Last modified: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 1:05 AM EDT Eating on $21 a week means a smaller, less diverse menu BY BETSY SHEA-TAYLOR FOR THE SUN CHRONICLE Congressman James McGovern plans to eat just $21 in food over the next week. Good luck, Jim, you'll need it. You got us thinking about how we'd do the same. McGovern, D-Worcester, will be on a subsistence diet all this week as he and U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson attempt to live on $3 a day for food. They each know this is temporary. But there are many neighbors among us who are trying to stretch $21, the food stamp average, to do just this because they have to. And when one week is done, another looms. And another and another. Well, we went shopping and the result was a menu of meal portions far smaller than customary American expectation, and far less diverse than what we might wish. (Can we guess, Jim, that you'll be heading to your favorite Washington eatery for filet mignon when your fast - because that's just about what it is - is completed?) We were able to pinch out a plan, using armloads of seasonal vegetables and hunting down specials. We did not itemize for this article the cost of each purchase since there will be fluctuations from week to week, and from product to product. The lawmakers say they will be trying to make ends meet to demonstrate what they contend is insufficient aid poor families receive in the form of food stamps. We'll be watching - and listening for the sound of stomachs grumbling, as ours were. We took $84 to a Stop & Shop to see what we could amass for fictional parents with two young children. Rent, utilities, transportation and out-of-pocket payment for two prescriptions already decimate their budget. Our aim was to stretch each food dollar by buying store brands where possible, in bulk, using coupons and specials, and preparing meals from scratch, factoring in government nutrition recommendations and eliminating the empty calories of junk-food snacks and sodas. A poor diet may dampen hunger pangs, but it fails to support overall health and help prevent illnesses and weight gain associated with a high-calorie, low nutrition diet, which is also a hazard to fetal development. For guidance, we consulted the U.S. Food Pyramid that recommends daily consumption of grains, vegetables, fruits, milk products, and items from the category composed of meats, beans, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts, all while avoiding unhealthy fats, high sugar and sodium content. We brainstormed recipe ideas with family and friends, and reviewed sample menus provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Now we don't know what Jim McGovern is planning, but we immediately pitched into our cart a large container of oatmeal - an excellent source of dietary fiber, iron, and B vitamins - peanut butter, tortillas, a thrift pack of chicken, two pounds of hamburger, eggs, two loaves of whole wheat bread, apples, oranges, spinach, carrots, green peppers, onions, cottage cheese, a gallon of milk and lasagna pasta, plus a few other incidentals. The total? We kept adding and discarding until reaching $84 plus a few pocket pennies. Nope, we did not even cast a glance at the Ring-Dings. Or the diet Pepsi. We put back the strawberries, soy sauce and sherbet. But we did give in to an excellent special on macaroni and cheese in a box. We shopped, presuming family members would carry lunches, use portion restraint, consume substantial amounts of salad and fresh fruit, and drink tap water at most meals. Foundations of our week were the chicken, roasted and distributed in soft tacos with vegetables, then on a dinner salad, then in a vegetable stir-fry, and a two-dinner lasagna of hamburger and cottage cheese with plenty of shredded carrots and spinach as extenders. Breakfasts featured oatmeal with banana, raisins and milk, or French toast. Lunch was a peanut butter sandwich or baloney, apple and carrot sticks and a cup of reconstituted soup. When we mentioned to other shoppers our intentions, they rolled their eyes: $84 doesn't go far. But you already know that. Sometimes you just need to think outside the box. For instance, you can devise dinner out of sautéed hamburger, generous equal portions of onion and green pepper and frozen mixed vegetables served over bow-tie pasta. Or, toss diced garlic and grated ginger with green beans, carrots and mushrooms and vegetable oil and a box of tofu cut into cubes. Sauté and serve over plenty of brown rice purchased in bulk. McGovern and Emerson co-chair the hunger caucus in the House. They have filed a bill to raise spending on nutrition programs by $20 billion over five years. The bill would raise the asset level for eligibility for food stamps and improve the benefit. We've discovered - and Jim McGovern may also - that it's possible, just barely, to live on $3 a day for food. But it's a wearisome challenge in an everchanging landscape of seasonal availabilities and sales. An estimated 35.1 million Americans are "food insecure" - meaning their access to enough food is limited by a lack of money and other resources, according to Second Harvest, the nation's food bank network. We got a bitter taste of that armed with only $84 to feed four people - still famished, we'd guess - for one week.