Monday is marketing day. It’s one of my all-time favorite days. I love roaming the aisles. I love looking at the clever packaging. I love getting my tiny sample of decaf coffee and whatever food is on offer at Trader Joe’s (and by the way, I always buy whatever it is they are sampling. It doesn’t matter what it is. Fondue and a loaf of french bread? Yes please. Apple with caramel sauce? Must have it. Gluten free raisin bread with Kerrygold butter? Obviously). I love going to Whole Foods for the sole purpose of getting waffles, sausage and deli meat (which you’ll see, is never all I leave with).
Feeding a family of 6 including 4 picky children is no easy feat. If my kids could have mac and cheese or pastasauceandmeatballs for every meal they would be thrilled but, sadly for them, I won’t allow it. I have seen other kids eat at playdates and birthday parties so I know mine aren’t the worst eaters out there but I know they’re not the best either. At this point I’ve settled for them being mildly okay with what I serve them. I don’t expect them to be happy and I don’t make anything if I think they’ll be miserable. I just expect a reasonable amount of groaning and a reasonable amount of praise. That’s all.
The trouble is I have 4 children whose eating habits are somehow all completely different from one another. The eldest – the girl – loves all fruit, all grains, most vegetables, some proteins and all candy or anything sweet. Number 2 – eldest of the boys – loves most proteins, most grains, a handful of fruits and vegetables and a few sweet things here and there. The middle boy eats almost nothing. The only thing he 100% consistently eats is mac and cheese but only the Trader Joe’s yellow box variety, cereal bars from Trader Joe’s and kefir pouches I buy at Whole Foods. He will usually eat bread, crackers, rice, pasta, and cereal. He will not eat proteins unless bribed and fruits and veggies? Even with the promise of something great like 2 cookies for just one tiny bite he will not put a fruit or vegetable near his mouth. On recommendation from the doctor we give him Pediasure at night to supplement his calories. Now, that being said, he has had some surprising likes – brie to go with his crackers and quiche. But those were fleeting and now we’re back to normal. As for the 4th child, he’s merely 9 months old and already eats everything. The kid is a vacuum.
My next consideration when it comes to food is my husband who thankfully seems to enjoy everything I make. I don’t know if it’s just the fact that he’s Canadian and too polite to tell me otherwise, but the man never has a negative word to say about my cooking. (How lucky am I?)
So over the weekend we made a Costco run and bought a bunch of big staples. I thought I was going to the market today just to fill in what was missing. As you will see, things didn’t exactly go as planned. I’ll note here that it would be impossible to go to only one store for all the things we need. Trader Joe’s is fabulous for staples, certain produce, proteins, cheese, dairy, eggs, frozen food, flowers, and they are so clever with their packaging it drives me crazy. Who can pass up pasta labeled “Trader Giotto’s?”
I would never buy yogurt at Whole Foods when I could buy it at Trader Joe’s. The prices are just so much better. But Whole Foods has certain things that Trader Joe’s lacks. For one, the produce just looks better and often lasts longer. There was a period of time last year that no matter when I got mangoes at Trader Joe’s, no matter how long or short a time I left them on the counter, they were rotten when I opened them up. Their produce has gotten better than it used to be but some things still look a bit sad. Whole Foods on the other hand has glistening and colorful produce that just begs you to take it home. They’ve really mastered the spritzing that makes everything shine.
The second thing that Whole Foods has is the meat counter. I don’t always need the variety they have but if I feel like cooking lamb that week I know I can get it at Whole Foods. Third, Whole Foods has a deli counter. I don’t like to get the pre-packaged deli meats and cheeses. I’d much rather have those sliced at the counter. Maybe I’m crazy – it’s all processed meat anyway. But I just like it better “fresh.” Fourth and most importantly I have to go to Whole Foods every week no matter what, even if I could suck it up and eat all my produce and pre-packaged turkey from Trader Joe’s, because my kids always request waffles and sausage for breakfast and refuse to eat any other sausage but the Applegate Farms chicken and maple sausage. So there you go. If Trader Joe’s would just sell Applegate Farms or at least some identical but differently named item, I would save a trip to Whole Foods AND about $100 every week. Let’s be serious I cannot leave Whole Foods without spending $100 and usually more no matter how much I’ve already spent at Trader Joe’s. Last week I was feeling very crunched for time and also super lazy so I did my whole shopping trip at Whole Foods. Well let me tell you I spent more than double what I would have normally spent and I didn’t even get my samples. Lesson learned.
