A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. —Henry David Thoreau
Why make it:
There is something to be said for a simple, easy to make, reasonably nutritious, moderately palatable, low-cost food. If you need to be convinced, you won’t be.
How I made it:
Some time ago, as a poor student, I realized that boiling macaroni for a really long time wasn’t the answer to meeting basic nutritional needs on a budget. Unable to recall seeing any 50# bags labeled “Human Chow” at the local supermarket, I decided to make my own. I made a list of readily available dry goods I could mix together, wrote a program that knew the weight, cost, and nutritional breakdown of each, and started fooling around with various proportions of each to design something better for humans than Ramen or loaves of day-old French bread and Pork’n Beans. With a bit of baking powder added, the mix could be fried or baked. I fried up 3-4 cakes for breakfast, usually saving one or two for later. Sliced, one made a sandwich for lunch, and one crumbled up with a stew/bean/etc. topping made for dinner. Occasionally I baked up several bread pans, crumbled everything after cooling, then spread on sheets and baked until dry. This could be eaten as a dry cereal, or, with a bit of extra seasoning, made into a cheap snack food.
It occurred to me that if cows were as stupid as humans and had the means to provision themselves with any food they wanted, they would regularly wade into green alfalfa fields (grown for this purpose) and founder themselves into a state of utter misery and obesity. Maximizing palatability was not one of my goals, so spare me any complaints about human chow not being as tasty as gourmet offerings. Optimum palatability should be adjusted so you eat enough to avoid excessive weight loss, while not being so palatable that you overeat.
Should you eat nothing but human chow everyday forever? No.
A web page version of this post has tables showing calories, cost, and other bits of interest:
Human Chow: The Website
How to make:
Ingredients
2 c. Enriched white flour
1 c. Whole wheat flour
1 c. Corn flour (Masa)
1 c. Cornmeal
1 c. Quick Oats
1 c. Powdered milk
1 c. Mashed potato flakes
¾ c. Sugar
¼ c. Baking powder
2 tsp. Salt
Stir and store. Makes 9 cups. 1 cup/person/meal; 396 cal/cup (516 calories including oil, 586 calories with 1 large egg; with ½ cup applesauce add 50 calories and so on).
For fry bread: Add 1 c. mix and ¾ c. water to make a batter that will slowly pour from mixing spoon—thicker than pancake batter. Add an egg if desired. Add 1 tbsp oil to a skillet, heat, then spoon the batter (divided into three cakes) into the skillet. Fry on medium heat until the tops loose their shine, turn and fry other side until brown. Cakes are about ¾ inch thick. Serve as is or with a topping. Applesauce is a good choice, or try jelly, peanut butter, syrup, butter, yogurt, honey, or some stick-to-your-ribs country gravy. Fry more for lunch or dinner; slice for sandwiches or crumble and top with beans, vegetables, or what have you.
For baked bread: Bake in a pan, cool, crumble, then dry to make a dry cereal. Add extra seasoning (like Creole Seasoning) before drying to make your own snack food.
