Day Two of my Food Bank Diet Challenge — [Originally published on Monday 16 May 2011, 9 AM]
It’s only been a day, but already I’m obsessing about food, thinking about it a lot, looking forward to meals but never feeling satisfied by them. I went to bed hungry and woke up hungry. I’m feeling grumpy, out-of-sorts, not myself, and wondering how I’m going to do a day’s work. I realize that my morning breakfast habits are especially ritualistic and without my rituals, I feel somewhat adrift. Maybe I’m not as flexible as I had imagined.
I’ve already broken into the food stores that I thought I would be saving for my daughter, and the kind of foods I know that other mothers in this situation would keep for their kids, like the box of cereal, the milk, juice, and the granola bars. Fortunately (at least in terms of feeding her), she’s at her Dad’s house until tomorrow.
Yesterday was my day of rice. I had rice for breakfast. For lunch, I fried up a bit of the onion, refried left-over rice and some black beans. Confession: I also added a bit of ground cumin. Condiments and seasonings were not on our prescribed list, but it seems reasonable that a household using the food bank would have a few favourites. I really wanted some cilantro in there too. But there was none in the house—and that would have been cheating.
For dinner last night, I heated up the can of the cream of mushroom soup, and added a can of tuna and some rice. I added extra water to the mix, to help stretch it a bit farther. I carefully ladled out half the mix and put the other half away for lunch today. It reminded me of the tuna noodle casserole a high school friend used to make for our after cross-country skiing trips. That may be the last time I’ve had tuna noodle casserole, more than 30 years ago. I don’t think my daughter would have liked it.
I wasn’t feeling very full, or satisfied, so I broke into a granola bar. I liked the “crunch” and it tasted familiar in a good way. Plus it added a bit of fiber to this low fiber diet. Let’s not think about the consequences of that.
I couldn’t bear the thought of rice again for breakfast this morning, so I opened the box of Cheerios and had milk on them. The same friend who used to make the tuna noodle casserole ate Cheerios for breakfast every day for years. I wonder if he still does. I also had a juice box. And had a few more Cheerios, because they didn’t seem very filling. I made tea because I was afraid that coffee would increase my sense of agitation and disembodiment.
I’ve only just finished breakfast and I’m already thinking about lunch.
