How To Eat Well On A Food Stamp Budget

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36507576/

How many of you can do better than the chefs??

I can...

With careful planning, shopping at Grocery Outlet and sales at other stores, plenty of potatoes and beans, and a whole lot of portion control, the average family can eat very well.

Of course, if you have a source of free foods, like the local church that gives away bread to anyone who asks, it helps. So does a garden or generous neighbors with extra fruit, tomatoes and zucchini.

I laughed when I read the chefs' choices. Look, a bag of potatoes, a pound of hamburger, a can of chili beans and some shredded cheese make a great stuffed potato meal.

Leftovers? Chop them all up, add diced tomatoes in juice and serve with french bread and fresh fruit for dessert.

Oatmeal or eggs for breakfast. Sandwiches for lunch.

And so on.

Basically, choose your starch and then build a meal around it. Meat, cheese and eggs can stretch a long way. Simply read the recipe (if you use recipes) and put in half the meat.

Think about it.

Living the old fashioned lifestyle isn't all bad.

I AM LIVID!!

Oh my gosh, I am just livid with our California lawmakers and the idiot governator.

They have a budget, so he goes in with his blue pen and lines out more stuff?

Why the HELL did the budget get so delayed, when he was holding it up, and then he just went in and destroyed a bunch of hard won agreements and work anyway?

The governor of California is a bleeding idiot and so are all too many of my fellow inmates in this beautiful asylum we call a state.

I didn't vote for this guy.

Anyone who got sucked into his BS should be sorry now.

I could have told you that we'd have a budget mess a long time ago. In fact, as soon as he got into office and leveraged all our state debt into new agreements. All he did was push the payment back, and now here we are, backs against the wall, thanks to him and his "solutions" to our budget problems.

The poor will suffer.
The middle class will suffer.
The old, the children, the disabled are now officially screwed by the governor.

I am so angry I could spit nails!

He needs to go back to the fanatsy world of the movies. Because he's forgotten where he came from. Now he's just another bent up Republican on a power trip.

People, pay attention to who you vote for.

IE: Be careful what you wish for -- you might get it.

And oh, man, did we get it...

Be Warned, The Winds Of Change Are Coming!

Well, I hate to say it, but this year's budget debacle is nothing new.

We darn near have a budget, and the GOP worked the whole situation to get concessions.

Of course, ALL of the politicians wanted their bit of pork barrel in there, and I'm quite sure they got it. Arnold too.

For those of you outside of Cali, this is nothing new, it just dragged on longer than usual. Our current mess goes way, way back, long before Davis and the foolishness of the recall and election (and reelection) of Arnie.

Believe me, the little people are all too aware that our politicians don't give a rats about us.

Holding up a budget, putting the workers on furlough (can you afford to lose 2 days of work every month?), failing to pay the counties for State MANDATED programs, and then trying to blame state employees for the twists and turns of the political BS that goes on day in and day out in Sacramento. Well, at least when the politicians are actually IN Sacramento and supposedly working on our behalf.

And to add insult to injury, those same politicians are still trying to STEAL the employees' retirement funds. Yes, I'm talking about CalPERS.

CalPERS is the best managed retirement program in the United States. It's the model of retirement programs nationwide, and to be blunt, if the United States ran the Social Security system using the model of CalPERS, we wouldn't be worrying about Social Security failing.

No wonder the politicians drool every time they think of CalPERS. There's a pot of well managed money that they haven't been able to dip their sticky fingers into, and we're going to fight tooth and nail to keep them out of it.

Think "thieves in the temple".

Hell, yes, I'm calling my representatives thieves.

Liars too.

When you hear them blathering on that media sound bite about CalPERS, trust me, they don't give a flying you-know-what about you, the little person. The ENTIRE goal is to steal the little guys' retirement funds.

Don't think that I don't pay into the system either. Darn right I do! I pay out of my paycheck every month into that system, and I'm sure not going to let a pack of hyenas dip into MY money.

For all of you doubters, think Enron. Think of all the retired people who lost their entire pension thanks to the wheeling and dealing and out-and-out lies of Enron.

Don't you see a resemblence here?

I do!

