Eating Organic and Staying Sane

It's all about the money and eating organic is no exception. I think this is especially true if you have a family and there are multiple mouths to feed every day while the cost of food continues to climb.

Prowling through Facebook this past week I came across the "Dirty Dozen" list with a blog post from the ever vigilant FoodBabe, blogger and healthy lifestyle expert, offering 75 tips for eating organic on a budget.

I read through the post and while a lot of the suggestions were good ones I couldn't take it all in at once. It's possible that having a two year old ramming his Tonka truck into me and practically knocking me over was part of the problem but only POSSIBLE. Anyway, I digress, the post made me think about the tips and I went back over it once the kiddo was down and out for the night making some notes and marking off the things I already do as well as the ones that were more of the wishful thinking variety. Here is the link to the blog I read: http://foodbabe.com/2013/05/20/how-to-eat-organic-on-a-budget/  Definitely worth a read because she provides a lot of helpful links for some of the items that might help you on your way.

Changing habits takes time so before I even get into the suggestions about how to eat more organic let me first suggest that you start with one or two a week. Slowly start to change your shopping, eating, and lifestyle habits over time instead of all at once.

And so, without further adieu, I'll commence with my thoughts:

1. Coupons, Coupons, Coupons: It seems pretty obvious but if you want to save money coupons can be a great way to invest you time. Personally, my day starts at 5:45am and revolves around getting myself and everyone else up and out the door on time, flying into work at 8am (barely), working my 8 or 9 hours, going to the sitter, driving home, dinner, bath time, reading Curious George for the eight thousandth time, laundry, packing for the next day, picking up, and finally sitting down at 10 or 11pm hoping I can stay awake long enough to fit in some homework. Couponing is just not in the cards for me BUT, if you have the time to put into it, scouring the internet and printing off the latest deals and steals for organic food brands might be a good first step. If you already coupon you're ahead of the game and just need to add a few more stops on your coupon hunt. To those of you in that category - Keep on couponing on!
2. Plan out meals according to organic foods on sale or that you have a coupon for : Had to chop this one down to the bare bones. If you are like me and don't have time to cut coupons you sure as heck don't have to time to then design a weekly menu based on the coupons.  I make an effort to at least think through my meals for the week. A lot of time we stick to basics that keeps us away from boxed and processed food anyways. For busy families, crock pots are the best thing since sliced bread, tacos are always fast and easy, pasta, and the standard meat/veggie/starch route. We try out new recipes on the weekends when there is more time to prep food and more hands to prevent daring toddlers from vaulting off the top stair.                         
3. Do for yourself: Smoothies and juices .. trail mix .. granola bars. It all sounds good in theory but time may not always be on your side. Saving up, or putting on a Christmas wish list, for things like juicers, bread makers, and a dehydrator might be good ideas. As you add that into your kitchen you can start trying your hand at trail mix (which you don't really need a recipe for), portioning out and freezing smoothie ingredients ahead of time so you can put in the blender and go and so on. Granola bars are something I would make myself ... BUT I've yet to find a simple, quick, easy recipe that also tastes good. My last attempt had 5 ingredients but received poor marks from my husband and son despite the five star review on the internet :(
4. Portion and prioritize meat and dairy: Maybe FoodBabe isn't feeding a meat and milk loving husband and son but this one seems hard to me. It is important to buy meat and dairy products organic simply because they are most likely to be polluted with pesticide, antibiotics, and growth hormones but it's difficult in our house. We make a few of our meals vegetarian which helps but milk goes fast! This is where looking to a local source might be helpful. We found that at the herb and homeopathic store downtown you could sign up for milk delivery from the local dairy. The milk is delivered every Thursday in glass bottles, is slightly cheaper than the organic store option, and supports local business. My husband likes to fish so our freezer is pretty stocked with fresh water fish like trout so that helps us as well. 
5. Speaking of the freezer: Buying a deep freezer was a key purchase in our house. We're able to stock up on organic meat and wild caught fish when it is on sale (or biting) instead of buying it on a weekly basis. We also buy butter, frozen fruit, and vegetables when they are on sale and keep them frozen until we need them. FoodBabe recommended doubling recipes and freezing. We actually already do this but it is usually extra soup or from doubling up a recipe on a day when we cook a slightly more time consuming dinner - like lasagna.  I like freezing things in portions that I'll actually need so soup we put into containers so they can be grab and go lunches or dinner
6. http://onceamonthmeals.com I'm still stuck on the freezer but this is a good resource to get some ideas. There are several different menus (whole foods, vegetarian, paleo) that you can browse a sampling of each month. The concept with the site is that with a membership you can plan out your entire month of meals and prepare everything on one massive cooking day. Being a member you can also generate a shopping list. This could be an option if you have the money for the membership and the bigger component -- TIME to cook one time each month and probably a friend or two to help you out with that effort. I usually skim through and pull off recipes to try out for the month like breakfast muffins, soups, or dinner ideas. 
7. Ain't nothing wrong with the store brand: Store brands that are labeled organic have to follow the same rules as the brand name competition but with a lower price tag. This is kind of a no brainer for me since I never have time to cut coupons for the name brands!
8. BUY LOCAL: I have the benefit of living in Amish country so there are random fruit and veggie stands all summer but ... there are also 2 farmers markets with one running on Thursdays and the other on Saturday. These are great stops for deals on produce. FoodBabe suggests going toward the end of the market as vendors are more likely to drop prices more which I had never thought of. We also have a small, best kept secret type store, that is a local greenhouse. Produce can be bought year round and is usually much fresher and half the cost of produce at grocery store. 

Well, there you have the highlights and the changes that can be made fairly quickly and easily. For me, I keep in mind that dirty dozen list from before, and we focus on filling our fridge fruit and vegetables, taking advantage of sales, sticking to meals that are easier during the week (but we do love our seasoning for flavor), and avoiding pre-packaged food. When I'm feeling feisty I'll give a granola bar recipe or something a chance but I don't always have time so like usual - I choose my battles and give myself a mental pat on the back for keeping the kitchen stocked with real food. We must be on the right track because even though our 2 year old has had (and loves) candy he was also the one who walked past all the junk food and threw a fit in the store because he wanted an apple. And later he had a peach .. a plum .. strawberries .. and leftover soup from one of those "easy" meal nights.