Food – a hippie with a minivan

Inspired…

I have been making weekly menus now for a few years but Annie has inspired me to share my routine and my weeks menu here also…

My weekly routine is to get up Saturday morning and look at the local flyers online and see what is on special and where… most of the time I go to two grocery stores. The stores that have cheaper prices (Super-C and Maxi) often have the nicest looking produce because their turnover is quicker but don’t have much in the way of choice or “speciality” foods… but the staples (flour, eggs, TP etc…) are much cheaper and it really makes a difference to take the effort to go to both types of stores…The other stores (IGA and Metro) are more expensive but have more choice and organic sections.

So the factors that go into my weekly menu are what we already have in the house, what is on special and what we feel like eating that week… I always try to choose at least 2 meals that are quick and easy for the nights that I just don’t feel like cooking or we have something planned and I always try to make sure that the suppers we eat on weekdays are things that have leftovers for Simon’s lunch the next day… though we are not vegetarian, I always have a few vegetarian meals because I enjoy it and I know that I don’t feel good eating meat too often.

After choosing the meals, I go through each item on my list and figure out what we already have and what we need and make my grocery list…

This weeks grocery bill came out to about 135$ (with a few staples)

Meals for the week (not in the order we will be eating them):

Steaks with grilled Asparagus and spinach salad
Crispy Tofu with Coconut Quinoa (the curried version of this)
“Quick Spaghetti” (bacon, onion, mushrooms, garlic etc on pasta for the guys and spinach for myself)
Pizza
Grilled veggie wraps with avocado-wasabi mayo and homemade tortillas
Creamy Broccoli soup
Bar-B-Barn ribs with veggies

(I really need to share more recipes!)

For breakfasts, lunches and snacks we have eggs, oatmeal, homemade bread, pancakes, croissants, crackers and cheese, fruit, veggies etc…

I will most likely be making some treats also…

Friends and Fajitas

A friend of ours met and got married to a girl from Mexico last year…

we have had them over a few times for supper but Zorayda has been wanting to make us some authentic Mexican Cuisine… and because they have a small place they came over here to prepare it…

(more…)

shopping and processed foods…

The way I shop for groceries has evolved so much over the years… and what I choose has changed greatly….

I cringe when I think of the things I used to buy when I moved into my first apartment… a lot of pre-packaged, chemical laden “convenience” foods… I could cook a few things but I was inexperienced and had limited knowledge…

In the post about HFCS I almost wrote that now we avoid processed foods but changed it because really we avoid most processed foods..

Why I almost slipped though is because we do avoid almost all of what some people consider processed foods to be… and what I used to think was a normal way to eat…

Now, I still buy many foods that have been processed, but I make most of our meals “from scratch”….

I bake our bread (but the flour has been processed)

I make cookies (but I buy butter, and chocolate chips etc…)

I use canned tomatoes and canned coconut milk, I buy ketchup and milks and tamari… I buy peanut butter and cheese and oats…

Many of the foods that make it into my home have been processed in one way or another…

There are also some more processed foods that like to buy… frozen perogies are a quick and inexpensive meal (I should try making them though because they are probably not that hard when I think about it) and a box of Annie’s organic mac and cheese has made a quick lunch for the boys more than once… and the list can go on…

but I am comfortable with the ones we buy because they are mostly have minimal ingredients… or at least are made with ingredients that I can understand and can be found in most peoples pantries…

We do also do buy “junk foods” … not on a regular basis….but chips, and chocolate and Ice cream and other treats can be found in our home… I do choose products that have the least ingredients and make sure they do not have anything that we avoid… artificial colours or flavours or sulfates and other chemicals I would rather not consume…

The more time goes by, the more I have been replacing the processed foods that I buy and I will continue that trend… but I have to say that I am pretty happy with the way we eat now and it can only get better…