In the past I've always said I didn't want to cook from home for a reason. Cooking from scratch is expensive. It means you've got to have all the ingredients themselves on-hand, which isn't so expensive, I guess, if you have them all on hand already, or if you just need to pick up a little bit of this or that. For me, cooking from home always seemed more of a luxury than I could afford, even with all the extra work required.
Yesterday was a prime example of that. I went to the store with my dear friend. We had to get some things into the house that I could actually eat. Since I'm kicking all the things I'm allergic to, that doesn't leave terribly much, and as I looked at the items in the store, it became even more apparent that "not much" should really read, "nothing your average grocery store in Texas sells." I ended up making sacrifices for things I really shouldn't be eating because I just don't want to give up everything I like all at once.
To give you an idea of what this diet means, doing it right means giving up everything. There's no butter substitute (they all have soy), no cheese substitute (they have milk protein and soy), no store-bought flour in this area, no bread, no baked goods, no cereal, no granola bars, no candy, no snack food, no anything. Even things that seem safe, like salt and vinegar chips, as it turns out, the vinegar flavor is made with dairy. It's not so much the dairy that's the problem, though that is a challenge in it's own. It's giving up soy. It's shocking how many things are made with soy these days!
Taking a look at what's available to me, that leaves a very meat and potatoes kind of situation for meals. We can't do anything creative because most creativity involves dairy of some kind, flour, or breading. I suppose in many ways it's healthier to take a meat and potatoes kind of approach to things, but it's definitely limiting when the local grocery store's idea of produce is a small selection of broccoli, carrots, corn, and potatoes. I was lucky enough to find some summer squash and acorn squash. I've never eaten acorn squash, so I'm interested to see what that's going to be like.
It doesn't help that some of the substitutes are very expensive. Coconut milk, rice milk, rice flour (which I have to order online around here), and all of that are very pricey. I'm learning that fresh meats, fruits, and vegetables are very expensive too. I'm not sure how long we can afford doing this! Then again, we may find that cooking like this actually reduces the overall amount that we eat, but it's frustrating nonetheless.
Last night's grocery bill doubled our family's meal cost for the week last night, and all we did was avoid prepackaged foods. Because I'm gravitating towards things that are good for me, healthy for the whole family, and are fresh, raw ingredients, things are getting that much more expensive.
Healthy and organic, one would imagine, wouldn't be a significantly more expensive option when it comes to cooking. Families should be able to eat for less when they buy foods they make from scratch, things that will be healthy for them. I've always thought the exchange was supposed to be things made from scratch cost less, but required much more work. Prepackaged foods were supposed to cost more, but were quick and easy. Now it seems like there's no exchange at all. You have to be made of money to cook good, quality, healthy meals for your family.
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