In any case my trip to Trader Joe’s yielded the following:
In bag number one I have:
2 containers of large white eggs
French Brie (The kind that the boy eats when he eats brie – here’s hoping!)
Feta
Whipped Cream Cheese
2 Mangoes
Bag of organic kiwis
Container of blueberries
Container of red grapes
Bag of baby tomatoes
Nova Salmon pieces
Dr Praeger’s veggie burger (new thing I’m trying – hoping to find a third item that all the kids will eat)
Bean and Cheese burrito (for those moments I’m starving and everything else in the house looks awful, these usually do the trick)
Butternut squash zig-zags (hoping to roast and trick the kids into thinking they’re eating french fries)
Two salad kits (I need ease when it comes to salad. I’m really hoping this pre-packaged kit is the answer to my prayer)
Bag of spinach (I find without much effort I can throw a few leaves of spinach onto every meal and feel like I’m doing something good.)
Container of basil (to go with the massive container of mozzarella balls we got at Costco)
Daisies (the flowers at TJs are the best and my son likes to have flowers in the house)
Bacon (in my family growing up pork was off limits but bacon – totally fine.)
Moving right along:
Creamy almond butter AND creamy cashew butter (the doctor told me the baby should try all the nut butters at this point to check for allergies. I probably could have ground up nuts myself but I didn’t think of that until just this moment…)
Mini bagels (bagel day on Wednesday and I wouldn’t dream of sending the kids to school with something different than what their friends will be eating)
Kalamata Extra Virgin Olive Oil (okay this was the most expensive OO they sell (14.99. The one I usually get is 7.99 but I loved this bottle and decided to do an experiment to see if anyone can taste a difference. I still have a little left of the old bottle. Also look below at the display of olive oil. Are you kidding?)
2 boxes of mac and cheese (the only brand the kids will eat)
Raw hazelnuts (I’ve found when I put these in my mouth at the same time as chocolate I can almost convince myself I’m tasting nutella)
Grilled marinated artichoke halves (a lot of marinated artichokes smell and taste like high school dissections. These taste really good.)
Organic chicken stock (my favorite of the many I’ve tried. I can actually drink this plain with nothing added and be happy)
Blueberry snack bars
Peanut butter sandwich crackers
5 meat sticks
21 seasoning salute (For some reason I am desperately attracted to the spices at Trader Joe’s. Last week I bought two containers of Dukkah (I’d never tried it before and still haven’t but it looked so great and the label said “get it before it’s gone!” and so I bought 2!) I cannot go into that store without buy some random spice.)
I forgot to include these things in the other dry foods picture:
Decaf coffee
Mochi rice nuggets (ever since going to a friend’s house for Korean New Year and eating Mochi I’m a little obsessed and these sounded too good to pass up)
So as I mentioned before, I went to Whole Foods with three things in mind: waffles, sausage, and deli meat. Here’s what I walked out with:
and
So in picture one we have:
Waffles + sausage (phew! how many times have I gone somewhere needing something and walked out with 15 other things but not the thing I needed?)
Frozen peas and frozen sweet potatoes (to mash up for the baby)
4 strawberry yogurts (already found out that my son wants a different strawberry yogurt not that one)
Plainville Farms smoked turkey
Genoa salami
Prepared cauliflower
Frozen cut okra (apparently okra is the best thing in the world. It has superpowers. You could probably subsist on Okra alone if you wanted. That being said I just cannot get past the texture. So I buy it frozen and throw it into smoothies. All the benefits, none of the slime!)
And finally in my last bag:
Sushi (for lunch today)
Psychology Today (like the spices at Trader Joe’s, I find it difficult to pass a magazine rack without buying one. They make them look so appealing now. I currently have 3 unread magazines that I don’t subscribe too – I just saw them and had to have them. When will I learn that I don’t have free time and when I do I’d rather spend it signing up for more monthly subscription boxes?)
I saw this as I was leaving:
If you’re wondering where the meat is – you’re right. I didn’t get it at either place because we got some steak at Costco (for the 70 degree day coming up) and I plan on going to a couple of local places for speciality things as needed.
What do you think of my loot? What am I missing? I’m always willing to try new things. What’s in your grocery bags this week?
Mama Mader at Home 