The first ingredient for a successful shopping trip is to prepare a list. If I don’t write out the list, my shopping trip ends up like Dagwood Bumstead’s shopping trips. I come home with groceries from food groups my wife didn’t even know existed – drill bits, nails, a spare tire. So, first I go through the master grocery list of everything we might possibly every need and make a new list of the things I need this time. Ok, so some things I just want, but let’s not go into that.
When I get to the grocery store. I grab a cart. Sure, sure, I could just put the groceries in my arms. I’m sure you know some people who just put the items in their arms. Then their arms get full and they go back and get a basket. Then the basket gets full and they go get a cart. The way I figure it, I always end up needing a cart, so why not get the cart in the first place. That way it gives you longer to dream of riding in the cart rather than pushing the cart. Plus you can pretend you’re a race car driver (until they kick you out of the store for being a threat to glass bottles).
The next trick is to read all the ingredients. If something sounds too chemically, or you’re just not sure what monodextrohexaoctalgluconate is, or it sounds like something you should put in your car, rather than your body; it’s probably not fit for human consumption and you should probably skip it. “Oh, but it looks soooo good”. Well, there is that.
And even though the grocery store heads you toward refrigerated and frozen items first, buy them last. Even though you’ve brought a cooler with blue ice to put these items in, you need to be kind to them and not make them suffer in the heat any longer than they have to. It’s imperative that you get that ice cream home to the safety of your freezer as soon as possible.
I try to buy organic food as much as possible. It tends to be fresher and I don’t have to wash off all the sprays. Plus, I like to support those who go to all the trouble of certifying their stuff as organic. I understand that’s not an easy or cheap process.
Now, I’m just going to walk you through the grocery store, picking up items on the list and giving you some pointers as I go. Of course, if we see something that we just can’t live without, we’ll pick it up even if it’s not on the list. This tendency to pick up items which are not on the list is another reason I always get a grocery cart – even when there are only 3 items on the list. Peanut Butter. If the store has a peanut butter grinder, it’s usually cheaper to grind your own peanut butter than to buy the already ground kind. This also keeps the peanut butter from separating. If you need to buy an already ground kind, Maranatha is the tastiest. Jelly. Except for the most expensive brands, organic jelly tends to separate before I get to the bottom. I guess I should have listened to my dad. He always told me to use a spoon to scoop out the jelly rather than a knife. This, he said, would keep the jelly from separating. I’ve never tried it, so I wouldn’t know. Rather than buying jelly, I usually just use honey or molasses on my peanut butter sandwiches. Soup. Soups have lots of ingredients (except perhaps Imagine brand). So, if you’re allergic to something like corn or onions which are in most soups, you may have to make your own. Amy’s and ShariAnn’s are usually the best brands of soup. Crackers. Crackers tend to have dairy products in them. (Except for water crackers, which have (you guessed it) water in them.) Ak-Mak is a very good, cheap brand. If you’re looking for a more natural version of Ritz, try Barbara’s – not organic, but very good. Beans. If beans give you gas, try lentils (not beans), Aduki/Adzuki, or Anasazi beans. I like Black beans and Red beans. Terry likes Pinto beans. We also usually buy canned beans as they’re a whole lot easier to prepare than dried beans. Chinese Vegetables. If anybody ever finds organic chinese vegetables, please let me know. Tuna. When selecting tuna, I pick Dolphin Safe tuna which only has these ingredients: Tuna, Water, Salt. Sometimes I get the kind which doesn’t even have salt. Anything else in the tuna is probably a cloaked form of MSG. Oil. We’re not talking 10-W-30 or whatever kind you put in your car. We’re talking about the kind you cook with. Olive oil is the tastiest. Canola oil is good if you don’t want to add any oil flavor. Pasta. I was buying pasta in the bulk section until I noticed that pre-packaged pasta was the same price and a whole lot easier to pick up. So, now we buy Bio-Nature. If bulk pasta is cheaper for you, try using a plastic bag as a glove to pick up the pasta. Then turn the bag inside out and voila, the pasta is now inside the bag. This is a little trickier if you want more than one handful of pasta. Tomato Sauce. Some people say Muir Glen tomato sauce is the best spaghetti sauce they’ve ever tasted. It does have onions, garlic, salt, and citric acid in it, but that’s it (besides the tomatoes). We use Muir Glen tomatoes with chili peppers for tacos. This varies from mild to hot depending on what kind of peppers were ripe at the time. And their Pizza Sauce is very good, if you’re into making your own pizzas. Salad Dressing. Annie’s. Soda. Buy club soda and fruit juice and make