Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The "No Buy" List

For the most part, my lifestyle improvements are about planning ahead rather than outright denying myself. But I'm going to try something slightly more difficult with grocery shopping. Or easier?

There is a list of things I'm no longer buying at the grocery store, which includes almost all of the snack foods I can think of. I still buy crackers, because sometimes my stomach can't handle more than saltines, and Triscuits are an OK substitute for bread when I don't want to make sandwiches. Its fine so long as I don't eat the whole box. They make rosemary flavored Triscuits now, ZOMG.

BUT I am OK with eating desserts if I make them myself. I can usually make it better ;-) I even have an ice cream maker, but am sticking to sorbet for the time being.

Also on the list are most dairy products. I've had a LOT of chest colds this spring, and dairy makes them worse, so I'm staying away from cheese and ice cream for a while. I used to buy corn chips primarily as a vehicle for eating as much sour cream as possible, so both of those are gone. Butter survived the purge because I bake with it.

I'm trying to stick to products with ingredients that I understand. Crackers are an exception, but WOW bread is hard to shop for now. Its like I can only have ingredients I recognize *or* high fiber content. WTH. Canned soups are also annoying as I work through the backlog of items purchased before I made this list. Mayonnaise is mostly recognizable except for the preservatives.

I cut out most sodas when I went caffeine free 5+ years ago (this freaks people out WAY more than my teetotaler habits). I really only drink water in my house, or fresh brewed tea, or sometimes I have a bottle of V8 in the fridge. Liquid products are super heavy to carry home from the grocery store anyway.


I like my food products like I like my people: able to clearly communicate what they're about.

3 comments:

Darcey said...

Cris, try making your own bread. It's easy, there are no-knead recipes, and you can control the ingredients SO much better, as well as make what you need and freeze dough for thawing and making size-appropriate portions.

Anonymous said...

Seconding Darcey's suggestion...I was about to recommend the same when I saw someone already had. There're a TON of bread recipes out there, and you can even put things like rosemary and such INTO the bread itself;-)

Chrys said...

Thanx guys! I have considered that. Actually, I won a bread-making lesson in a fundraiser auction at my improv theater last month. I just need to stop being sick and/or busy all the time so I can make that happen.

Mmmmm rosemary bread mmmmm. And I already have a dough hook on my stand mixer :-D