If you like the idea behind Prison Stew of improving nutrition for inmates or even for at-risk populations but THAT recipe (tomato, mushrooms, celery with ramen) doesn't work for you, this post is intended to help you develop an alternative that does work for you.
Some reasons it may not work:
If you have refrigeration, fresh foods may be more appealing. If you can actually cook, adapt this to a cooked meal of some sort.
Mushrooms were chosen to provide B vitamins. Other sources of B vitamins include beef, seafood (including seaweed if you are vegetarian), eggs and other animal products.
Yes, dried meat and dried fish are potential options. See for example: Pemmican.
B vitamins are water soluble, so people can sweat them out and easily become deficient and they are essential to neurological health. Vitamin C is also water soluble and people don't manufacture it, unlike most primates. So we need dietary vitamin C and lack of it causes substantial problems (google "Scurvy" if want more info).
Lack of vitamin C causing me to be unreasonably angry is the experience that caused me to come up with the idea of "We should just feed prison populations better. Wow. I can't believe an orange at lunch is having such a huge impact on me."
Dried tomatoes were chosen for the vitamin C. I'm actually mildly allergic to tomatoes. I can eat, say, pizza, but I don't generally eat FRESH tomatoes.
But tomatoes are biologically a fruit and people use them commonly in dinner foods. You can look for other sources of vitamin C, such as oranges, lemons or pineapples. Pineapple and lemon are somewhat often used in "sweet and sour" recipes, so they aren't out of place as part of dinner, at least for some people.
Celery is one of your three alkaline super foods and it is commonly used in soup. Cucumbers and lettuce are your other two alkaline super foods but are not commonly used in soup.
If lettuce and/or cucumbers work better for you, you could adapt it into a salad. Some posts that may help: If none of those works for you, look for other alkaline foods. It will help, it will just take longer.
Options include corn and apples.
Cold prep ramen was chosen in part because I have talked about it on Reddit and been told "Yeah, I did that in prison. Just added tap water because I couldn't cook."
There is no reason you can't make this a rice dish or potato dish or whatever is a normal staple food for you/your people if "Cannot cook AT ALL" is not one of your constraints.
If this brief post isn't enough info, here are other resources by the same author: If housing issues are a factor in the problem you are trying to solve, you may be interested in Project: SRO and r/HousingWorks as well.
See also: Let your food be your medicine.
Some reasons it may not work:
- Supply chain issues.
- Not in line with local dietary norms.
- Allergies and other dietary issues of the population.
If you have refrigeration, fresh foods may be more appealing. If you can actually cook, adapt this to a cooked meal of some sort.
Mushrooms were chosen to provide B vitamins. Other sources of B vitamins include beef, seafood (including seaweed if you are vegetarian), eggs and other animal products.
Yes, dried meat and dried fish are potential options. See for example: Pemmican.
B vitamins are water soluble, so people can sweat them out and easily become deficient and they are essential to neurological health. Vitamin C is also water soluble and people don't manufacture it, unlike most primates. So we need dietary vitamin C and lack of it causes substantial problems (google "Scurvy" if want more info).
Lack of vitamin C causing me to be unreasonably angry is the experience that caused me to come up with the idea of "We should just feed prison populations better. Wow. I can't believe an orange at lunch is having such a huge impact on me."
Dried tomatoes were chosen for the vitamin C. I'm actually mildly allergic to tomatoes. I can eat, say, pizza, but I don't generally eat FRESH tomatoes.
But tomatoes are biologically a fruit and people use them commonly in dinner foods. You can look for other sources of vitamin C, such as oranges, lemons or pineapples. Pineapple and lemon are somewhat often used in "sweet and sour" recipes, so they aren't out of place as part of dinner, at least for some people.
Celery is one of your three alkaline super foods and it is commonly used in soup. Cucumbers and lettuce are your other two alkaline super foods but are not commonly used in soup.
If lettuce and/or cucumbers work better for you, you could adapt it into a salad. Some posts that may help: If none of those works for you, look for other alkaline foods. It will help, it will just take longer.
Options include corn and apples.
Cold prep ramen was chosen in part because I have talked about it on Reddit and been told "Yeah, I did that in prison. Just added tap water because I couldn't cook."
There is no reason you can't make this a rice dish or potato dish or whatever is a normal staple food for you/your people if "Cannot cook AT ALL" is not one of your constraints.
If this brief post isn't enough info, here are other resources by the same author: If housing issues are a factor in the problem you are trying to solve, you may be interested in Project: SRO and r/HousingWorks as well.
See also: Let your food be your medicine.