YouTube Series and Ebook Ideas

Growing up I never learned how to cook. I knew some of the basics like making pasta and my sister and I did learn how to bake. We spent one summer vacation baking a few times a week. When I was 26 we moved from Pennsylvania to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. My mom got a job before I did and it was just me and Elijah at home. I did apply for food stamps and took on as much of the grocery shopping as the amount of food stamps allowed me to. Even grocery shopping was a learning experience because when I was buying food before moving it wasn't to make meals for people. It was an eye opening experience. We got to try new foods and I had more of a say in what we were eating and buying. Over the next few years I started learning how to cook. Then we moved to South Carolina and the cooking and grocery shopping continued because I reapplied for food stamps here.. One of the recipes I learned was from the back of a can of veggies. Remember this sentence for the next paragraph.

When I was pregnant with Elijah and when Elijah was born and up until we moved we were on WIC. There were things on the WIC checks like beans that I didn't know how to use. I did buy Cassie Ho's Hot Year Round and discovered the Kale and White Bean Soup recipe. SO I made that constantly and sometimes making it my own way. While living in South Carolina I became pregnant with Wyatt and went on WIC again and Wyatt was on WIC from birth until his 5th birthday. There were beans for both of us. WIC before the pandemic switched to a card instead of paper checks which made the experience quicker and easier and you didn't have to separate things. We had dried beans and we also had cans of beans. I didn't know what to do with beans. So guess what I started doing? Do you remember the sentence in the previous paragraph about getting a recipe from the back of a veggie can? Well I noticed that some of the cans of beans had recipes on them. So I decided to start buying the cans of beans that had the recipes on the back of them. I tried one or two new bean recipes a month. Some of them were good like the Hopping Johns over rice and some of them weren't. Beans, whether dried or canned, are shelf stable which means they last longer than fresh produce. I have even bought lentils to cook with too while on WIC.

Before Wyatt aged out of WIC I looked on YouTube for WIC videos to see what other people have done with the food they get on WIC and I couldn't find anything. A couple of years ago I created a YouTube video on a day of eating using WIC foods and it was also a meal prepping video. I have also been thinking about making an Ebook with recipes with food people can get on WIC. There is so many things you can do with the food you get on WIC. Not all recipes that I have so far, like chili, are only the foods you get with WIC. There are things like the ground turkey/beef and seasonings that you can't get on WIC. I have started writing down recipes in a composition notebook and I decided to include some notes with recipes. I haven't decided if I am going to make a page of notes with things that I have learned. I have thought about making a sample day of eating using the recipes or other ideas from what I have done alone with food from WIC.

While the kids and I are not on WIC I can use our experience while on WIC to help others which is why I am making videos for YouTube and writing down recipes for an Ebook. I don't know when I will be done with the Ebook or if it will be strictly an Ebook or if there will be an actually book or if it will be on a blogsite like this one or on this blogsite. I'm still learning how to cook. I'm not the best cook even tho my mom and sister and mom's coworker say otherwise.

When I am learning a new recipe to cook I make the recipe as is first and then make changes as needed. Do you remember the can of veggies that had a recipe on it? It was for veggie soup. I have made some changes to that recipe and my family loves it. There are some recipes, like what I made for dinner tonight, which I don't have all of the ingredients that I just make up and throw a bunch of things in a pot and call it dinner. Sometimes it's good, like tonight, and sometimes it's not. Soup, chili and spaghetti sauce I can get more than one meal out of it and I freeze half of it. It saves time and money.