Location: if this were the wrong decision you'd already know it
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yeah, it's been a looooooooong process for us
they do all love refried beans, though - so we're good there
then we started making hoppin' john at new years and they HATED it - hated - all dramatic, gagging, horrible. Now it's a favorite. I think it's the cornbread
They all like greens now, too, but hated them before. However, it was the single hardest transition for us and really did take years before they acclimated. I did a lot of what you said - putting them in other dishes.
They still will not touch a green lentil with a ten foot pole.
I wish my people would get over their bean hatred. I add beans (black or pintos) to mexican stuff and they whine so bad but deal with it. But they will not eat something like beans and rice ever.
Both of my kids and Eric will devour beans. It's me that has an issue with them but I'm slowly getting over it. I'm really good at making beans from dry instead of canned now. We spend a lot on dairy..cheese, real butter and milk are in a lot of my recipes. It adds up quickly.
I'm really getting bummed about food and what is going on with prices. It's been at the forefront of my mind all week. I even inventoried the kitchen yesterday. Oddly enough I don't have as much food here as I thought, which sucks. It looks like a lot because I have 2 huge bags of rice, 2 bags of potatoes, 2 bags of onions taking up most of 1 of the 3 food cabinets. I'm really depressed to see that I don't have enough to eat out of the pantry like I'd planned to this pay period.
I'm using dessert sized plates to put our meals on which helps. We definitely have more leftovers when I'm not filling up a dinner plate. Also I've started reading a chapter out of our current read aloud during dinner while the kids finish up. It keeps me busy instead of going back for seconds while I sit with them and wait for them to finish up. They're slooooooooow eaters, especially Atticus.
Location: if this were the wrong decision you'd already know it
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Reading is such a great idea!
I totally hear you on the dairy issue. We're all lactose intolerant, too, which means for us to have dairy we have a sheet of Lactaid per meal. We were spending $60 a month on lactaid!
Some shredded cheese (2% kinds) are lactose-free, but no organic varieties.
So, we started totally cutting out dairy. We are doing soy and rice milk (the tj's rice milk is cheap) and found a HUGE tub of Earth Balance at Whole Foods recently We don't drink milk as a beverage, pretty much ever, and we make pitchers of (tj's again) white or fruity teas to go with meals for some interest and change from water
Oh, we do drink OJ with breakfast - or, the kids do.
maybe i'll go w/o kids so I can read labels. i'm not saying aldi food is junk i hope you don't get that vibe. i'm just trying to figure out if we eat really well or let it go for awhile to get ahead again. my mil shops mainly at aldi and I can't tell the difference but she gets the same few things and makes the same meals over and over.
Nope...totally not getting that vibe. I wouldn't be posting if I did bc then I'd feel I probably didn't have anything useful to offer to the thread.
I'm coming from a place of having formerly done the typical American mainstream diet. Then I went on a huge mission to improve the nutritional quality of the food in our house. But when the pendulum swung farther than my budget would allow I had to make some compromises.
So I've compromised on things like hfcs or transfats in things where they're not a huge ingredient overall...but not in something where they're a main ingredient. Transfat in bread...ok. Transfat in peanut butter...not ok. For us. Other people make different choices and I'm ok with that too.
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~Dannielle
Momma to Isabelle (8/95) and Mason (1/01)
I totally hear you on the dairy issue. We're all lactose intolerant, too, which means for us to have dairy we have a sheet of Lactaid per meal. We were spending $60 a month on lactaid!
Some shredded cheese (2% kinds) are lactose-free, but no organic varieties.
So, we started totally cutting out dairy. We are doing soy and rice milk (the tj's rice milk is cheap) and found a HUGE tub of Earth Balance at Whole Foods recently We don't drink milk as a beverage, pretty much ever, and we make pitchers of (tj's again) white or fruity teas to go with meals for some interest and change from water
Oh, we do drink OJ with breakfast - or, the kids do.
We don't drink milk either. But we eat a lot of cereal and I make smoothies with it, duh I guess that is drinking it. We qualify for WIC but I can't be bothered with it yet. But it's crossed my mind a few times. I laugh that we're like 10k below their new fam of 4 income level.
Location: if this were the wrong decision you'd already know it
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yeah, that's sort of how I feel about like margarine and butter - anything high in fat, I can't do non-organic anymore. Olive oil, I almost exclusively buy organic.
but, there are other things that are just cost-prohibitive to go organic - like, say, rice (with the volume we eat and how expensive rice is to buy organic) or certain produce (avocados aside due to fat content)
Location: if this were the wrong decision you'd already know it
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CityLove
We don't drink milk either. But we eat a lot of cereal and I make smoothies with it, duh I guess that is drinking it. We qualify for WIC but I can't be bothered with it yet. But it's crossed my mind a few times. I laugh that we're like 10k below their new fam of 4 income level.
No, I follow
You should do it. I bet it would make a huge difference for you guys
I get unsalted almonds at aldi (which are darn close to raw) and have been using them in the blender with water as a smoothie base since I'm not allowed dairy right now. It's amazingly yummy. I bet it would be great if strained too.
I would *definitely* go once without the kids so you can label read. There are lots of junky foods there. But...there are some really great ones there, too.
5 lb. bag of frozen chicken leg quarters for $3.49
Bag of frozen Tilapia. Love this!
Produce, as someone said, is hit or miss. When it's good, it's really good.
They sometimes have some organics--the blue corn tortilla chips are good. Last trip, I got some lunchmeat that was all natural (no nitrates/nitrites). It was $2.99 for 8 oz.
Oh, I also got some frozen treats that were all natural--a lime one and a strawberry one. No food coloring! Yay! lol
For the not-so-great things...sometimes you just *have* to buy a few convenience items sometimes. The chicken nuggets are great. The precooked pork sausage patties are awesome (greasy, but cook 'em on a paper towel or two).
I do like picking up baking staples there--flour, sugar, oil, etc.
But yeah, read labels.
__________________
Rachel
Wife to Bryant
Mom to Jacob 12-25-95 and Owen 12-13-02
I will say I just came home with a LOT of food...a whole brimming cartful...for $110. Lots of meat too. And stuff to stock the freezer with (like tonight's dinner is beef/bean/cheese burritos and I'm making a ton and freezing the extras).
Location: if this were the wrong decision you'd already know it
Posts: 40,927
Oh - that reminds me. Did you guys see this in the news this weekend?
Quote:
a recent study from Wake Forest University School of Medicine concluding that “farm raised tilapia, one of the most highly consumed fish in America, has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, perhaps worse, very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids.” The researchers concluded that this combination could be very damaging for patients with arthritis, heart disease, and other auto-immune diseases that are vulnerable to exaggerated inflammatory responses. According to the study, if individuals are consuming tilapia as a method to control inflammatory diseases then they would be better off having hamburgers and pork bacon (keep in mind however that these are high fat meats full of artery clogging saturated fats.) The study also showed that tilapia has an average of 11:1 ratio of detrimental omega 6 to omega 3 versus the 1:1 ratio in salmon or trout which is more desirable.
Dannielle - I think I remember you saying you had stopped buying tilapia when you discovered it was farmed in an undesirable area. It was once a staple for us, but I, too, stopped buying it after doing a bit of research.
I thought this study was interesting (my Aunt, a nurse, is the one who told me about it)
Meg- mama to two fantastic little people.
We don't drink milk as a beverage, pretty much ever, and we make pitchers of (tj's again) white or fruity teas to go with meals for some interest and change from water 
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