directions

Today is our National Day of Service. On this day in 2010, I worked with two other VISTAs in my program to volunteer at a nonprofit that provided housing for people with family in the hospital. This year, I spent MLK Day running and buying furniture. It made me look at how my life has changed so much since my year of service in Milwaukee.
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When I started this blog, I was a very different person than I am today. I started my year as a VISTA as a driven person with goals and bit of naivete. I worked long hours at my site, but never let it get in the way of taking care of myself (well, except for that one time I worked myself so hard that I ended up sleeping for an entire weekend).

The goal of this blog was to prove a point that so many people argue against, which is that nutrition and budgeting cannot go hand-in-hand. With my EBT card in one hand and shopping list in the other, I set to make a point that the critics are wrong about this - just because you're living at the poverty level doesn't mean you can't do so while eating whole grains and vegetables. And I'd like to think I made that point in a compelling manner.

My life has changed since then. I moved back to New Jersey for graduate school. I no longer qualify for foodstamps, because despite the balance in my checking account, I make too much money.

I'm also cooking at a different level, too. My apartment consists of an amazing kitchen space that I have utilized to its capacity. I don't have to chop vegetables on my dining room table anymore - I actually have more than one countertop, unlike the studio I lived in during my time in Milwaukee. Cooking is no longer a challenge.

Bearing all of this in mind, I cannot help but feel like this growth has inhibited the point of this blog. I went through my phase of posting baking recipes, which completely defeated the purpose of this blog. Furthermore, I have an overall different quality of life from then. I have gadgets in my kitchen that I could only dream of owning back then. In fact, it felt like a splurge when I bought a blender in 2009.

By no means does of any of this mean that I will end this blog. It just means that I feel like I lost my original intent of maintaining it. And with that in mind, I am going to strive to provide more budget-friendly recipes in the future that require only tools and ingredients that are affordable.