I am super excited to announce that I really have been taking my food revolution seriously. I talk about and propose a lot things, and don’t actually go through with them. But this time I am happy that I was motivated enough to make a change in my life, and that I’m bringing the Captain along with me! I spoke the other week about the Great Purgeof the items I had in my kitchen. It took a little while but alot of the bad stuff is gone! When it was time to start replenishing my food items, we decided that we would go to our local Trader Joe’s and see what they have to offer in terms of food items, as well as price. I wanted to show The Captain that my choices aren’t going to cost us an arm and a leg…and I really think I did that!
The main thing I wanted to focus on first was the meats. After seeing all those videos about the chickens and what actually is being put into my meat I thought that was a great place to start. So I have been insisting that we buy free range and hormone free/natural meat. I will admit that the meats were more expensive than what I could get at a standard grocery store, but I am finding it to be totally worth it! (not to mention I have found other ways to save..more on that later) The chicken was sooo tender and so much less fat on it! I bought some sirloin steak filets…and they were so yummy!
I was amazed when I saw the price of the cage free eggs at Trader Joes. Compared to the “Nature’s Promise” brand at stop and shop they were so much less expensive! Actually the eggs in general there were rather cheap…so the cage free eggs were about the same price as the regular eggs from stop and shop! I thought that was a huge score.
The Captain and I LOVE frozen pizza. But we bought pizza dough ($.99), pizza sauce ($1.49), and mozzarella cheese (natural cheese $2.65) and The Captain made us an amazing pizza! It was so yummy! When we made it a 2nd time I added pepperoni to my side, and garlic and onions to his. It was definitely a healthy, and cheaper alternative. When we had it the 2nd time I just had to buy more dough because we still had pizza sauce and cheese left over. Score!
Earlier I said that I found other ways to save money to make up for the more expensive meats…well I did! Everyone that commented before was right. If you cut out the processed foods, (or buy less of them in my case) you really can save money! For example. I used to love the Uncle Ben’s 90 second rice. It was good and easy. Each bag I would say is about $2.69…well at Trader Joe’s I bought this organic Jasmine brown rice from Thailand. A nice size bag was $3.35. And so far, I have cooked rice for about 4 meals and it barely looks like I’ve made a dent in the bag! I make up for the extra meat costs just in not buying the Uncle Ben’s rice! Cool huh?
All of this makes me excited. It makes me happy to know that I am making a change, and in my own small way I am telling those big, bad and mean chicken and beef farmers out there that I’m not going to take their crappy meats no more! How are you doing with all this? Have you joined in on my food revolution?
Yay, that’s awesome. I’m so glad you are being successful with your Food Revolution. We love to use the TJ’s pizza dough to make calzones, too, just for something a little different!
OOO Calzones! That sounds yummy. How do you make those??
That’s so good! It sounds like you’re really trying to save some money but eat healthy. We’re trying to eat more at home and quit eating out so much – it’s a hard habit to break but we’re trying to do it together. Keep up the good work!
It definitely is a hard habit to break. We are trying to eat at home more too. Not just for health reasons but for $$ reasons too! We’ve been doing pretty good!
Ok, you’ve totally inspired me! I have been thinking about making the organic switch for a while now. Please keep us posted on how its going! Thanks for sharing!!!
I have always talked about it, and it took seeing those videos to do it. Have you seen food inc?? I will definitely keep you posted! Good luck with trying to make the change!
I adore Trader Joe’s. We don’t have one where I live and it makes me so sad. The french onion soup in the frozen section is divine. Love their hummus as well.
Stopping by SITS to say hello!
They have such a wonderful frozen section! I love the mandrin chicken, it tastes like real chinese food!
I love Trader Joes! I try to eat organic as much as possible! Keep up the food revolution!!
Oh that is very awesome, I am proud of you!! ? Keep it up!!
Good for you. Thank goodness for Trader Joe’s. They help make the food revolution more possible. Stopping by from SITS.
