Chew Slowly and Savor Your Food Rule

Food vanishes from this house quickly. My oldest and quickly growing daughter can eat as much as I do and I have a big appetite for a small woman. People are amazed at how much food I can eat. At the grocery store I avoid buying the snacks, the cereal bars, the candies to save money, for the environment and to live healthier. Instead, I load up on vegetables and fruits (local and organic if affordable). I buy some meat (mostly whole natural chickens) to make up for the days we run out of CSA meat. I buy cold organic cereals for the morning, eggs, potatoes, rice and organic milk. These are the basics. Sometimes I'll buy stuff to make homemade snacks and I always buy crackers to eat with tuna.

When I look at the grocery cart I am amazed at how full it is? When I pay for the groceries I swear under by breath and sometimes out loud that the food better last a month, but when I look at the fridge two weeks later I am shocked that it didn't.

Where does it all go? I stretch the food. I ration it out. I no longer cook enough to make leftover unless I know %100 percent we will eat them for lunch tomorrow. I don't let the fruits and vegetables rot. I.... I don't understand. Not long ago I heard this story on the news about a women who fed her whole family for a month on something like $100. She fed them things like noodles with veggies inside. She'd make soups and save the chicken bones for flavoring etc. etc. She's also a coupon clipper.

Now I do most of that, except save the bones. I give those to my dog. I also don't coupon clip though I have been meaning too. I have a box of coupons waiting to be clipped and used. In the past though, looking through those coupons I found little of use. There are no coupons for fresh fruits and vegetables. There are very little coupons for organic foods and frozen vegetables and fruits. I use what I can find, but these coupons are usually for the expensive organic brands. I buy store brand organic because its less expensive even if I use the coupon with the organic name brand. I guess I could double up coupons, but some coupons state on the coupon not to double up and some stores don't allow double up. I will have to do more research in this area. If anyone out there has some experience feel free to send me a message.

In the mean time I'm going to have to find a new way to make fresh food stretch farther than it usually does in this household. I am going to have to keep reinforcing the "eat slowly and savor your food" rule (which no one likes) a lot more. I'm also going to have to keep trying to succeed with the garden. I've saved a lot on money on herbs, mint tea and cucumbers. If only I could get other things to successfully grow.

Speaking of success. My basil looks amazing. It is thriving! My camera battery died before I could download the pictures I took of it. I will have to post a picture later.