My Kitchen

My Food Philosophy

You are what you eat right? I think so. Everything you put in your body effects it, either builds it up or breaks it down. Naturally, the build it up function is more desirable. I also believe, unfortunately, that there are a lot of things put into our foods that don't promote health. I took a health and nutrition course a few years back in college and the teacher showed us Food, Inc. Man that scared me straight. I had no idea about most of the terrible things they reveal in that documentary. Since then, I've been conscious and much more careful about my food. Being that we are still in the poor, college student phase of our lives, I find it hard to budget for a completely natural (meaning, to me, either organic, non-GMO, unprocessed, or all three) diet since these things tend to cost much more than their processed, GMO, pesticide, antibiotic and hormone containing counterparts. It's a shame.
But, that being the fact of the matter, I'm forced to choose which natural foods are worth their cost. This is what I've decided:

Milk, Eggs, Meat and the GMO Products

These are the things that I rarely buy not organic or non-GMO certified. And I'll explain my reasoning. These are the most potentially harmful in my opinion. First off here's some links to information on organic and non-GMO. (What is a GMO? ,  Why Organic?)

Non-organic milk: We drink mostly soy, almond and coconut. I buy cow's milk but it's mostly Kellen who drinks that and uses it for cereal. Ashton and I prefer the non-dairy options. It's important to me to buy organic cow's milk because non-organic contains growth hormones and antibiotics. I openly admit to understanding that rBST and antibiotics used in dairy cows are not considered a health threat to humans. But I just think it's yucky not to mention inhumane. rBST increases infections and sickness in cows, and all only for 10-15% more yield. That's just not nice. Aside from these issues, the reasons I prefer non-dairy milks in general are that cows milk, even when pasteurized and organically produced contain stuff like pus and blood cells. Um, sick nasty? After learning that for the first time, the next time I sat down with a bowl of cereal, all I could think about was pus. Go ahead and just count me out, thanks. Soy, almond and coconut will do for me.
 Soy is one of the big GMOs so even buying non-organic soy milk won't cut it. I buy Silk because they are registered with The Non-GMO Project. It took me awhile to find something that was a satisfying substitute for cow's milk with cereal. Almond and soy, while great for stuff like oatmeal, smoothies and even dipping cookies, were just way too thick and creamy to be good in cereal. Finally, I tried coconut milk! Yum! The consistency and viscosity are more comparable to cow's milk so it gave me that refreshing feeling that I was missing from soy and almond. 

Eggs: This is pretty much the same song as the milk issue. Chickens are given growth hormones and antibiotics and are raised very inhumanely. I prefer organic and free range so I know the chickens who laid my eggs were as healthy as possible! But checking both those boxes can be so expensive, a lot of the time I'm satisfied knowing that at least the mama's were allowed to run free. I'd raise my own chickens if I weren't in a one-bedroom in Las Vegas! 

Meat: This may be getting redundant. But you know, it call comes from the same place. I prefer knowing that my steak got the natural diet that it should have (this has to do with avoiding GMOs as well since non-organic animals are fed diets of GMO corn and/or alfalfa), was able to roam and build it's muscles and didn't suffer from unnecessary infections. Wouldn't you? Not to mention, the fat to lean ratio in organic meat is sooo much better. Really it's a better bang for your buck! I'd rather pay more for more lean meat than less for a big wad of fatty flesh...right?! Another issue with the diets of Americans is that we eat waaaaaaay too much saturated fat from meat products and it's increasing diseases like heart disease, heart attacks, obesity, and even cancer. I realize I'm kind of opening up a whole new Pandora's box worth of issues, but it's all relevant to our food. I would not call myself a vegetarian by any definition of the term, but I eat meat sparingly. I enjoy a good steak, but that's like a once every couple weeks kind of thing. The proteins we eat on a regular basis are chicken, eggs, and fish.

