Saturday, November 7, 2015

$1 Dinners - Eating In Exile



The Experiment: Eating in Exile - $1 Dinners
What:  Five weeks of family dinners designed for refugees, exiles, and the poor of each featured region, with a budget of $1 per person.  
How: Every week a different region, every day a different head chef
Why: Understanding economics, Gaining new cooking skills, Cultural awareness, Thrift, Industry

The Rules and Regulations
*$1 per person for the meal: Because 2 of our 7 have left the nest since last experiment, that means we generally have 5 bucks to make dinner for the whole fam at home.    Sundays will be significantly more 'cause that's the day we feed the masses. If there are a dozen of us for Sunday dinner we get $12 as our budget. 
*Minimal refrigeration: When you are eating in exile you have very little access to refrigeration. No meal can contain more than 1 refrigerated items that can't spend a night on the counter. 
*Minimal cooking appliances:  If you are a refugee, or a college student, or at the bottom of the poverty limit, you have limited access to cooking surfaces. An electric skillet and a rice cooker are the only appliances that may be used for the duration of the experiment, unless we want to learn to Dutch oven cook on Sundays. 
*Beyond Rice and Beans: this is a paternal provision. The dad in our house is all about unusual fresh foods and extra grains.  Try something new every week, rutabaga, polenta, funky greens, crazy grains - and stay in budget. 
*Spices don't count:  For all of the cup by cup, bunch by bunch budgeting we will do, we will not count salt, pepper, or powdered spices. 
*Week nights only:  Sunday thru Thursday family dinners. 
*Assignments:  Don - Sunday, Caleb - Monday, KC - Tuesday, Hannah - Wednesday, Me - Thursday
*Regions: Poorest cities taken from regions featured in the Five Olympic Rings - Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania, The Americas. (Note: Each region gets a week of meals, except Oceania, which only gets 2 days, because I'm not that creative.  The Americas will pick up the slack though and gets 8 days all together.)

Experiment runs from just before St. Martin's Day through St. Nicholas Day, Hanukkah, and right up to the week of Christmas. 

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