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Hunger Challenge Starts Today

September 18, 2009 | Reviewer: Abi Jones

Did you get a cup of coffee today? That’s a $1.50. Are planning on having a Lean Cuisine for lunch? $2.50 there. Maybe you’ll grab a beer from the fridge when you get home…

Well, I’m doing none of those things today. Why? Because today is the first day of my participation in the Hunger Challenge. I’m be eating $4 of food a day in an effort to raise awareness about hunger in America.

Why $4 a day? That’s the amount of food I’d be able to by for myself if I were on the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (aka food stamps).

I’m not going to go out and buy more food to do this. I have plenty of oatmeal and ramen and Banquet meals in my home already. Instead, I’m donating the $28 planned for food this week to the San Francisco Food Bank. Via some sort of Food Bank magic, they’re able to use that $28 to distrubute $252 worth of food.

But that’s not all! Starting now, Heat Eat Review is donating $100 a month to the San Francisco Food Bank. That’s enough money to provide 3,660 meals to hungry people in the San Francisco bay area.

If you’re interested in donating to your local food bank, or if you have the time to volunteer, please check out the Food Bank Finder at Feeding America. Just pop in your ZIP code and see a list of the food banks nearest you.

And don’t worry, I’ll still post reviews here at Heat Eat Review. They just might be a bit different than you expect.

Filed Under Announcements, Hunger Challenge | 26 Comments

Hunger Challenge 2009

September 9, 2009 | Reviewer: Abi Jones

Before Heat Eat Review existed (and before I started working an office job) I was a 3rd grade teacher in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley. I taught kids whose families earned a subsistence living, kids who needed every meal that was provided via local and Federal food programs.

By providing both lunch and breakfast (and snacks for kids enrolled in after-school tutoring), our school ensured that I never had to worry about a kid being distracted because he or she was hungry. As a teacher, that was a huge relief.

Now that I work at an advertising agency, I’m removed from that world. The people I work with on a daily basis don’t have to worry about getting enough to eat when they go home. But I also work in San Francisco.

In San Francisco, 150,000 people struggle each day to feed themselves and their families. Hunger manifests itself as a consistent lack of enough food to meet nutritional requirements. It can mean fewer meals each day and poor-quality food that is calorie-rich but nutrient-poor.

150,000 is the number of people who live at or below 150% of the federal poverty line: $26,400 per year for a family of three. Very often, these families lack the resources to provide enough food to consistently nourish themselves.

From http://www.sffoodbank.org/about_hunger/

I’m not a religious person, but I believe that we all share a responsibility to help each other. In an effort to call attention to our nation’s hungry – and to show you what you can do about it, I’m taking part in this year’s Hunger Challenge.

From September 18 to September 25, I’m going to spend $28 on food. That’s all. $4 a day to feed myself for a week. Considering Lean Cuisines are on sale at Safeway for 3/$10 (over 75% of my daily budget) I’ll be featuring a different variety of posts on Heat Eat Review that week. I predict you may see a lot of oatmeal. And if I get desperate, ramen. Though, I have to admit that I really do like the Oriental flavor of ramen – the blue pouch.

I hope you’ll read along at Heat Eat Review that week. I’ll be posting recipes, likely complaining about drinking neither coffee nor Diet Coke, and providing links to resources on eliminating hunger where you live.

Sincerely,
Abi Jones

Filed Under Announcements, Hunger Challenge | 10 Comments

Are Uncrustables Safe? Yes….for now.

January 20, 2009 | Reviewer: Abi Jones

In short, yes. At least, according to Smuckers, the company that makes them. So far, products from the companies below have been recalled. Smuckers is not on that list. Also not on that list is Peanut Butter that you buy in a normal home-size jar. This recall is all about industrial peanut butter. Clicking on the [link] will take you to an FDA page with specifics about that recall. I’ll try to update this list as often as possible, but while I was making it two more items were recalled, so perhaps updates are a little out of my league. You can keep track of all salmonella-related FDA recalls here.

The Misunderstood Peanut, by Zesmerelda, used under Creative Commons 2.0.

