No grocery store visits for 1 year, could you do it?

One woman in Texas did, do you think you could?  Carla Crownover watched Food, Inc. (a documentary that I highly recommend) and was so disgusted by what she learned, she decided to go 1 full year of buying locally and not shopping at a grocery store.  She did it too.   You can read her full story at Take Part.   She also has her own blog, Austin Urban Gardens. 

I have to admit, I look at this challenge and go "There's no way I could do that."  But then, when I really think about it, could I do it?  We have a really good farmer's market that is downtown, somewhat close to where I work but not at all close to where I live. I could get all my veggies and fruits there. I think I could even get butter.  I know there's a butcher there as well, which I would assume is all local meat but would have to check it out to know for sure.

The most recent Change the World Wednesday revolved around eating locally.  I updated it not too long ago talking about how I've switched to buying the milk I drink from a company that is somewhat local, Oberweis Dairy. They are as local as I think I would get.   I also mentioned a grocery store called Local Harvest that sells items grown/produced locally.  While that would still be a grocery store, the items would be local so I think that would have to count right?  I suppose I could get meat only at Whole Foods, where you can look on their website and see where your meat is coming from (I know the beef they sell in the store I shop at does come from Missouri).  

It looks like I have the means to buy most stuff locally, without stepping foot in a traditional grocery store.  One thing I know would be a problem would be all the nuts that I eat. I eat trail mix at least 5 days of the week. Where in the world would I get nuts? If I'm not buying it from a local store I would be ordering it online, which defeats the purpose in my opinion.

Hmm..It seems like I need to seriously look into this. It seems like I would need to change some of my shopping habits, going out on my lunch break to shop at the farmer's market for fresh fruit and produce would be one. 

What about you?  Give this some thought, then let me know, do you think you could do this?  If you don't think you could get away from the grocery store 100%, do you think there's a way you could make some changes to not visit as often?

Homemade Croutons

I can't help it, if I'm going to eat a salad it better come with croutons.  I do enjoy a good salad, but there's just something about a crunch crouton to make it better.

On my quest to do away with most processed foods and to make more from scratch, I tackled my crouton obsession.  I do limit the amount of croutons that I'll eat in a salad but since I eat an average of 3 salads a week for my lunch at work, that's still a lot of croutons.

Now, my favorite are the Texas Toast Croutons and price isn't really an issue since they go on sale for $1 a couple of times a year and I always took that opportunity to stock up. Plus, I can normally use coupons to make it even less.  However I still wanted to try homemade. I didn't for a long time though because I figured it wasn't worth it, it would cost more for me to make them.

image source 

Then it dawned on me, it would actually be more eco-friendly for me to make my own.  Here's why.  Husband is the one you normally eats sandwich bread in our house. I tend not to take sandwiches for lunches during the week and I rarely eat toast. I can go several weeks without eating any sandwich bread.  He eats it almost every day.  However whenever I bring home a new loaf of bread, he will stop using the current loaf.  This means that I tend to throw away at least 5 pieces of bread from each loaf.  It bothered me, but by the time I would go to use the bread it would be stale so I wouldn't use it either.   Then one day the light bulb went off.  Duh!  Use the bread he discards for my croutons!  Then I'm not actually buying anything specific for the croutons, which solves my issue of it costing more to make than buy, and I'm saving food from being wasted.  Plus, since I'm not buying a bag of croutons from the store, I'm not throwing away a bag in the trash that will live in a landfill for the next 50 years (at least..or so I'm guessing).   How is that for being eco-friendly, eh?

I've made croutons twice now and liked the way both batches turned out. I think that making croutons is something that I'll have to do every 2-3 weeks since I don't make a lot each time.  It's so easy and fast though, so I'm not worried about it.

To make croutons, all you need are spices, bread, and olive oil (or whatever oil you prefer).

I cut the bread into squares.  For me, since I normally have around 5-6 pieces of it, I just stack it up on a cutting board and cut it all at once.

I mix the spices with some olive oil.  So far I've been using about 1/4 tsp of the following spices: garlic powder, oregano, and parsley.  All of which I already had at home and didn't need to buy.  I've also been known to sprinkle in some onion salt but don't put it in too much or it will be salty.  I'm also planning to try doing this with just garlic powder. I do love garlic. Oh, and fresh Parmesan cheese. I think I'll sprinkle on some of that next time too.  I haven't measured the amount of olive oil I use.  I just kinda pour some in a bowl and mix with the spices.  The more bread, the more olive oil.  You don't need a lot though.

