food industry Archives - Page 5 of 9

Food Diary: How a 28-Year-Old Teacher Eats on $50K/Year in Providence, Rhode Island

Posted on29/01/202408/08/2023Author

Welcome to The Receipt, a series documenting how Bon Apétit readers eat and what they spend doing it. Each food diary follows one anonymous reader’s week of expenses related to groceries, restaurant meals, coffee runs, and every bite in between. In this time of rising food costs, The Receipt reveals how folks—from different cities, with different incomes, on different schedules—are figuring out their food budgets.

In today’s Receipt, a 28-year-old English teacher in Providence, Rhode Island who drinks a lot of kefir, considers ruining her intestines to eat gluten, and is very opinionated about Caesar salad. Keep reading for her receipts.

The finances

What are your pronouns? She/her

What is youroccupation? I am a high school English Language Arts (ELA) teacher. During the fall, I worked as an Assistant Scorer for NCAA volleyball games, and in the spring, I coached a high school volleyball team.

How old are you? I’m 28 years old.

What city and state do you live in? Providence, Rhode Island

What is your annual salary, if you have one? $50,253, as a Level 2 teacher with Master’s. Level 2 is my salary step and year in teaching, so it means that I am a second year teacher. I have a Master’s of Education in Urban Teaching from Providence College, where I worked as a Graduate Assistant for the Black Studies Program.

How much is one paycheck, after taxes? $1,293.45

How often are you paid? (eg weekly) Biweekly

How much money do you have in savings? I have almost $1,000 in savings.

What are your approximate fixed monthly expenses beyond food? (ie rents, subscriptions, bills)

Rent and utilities: Close to $1,000
gym memberships: $60
Canva subscriptions: $12
Apple Music: $5
credit card bills: About $200
Total: $1,277

The diets

Do you follow a certain diet or have dietary restrictions?
I’m Muslim, so I don’t eat pork. I drink alcohol very rarely. Food allergies are the bane of my existence; I can’t eat gluten, garlic, almonds, hazelnuts, jicama, jackfruit, cherries, or kiwi.

What are the grocery staples you always buy, if any?
I’m always buying kefir, yogurt, granola, coffee, half and half, arugula, mushrooms, bananas, rice cakes, dates, eggs, deli meat, rice and lentils.

How often in a week do you dine out versus cook at home?
I typically eat out one to three times a week.

How often in a week did you dine out while growing up?
My family would have “Junk Food Mondays” when my parents would go to a fast food restaurant and pick up dinner. Once in a while, my grandpa would take us out for dinner, or we would go somewhere as a family for special occasions. Kabob and Curry, Andrea’s, and East Side Pockets are three places in Providence where we would get take out from once in a while. My family has been eating at those restaurants for more than 20 years. Being a regular is nice, because they know we like a lot of extra sauce.

Ground beef taco recipe has a surprise ingredients: oatmeal : NPR

Posted on29/12/202308/08/2023Author

This recipe started in Arizona. Now, sisters Kirsten Ayles (left), in San Clemente, Calif., and Alexis Wold, in New York City, make it on opposite coasts. Right: A family photo of their grandparents’ restaurant, Odd’s Sombrero in Wickenburg, Ariz.

Alexis Wold/Collage by NPR

hide caption

toggle captions

Alexis Wold/Collage by NPR

All Things We’re Cooking is a series featuring family recipes from you, our readers and listeners, and the special stories behind them. We’ll continue to share more of your kitchen gems throughout the holidays.

For as long as she can remember, from growing up in New Mexico to living in New York City today, Alexis Wold has made taco meat the same way — using the recipe from Odd’s Sombrero, the restaurant her grandparents owned in Wickenburg, Ariz.

The restaurant was named after Wold’s paternal grandfather, Odd, who moved out to Arizona with his wife in the 1940s from Chicago. The pair decided to open a restaurant that served diner food. It wasn’t until Wold’s grandmother hired a woman named Carmen Macias that the menu changed.

“She was a young lady and she suggested that they add Mexican food to the menu,” Wold said. “And my grandmother being … fairly new to the Southwest around that time, she said, ‘I don’t know anything about Mexican food. I can’t make that.’ And [Macias] said, ‘Well, I can.'”

Macias went on to share his family’s recipes with the Wolds, who then served the recipes in the restaurant, Wold said. One of those is the taco meat recipe, which has just a handful of spices added to it but is delicious all the same.

“It’s not too spicy, in my opinion. It’s really easy to make … so sometimes I’ll make it for myself too, since from start to finish it takes maybe 20 minutes,” Wold said.

There is one surprise ingredient, though.

“One unusual thing it has in it is oatmeal. I don’t think you would normally see that in a taco meat recipe,” Wold said. “I think that was probably sort of a carryover thing since it was kind of the postwar era. There were shortages of things during the war, so a lot of people did unusual things with food to sort of extend it.”

