Hunger Awareness Week Day 2
By: Sheri Wetherell
Published: April 22, 2009

Well, technically it's Day 3, but unfortunately I've been pulling near all-nighters at work, so writing has been challenging to say the least! But we did eat last night, I just fell asleep before I could write! Apologies.
We went to our favorite Latino market in White Center called Carniceria El Paisano for provisions. We purchased a half pound of puerco en adobo (pork in a spicy marinade) for $1.98, a can of black refried beans for $.99, a big bag of corn tortillas for $1.69, and a bottle of hot sauce for $.89.

Then we headed over to a Vietnamese market for veggies. They had a 6-foot table with loaded with baggies of fruits and vegetables in their last days - all for $1.00! A big bag of limes, one filled with tomatoes (perfect for a huge batch of sauce), nectarines, etc. You'd never see that at a Safeway! Granted, the food would need to be cooked, frozen or eaten within probably a day, but still quite the savings.
We purchased four Key limes for $.18, an onion for $.39, a half pound of nopalitos (cactus) for roughly $.75, a beautiful head of lettuce for $.79, and a big bunch of gorgeous cilantro for $.39. Grand total for dinner: $8.05. Since we had the Turkey Dal leftovers for lunch, and yogurt and bananas for breakfast, we actually saved a bit of our food dollars today.
Here's how we prepared our Mexican meal: Barnaby grilled the nopalitos and puerco en adobo, and since they are both so thin they cooked up in a flash. I had the easy job of heating up the refried beans and chopping up all the cilantro, onions and limes. We made street-style tacos filled with the pork, onions, cilantro, fresh lime juice and a squeeze of hot sauce. Tasty!

Comments:
curiousdomestic

Nice job with the food budget! I wish I could get deals like that here.
alice

Your dinner looks wonderful!
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It looks so delicious...
Chowhound

Wow! You make such amazing food for so little amount of money, how is that possible? I'm really interested now. I do a $20 dinner club with 6 people in it and we always break the budget. Your food looks awesome.
Nurit - 1 famil...

hmmm... and I buy pork chops for $7 per pound at Whole Foods... no markets on the Eastside, only in spring and summer, and they are as expensive as WF! Markets for the elite.
Julie

Fantastic recipe!  I just love all of the flavors you described.
Melissa @ For t...

What a fabulous website! Your photography is amazing! I am definitely bookmarking this site!
June

Wow! That's awesome! Wish we had markets like that around here, especially for fresh produce!! Love your site, keep up the good work!