Healthy Cooking Journal

Healthy Food Shopping

Next time you shop for food, take a look at your fellow shopper’s carts. It’s kind of a game with me. There’s an interesting quote that goes like this…..”Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are”. So, my little game is to try and figure out what people are (nutritionally speaking of course) by what I see in their carts.

After allowing for kids, plants, toys, paper goods, pet necessities, automotive parts and pieces, and a jillion other things on the shelves of any supercenter, I see the FOOD! Some start with plastic-pack drinks hanging all over the sides of their carts and others just fill the bottom half with diet pop. Then, there is the meat! Lots of meat! And, boxes and bags of cereal and chips. Top that with cookies, burger helper, hot dog buns and spaghetti sauce in huge jars. How about a little iceberg lettuce and a few tomatoes. Last stop is for a couple of cartons of ice-cream. How’s that for a shopping trip??

I’m a list maker from way back, and still to this day forget everything that’s not on my list. I especially love my grocery list. It keeps me in line and guarantees my pantry is filled with food that’s full of nutrition. No burger helper here. If that’s what I want I can make it from scratch and avoid a good number of additives and chemicals. I’m truly a pasta lover and have quite a striking “display” of different pasta to choose from. In the fridge are an assortment of onions, peppers, squash, spinach and other good vegetables that become stir-fry to toss with that pasta.

So, when you see my cart you will find necessities for my kitty, but no kids (they all have kids of their own now…….but I do remember a time when I had one cart for kids and another for the food!). I like to think that my cart represents how much effort I have, and do, put into deciding what foods are the most healthful and nutritious, from canned and packaged goods to fresh produce to meats and cheese. These days it’s smart to actually read labels………and after doing so you will surely bypass the ice cream that really isn’t ice cream at all.

I think I’ll go make a list of everything in my pantry.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 6:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.