Ah, paranoid parent makes more sense. I don’t live in the states so I assume everything is child-arresting, cousin-soaking bonkers there.

Sovcit nonsense aside, is it not insane they’re asking for a 13 year old’s SIN to run a background check? And if he doesn’t have a SIN or government ID, he probably wouldn’t show up on a background check.

Please don’t die from this advice.

First: Yes, best before dates are sometimes arbitrary depending on the product and where you live. However, basically anything with a package sold commercially has been tested for taste/feel/look over time to determine when quality degrades. If you make cookies you don’t want people only buying up 1+ yr old boxes and thinking your cookies are just supposed to taste like solidified disks of keyboard powder. Having a best before date tells people when your product tastes as intended and when it’s only worth buying from the discount bin.

It’s fair to say sometimes marketing bullshit influences that date.

Second: Expiry dates are a real thing, at least where I’m from. Fridge/freezer temperatures are meant to be within specific ranges and there are food safety regulations around how long certains items can be outside of those ranges - like for transport or during prep.

Expiry dates are based on testing the development of bacteria colonies/degradation of the ingredients in an average of settings one would expect those products to go through.

Just because something says it’s expired doesn’t necessarily mean it’s unsafe, though. Except: in a commercial kitchen it is illegal to sell expired ingredients because of the testing that goes into determining that date.

I’ve worked as a chef, have taken multiple food safety courses, had good relationships with food inspectors. And I’ve worked in a production kitchen where the products were sent to testing facilities for determining the dates we put on the labels.

Depression?

Former chef: Knives. My most expensive knife is $80 with a lifetime warrantee. Most are $10-$20. Instead, learn how to use and take care of a knife.

Vegetables are just fancy nutrients, that’s why I only eat a flavourless calorie paste that contains all my essential vitamins.

I can’t give medical advice, I mean I can but I won’t. Anyway, I was a professional chef who worked in three very different locations before leaving the pirate kitchen life of sodomy.

What’s affordable is going to depend on where you are, so buy in-season fruits and vegetables. Try different recipes using things you know you can afford and when something clicks for you, write it down. Keep a list of the healthy meals and snacks that are easy for you to make because the hungry brain has no past or future. Aggressively mid foods like beans, peas, potatoes, barley and peanut butter are cheap and no one will care if you steal them.

If you’re a shit cook find some videos and follow along or ask a friend to walk you through some recipes if you have one.

Keep heathy, craving satisfying food on hand. Make a batch of nut balls (nut butter mixed with seeds, dried berries and whatever) and keep them in the freezer. Have lots of different tea on hand if that’s your thing, popcorn is filling and low calorie. My go-tos are: hard boiled egg, or a baked potato, or a bowl of peas. Don’t knock a bowl of peas until you try it after a joint, mixed with coconut oil, salt, pepper and cayenne.

Try smoothies. One of my faves is almond milk, spinach, lime juice, cashew or hemp butter, banana, pinch of salt. Blending up greens is a great way to stuff them in and they’re low calorie by volume. What’s great is I can pre-portion all of those ingredients except the almond milk into containers and freeze them. Then making a smoothie is as simple as dumping the frozen brick in a blender with some liquid.

Grocery store prices can vary by day, sales usually go on before they get in a new order and need to clear the shelves. Figure that out and only buy meat in bulk on sale or wait by the dumpster at night. Make a big batch of something like curry, chili or stew with it and freeze in portions anything you won’t eat in the next few days.

There is no shame in using low-income grocery options to get healthy food you can’t otherwise afford. See if there are any in your area. I have friends on disability who get a box of fresh fruit and vegetables every week, food that’s perfectly good but would otherwise be thrown out because of our high beauty standards for crops.

I’ve gone back and forth on my opinion of pride and prejudice over the years, even held this opinion at one point. Like why the hell should I care about rich women who want to marry rich men?

Except taken in context, the book has a different meaning. Before Pride and Prejudice, there weren’t many stories about women in that time period. Since women in that class couldn’t really own property or run businesses, their lives depended on their family and ability to find a husband. Maybe what they experienced was banal by our standards, but it was life and death for some people, or the difference between a pleasant life and one of suffering. The stakes were high for something we treat as optional these days. It’s less or a morals story and more of an insight into social politics for women of the time, something that wasn’t widely written about until the book came out.

Is it good? That’s up to the reader. It’s unique and insightful literature, though.

Chopped, frozen strawberries in milk. Sometimes with maple syrup. Cream if I’m feeling rich.

Sorry about that, it’s the internet. I’m not a doctor, but it was explained to me that proteins from different sources are not all the same and, while I can process protein from a variety of foods, I don’t do it as efficiently as with muscle proteins. The nutritionist I spoke to - who was a vegan and a vegan activist - said people like me need about 1-2 chicken breasts per week. It’s not uncommon, a lot of people who try to go veggie and can’t hack it just go back to meat without trying to figure out why they felt sick and tired. Other people have said it’s genetic based on your ancestors, but I haven’t seen a lot of evidence to support that. Other sources point to evidence you can alter the way your body processes things by following specific diet plans, but I’m not prepared to feel that shitty again to figure it out.

Oh gee I didn’t try eggs or dairy in the months I felt like shit after going veggie, and neither the doctor nor nutritionist suggested that either. You solved all my dietary needs and I can give up meat now after years of trying to figure out the most sustainable diet I can manage.

Where I live the beef is local and cheap. I’m not able to obtain enough protein without meat, as confirmed by a doctor and a nutritionist when I tried to go vegetarian. With food costs so high it’s cheaper to buy cow than anything else, but when I have the money I opt for fish or turkey. I looked into hunting but it’s prohibitively expensive for me with permits, tags, guns, licenses, days off and transportation. I tried fishing for myself as well, but whenever I get time to do it, there are warnings about eating fish in the area. When there aren’t I never catch anything big enough to legally be allowed to keep. I’d like to get chickens if/when local government ever lifts the bylaws preventing it.

I’m sure screaming into an echo chamber is helping everyone.

As much as I know they’re crazy, I agree with how they got there. It’s not like public education does a good job of educating citizens in legal and government literacy. The US government is biased, abusive, and puts corporate interests over the welfare of people which can trap folks into a kind of life they can’t possibly hope to escape from. There aren’t many options for people who want to leave society. Few places to go that aren’t owned, protected and regulated. The sovcit movement is madness, but I understand what broke these people and made them want to take control of their lives. It’s a shame people profit off providing misinformation to these folks.

Instructions Unclear: I forgave my landlord for reno-victing me, forgave the supermarket chains that price-fixed groceries which put me in debt. I was careful not to buy products which contribute to wars and inequality, even though it was harder and more expensive. Now I’m living the simple life by meditating under a bridge, but it’s cold down here and the politicians are arguing over whether they should be able to kick me out and throw away my things. The only shelter with room available requires me to worship their god.