MONMOUTH
There is a lot of discussion going on nowadays about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Some proponents feel it should be expanded to include more people. Opponents sometimes feel the benefits are distributed to more than just the most needy. 
Regardless of which side of the discussion one falls, what is clear for many people is that food is not a luxury, and eating healthy is hard to do on a limited budget.
In Maine, the SNAP program partners with Healthy Maine Partnerships and the University of New England to offer education for SNAP recipients to help them make wise nutritional choices for their families, as well as cooking and shopping strategies to stretch those limited funds. Collectively, the education programs are called SNAP-Ed. 
One particular program is Cooking Matters at the Store, which teaches healthy strategies to better shop with SNAP benefits. On Feb. 6, registered dietitians Emma Veilleux and Brenna Albert took me on the grocery store tour at the Back Cove Hannaford in Portland and gave me the tools to take the “$10 Challenge.”
Simply put, I was to incorporate what I had learned on the tour about making healthy food choices and come up with a healthy meal to feed my family. To help, Hannaford provided a $10 gift card.
I generally do the grocer

y shopping for my family, but admittedly, I might not always make the best nutritious decisions. So I was determined to feed my seven-person household a meal for $10, while also offering something they would all eat. And I wasn’t just going to buy peanut butter and fluff to appease the children. It had to be healthy. 
I skimmed through a booklet of recipes and cooking tips that is provided on the tour. I found something I felt everybody would at least try, and set off to collect the items I would need. 
Of course, my family is larger than most — five of my six children live at home with my wife and I — so I decided that it’d be OK to kick in a little extra to buy enough to feed us all.
The recipe was intended to make four burritos, and called for whole wheat wraps, eggs, low-fat cheese, a can of black beans, peppers and onions, some spices and an option for plain yogurt. 
Since four wraps wouldn’t do for my large family, I had to double the recipe. But I didn’t want to double the budget, so I set a new goal of $15. 
I bought two four-packs of wraps for $2.69 each. The total was $5.38. 
Black beans were new to us. We’ve had baked beans, but this wasn’t the same. I bought two cans for 89 cents each. 
The recipe called for 2 ounces of low-fat cheese, so I got an 8-ounce package of shredded cheese for $2.99, but there would be enough for another meal later. 
The recipe called for four eggs, but I grabbed a dozen for $1.99. The running total went to $12.14.
The yogurt was optional, but I grabbed a container for 95 cents. 
Next were onions and peppers. One big sweet onion cost 57 cents, and a half-pound green pepper was 86 cents more. Running total, $14.52.
I would have stayed under budget, but decided to grab a pack of rainbow peppers to add a sweeter pepper for the kids. Final bill was $17.01. Still not bad considering I would have enough eggs, cheese, peppers and onion left over for at least part of another meal. And honestly, who shops for only one meal at a time. There’s always something left for another meal.
I scrambled all the eggs, sautéed the vegetables and mixed the beans with it all to thoroughly heat them. 
To finish off, I added the mixture and some cheese to each burrito, wrapped and offered with a dollop of yogurt on the side. Most opted against the Greek yogurt, but overall the meal was a success.
We typically eat meat with every meal, so only having beans and eggs as the sole source of protein was new territory. But considering how tasty this meal was, and how expensive meat can be, these burritos could find their way back onto our family table again real soon.

dmadore@timesrecord.com

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