Pour the mixture over the bread and stir.  Don't stir too much or too hard, if you do you risk breaking up the bread and then you get crumbs and not croutons.   You basically just want the bread to be coated with it.

Spread the bread out evenly on a cookie sheet. I do spray mine with Pam first so it doesn't stick.   Then place in an oven at 325 degrees, for roughly 10-12 min.   You want the croutons to be crunchy but not burnt.  Once cool, store in an air-tight container. I've read some sites that say to only keep for a day or two, but I keep mine for over a week and so far they haven't made me sick and they have tasted fine.

That's it!  Anybody can do that right?  You get tasty croutons without any preservatives, you save bread from being thrown away, and you keep bags from ending up in the landfill.  Sounds like a win-win solution to me.

Aspartame - scarier than a haunted house

If you are looking for a good scare this Halloween, look no further than the pack of gum in your desk drawer, the sugar-free food in your pantry, the diet soda in your fridge, and on and on.  Why is this stuff scary? It's scary if it contains Aspartame.

Aspartame is a sugar substitute found in many foods.

Why is it scary? It's linked to the following:

Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. Many of these reactions are very serious including seizures and death.(1) A few of the 90 different documented symptoms listed in the report as being caused by aspartame include: Headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, tinnitus, vertigo, memory loss, and joint pain.


According to researchers and physicians studying the adverse effects of aspartame, the following chronic illnesses can be triggered or worsened by ingesting of aspartame:(2) Brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, mental retardation, lymphoma, birth defects, fibromyalgia, and diabetes.
(I copied the above info from HERE). 


Don't just take my word for it, or the word of those I copied and pasted above, please do a search online.  You'll find a lot of stuff that says it's safe, you'll find a lot of stuff that says it's bad.  You be the judge on if you feel it's safe.  

Personally, I'm now watching ingredient lists for this one and shying away from foods that have it.  I knew it was in diet soda, I never drink the stuff. I recently found out it's in crystal light and sugar-free kool-aid.  Both of which I have at home and haven't touched since I realized that.  I also know pregnant woman are advised not to ingest aspartame.

I didn't realize aspartame is found in gum.  I read about that on a recent post about aspartame over at Tomus Arcanum.  I read gum and went "What? Gum? I had no idea!"  So I picked up the pack of gum on my desk and looked and sure enough it was in there.  So I looked at a different pack that I had in my desk drawer, sure enough, it's in there.   I would say "oh, it's just one piece of gum, what could it hurt?"  Then I realized that it's not uncommon for me to chew on 4-5 pieces in a day at work (that whole...sitting at the desk bored and feel like eating but not hungry issue).  That's scary.   The two gums are brands that I chew all the time too, because I like them and there are usually deals on them so I can get the gum at a decent price.   From now on, I'll be looking at ingredient lists before selecting what gum I buy.

Food,Inc

This past weekend I watched Food, Inc.  Have any of you seen that documentary?  If watching it doesn't cause you to make the life changes you've thought about or cause you to really look at what you are eating and try to eat healthier, I don't know what will.

For those of you who haven't seen this documentary yet, here's the trailer from it's website.



I know it took me awhile to watch this one, I think part of it was that I didn't want to know.  Ignorance is bliss, or so the saying goes.    I finally decided, after reading a bit online, that it was time I saw this one.

Fortunately, I wasn't really surprised by what I learned because I had read similar things already.  I have a feeling if Husband watched it he would be shocked. In fact, I tried to get him to watch it and he wouldn't. I think he believes ignorance is definitely bliss when it comes to the food he's eating.

The past 4 months or so I've been making slow changes in what foods I buy and what I'll eat.  I can promise you that I'll be making even more changes now.

One thing that has kept me from buying organic fruits and veggies up till this point is mostly the price.  Some things I do because the price isn't that different, but mostly I wasn't. I also had this mentally of "What does it matter, I'm only one person out of millions, I won't make a difference, the big companies don't care about me".  I liked that the documentary does actually address this.  We do influence companies based on what we buy.  If we keep buying the processed foods and the stuff that's bad for us, they will keep making it.  If we make the effort to stop buying soda, they'll stop making it. If we make the effort to buy cage-free, vegetarian eggs, that's the majority of what you will see.    If we make the effort to buy only grass-fed beef, we'll see more of it.    Plus, it's so much better for my health.  Once you realize the chemicals and other things that end up in the normal foods you eat, paying more to eat healthier doesn't seem all that bad.

Have you seen this documentary?  Did you make any changes after doing so?
If you haven't seen this documentary, any interest in seeing it? Why or why not?