THREE! And all different places.
Hello, my name is Laura and I have a grocery shopping addiction. Or maybe I just have an addiction to pretending I'm all old-school Frenchy-French and thus need to purchase food on a near-daily basis.
Anyway, I thought I'd go whole hog and show you the grocery pictures, too. (You: OMG, that is SOOOOO EXCITING!) To further explain the multiple grocery store trips, I will tell you that it is partly due to being picky about ingredients while still trying to be budget-savvy. So we get some stuff at Super Target and some at the co-op. Then there are a couple other mini-trips for forgotten ingredients or dessert. Plus, the grocery store is something to do with Bella, especially when it's nice enough for us to walk there and back, and she has many a merchant friend at our neighborhood Lund's.
As you will see, we buy a lot of organic stuff. A significant (SIGNIFICANT) chunk of our monthly expenditures go to groceries, but it's something that is important to us so we accept it (and our budget is sad and paltry in other areas because of it). There was a paragraph in Micheal Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma that has stuck with me - basically it was stating that a century ago people used to spend over 1/3 of their income on food and that the current low cost of many food products is a reflection of how crazy our food system has become. Quality food costs money, and yet crappy food can be insanely cheap (hello dollar menu). So I remind myself of that factoid when I cringe at the pie graphs showing where our money goes on Mint.com.
Now, I realize that it is really not possible for everyone to purchase organic. If you are interested in eating more organic, but are faced with budgetary issues, I would encourage you to look at the clean 15/dirty dozen list to see what produce is best to buy organic and which conventionally grown ones are fine to buy. And if money is an issue, I wouldn't worry about buying everything organic (meaning things like grains). Just focus on the produce and reducing conventionally raised meat products in your life.
Sunday Super Target Trip
Dairy/Refrigerator Section: Silk Soy Milk (Husband's), Calcium-fort OJ (Husband's), Stoneyfield organic low-fat plain yogurt, Oikos 0% organic greek yogurt
Freezer: Organic blueberries, Alexia sweet potato fries, Van's gluten-free waffles (gross - don't rec!)
Grains/Packaged: Oatnut bread (not the best choice), Old-fashioned oats, Penne pasta (white pasta - I don't like whole wheat), Vegetarian baked beans
Other: Cadbury eggs, Jelly beans (Obviously both organic. Pffft! I kid, I kid.)
Tuesday Co-op Trip
(Eastside Co-op in NE Mpls)
Dairy/Refrigerator: String cheese (local), goat cheese (local), Muenster cheese (Hormone-free, etc but not local), Wraps (organic)
Meats/Protein: Whole chicken & chicken breast (local, but as I just now inspected the package I think I want to find out more info about the farm), canned Cannelini beans (organic - Eden Foods/BPA-free cans), eggs (local, organic), sustainably caught canned tuna
Other: Dry Vanilla Soda (I really like these - they have half the sugar and no artificial stuff), fair trade vanilla coffee
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| I let Bella be in charge of the cart since we went at 8 AM on a weekday. Only one of us had a great time. Guess which one? |
Wednesday's Lund's Trip
(expensive neighborhood grocery store that I should really stop buying things at)
Amazingly, I still foresee the need for a trip to Whole Foods on Friday (cake!) and probably another trip to Lund's this week. Grocery shopping addiction: it's a real problem, I tell you.
I'm addicted to grocery shopping too, though the 3 kids have curbed my addiction. 3 children + 1 mom + a big grocery shopping trip = a near nervous breakdown.
ReplyDeleteI also love Eastside though I only get down there about twice a yr. (10% off Chinook book coupon!) Fresh and Natural is the best IMHO b/c of their stamp cards. You should also check out Azure standard (dot com) Plus I'm finding that buying organic stuff on Amazon can be cheap too (coconut oil, coffee, cake mixes, etc.
My only question is this - How in the world do you shop with Bella without losing your mind? Charlie + Grocery Store = Mental Break Down for Katie...
ReplyDeleteTIPS PLEASE.
Also, I am like in love with your food posts and the RD in me wants you to do this forever. I am sure this would in no way impact your overall readership or get annoying for you at all, right?
ohmygoodness, I started letting Ava use the mini shopping cart and it makes her LIFE. But only when I'm not in a hurry. The first time she smashed into the shelf and knocked over a bunch of mayo jars. Oy.
ReplyDeleteI have that same problem! We go to the grocery store almost daily and we shop at three different stores as well! Either I want to make something we don't have all the ingredients for, or I forgot to buy one thing I needed (although I always end up leaving with more than one thing). I'm starting to meal plan in order for us to eat healthier and get our food budget under control. Those on the fly grocery trips really make a big dent. I'm enjoying reading your food post. I've been contemplating doing it as well, but I am a little scared of what my outcome would be. It'd probably mean I'd have to rein in my constant all day snacking, because taking a picture everytime would be way too much work!
ReplyDeleteSome college friends of mine have an organic farm just south of the metro. They sell a variety of meat products including poultry & hogs. You should check them out (especially if you have a big freezer to buy in bulk).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zweberfarms.com/
Rachel - Had never considered online stuff for organic groceries before. Great idea! And, yeah, pretty sure my la-di-dah grocery shopping days are numbered :) Planning on doing Coburns Delivers immediately after the baby comes (decent organic selection) and I'll see how it goes from there!
ReplyDeleteKatie - Bella is weirdly good about grocery shopping, but I think it really helps that each trip isn't that big of a trip. She definitely seems to have a breaking point so I don't dawdle. Other ideas for toddler management - bring water/crackers for snacks, head for the dollar bin and get a book or small toy to buy (another plus for Super Target!), and let her "help". I give her certain things to hold and she tosses them into the basket (obviously this only works for some items).
Ally - Did they break!? Oh no! Funny. I once (stupidly) gave Bella a glass jar of yeast to hold. Yeah, that was a brilliant move. Clean up on aisle 5!
Race to the Finish - You should do it!!
Megan - I would love a big freezer, but in our current townhome it would have to share a room with Bella, so... :) I will still check out the farm - thanks for the linK!
I HAVE THIS SAME ADDICTION.
ReplyDeletei go grocery shopping all the time.
i'm really close to both whole foods and supa target, so it's just easy to get there...and it's something to do? and i actually prefer little small trips to HUGE trips where i'm left lugging in bags upon bags. i'm sure i'm inefficient and spending too much money yada yada...but i'm not stoppin it!
*fist bump*
Holy cow, I now understand why your food posts always look amazingly yummy and mine are well, sub-par. I grocery shop probably once every two - three weeks! And by the time I get around to making something on my meals list we've either eaten half the groceries required or they've expired. I'm definitely living vicariously through all your food posts this week. :)
ReplyDeleteI did a grocery store detox (GSD) last year with the SuperTelegas... we weren't allowed to go to the store for the WHOLE week. I think it was last April-ish if you want to dig through my blog archives for it....it was a doozy of a week. :)
ReplyDeleteKim - I WOULD DIE. DIE.
ReplyDelete