10 April 2008

Organic Strawberries are Expensive

As you all know, I've pared my grocery budget down to the barest essentials. The unintended consequence of this is that I have not been eating well at all. I only have enough money for fruit and veggies for my kids, so I haven't really been eating them. I don't drink anything but water or coffee, I don't eat cheese, I try to make free lunches out of oatmeal raisin cookies I found in our office and grapes left over from retirement parties. I feel like crap.

Yesterday I went for a physical, and I am basically healthy. But the doctor said, and I agreed, that I need to eat better. I was talking about this with a friend the other night, and she was suggesting things like drinkable yogurts, which for someone with a morning like mine, are ideal. The problem was, when she said it, I got this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach, because I just can't afford to eat well. I spend money on my kids, and I blow money on weird things like signed copies of Little Bear's Bad Day (4.95, thank you David Wenzel!) but I won't buy myself breakfast. I need to stop it.

Tonight I'm going grocery shopping and I'm buying the yogurts. And probably some salad stuff too.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You should try making your own yogurt. Heat up a quart of milk until steaming but not boiling. Keep it at this temperature for five minutes. Add two tablespoons of unflavored yogurt to a 1-quart sterilized canning jar (run it through the dishwasher or boil in some hot water). Cool the milk down in an ice bath (I use my kitchen sink) to 110-120 degrees (barely warm). Add to jar with yogurt and cover with canning lid. Wrap jar in kitchen towel and then a heating pad. Turn pad onto to low (or medium-low) and let sit for 6-8 hours. I do this all the time and the yogurt tastes much better. There are instructions all over the web. Just be sure to use sterile practices.