Week 1 of the 30 Days of (Mostly) Whole Foods is complete. To keep myself accountable I'm going to post our meals and evaluate how well I did. But first, a little grocery store comparison. Last week we went up to Trader Joe's and spent $92.47. Today I went to Kroger and spent $116.93. How do the compare?
Whole wheat pasta- K-1.49 TJ- 1.39
Applesauce pouches- K- 2.59 TJ- 2.99
2 lbs organic apples- K- 5.49 TJ- 2.49
cage free, grain feed eggs- K- 2.49 TJ- 1.79
organic canned tomatoes- K- 1.09 TJ- 1.49
whole wheat bread- K- 3.29 TJ- 1.99
organic spaghetti sauce- K- 3.09 TJ- 1.49
hummus- K-3.29 TJ- 1.99
Over all I'd have to say Traders Joe's is the better choice. They have better prices on most things, especially produce. Also, they have less to choose from so there is less chance of impulse buys. No temptation to buy donut holes because there are no donut holes to be found! Or at least I did not see them. The down side of Trader Joe's, it was crazy crowded and, at least for now, it is far away. Once they open up down here I will definitely be doing shopping there regularly.
As for this weeks meals, let's see how we did.
Sunday- Breakfast, whole wheat blueberry muffins, apple sauce and yogurt
Lunch- ham and cheese on whole wheat pita bread, whole wheat pretzels and carrot sticks
Dinner- spaghetti with 1/2 whole wheat pasta, 1/2 white, organic tomato sauce, fresh bread, salad
Pretty good job, the plain yogurt sweetened with honey was not a hit, but otherwise there were no complaints, only compliments. They loved the muffins.
Monday- Breakfast- whole wheat waffles from the freezer and clementines
Lunch- ham and cheese of pita (chicken salad for me), apple sauce pouch, strawberries
Dinner- (made by the hubby) broiled chicken thighs, mixed veggies and mac and cheese, salad
Again, pretty good. I did not eat the mac and cheese with dinner but the kids did.
Tuesday- Breakfast- don't know what the kids ate as I had to be at work early...
Lunch- ham and cheese on pitas (Bubba's with spinach), carrots and pretzels with hummus
Dinner- steak and chicken tacos on corn tortillas, lettuce, tomato, onions
I forgot to eat breakfast so I had oatmeal at work and I don't know what the kids ate. It was nice of the Hubby to make a dinner that met the whole food criteria :-)
Wednesday- Breakfast- pancakes (white flour frozen ones) and bananas
Lunch- PB&J on whole wheat bread, carrots and ranch and an apple
Dinner- whole wheat french toast, apple sauce
We had the pancakes in the freezer so we might as well eat them... I had planned to make home made chicken nuggets but by the time we got home from dance I had lost my motivation... Maybe I'll make Wednesdays breakfast for dinner days since the hubby is always at work...hmmm.
Thursday- Breakfast- whole wheat waffles from the freezer and clementines
Lunch- everyone bought lunch
Dinner- Pizza and past from Tony's
So, not such a great day... The kids asked to buy lunch and, honestly, I was out of sandwich bread so it was easy. I was tired ofter work and did not feel like cooking so we just did Tony's. Oh well, not the end of the world. But there is nothing from Tony's that would even remotely meet the criteria from the challenge.
Friday- Breakfast- pancakes or waffles and bananas
Lunch- ham and cheese roll ups, tricuits and an apple
Dinner- Bubba was at a sleep over and had hamburgers, Dutch, Huck and I had take out Mexican- fish tacos on corn tortillas for me, cheese quesadillas on flour for them. And french fries. What kind of restaurant serves fries with Mexican food? Oh, Del Taco. I had never been there before, don't think I'll be going back either.
Saturday- Breakfast- blueberry whole wheat pancakes
Lunch- chicken noodle soup (from a can), Triscuits and carrot sticks
I have to say, the soup coming out of the can was pretty gross looking. I won't buy that again.
I had 2 Dr Peppers during the week and lots and lots of water and lots and lots of coffee. A few ice teas in there as well. The kids had a few random snacks that we had in the house, but over all I think we did pretty well. As the bad snacks get eaten I will not be replacing them so I think it will wean itself out a bit. The kids really did not ask for "bad" food either, instead they were asking questions about what makes each kind of food healthy. We did not have any major meltdowns, may be a coincidence but who knows. So we'll keep it up.
But I do have one complaint. Dutch celebrated the 100th Day of School on Friday with an all-morning long event. It was a ton of fun and I got to help shepard her group around to all the different stations. I know I am not the first to say this, but why do we have to have food at every school event? The celebration started at 8:30 in the morning. They had:
- a cupcake (thankfully not the huge, artificially-colored icing ones from the grocery store),
- Hershey Kisses,
- Fruit Loops made into a necklace,
- punch with fruit juice and Sprite
- trail mix with chocolate chips, Skittles, M&Ms, butter popcorn, marshmallows & 5 other ingredients
Overall, I am much more aware of everything we are putting into our bodies and it is a good thing!
That's amazing that you are doing all this with your family. You make it sound easy and enjoyable. I enjoy the updates.
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Tory
You are off to a great start!! We have a couple of Trader Joe's in Houston but neither are close to us. We went once and I did notice how much cheaper the organic produce seemed to be. Your observation about all of the treats at school (and how the kids would have been fine without them) is so interesting. Maybe you NEED to be That Mom (I am sure you are not the only one) who questions the status quo!! You have the First Lady on your side, after all.
ReplyDeleteYesterday we were at the zoo and as we were walking in (at 10:15 am) I saw a little girl who looked to be about 3 sitting in a wagon eating a huge bag of neon pink cotton candy (at 10:15 am). Then I saw her a few minutes later, and she had finished off the cotton candy and was holding a full sized bag of Cheetos and shoveling those into her mouth. She was obese, as were the adults with her. I was very tempted to go hand them some of our clementines.
Or you could just be more educated and save money by actually not buying organic food and spending the money you save on buying more quantities of healthy food for your family. Rather than falling for marketing schemes, you can just buy regular healthy non-organic food since scientifically there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that organic is in any way healthier for you. However organic food does have a detrimental effect on the environment. Leave the science to the scientists.
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