EGG SUBSTITUTES - FOR YOUR EGG CRISIS BAKING!

EGGS provide valuable protein in our diets so we are in a crisis when we cannot afford them. However, we can use other ingredients to substitute for eggs in our baking, perhaps leaving the real eggs to be eaten boiled or scrambled.

Eggs provide a binder - a substance that holds other ingredients together - when we bake.

APPLESAUCE can be a terrific egg substitute in baking, especially because it ads a little flavor but not overwhelmingly so.  I've used this with success.

1/4 cup APPLESAUCE for every 1 egg - There is no fat in the applesauce so you may want to add a little more oil.

1/4 cup mashed BANANA for every 1 egg.  These do have oil but will add a banana flavor...  So you can make banana bread that is eggless.

FLAX SEEDS... ground.,,, also called "meal." One tablespoon seed to three tablespoons of water.  Let then soak and stir to get consistency.

TOFU - the silky soft kind (made of soybeans) and a fairly neutral flavor. 1/4 cup for every one egg.   Adds protein as well.

BAKING SODA and VINEGAR - helps the loaf rise.  1 teaspoon of soda to 1 tablespoon of vinegar.  Since baking soda is already in many recipes, I confess to not being sure how to adjust a recipe using this option.

PLAIN YOGURT  - 1/4 cup for every 1 egg.

BUTTERMILK  - 1/4 cup for every 1 egg.

PEANUT BUTTER - 3 tablespoons for every 1 egg.  Has oil. Influences flavor.

OTHER NUT BUTTERS - ditto.

CARBONATED WATER also called SODA WATER - 1/4 cup for every 1 egg. Helps the rise.

Now, almond butter or carbonated water might work if you're making pancakes.  Peanut butter cookies might be a better use for peanut butter.

I've had great luck with Yogurt as a substitute.

GELATIN - 1 Tablespoon gelatin to 1 Tablespoon cold water.  Like the FLAX SEED MEAL give it a stir as it's a binding agent. Then add 2 tablespoons of boiling water and stir some more... you should see that it's turning into gel.

I haven't tried this but a friend suggests that even flavored gelatin could be a great addition to plain cookies or white cake batter. Such as lemon or orange.

I hope these ideas will help you feel a little less deprived!

Coming up in the next few months, some How To's on making use of groceries one may find in a Food Bank box!

THE SAD STATE OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMY - FAKE EGGS TO DYE FOR EASTER - TWO FOOD BANKS INSTEAD OF ONE

I'm writing this post on March 10th, having just heard that an important bank that funds investments in the tech economy based in Silicon Valley, central California, has gone belly up. Like in the Christmas film, It's a Wonderful Life, there has been a run on the bank, but it's not people physically going there expecting cash. Rather, upon hearing this was happening, people pulled their funds electronically. This bank failure is said to be the biggest since the crash that began The Great Depression.  I spend some time listening to various opinions about what will happen next. By the time this posts, I/we will all know if that bank failure has had a "rolling effect."

This past week or two I experienced some telling signs that our economy is not healing from the ordeal of Covid, that inflation is beyond the high being reported.

First it was going to the grocery nearest me, which I should name but won't at this point, a store that I have long suspected is gouging customers who do not want to put in travel time or gas money to buy groceries. I'm signed up for this companies special discounts for those enrolled. They are trying to break the union by having people register themselves out and by having people come and pick up their purchases through a pre-ordering shopping system. 

They also run coupons suggesting an item is free and usually there is such a run for it that that item that gets people in the store has run out before I get there.   Last summer they had a free store brand Pizza which was usually marked at about $2 to $3 dollars.  That same pizza was now marked at $6.99.

Seeing a box of 50 typical papery Made in China face masks for $5.99 there a couple months ago started me thinking they were gouging. Then I noticed their day old bakery items were marked double what they had been. The other day I went in to buy the laundry detergent I swear by, the Arm and Hammer 100 loads Unscented, which I last purchased for about $12 about a year ago. I was shocked to see this item marked at $23.00 for the same...

As a result I went to a pharmacy type store that is a chain about a half mile away. I searched for laundry soap and found NONE on the shelves.  So I went to the register and asked if it was possible that the product was elsewhere in the store.  Actually they had moved all the laundry detergent BEHIND THE REGISTER. The clerk told me this was because people were walking out - stealing - bottles of laundry detergent!  They did not have my brand.

I went to another store and saw what appeared to be white eggs in cartons.  It turned out that these fake eggs were crafts items ready for dying for Easter and offered as a substitute to those who CANNOT AFFORD REAL EGGS...  There is no indication the price on eggs is coming down, and some brands are $9. to $12 a dozen for the real eggs.  So kids will have fake eggs in their Easter baskets?

Finally a friend of mine headed for a senior center in another town where she was able to get some free groceries on Wednesdays. It turns out that, due to higher demand, they were going to do these food distributions by lottery and twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays.  This food comes in from an outside organization not a governmental agency. They pick up food that grocery stores are supposedly are ready to throw away. The higher demand is because the extra money put into the EBT food cards from the federal government of the United States for Covid relief ended.  (This money also stimulated our economy.)

I needed some onions and also shopped for them.  The store I suspect of gouging wanted $1.69 for a pound of white onions. The "Mexican Market" a small chain that is probably not unionized, had them for two pounds for $1 but I didn't have an hour for the round trip. I found them at a "dollar store" (where near nothing is a dollar and where the register always ads on a penny)  where they were prebagged at three pounds for $2.  At home I found one big onion in there appeared to be moldering.

A young woman I know who works as a waitress for a chain said business wasn't down but the tips were (while the sexual harassment by men was up.)  Out to buy her own groceries after serving meals all day to others more fortunate, she loaded up on the cheap noodle soup packets for her own dinners.

As a result of all this, I'm going to try to post more recipes using food items that are often given out at food banks. Remember I have volunteered for a couple food distributions in recent years and have a good idea what is in those bags.

I will also be posting about EGG SUBSTITUTES for cooking soon.

During World War II, when food rationing was in place in England, they got one egg a week, one pint of milk, four ounces of meat... just barely enough... I believe people can make it through - when there is an end in sight.

Let us not forget that the Covid pandemic was very real. None of us could imagine when the first masking mandates began that we would be effected for YEARS.

I hope we are not headed for another Great Depression.

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