Food on a Budget
One of the most interesting discoveries for me has been the cost of any given meal. It frequently costs $10 to go out for lunch in Naperville (where I work). I have a few favorite spots where lunch is less than $5 if I bring a bottle of water from home.
Also, we're working really hard to eliminate high-fructose corn syrup from our diet altogether. That's not as easy as it sounds. We're also trying to use organic and fair-trade foods as much as possible. The result is a relatively difficult time buying bread.
The issue is that we can get bread for $.50 at Aldi and barely make a dent in our budget or we can buy one of the few options that have whole grains and no corn syrup at Jewel for $4.00. That's some stretch.
Trader Joe's is where we bridge the gaps. They carefully select every single product in the store to be as responsible as possible (organic/fair-trade/healthy) but still keep prices in check by removing brand names. It's like a commercial co-op in that they go directly to the manufacturers and get better discounts. They also clearly enjoy food.
I'd say TJ has a 90% or better track record with us. I think their woven wheat crackers (a la Triscuit) paired with their antipaso salad (fresh mozzarella/dried tomato/artichoke in oil and herbs) is one of the best tasting snacks I've ever had. I could eat that every day.
Since their whole grain bread with no corn syrup is ~$1.99, I'd say they get me. They also know that some nights I don't mind cooking but some nights I just want turkey enchiladas with chipotle salsa or veggie masala burgers. Enough for both of us is less than $5 for either.
If you know the place, you know about the wine ($2.99 and up) and you probably know that they always sample foods and coffee. This past weekend, we got to do a little wine tasting as well. It's like the grocery stores of old - just what you need, nothing more, nothing less.
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11 comments:
i think the biggest asset of TJ's is the frozen selection.
and the woven wheats!
As long as I can look past the mortal sin of unleashing "Two Buck Chuck" upon the world, I love TJ's. We just bought a bag of their premade pizza dough and sauce, some pepperoni and a green pepper. The result was easy and hella-licious. We also got some asiago & mushroom chicken sausages. They rocked, too.
Now, just no more red paint thinner posing as wine...
The two-buck chuck is not bad wine. It's not great wine but it beats the hell out of Night Train - the only other sub-$3 wine I can remember. I believe these are California wines and are technically produced in the Napa/Sonoma region but cannot be labeled as such.
They also have a number of really good wines for less than $10. Again, names I may not have heard but pretty damned good.
We've tried to do the "no high fructose corn syrup" diet too. The big hurdle was finding bread without it. So far, I've only found one brand that doesn't have it.
Soapbox time:
MAKE YOUR OWN DAMNED BREAD.
I don't pay any attention to high-fructose whatnot, but I can't stand most of the store bought breads, and won't shell out the cash to those fuckers at Whole Foods.
I make most of my own bread and pizza dough - I always keep a couple loaves of Pepperidge Farms Artesian bread loaves (available in the frozen foods section) in my freezer as a back-up.
Bread machines are for bored retirees - All you need is a mixing bowl, a few basic ingredients, and a decent recipe (available all over the internets). The whole process takes a couple of hours, but most of that is waiting - All-in-all the total 'work' time is less time than it takes to get to the fucking store to buy a damned loaf of bread (about 1/2 of an hour). Just invest a small amount of time, expend a small amount of effort, and you're balls-deep in tasty fresh baked bread. Simple as pie (clarification: making a pie is actually more complex than baking bread).
Okay, the high fructose corn syrup thing piqued my interest. I just did a sweep of my kitchen and here's what I found that contained HFCS:
1 - Activa yogurt
2 - ketchup (that I don't use)
3 - BBQ sauce
4 - Nature Valley granola bars
5 - Emerald dry-roasted walnuts
6 - lime-ade
7 - an unopened jar of relish that has sat in the cabinet 2 years past its expiration date (since discarded)
I just went to the store yesterday, and the fridge, freezer, and pantry are stocked to capacity, yet I only found 7 items containing HFCS, none of which I consume on a regular basis (except the yogurt).
Most of the (few) sweetened food items I had were sweetened with raw sugar, honey, or molasses which (coincidentally) are the sweeteners I predominately use in my cooking.
Fuck Whole Foods and Trader Joe's - bunch of touchy-feely hippie-shit if you ask me. I usually shop at the ghetto-discount-mart down the street, so everything I have should be widely-available. It's not a matter of where you shop, but rather, of what you buy.
The only benefit of those foo-foo shops is that people aren't shot in their parking lots.
I don't think I have a HFCS problem, but just don't ask me to give up my dry-roasted walnuts or microbe-infused poopin' yogurt. If I can't get those, there'll be plenty of blood stains well outside of my grocery store's parking lot.
I'd kill for a TJ's near home. The closest one is a 30-40 min. drive away - so tack $10 in gas on the grocery bill, and figure the pollution/waste of natural resources cancels out any organic/nice to people benefit, and I conclude that I might as well keep shopping at Jewel.
I'm so sad.
DCL, I'm very impressed that you make your own bread! I have a bread machine but only bust it out once a year. I'd like to learn the right way, but I'm afraid of the kneading. For the record, I'm also afraid of canning my garden produce.
As someone who is incompetent in the kitchen, baking is not that simple for me. I've experimented and many loaves turned out flat and hard. Once I tried to make a cake, and it tasted just like corn bread. (Not bad corn bread, though.) Also, I don't like having appliances that perform only one function (i.e. a breadmaker) that spend the rest of their time uselessly taking up space. In conclusion, I love $2 bread!
I like not getting shot in the parking lot...
HFCS is not the only thing we're watching - it's just a wake up call for us. It's startling to see how much stuff has it.
GM - just about all of the varieties of bread from Natural Ovens are free of HFCS, made with whole grains, and available at all the grocery stores in the area. My favorite variety is the onion bagel.
Liar - no chance on me making my own bread. Too lazy. Also, I agree with you on Whole Foods but Trader Joe's is just too damned convenient - priced better, too. There's been an influx of "X's Fresh Market" stores in bigger strip malls (a la Whole Foods) lately and they are mostly a rip off. The only benefit is that those places usually have decent/good produce.
I agree whole wheat heartedly! In fact, I enjoyed some of their woven wheats myself this evening. Tom O seems to be in the know about that.
I'm all over their wine, frozen veggies, frozen biryani, the chicken sausages, cookies - gimme all the crap! Barb City badly needs a TJ's.
Hey, DC Liar - Does the bread touch your balls?
If I do it right it does.
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