I can see the vultures circling, the pack of hyenas gathering, laughing a vile laugh into the wind. They're under the delusion that they're going to steal our pensions right out from under our noses.

And my response is:

The winds of change are coming, let them come. Let them come and blow a fresh new wind into the State Assembly and Senate. Let the wind blow away the chaff from the least to the most high and leave the good grain behind, to fill the storehouse, to support the workers who work by and for the people.

Let the wind blow away the grasshoppers, who think that they should reap, but never sow. And let the workers, the busy ants, the busy bees, let their voices be heard.

And as the winds of change blow through, let the politicians who have betrayed their trust remember that when they steal from the storehouse, like thieves in the temple, they shall be lit by the light of Truth. Like the tables of the money-changers, they shall be overthrown.

"By the people, for the people." If you aren't following that policy right now, today, my representatives, you WILL be caught by the winds of change.

In other words, all you lying low-life politicians that held us hostage for the last three months, you can kiss your jobs goodbye. We are SO done with you.

Be warned, the winds of change are coming.

Just like so many of your constituents, you're going to be out of work after the next election.

I can hardly wait...

Arnold, The Idiot You Voted In

Don't blame me, I didn't vote for that actor turned politician!

Heck no I didn't.

California's legislators FINALLY get a 2/3 vote to pass the budget, and doofus is threatening to veto it? And if his veto is overturned, he'll veto all the 800 or so bills that the legislators have worked so hard on?

Say what?

It's a DARN good thing I'm not in the legislature.

I would stand up, all five foot two of me, probably as red in the face as my hair, and tell him:

"You just go ahead. And then we'll vote to overturn it, we'll vote our budget in.

"And when you veto every one of our bills, we'll just vote them ALL back in!

"You think you're all that, dude, you aren't worth the bird poop on your windshield.

"So go for it, and see how stupid we can make you look."

I have ZERO patience with this idiot that the people of California were stupid enough to vote in.

Yes, California was stupid.

Actors are paid to put on characters. And politicians will tell you anything you want to hear, just so they get reelected. So actors make even better lying politicians...

Arnold should have stuck to acting. His movies were barely palatable.

He's utterly incompetent as a leader.

Good at being a lying politician, but incompetent at running our state.

Yeah, I know. California voted him in so we're stuck with him and his arrogant attitude toward us working people.

You get what you pay for.

And we'll keep paying...

And paying...

And paying...

Arnold Is An Idiot

Yes, I'm saying that straight up, in your face.

Arnold is an idiot.

Oh, yeah, he THINKS he's pulling this great political ploy to get California's legislators to pass a budget. Uh, huh.

He's as stupid as they come.

The State Controller has already said that state employees will be paid like always. There's not going to be a cut to the Federal minimum wage. And even if he was going to allow this, wouldn't CALIFORNIA's minimum wage be more appropriate? I'm not sure it's even legal for Arnie to think that he can lower wages past the California minimum wage law.

In any case, the Controller has this well in hand.

You see, something that isn't being trumpeted on CNN, is that many state employees are in the midst of negotiating new contracts. Oh yes. So by lowering wages, that's considered an unfair labor practice. The union is all over it already. And on top of the union grievances already filed, IF the Controller allowed our illustrious Governor to shoot himself in the foot, the price would be triple damages.

Yes, Arnold would cost the state THREE times the amount of wages not paid.

Plus the overtime down in payroll, figuring out all this mess twice, once to cut, once to reimburse the employees for the lost wages.

Arnold is an idiot.

Don't believe the hype. He thinks he's smarter, faster, better than the rest of us. He's forgotten where he came from -- or, well, maybe not. Austrians are notorious for major control issues. Maybe he's just reflecting his own upbringing.

Who knows, who cares?

The point is that he is an utter idiot who's putting our state's finances in jeopardy, deliberately, with a huge staged political ploy. Dirty politics at its worst.

Arnold, you're an idiot.

Kiss your political career goodbye.

If you ever run for office again, I'm going to be all over this like a fly on poop. I'm quite sure I won't be the only one.

Yup, Arnold is an idiot and now the star struck California voters can see the monster they've created.

Next time, my friends, vote for the guy that may have your best interests at heart. (Maybe.)

Not the guy who huffs and puffs and then tries to blow your house down...