Scooter wrote:
> I have been thinking about trying an experiment. (Okay, not really
> thinking about it, more like daydreaming about it. Musing. I'm only
> about half serious at this point.) We eat fairly well as a family,
> relatively speaking—we cook a lot from scratch, we don't eat frozen
> convenience dinners or meal-in-a-box things, etc—but there are still a
> lot of processed/prepared items in my shopping cart every Saturday
> morning. We certainly could do better.
>
> So I was thinking, what if I only bought basic single-ingredient food
> and we made everything else ourselves from those single ingredients?
> If we want cookies, we make cookies—no more buying Oreos. Shredded
> Wheat is fine, but Honey Bunches of Oats is not. (That's okay; I make
> a damn fine granola.) Brownie mix? Nix. I buy chocolate, butter, eggs,
> sugar, flour, vanilla, and nuts instead. We don't buy anything
> prepared if it can reasonably be prepared in a home kitchen. Basics
> all the way.
>
> How would life change under this new approach? I think we would eat
> better. I think, but am not certain, that our grocery bills would be
> lower (or at least not higher). I think initially we would spend a
> whole lot more time cooking, but I think over time we would gravitate
> toward meals that were either simple and quick to prepare or were good
> enough to justify the extra effort.
>
> If you were to adopt this approach, how would your life change? Are
> there prepared items that you would particularly miss? Any deal-
> breakers for you? (I'm close to calling no more Diet Coke a deal-
> breaker, but that's me.) Would your life be better or worse?
>

We pretty much do without processed foods here. I don't think it has
changed our lives for the worst, but I've always cooked from scratch,
being raised in a Kosher home where there just wasn't any of that
processed junk available at the time.

My kids didn't taste jarred spaghetti sauce or canned soup until they
were in college. Stuff was home made because it was cheaper to make it
myself than to buy it.

No Diet Coke would be a deal-breaker for me.


--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.