GMOs: I avoid the GMOs. And no, in case you didn't take the time to click on that link up there, this is not talking about seedless watermelons and other such genetically engineered foods. This is referring to a very specific group of crops. They are: alfalfa, corn, sugar beets, canola, cotton, papaya, soy, zucchini and yellow summer squash. I avoid these like the plague. Because they are, in fact, casing a plague, of sorts. Until recently when companies started becoming organic and non-GMO certified, you'd be hard pressed to find a product that didn't include one of these monsters. Seriously, go pick out anything from your pantry or fridge in a package and see how many don't contain of these things, specifically corn, corn syrup, HFCS, canola, some soy directive. My money is on you won't find one. An image is worth 1000 words, well I think this chart is work 10,000. This chart from the CDC shows the increase in diabetes in the last 20 years.


Want to take a wild guess what year High Fructose Corn Syrup became significantly more popular as the sweetener of choice....? Anyone? Beuler? It was around 1995. Before then, diabetes had effected a pretty steady percentage of the population. After, we've seen an over 150% increase in diabetes in just 15 years and that's just one of the diseases effected. Similar statistics can be found in regards to heart disease and even cancer. The fact that these things remain on the market as safe for consumption when there is astounding evidence of the dangers....is beyond me. So it's up to us as consumers to be aware and protect ourselves. Even when they are often promoted! Need I be reminded of the "Sugar is sugar" commercial that went around, trying to convince people that HFCS is no different that other sugars. As far as how it's metabolized, yes, that is correct. The adverse effects.....please! Don't make me laugh!
GMOs are a nasty demon. I always keep my eyes open for The Non-GMO Project label on products.

With all this being said, I can hardly claim to never buy anything processed or unlabeled. I buy Cheerios, Life...Goldfish Crackers....tons of other stuff that, if you read the fine print, are chalk full of stuff I try to avoid. But that's just it. I try. I figure doing my best to buy nutritious whole foods will do plenty of good. I don't strive to eradicate every single "bad" food! I'm realistic. Maybe someday, whole foods will be more readily available and therefore not cost my left arm, leg and first born child. Here's to hoping!

How I Budget and Shop

I meal plan. For me, it's the best way to keep my grocery budget under control. I only plan our family dinners. Breakfast and lunch are usually a fend for yourself thing at our house since we are getting up and going at different times and we are rarely, if ever, all home together for lunch. I dream of the day we all wake up at 7:00 get ready, peacefully for our days, I've been up, making pancakes and bacon....aw. It's lovely. If only. I digress.

My meal plans are simple. I just decide the recipes for dinner, usually ones from our list of favorites. I record in my weekly planner. I use the Mormon Mom Planner.  I bought the PDF version so I could put it in the cute mini binder that I already had. And that saved me $10 too.

I love it! It's got everything I need. I have a budget of $50 per week for food. (That's ambitious, and I usually have one week where I go about $25 over to cover restocking our staples. But that's planned for...so it's whatever.) And that does not include home and household supplies, that budget is separate. 

When I'm planning, I take inventory of what I have and try to plan on using those things first since I already bought them, that cuts down the further costs for the week. Then I evaluate which staples need to be put on the list, there are usually 5-6 things like bread, milk, eggs, etc. Then under each day, I list any ingredients I will need for that day specifically. You can see here I already had most of what I needed, I just needed Parmesan cheese, mushrooms and ice cream. I make two trips per week, one at the beginning after I meal plan to pick up any immediate staple needs and get the ingredients needed for the rest of the week. That trip I can usually keep under $20. Then I will go again at the end of the week, and this is the bigger trip where I pick up things like meats, cereals, crackers, etc. All the stuff that isn't for a specific day, but just needs to be on hand. 

When you are trying to stick to a strict budget like mine, it's important to shop sales. Know what you'll be needing soon and if you see it's half price this week, pick it up now. It takes a little extra planning but that's how you can get the best bang for your buck.