The oatmeal gives the taco meat a nicer texture and it doesn’t fall apart as much, Wold says.

Love chili but trying to eat less meat? 'Morning Edition' tests a plant-based version

As the taco meat cooks, Wold spends that time chopping tomatoes and some spinach to add to the tacos, along with cheddar cheese and salsa. She prefers flour tortillas but will serve hard shells (and lettuce) when she makes tacos for others.

Odd’s Sombrero was sold in 1965 and Wold’s grandparents moved to Seattle. Wold said that her family isn’t sure if Macias’ family is still in Wickenburg, but it would be cool if they saw this and knew how beloved their taco meat recipe is today.

Odd’s Sombrero Taco Meat

Recipe submitted by Alexis Wold
New York, NY

Ingredients

2 pounds ground beef
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons of ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons ground oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoons paprika
1/2 cup dry quick oatmeal
2 cups of water

Directions

Brown the ground beef, then add the garlic and spices and stir well.

Stir in the oatmeal and water, then transfer to a greased casserole dish. Cover and bake at 300 degrees for about an hour.

Optional: For faster preparation, cooking can be completed on the stove-top, simmering until the water is absorbed and the mixture is thickened.

Serves 6 to 8.

8 Tips to Quit Drinking Alcohol That Actually Work

Posted on02/06/202307/12/2022Author

At the end of every year, we all come up with our lofty New Year’s resolutions for how we want to better ourselves when January rolls around. Lists include popular ones like losing weight, getting a new job and giving up drinking. If that last one is on your 2023 New Year’s resolutions list, we’re here to help you learn how to stop drinking alcohol (or at least cut back, if that’s what you want) this upcoming year.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, more than 14 million adults in the US have what is classified as an alcohol use disorder. The sheer number of people in America who drink excessively is why it’s such a common New Year’s resolution — and studies show that about 25% of people who commit to giving up drinking each year are successful in the long term. However, when it comes to how to quit drinking alcohol, it’s important to understand why you’re drinking in the first place, surround yourself with people who will help you quit and celebrate your wins along the way. Here are a few helpful tips to stop drinking.

For more health tips, check out this self care routine for better sleep and best foods for healthy kidneys.

How to make a plan to stop drinking that works for you

There’s no one right way to go about quitting drinking — it’s all about figuring out what works for you and your lifestyle. And that starts with a plan. Here are a few things you should consider and actionable steps you can take

Examine your current relationship with alcohol

The first thing you have to do is take a step back and evaluate your habits. That means looking at your relationship with alcohol so you can understand why you drink, when you drink and how much you drink.

Become aware of how much you drink: When drinking is part of your everyday routine, you start to forget just how much you’re actually consuming. It’s essential to examine exactly how much alcohol you’re drinking. Look at each drink as you put it in front of you and tally up how much you’re consuming a day.
Identify the reasons you drink: Do you drink because you’re bored? Do you drink with friends and family? Do you drink because you’re sad? Do you drink because you simply like the taste? All of these are common reasons for consuming alcohol, and your next step in this process is to understand why you’re drinking when you do. Start a journal to keep track of what you’re drinking and why and see if there are patterns. This will also help you find new ways to satisfy a craving when it comes up. If you find that you’re commonly reaching for a glass of wine when you’re feeling down, you’ll know what to do next time those feelings creep up.
Think about why you want to quit drinking: Having a goal in mind will help jump-start your journey. Why do you want to quit drinking? If your reason is simply that you want to do it, that’s fine! Just make sure you know why you want to cut back so that you can keep that in your mind as you go through this process. It’s never easy to quit something, but knowing why you’re doing it will help keep you on track.

Learn how alcohol affects your body

Alcohol can wreak havoc on your body. According to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol pretty much affects you head to toe. Alcohol can make it hard to think clearly, cause strokes or high blood pressure, lead to cirrhosis and weaken your immune system. It may also mess with your sleep, and poor sleep hygiene can lead to further health concerns, like obesity and diabetes. Knowing all the negative effects alcohol has on your physical and mental health can make it easier to understand why you’re better off without it.

Set a goal

Goals can help you stay on track, but sometimes one big goal feels too out of reach. Consider setting smaller goals for yourself (and celebrating them as you go). Rather than one overarching “I want to quit drinking” goal, start by telling yourself you’re going to cut back. Maybe you only drink on weekends for now. Maybe you do a dry January to really jump-start the plan. The American Addiction Centers recommends no more than one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men, so keep that in mind as you’re setting a goal to cut back.

Create a support system

It’s so much harder to go at this alone, so the loop in the people you trust. Everyone needs a cheerleader