Grocery Shopping

I'll let you in on a little secret.  My wife and I only spend about $70 a week on groceries for the three of us (Oliver counts, Jessi eats enough for both of them :-p).  That includes non-food items, as well as dog food.  So that works out to about $5 per person per day.  Yup, for the cost of one footlong sub, we get a day's worth of food.  Good food.  How on earth do we do that?  Well, for one thing it means spending a lot of time in the kitchen (see bake day!).  On the other hand, it means shopping smart.  So here are some shopping tips I've learned along the way.

• Buy in bulk.  I don't mean going to Costco and buying a 20lb jar of peanut butter.  I mean go to your grocery stores bulk section and buy all of your grains and beans that way.  If your grocer doesn't have a bulk grain section, try a local healthfood store.  Trust me, not only will things be cheaper this way, but you'll get better quality food.  For instance, we love steel cut oats.  It typically sells in 14oz bags for around  $2.50, whereas if we buy it from the bulk section, we can get 16oz of organic oats for $2.40 (the organic bags sell for about $4.50).  You save even more on beans, and have the bonus of not having a ton of salt added.
• Don't go to 6 different stores looking for the best deal.  It's a waste of time.  Time you could be spending with your baby, or cooking all the food you just bought.  Pick two stores that are fairly close together.  Try to pick one that's a health food store as these generally have a bigger selection of grains, fruits, and vegetables, plus the bulk sections.  The other should be a relatively cheap, supermarket type store.  Once you've been frequenting them for awhile, you'll know what's cheaper at which store, and you have to make any back and forth trips.
• Plan you're meals before you go.  Look at the weekly ads for your stores, and decide on a menu for the week.  We usually try to pick 5 dinners and have a lunch idea or two.  Meals that make good leftovers are a plus since they can go with you to work the next day.
• Don't just buy a bunch of Ramen.  We're all familiar the Ramen noodle and pizza diet.  We also know, you can't do that very long.  Fortunately there are plenty of inexpensive ways to get some variety in your diet.  Tired of rice?  Try substituting quinoa.  Sick of pasta?  Squash makes an tasty (and more nutritious) substitute.  Also adding a variety of fruits and vegetables can help stave off the flavor pangs.
• Additionally, a well stocked spice cabinet is a must
• Focus on buying nutrient dense foods.  Sure potatoes are filling (excluding the fried variety), but if you're not getting the nutrients you need, you're still going to be crabby.  So focus on incorporating as large a variety of fruits and veggies as you can.  Don't just grab a dozen bananas because they're cheap.  Buy 6 of those and a few plums.  Try to include at least one leafy green a week as well.
• Cut back on the meat.  Meat is expensive, and it turns out that, much like the meat you're eating, you can get the vitamins and nutrients you need from plants.  I'm by no means a vegetarian, I love a good steak as much as the next man, but it's just not necessary (or healthy) to have meat 7 nights a week.  Beans make an excellent protein source, and cost a lot less.
• No matter what people tell you, fresh fruits and vegetables are not expensive. They just aren't, so buy more of them.  Yes, I'm talking to you person who buys a $1.50 package of hot dogs, but scoffs at apples that are $1.00/lb.  And I stress fresh because they retain a lot more of their nutrients (not to mention taste better) than canned or frozen varieties.
• Use what you buy.  You're fridge and pantry should look pretty well empty by the end of the week.  If they're not, you probably spent a lot more than you needed, and if you've bought a lot of fresh produce, it's probably going bad.  So if it's not part of the meal plan, or you don't think you'll eat it that week, don't buy it.

I'm not saying this is easy to do, but your wallet sure will appreciate it, and probably your stomach as well, and maybe even your belt buckle (just saying).  Good shopping ya'll.

Bake day!

I love food.  Just going to throw that out there.  Specifically real food.  The kind that's ingredients are all actually food, as opposed to a few food-like substances, some artificial flavoring, and three cups of chemical preservatives.  The problem is, it is difficult to both find and subsequently be able afford real food.

Fortunately, for those of us who don't mind spending a day in the kitchen now and then, it's really not that difficult to make real food, and the ingredients are relatively cheap.  The best part is, by making all of your food from scratch, you know exactly what's in it (and if you buy from a local co-op or farmers market, you know exactly where it came from).

I won't lie to you, when I say a day in the kitchen, I mean an 8 hour day, with an hour or two worth of breaks/downtime while things bake (and regularly checking of the Tigers game score).  However, with a little practice, you can get a lot done in 8 hours.  For instance, today I was able to make:

• 1 loaf of whole wheat sandwich bread
• 1 dozen whole wheat pretzels
• 1 pizza, plus dough for a second one
• 18 whole wheat tortillas
• Roasted vegetable burrito filling (to fill some of the tortillas of course)
• And Jessi made an apple pie in the meantime

Fortunately for me, that means I've already made three meals (including this evenings) for the week, plus bread for lunches, and a good snack.  So that means I probably won't spend more than another hour or two in the kitchen all week (which means more game time during naps!)