Getting Prepped

The clock is ticking…the “real food challenge” will begin on Sunday morning.  Yesterday, I cleaned out the pantry to get rid of foods we will not be eating.  Holy smokes…I haven’t cleaned that out in a looong time.  I threw out canned items that expired in 2010!  How old would they have to be if they EXPIRED in 2010!?!?!?!?  Which brought up another New Year’s resolution; decrease wasted food.  I probably threw away $80 in food yesterday.  That could have gone to the food shelf.

Anyway, we are now in pig-out mode.  We have snacks in the house that will not be there come Sunday morning.  So I told the kids to eat what they want because in a few days it will be gone.  I plan to actually remove most foods that are not allowed to decrease the temptation to sneak something. 

I went grocery shopping and bought (what I hope is) a week’s supply of groceries.  Some of our food lifestyle isn’t changing by much; what I make for meals is pretty much staying the same with just a few modifications.  BUT, what we snack on and what I make for breakfast is changing radically.

Many people talk about how expensive it is to buy produce, high quality meat, and organic foods.  I was curious, though, would it be that much more expensive if you are not buying bags of chips (at $4/bag), bottles of pop ($3.50 or $4 for a 6-pack of bottles that lasts a week), coffee creamer (*sniff* at $2.00 a bottle; 2 bottles per week).

So I set out to the grocery store.  Because it was after work, and because I was tired; I decided to shop at St. Joe’s Coborn’s instead of my usual Cashwise.  So, the price of my regular grocery trip would be higher than usual simply because of the change of venue.  It has been about 3 weeks since I have done a major grocery shopping trip.  Typically, when I go that long, I will spend about $200+ on a trip to Cashwise.  This will supply our house with at least 1.5 weeks of foods, but we run short on meats and cereal after about a week. 

Also, note, I do have a small-ish supply of meat on-hand because I am a meat hoarder.  So, we have a turkey breast, a ham, about 15 lbs of hamburger, and several packages of chicken breasts.  So, I didn’t need to buy that.  I also have 1 1/2 loaves of bread from Great Harvest Bread Co on hand, and I have 18 eggs.

So, tonight I bought:  8 braeburn apples, 3 lbs of oranges, 5 pears, a large package of blueberries, 2 pomegranates, a bag of carrots, 2 organic peppers, about 4 heads of broccoli, 20 ounces of almonds, 12 ounces of cashews, an onion, 8 lbs of potatoes, 4 small packages of chicken breasts, 1 whole chicken, 1 large chuck roast, organic grape jelly, organic pizza sauce, organic whole-wheat mac and cheese, organic oatmeal, some weird all-natural strawberry spritz soda that Ed may need—he IS trying to give up an addiction to Diet Mt. Dew, cocktail peanuts, a gallon of milk, a pint of organic yogurt, a block of mozzarella cheese, whole wheat egg noodles, sea salt, 100% maple syrup, all-natural string cheese, 2 boxes of brown minute rice (I know, minute rice?  I can’t cook regular rice), and some of those weird squeezy applesauce things for the kids’ lunches.  My total was $180.  I still need to get 5 lbs of whole-wheat flour, but I am otherwise set for a week. 

Now, granted, if I wouldn’t be attempting this crazy eating plan, I may have spent more, but my cart would have been much more full than what it was. (Remember above that I am not going to waste food?  I didn’t buy stuff just because it was on sale, or just because it looked good).  So it is hard to say what I would have spent.

But, the bottom line is, I came in a bit under what I was expecting for a week’s worth of food, and that makes me happy!

The meal plan for the week looks like this:

ALL BREAKFASTS:  Choice of eggs, whole-wheat pancakes (premade by me and frozen), crock-pot oatmeal (plan to make a batch of it on Monday morning), or whole-wheat toast

LUNCHES:  Cameron will eat school lunch, Lilly and Alex will take a cold lunch consisting of: PB&J on whole-wheat bread (organic PB and J), a piece of fruit, a small baggie of nuts, carrot sticks, string cheese or yogurt with fruit, and a peanut butter cookie (organic PB made with whole-wheat flour…not sure how that is going to go over!).  Ed and I will eat leftovers from our supper the evening before.

SUPPER:  Sunday--Roasted Turkey Breast, potatoes, broccoli:  Monday—Roast Beef, potatoes or brown rice, peas:  Tuesday—Baked chicken, potatoes, frozen corn:  Wednesday—Leftovers (remember no waste!):  Thursday—Mexican baked chicken fajitas with brown rice:  Friday—Homemade pizza (homemade whole-wheat crust, organic pasta sauce, hamburger, and hand-shredded mozzarella cheese.

SNACKS:  Fruit, nuts, peanut butter cookie, popcorn

That’s the plan for the week.  Wish us luck!