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???
What about that fancy farmer's market you have there? That should cut costs, no? I think we have to just keep reminding ourselves that the things we think constitute a meal or we "should" be eating are just cultural norms and we do not have to continue following them. What's wrong with a meal just like the one I give Jude for lunch that consists of several small, unrelated items, like almonds, an apple, rice and beans, and a clementine? Also, I think we've been tricked into thinking we need variety. I think as long as we rotate once or twice a week, eating the same things over and over (as long as the same things contain a variety of nutrients) is fine. I think reminding myself of these things helps me be satisfied when I go to the store that the same ole stuff works. Oh, also, I read that one of the problems with the fact that we have so little available affordable organic produce is that we then don't eat enough produce at all because we can't afford the organics so we go without. I think this is the wrong approach. I believe eating fruit and veggies, even if some of it isn't organic, is better than skipping them because we can't afford or find what we want. And this also goes back to my variety point - I can always find organic apples. So I just have to be happy with a lot of organic apples.
ReplyDeleteYes, the farmer's market is a great resource and thankfully since they changed the schedule I'll be able to take advantage of it now! You make some other great points. And I don't feel that I need to buy *everything* organic. But i really prefer to buy things from the dirty dozen list organic which unfortunately contains many of the things I would normally buy :(
DeleteHere's a little trick I've learned that is fantastic! IF you guys like ice cream or are craving something sweet and cool this summer... I keep cut-up, frozen banana in my freezer at all times and when an ice cream craving hits me, I throw the banana and some raw milk into my food processor and in mere minutes I have an ice creamy, delicious, nutritious dessert to gobble down! Gabriel will love it when he's older! (Carole)
ReplyDelete