List last updated on January 22, 2009

Aspen Hills Cookie Dough Products [link]
Nash Finch, the operator of stores named: SunMart Foods, Econofoods (excluding Wisconsin stores in Sturgeon Bay, Clintonville, Marquette, Holton and Iron Mountain), Prairie Market, Avanza Supermarket, Food Bonanza, Wholesale Food Outlet, Family Fresh Market, Family Thrift Center, and Pick’n Save (Ohio stores in Van Wert and Ironton only) is recalling peanut butter-containing products [link]
Landies Candies Peanut Butter filled Chocolates [link]
Health Valley Organic Peanut Crunch Chewy Granola Bars [link]
Best Brands Corp. Peanut Butter Frozen Cookie Dough [link]
Blanton’s Candies of Sweetwater, TN: Blanton’s Peanut Butter Sticks [link]
Weis Markets peanut butter sandwich crackers [link]
Dinners Ready of Meridian, ID is recalling the Asian Marinated Flank Steak with Sesame Vegetable Stir Fry, Indonesian Chicken with Coconut Rice, and Chicken Satay & Bangkok Peanut Sauce with Jasmine Rice meals prepared from their November & December menus [link]
POCO PAC® and GRANDE GOURMET™ peanut butter and peanut butter and jelly combination products [link]
NutriSystem Peanut Butter Granola Bars [link]
Ready Pac Peanut Butter containing products (celery or apples with peanut butter) – Includes TRADER JOE’S CELERY WITH PEANUT BUTTER [link]
Premier Nutrition TWISTED and TITAN branded bars [link]
Nature’s Path Optimum Energy Bars [link]
Country Maid Inc. Classic Breaks Peanut Butter Cookie Dough in 2 pound packages [link]
Meijer Peanut Butter and Crackers & Peanut Butter-containing Ice Cream [link]
Abbott Nutrition ZonePerfect and NutriPals Bars [link]
City Market, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, King Soopers, QFC and Smith’s Private Selection Peanut Butter Passion Ice Cream [link]
CLIF, LUNA and Zbars [link]
Evening Rise Bread Co. Peanut Butter Cookies and Peanut Butter Bars [link]
McKee Foods Corporation Peanut Butter Snack Crackers [link]
South Bend Chocolate Company Assorted Boxed and Bulk Chocolates [link]
Wal-Mart Bakery brands of PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES, PEANUT BUTTER NO-BAKE COOKIES and PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE NO-BAKE COOKIES [link]
Lofthouse® brand PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES, PEANUT BUTTER NO-BAKE COOKIES and PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE NO-BAKE COOKIES, Parco Foods’ Chuck’s Chunky® food service brand PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES and Pastries Plus GOURMET COOKIES [link]
Food Lion Bake Shop brand PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES [link]
Hy-Vee Inc. is voluntarily recalling the following products made in its bakery departments: Peanut Butter Cookies, Monster Cookies, Peanut Butter Reese’s Pieces Cookies, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, Lunchbox Reese’s Pieces Cookies, Lunchbox Peanut Butter Cookies, People Chow Party Mix and Assorted Truffle Fudge. [link]
Perry’s Ice Cream – Select Ice Cream Products [link]
Kellogg’s Company Austin® and Keebler® branded Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers, Famous Amos® Peanut Butter Cookies and Keebler® Soft Batch Homestyle Peanut Butter Cookies [link]

I am still going to eat peanut-including processed foods. Then again, I ate expired ramen. If you have a kid, you should probably proceed with caution.

*Heat Eat Review gets all recall news straight from the FDA. You can check out any of the above information for yourself at http://www.fda.gov/opacom/7alerts.html

Filed Under Announcements, Recalls | 11 Comments

Great Value Instant Beef Flavored Ramen Noodles

November 16, 2008 | Reviewer: Abi

Photo of Great Value Instant Beef Flavored Ramen Noodles Price: 14¢
Serving: 1/2 block noodles + seasoning, 1.5oz. + water
Reality: 1 block of noodles + seasoning, 3oz. + water
Calories per package: 380
Fat: 22%, 14g
Saturated Fat: 36%, 7g
Trans Fat: 0%, 0g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 64%, 1520mg
Protein: 10g
Carbohydrates: 18%, 54g
Fiber: 16%, 4g
Sugar: 0g
Weight Watchers Points: 4 per serving
Weight Watchers Points: 8 per package

Great Value says: Do not purchase if bag is open or torn.

Abi says: Ramen at Wal-Mart is 14¢. As a lover of ramen, I wondered why I hadn’t tried it until just now. Then I realized that Wal-Mart ramen only comes in Beef and Chicken and I prefer Oriental Flavor Ramen. However, in these belt-tightening times (money wise, not actual belt-wise, I hate wearing belts – so uncomfortable!) I figured it would be great to feature less expensive modes of nutrition. Yes, I’m using the word nutrition loosely.

I grabbed a packet of Wal-Mart beef-flavored ramen and promptly forgot all about it. Then a quiety, dreary Saturday rolled around and I just wanted something super-fast and noodly. Ah, Beef Ramen to the rescue. Unfortunately, the ramen had expired last week. This put me in a quandry. Could I accurately review an expired product? Had the ramen changed significantly since the expiration date? And most importantly, does ramen actually expire or is the expiration date a ruse to get you to buy more ramen?

I dismissed the first worry and ripped open the ramen package. It looked like the same dried out block of deep fried noodles one would expect and just five minutes later I had a bowl of perfectly cooked ramen.

Not familiar with the beef flavor, I tore open the silver foiled pouch of seasoning (MSG) and was confronted with a smell that would make a badger blush. Either the beef powder had expired or beef flavoring for ramen smells like a dead body. My mind quickly churned through the possibilities (make my own sauce with peanut butter and soy sauce, try to find an oriental packet somewhere, give it up as a loss) before pouring the beef powder packet onto the ramen and stirring thoroughly.

‘Okay, tongue,’ I said to myself, none to convincingly ‘It is time to do your job.’ I count on my body all of the time to keep myself from eating spoiled food. My eyes alert me to mold, my fingers go ‘This apple is too mushy.’ and my nose and tongue combo say ‘Whoa, blue cheese is not your friend, hey stop eating that! Nooooo, stooooop.’

I twirled a forkful of beef-flavored noodles, took an exploratory bite and thought ‘Eh, I can eat this.’ So, if you’re on the Internet typing “Is it okay to eat expired ramen?” into Google, take it from me “You’ll probably be okay.”

[Please note that ramen is probably the only expired food I'd vouch for. Stay away from bulging soup cans, past-their-prime meats and these frozen meals being recalled by Lean Cuisine.]

Will I try Wal-Mart’s ramen again? Yes, I will. But I say yes because I run a blog that requires me to eat gross things, not because I’m suggesting you go and buy it.

Filed Under 4 WW Points, 8 WW Points, Beef, Cholesterol Free, Great Value Reviews, No Freezer Needed, Ramen Reviews, Soup Reviews, Trans Fat Free, Two Stars, Wal-Mart Reviews | 2 Comments