your own. Santa Cruz Root Beer is the best root beer I’ve ever tasted. And often times local brand or small batch Sodas are better than the national brands. Chips. My favorite brands are Que Pasa and Bearitos. I prefer Que Pasa and it’s a little cheaper. Juice. Sun Organic is very good. Knudsen is good sometimes, other times you’d swear the guy doesn’t have the sense of taste. My theory is that up until about 5 years ago, Papa Knudsen created all the recipes. Then, his son, who does have the sense of taste got in on the act and things improved. But there are still plenty of Knudsen products formulated by Papa Knudsen on the market. So, buyer beware. Cereal. If you want good and cheap try the big bag brands – Nature’s Path or Barbara’s. Barbara’s was my favorite until they added their organic line which seems to have more sugar. If you want a hot cereal, try Bear Mush. Paper products. Try Green Forest for cheap. Try Seventh Generation for high quality. Soy Milk. West Soy Original. Avoid the very similar looking West Soy unsweetened, which is usually sitting right next to the Original. Green Drinks. Green Drinks are those little bottles of drinks in refrigerator sections that are quick pick-me-ups. If you can’t find one, look for the Odwalla display. Odwalla green drink is the most refreshing, in my opinion. But that could be because Naked Juice has green tea and broccoli in it, and I don’t care for those tastes. Naked Juice’s Vanilla Almond is very good, although it’s white, not green. If you prefer White Drinks, try different varieties of Amazake, which also has a good tasting green drink. If you’re on a budget, try Nature’s Life Super-Green with Supro in the powdered drink section. Nature’s Life also makes a Super-Red and a Super-Blue. To me Super-Blue tastes the best, with Super-Red coming in second. The directions on these Nature’s Life powdered drinks are for a blender-full at a time. For a glass, try three heaping teaspoons of powder to a large glass of liquid (milk, water, etc.) Fish. The concern when buying fish is, Where did this fish live? Was it’s environment polluted? Did it have a happy life? Was it overfished? What was it’s name? Was it an only child? Ok, so maybe you don’t have all those concerns. Maybe you only care if it still has eyes that will stare back at you and make you feel guilty. Wild Fish (sans eyes) in the frozen section answers most of those questions to our liking. (We still don’t know if it was an only child.) Bread. Probably the least expensive of the really healthy breads is Ezekiel Sprouted Bread. This bread has a different texture and taste than most breads, but it grows on you. Cheese. I try to avoid any cheese which is a) soft, or b) some color other yellow or orange (like blue for instance). Feta cheese is good if you like brine. Flax Oil. If you can’t eat butter or margarine, try mixing Flax Oil and Olive Oil. One taste and you can believe it’s not butter. Flax oil is in the refrigerator part of the vitamin section. Fruit and Vegetables. By the time I get to the produce section, I’m tired of reading labels, so we try to buy most of our fruits and vegetables at places that only sell organic fruits and vegetables, so we don’t have to read the Organic/Non-Organic label. These places include our local Vitamin Cottage, and an organic veggie stand run by some university students. Kale. I prefer dinosaur kale. Terry prefers purple. Regular is the cheapest. Lettuce. Romaine (rhymes with Ptomaine) lasts the longest. Peppers. Finding organic chilis and jalapenos is very hard, so we stock up and freeze them when we can find them. Red, Orange, and Yellow bell peppers are nice, especially in stir fry. But they’re a lot more expensive than the Green. Tomatoes, I prefer the beefier kind, including Romas. Cherry Tomatoes are also nice, but expensive. We also buy spinach, carrots, celery, avocados, and zucchini. The oil off the avocados burns my hands, so either Terry picks them up, or I use a plastic bag for a glove. Since Terry is allergic to most fruit, we don’t buy much of that. Pizza. Amy’s Pizza with Roasted Veggies is not bad for a frozen pizza. Ice Cream. The best (and perhaps most expensive) non-dairy ice cream is Soy Delicious. It also has a trick of growing about an inch taller in my freezer before I open it. So I end up getting more than I paid for. Butter. I used to buy Canoleo margarine (or Lion in a Can as we called it), when there was more than just myself eating it. But I can’t finish off a whole tub of margarine before it goes bad, so now I buy butter instead. Too hard to spread, you say. I say, just cut off a slab, put it on your bread, and stick it in the microwave for 9 or 10 seconds. (Turning on the microwave helps.) Then spread it. Tofu and Tempeh. White Wave. Also try White Wave Fakin Bakin Tempeh for a real treat. Tortilla Shells. Try getting a brand which places separator sheets (wax paper) between the tortilla shells. Otherwise, when you freeze them, they’ll stick together.
Now we’re done. We can go pay for this stuff. Don’t tell me you forgot to bring your own bags! We can only all afford this if we get bag credits and we use one bag per item!
Book 2 My World of Food
Written by Dale Stubbart Blessed by Terry Stubbart
