE.
And I'd go clamming, a magnificent pursuit for a sunny day but you have to have a way of finding THE EXACT HOUR OF a super LOW TIDE (-2 or -3) on your local beaches. I use the L.A. Times tide information. You want a minus two or minus three tide. And your local harbor or beach is different from any other.
NEXT CHALLENGE. Imagine your family coming up with pounds of petfood for that huge flock with meat tripling in price? You can 'cut' your meat with high protein grains. You might use basmati rice (high protein,) cooked in a crock pot until it's fluffy and soft. Crock pots cook anything without burning, scorching pans and food both. If you want to give pets junk fish, crock pot them, then SIEVE! You can't just give pets a fish as it has too many bones. They can be fatal for an animal or a child, even. So pick out bones before serving!
Most of your adult or teen family can handle fish bones, so keep an eye peeled for fishing tackle now while it's still cheap. Garage sale price is about 5$ the pole, the tackle box empty a buck. A Filled tackle box is l0$ though I paid 8 and got treasures but toss used spools of line. Get fresh line at Walmart every year. Sell the old filament at garage sale to beginners warning them it's a year old and you get yourselves that new filament. TITLES OF BOOKS ON THIS SUBJECT, but only buy those USED & all are found online. Now, with those titles in hand, printed out, find the BEST OLD FISHING books at abebooks for a buck! Get the family practicing freezer-filling now and the COMING RECESSION with inflation won't hurt you! Kids can start a fish-scription biz selling bass door to door. By the pound. They do not walk around with the fish. They say 'we got bass at 5$ a lb, Mackeral at $1.50 a pound. They make their order. Then by phone he might say, I'm substituting sculpi for bass or little refinements to the order done after he has gone fishing. And then he comes back with the fish and a scale and finishes the transaction.
NOTE: Bury all fish bones in veg garden, they enhance mineral content of soil, and vegies that grow there. BURY 6" under the soil so that cats/ dogs won't dig them out. Nor will they smell. .
RECIPES FOR CHEAP FISH - MACKERAL. or BONITO, (a California fish.) Get all brown flesh off the fillet with point of sharp knife. This gets cooked for pets. Treat the rest as if it were chicken meat. As it falls apart, CROQUETTES are an ideal item, with tartar sauce. The Japanese consider bonito the king of soup fish, and their DASHI powder is powdered bonito. MAKE MORE SOUP.
TUNA- Freeze in 10 oz pckgs for tuna fish sandwiches for all. Thaw one, simmer 3 min, cool. TOTALLY COOL THE MEAT. Then add interesting things to Mayo, relish, curry, toasted sesame seeds, cilantro.raw onions, minced, celery, that dark mustard with honey. FRIDGE IT. Put in kid's bag COLD. By lunch mayo dishes must be eaten. NO LETTING MAYO go til after school! Best is a school where they can fridge bags all day! Or a fridged lunch box, does that exist?
LAST. GET THREE children's hard wading pools, on three levels, do a fountain and grow your own TILAPIA FISH OR TROUT. FISH FARMING INSTRUCTIONS.
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