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I have been going to the store twice a week lately. I would love to go daily and pick up the very freshest food possible, but I don’t leave the house every day, making it fuelish to run to the store. Although my heart has always been in the whole, real food movement, my pocketbook has screamed for relief in the past. The savings offered by the local megamart added to clipped coupons seemed a reasonable way to provide more bang for my buck. I was good at it, too. I could buy enough food, paper and cleaning products to last us a week on $200 after my $40-50 of coupons were deducted. That’s a very very reasonable expense for feeding three teens, two preteens, two adults and two cavies.
I expected my food costs to rise when I started focusing on whole, real foods again. Actually, I expected them to almost exactly double, which they have. I grin and bear it at the checkstand, remembering that 1) CSA season is about to start up again, bringing the freshest in-season organic produce to me for half what I’d spend in a store; 2) maybe, just maybe someday the lack of a medical bill down the road will make up the difference; 2) I’m feeding not only my children, but my grand and great-grandchildren by providing solid nutrition during my own children’s growing years; 3) my checkstand activism (more on that in another post) might make a difference somehow.
I checked this week’s menus and put together the grocery list this morning and decided to look to see if any items on my list was being offered with discounts at any of the local stores. Way at the very back of the ad insert, there were a few deals on asparagus, apples and strawberries, none local or organic. But the greatest part of the flyers were for processed foods like Hot Pockets, weiners, already cooked and tubbed BBQ meat, Pizza Rolls, Coke, Chef Boyardee, and the like. Oh, the prices were wonderful! But there’s no food in that food! I started thinking about my experiences traveling and living in various parts of the US. I was never sure why the most urban-impoverished areas of our nation were also the most overweight, but I think I’m starting to get it. Now, I’m not talking about the true hill people I’ve met who eat the possum they shoot and the turnip greens they grow. I’m talking about the urbanized low-income who shop at the Piggly Wiggly with (or without) financial assistance. I fell into that trap as well, seeing only the bottom-dollar line at the store. And yes, there is a world of difference between feeding us for 4 days for $200 or 7 days for $200 when our income was only $700 a week!
So, I’m starting to “get it.” Yeah, sure, it’s worth it to eat real food and probably be helping my and my family’s health, and all that stuff they say. But it hurts. It’s hard to make the choice of raw milk for $9 a gallon when $1.33 a gallon will pick me up the same quantity of store brand homogenized ultra-pasteurized. It’s something I struggle with.
Dinner’s first course tonight was a big bunch of baby spinach for salad. We passed soaked, roasted pecans that had been sauteed in butter and Rapadura, blue cheese and homemade orange salad dressing. The main dish was pan-fried halibut. I made red pepper butter to put on the fish and it was the perfect complement. I’m not really a fan of fish, but the red pepper butter took all the “fishy” flavor out and left only sweet, smoky, salty smoothness. The hit of the meal, as far as the kids were concerned, was the frozen berries with Creme Anglaise over the top which we had for dessert. It tasted like homemade vanilla ice cream, melted! They kept asking for more and more berries to put the cream on.
Oldest boy has been ill with stomach problems for almost a week. Of course, he eats the smallest amount of my cooking he can, preferring to subsist on Nutella, white bread and Pop Tarts. I have promised him he would improve rapidly on my cooking, and he hasn’t complained about what he has eaten, but he doesn’t usually eat much. Tonight he had a tablespoon of fish and three berries. He did have almost a quarter cup of the Creme Anglaise, though. I have been getting up early and scrambling him two eggs for breakfast, and this week he asked for some homemade (non-alcoholic) eggnog. I cheated on the horrible low-fat milk, fake egg and white sugar recipe and used whole milk, cultured cream and maple syrup along with the egg yolks and nutmeg. He says it has a “strange aftertaste,” (the cultured cream, no doubt) but he also has drunk a pint of it in the last two days.
I found a nearby source for wheat berries! I found a source for beef stock bones, too, but they are out for about three to four weeks. My bone supplier is the same place where I get my “pet” milk (raw milk.) They sent out an email this week that it’s time to re-up the CSA membership, too. I really, sincerely hope and pray the finances for CSA participation become available. It was such a blessing last year.
The Dark Side of Fat Loss
