Friday, November 19, 2010

The Organic Housewife

Do you ever have those days when you're craving a particular thing? There's no
explaining it, but some days you could really go for a certain taste and texture. Today for me, it was lamb.

I love lamb. But I haven't cooked with it since we moved to Texas because I had no luck finding some at conventional grocery stores. Today however I rolled out of bed, turned on my computer, and at 9 o'clock in the morning I was making phone calls to every ethnic grocer within a twenty mile radius. No joke. If it was all I did today, I was getting my lamb.

Little did I know it was right under my nose! My local Whole Foods Market sells ground lamb for $6.99/lb. If that seems expensive, you may be on to something--it's twice the price of your run-of-the-mill beef. Though I've seen it for as much as $8.99, so if you consider that with how bad and I wanted it and the fact that it was organic, I stole that lamb.

If you've never been to a Whole Foods, not only do you not know what you're missing but you're apparently oblivious of what you've been eating. (I beg you to watch a documentary called The Future of Food and I am convinced that afterward you'll agree with me when I say a higher grocery bill is a small price to pay for the poison--yes poison--that you're not putting in your body.)

Though I'm not one to talk: I don't shop there nearly as often as I should. But when I do go it's a treat! The quintessential marketplace atmosphere, coupled with the overwhelming smell of everything good you've ever smelled but fresher is enough to earn your grocery shopping loyalties before the fact that what you're about to buy is quality. And the variety! They offer the largest variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry, and cheese I've ever seen. You see things you've never even heard of before that make you want to revolve an entire meal around them. Every time I go there I get inspired to go all Martha Stewart on my kitchen. And I'm reminded of how much fun cooking is. The endless possibilities! The best part of cooking a meal is that when you're done it's something you can be proud of, and you can't have buyers remorse on whatever you spent to make that meal because food is a necessity and quality is a priority. The sky is my limit, and it's handed to me by the cashier in little brown paper bags that I find adorable (albeit inconvenient to carry).

It's a good thing I only grabbed a hand basket on my way in and not a cart because I just might have gotten ridiculous. However I'm proud to say I went away with only inspiration and what was written on my shopping list (plus maybe some parsley and organic apple cider vinegar...).

I'm not as proud to say that the ingredients needed to make this recipe cost me $30...


100% organic!



So, what is it exactly that I'm making, you ask? You can't take the suspension any longer, you say? I am making my favorite recipe: lamb, spinach and feta meatloaf. All of my favorite heavenly ingredients rolled (literally!) into one. I also love this recipe because it can be as simple or as pain-staking as you decide to make it. Today I chose the median route, adding some extra ingredients and following the recipe more or less verbatim. ("Verbatim" here means not saying "ah, screw it" and going off of Shauna inspiration: A dash of this, a fist of that, a curve ball for your tongue, and I think I like the sound of this temperature...) I usually start dinner about the time my husband gets home from work at 4:30, but today I absolutely could not wait to get started!



My picky husband LOVED IT so much, he demanded the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!



To conclude this entry, if you're not interested in taking preventative measures for your health, don't like paying $10/lb for almost everything, or don't like having to say "no" to the slow cooker magazine in the checkout lane for $9.95, then an organic food market may or may not be for you. But I do hope that you'll consider subsituting at least some of your foods now and again... and watch this video!

:)

2 comments:

  1. I say if you can afford it, go organic. Otherwise use the organic grocery stores as kind of a guide to help you shop run of the mill stores, such as my personal fav "Shop'n'Save" lol. But I use what I learn at Giant Eagle (yes Giant eagle has turned into a higher end store, weird huh?) and it helps me find good stuff at cheaper stores. Of course for produce, its almost a must to get the pricier items unless its Farmers market time of year!

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  2. Yeah, organic is expensive. In my household, we shop organic though, because it is worth it to eat healthy food.
    I would recommend tofu. I know people say it is gross, but if you do a stir fry with veggies and tofu and add soy sauce in, it tastes good!

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