The Trolley Challenge: Only Buying Real Food.

[Bathsheba]

During my last weekend grocery shop I set myself a challenge that I could only partially meet: only buying real food, as opposed to highly processed "food". It has occurred to me that I can walk up and down the aisles of (for example) Coles and not actually find anything to eat. It all just seems so fake.

So I decided to try to stick to buying foods that are basic and that a person would have recognized 100 years ago... ie you don't need a chemistry degree to understand all the ingredients.

But I caved in when I saw that Cadbury fruit dark chocolate was on special

BUT I did avoid buying any biscuits and that was one of my main aims.

I also avoided buying flavoured yogurt because the plain one was biodynamic/organic ie better for us.

I also avoided buying the usual spreads... although DH insisted I buy peanut butter. Instead i bought a block of pure butter/eggs and free lemons (some that were given to us) and made lemon butter. 3 jars worth. (4 eggs, sugar, juice of 3 lemons, 125gm butter etc) worked out much cheaper than buying three jars of it from the supermarket.

Also I have just mixed a teaspoon of my lemon butter through some of that plain yogurt and YUMMO! Voila! Cheesecake flavoured yogurt without the ****tail of chemicals!!!

How back-to-basics could you go? I certainly have room for improvement.

[Campari]

Great plan!

It reminds me of the "Grandma Diet" - basically recommending that you only eat/buy food that would have been around when our grandparents were our age - so nothing processed, nothing laden with preservatives, not too much imported food .. of course you are not limited to eating chops and mashed potatoes, but just gives you something to think about.

[Lulu]

There is no real food in the supermarket!

Well ok, fruit and veg and flour etc. Thats it....

[Bathsheba]

LOL I've never heard of the "Grandma Diet"! Might have to Google. Sounds interesting! On the whole (except for over cooking the vegies) they did eat soooo much better than we do!

Lulu: oh, and rolled oats I don't even really trust the fruit... how long has it been off the tree?

[christy]

I tend to only buy rice crackers, tins of tomatoes, toilet paper, soy sauce etc when I go to coles/woollies now. So all processed stuff I can't make at home.

I buy fruit/veges from the produce market, meat from the butchers and now I get flour, coffee, sugar from the little organic market around the corner.... So when I go to the big shops its only for processed stuff I can't get there....

[Lulu]

Oh don't get me started on that - I was fuming to see Strawberries all the way from QLD when we have farms 25 mins from here!

[Bathsheba]

Another thing: I don't get it when people say "you shouldn't shop when you feel hungry". (Assuming you will over spend) Shopping in Coles doesn't actually make me feel hungry or overspend... if anything I feel quite depressed and walk out without enough ingredients to make meals. I'm actually more inspired by the cleaning products aisles than the "food" aisles.... not that I over spend there either... I keep it pretty basic: Gumption, de-mineralised water... check out to see if Reva have released a new colour of peg... *sigh*

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Sounds like my normal shop, Bath! Apart from the odd frozen pizza/garlic bread.

I usually buy dried herbs as our garden is so small we don't have room for herbs. We've tried but the other veggies just push them out the way. Given that I have studied Chemistry at Uni (just finished that course) I can recognise a lot of things. I do buy things for DS's eczema, but that's not foodstuff.

Thing is - my in-laws won't eat pasta as it's "too foreign". So limiting myself to stuff Grandma would have eaten as a girl means most of my food is off-limits. No rice. No pasta. Only pig-meat (they were pig-farmers so didn't buy in other meat). No tinned tomatoes! I do cook my meals from fresh, buy local or fairtrade, but giving up my son's favourite meals just isn't going to happen.

[willow5]

there is no real food in the supermarket!

Well ok, fruit and veg and flour etc. Thats it....

lulu: Oh, and rolled oats i don't even really trust the fruit... How long has it been off the tree?

so true!!

[AngelPunks]

I went to a supermarket on the weekend with Div - the first time I've set foot in a supermarket for MONTHS - since they have started the farmers market in the CBD weekly I get all my F&V from there, I do buy meat from there or from my local butcher. I will have to set foot into the supermarket this week as I've run out of baking basics (flour etc), almost out of toilet paper and I need more bicarb & vinegar.

For me this wasn't me attempting to be ethical - this was purely for cost cutting - at the farmers market I can buy enough fruit & veg for me for a fortnight for about $40 (that includes a totally indulgent LARGE punnet of strawberries for $10 plus some home-made greek yoghurt).

They say that you can buy your basic food essentials just by walking around the outside of the supermarket (as in isle 1, along the back & then the last isle) - of course that doesn't include things like oats, flour etc.

[Phteven]

I don't think anyone had my dear old Granny in mind when they came up with the grandma diet - unless gin and pate are counted as whole foods

They say that you can buy your basic food essentials just by walking around the outside of the supermarket (as in isle 1, along the back & then the last isle) - of course that doesn't include things like oats, flour etc.

That's pretty much true - it's designed so that you have to go through the aisles to get to all your staples and you enter through the fruit and veges to make you think it's fresh.

[Bengal]

I never knew that trick about the outskirts of the supermarket

[Michelle71]

I don't think anyone had my dear old Granny in mind when they came up with the grandma diet - unless gin and pate are counted as whole foods

I think I like the sound of that Grandma

[boomba]

Sounds like a great plan Bath I am going to give it a whirl next shop!

[Campari]

I reckon with the Grandma diet you can pretend your Grandma lived everywhere in the world! So you can still eat rice and pasta, but not that 2 minute microwave rice, or jars of pasta sauces, or packaged ravioli etc...

[boobaloo]

i;ve been thinking about this a bit lately, and you know what sparked it? xavi is obsessed with jungle book, so i've heard the song 'bare necessities' a million times.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

So basically, we can eat any food so long as it tastes good (ie I cook it rather than opening a jar)?

I'll do that diet!

[MantaRay]

I buy very little in the way of processed foods also. I am really pedantic about salt content for the boys which basically rules out 3/4 of the supermarket! Also the boys react to sugar and most preservatives which rules out most of the rest!

There is no real food in the supermarket!

Well ok, fruit and veg and flour etc. Thats it....

TBH, most of the fruit and veg in supermarkets is barely real either - most of it is genetically designed to withstand rough picking and transport, and it's frozen for so long before it hits the shelves that "fresh" is an entirely inappropriate way to describe it.

I have been getting f&v from the farmers markets like punks (maybe we'll run into each other one day!!) and you can totally taste the difference. Real fresh fruit and vegies have far more taste - which means they are far more nutritious.