I must do something about our food situation. I'm going to go broke...er. Knowledge is a tricky thing. I can't un-learn the things I have about our food supply though sometimes I wish I could still consume mounds of GMO laden corn tortilla chips at a Mexican restaurant in blissful ignorance. Some foods I used to eat I now look at and think they might as well be labeled with poison warnings. Therefore I am basically left with shopping in the health food sections of stores (and not even everything there is without issues) and the organic section of the supermarket produce aisle (which is sadly limited in many stores around here). This week I went to Hyvee and spent a little over $100, came back home and still felt like I didn't have a lot to eat. This is kinda ridiculous and has been bothering me ever since. I must find a solution.
Here are my main obstacles:
1. Americans (me included) are not used to paying so much for food. We have been tricked by Taco Bells and Ramen Noodles into thinking that one should be able to eat on a small fraction of our income. Thus, it becomes really difficult to go from spending a dollar or two on, say, a roll of regular biscuit dough, to then spending $5 on a roll of biscuit dough that does not contain GMO ingredients, high fructose corn syrup, bleached flour,etc (I may or may not do this) which leads me to my next problem...
2. I do not have enough time to cook all these things from scratch which, undoubtedly, would be cheaper. Oh what did I do with all my time before I had a baby?? I probably could have baked five loaves of bread a week and made my own butter. But no, I had more important things to do like watch The Bachelor (Darn you Ben and your stupid vineyard!).
3. I'm probably eating too much organic "junk-food". One does not really, truly need organic cookies...Right? And one probably doesn't need $5 biscuits for that matter. I could just eat toast. Oh, but wait! The bread I buy also costs $5 a loaf...Oy. My real goal is to eat whole foods. Organic processed foods are still processed foods. Perhaps they are a much, much better option for an occasional treat, but they should still be just that, a treat. It is the same issue of time and convenience to which I must find a solution.
4. My husband (sorry honey). If it were just me in the house, I think all this would be a tad easier. However, while Brian is supportive, he doesn't have quite the same conviction and concern about the same things as I do. Also, he doesn't cook much. Therefore I feel almost forced into processed foods ($$) just so there will be something in the house that he can/will eat without me. I think I could be perfectly happy most of the time with a meal totally comprised of vegetables. Not so sure Brian feels the same...
While I do believe in the saying "pay now or pay later" referring to health care costs, there has to be a better way. I understand that my grocery bill is bound to be higher due to the changes I've made and I'm ok with that. I really believe I could lower it though if I just learned some tricks to better planning.
So for all my fellow Micheal Pollan readin', Food Inc. watchin', Whole Foods shoppin' peeps out there, what do you do???