LOOOOOOOOOVE trader joes~~~!!
So excited for you!
Big fan of Trader Joes & Whole Foods. You should try & check them out next ?
We cook from scratch and try to keep things well rounded & rarely eat processed foods. I do a lot of reverse engineering with a lot of my fave recipes, like if something calls for a can of processed stuff I look at the ingredients & try to make a substitute…like cream of mushroom soup is just really a white sauce with flavoring.
We did the whole food revolution thing before it was a thing. Well I should say I did and since I handle 99% of the cooking at home our family eats what I cook and we buy what I dictate.
When I lived upstate I lived in a house full of PETA nuts & vegans. There was no way I could eat any other way around them. Though I was known to sneak a twinkie or two when I wanted to.
I am also looking for new ways to improve our eating habits & food choices. Cost is a factor but as you have come to find out you really do end up saving money in the long run.
Trader Joes has definitely helped us do that. There are a lot of options at Fairway as well. Walmart (of all places) has an excellent selection of Organic-Free trade foods.
One thing I’ve now added to our own food revolution (and something I’ve noticed we’ve already cut down on my cutting our processed foods) is the amount of garbage & recycling we produce. I’d like to have it down to one bag of trash a week…no where near that yet but I hope with time we will be.
I have heard whole foods is more expensive, but they do have a bigger store. I’ll have to check them out. I like Fairway, but it’s always so busy and that hurts my sanity. At least Trader Joes is pleasant! lol But I will definitely check them out.
It depends what you are purchasing at Whole Foods. They run pretty decent sales. It is just two of you so really Trader Joes is probably our best option. I hear you on Fairway…that parking lot is a mess.
Stopping by from SITS – I love Trader Joe’s as well… as a single girl cooking for one, I like that I know all of the ingredients in their frozen dinners – try the Indian ones – especially the Chicken Tikka Masala.
Have a great day!
I wish we had a Trader Joe’s near me! Stopping from SITS!
Stopping by from SITS! We try to eat as organically as possible and with seven kids, it gets expensive. I’m insanely jealous of your Trader Joes. We just got a Sprouts, but it’s not really close by. I need to make the effort to go because it has better prices than my local store. Good luck with the eating changes!
I had a little Trader Joe’s feast this weekend too – wrote about it on my blog..
Couldn’t believe how much food I was able to purchase for $21 – and healthy food at that!
If you haven’t tried the Reduced Guilt Brownies yet – they were fantastic! As was the frozen veggie fried rice…
Love it, love it, love it!
So very proud of you!!!
I wish we had a Trader Joes. I went to one when I was visiting my sister in Boston and I fell in love with it.
I moved back to VT last month and while there are several “health food stores” there isn’t a Trader Joe’s or a Whole Foods and it totally bums me out! Try their Pineapple or Mango Salsa, and 100 Cal milk chocolate bars – those are the things I miss the most!
I didn’t realize Trader Joes was so much cheaper than Stop and Shop (except for cereal…that I knew about lol). Maybe I will have to start going the extra distance to hit up TJ’s more often!
I SO wish we had stores like that here. All we have is Walmart, Kroger, Aldi, etc. It sucks. I will be glad when we are in a bigger city!
Love Trader Joe’s! They have a delish Apple / Butternut soup that is unreal… Also, great for Organic fruits and veggies! This is good for me b/c I’m making Olivia’s baby food and using all Organic (so easy!) Great practice for you too ?
Wow, that’s fantastic! What a great way to save- I really wouldn’t have thought it would be such a difference. I’m slowly making some transitions.. but slowly.. lol!
i think that it is really great that your not buying the cheap meats simple because there cheap. im slowly trying to do the same thing. they are way more healthy for you and like you said there cost cancels out if you were just to cook your own food instead of buying it frozen. (food usually tastes better when it has not been frozen) what made you change you mind and buy all organic types of food?