Trader Joe: Friend or Foe?
In that vein, I have recently stopped shopping at big box grocery stores (with the exception of Costco occasionally) in favor of farm-direct purchases (for meat, dairy, and most produce), Azure standard (they are about 50 miles east of Portland, for staples), and New Seasons Market (which is locally owned and operated, here in Portland).
But then, there’s Trader Joe’s! Oh, how I love(d) Trader Joe’s. Well, actually I have a love-hate relationship with Trader’s, and have struggled to reconcile the things I love about it for the things I don’t like.
I used to love TJ’s for all of the “good” boxed items they had that were so much cheaper than their Health Food Store counterparts. It was great for snacks, canned foods, frozen entrees, etc. Even though I try not to buy that stuff anymore, I still see the merit in knowing where to find it if you’re out of commission and need some “better” processed food.
So, after eliminating most boxed stuff from my shopping list and rethinking the way I purchase food, I started to think about what was left for me at Trader’s.
And then it hit me: Trader’s.
I started thinking about how folks ate “back then” (you know, when our grands and great-grands were little). I remember my husband telling me a story of how his grandfather would covet the orange he received in his stocking once a year at Christmas. I am just now understanding why an orange would be such a rarity!!! By the way, I have stopped purchasing oranges and bananas because I simply do not see a need for them! I won’t judge you if you do, but I personally want to see how much local produce I can live on without having to get food from another hemisphere.
OK, so back to Trader’s. In the old days, people ate mostly what they hunted, grew, or what their neighbors hunted or grew. And then, there were those exotic things that you could never grow where you lived (like bananas?!) and you purchased them from “traders”. These were special things that you savored and used sparingly.
When I started to look at Trader Joe’s as a place to purchase specialty items, I felt more reconciled to the fact that I could enjoy the savings that TJ’s offers without being tempted by all the processed food in earthy, hip packaging.
Here are my rules for shopping at TJ’s :
- Be absolved of the need to buy local
- Do not buy produce or bakery products (except perhaps sprouted bread, most everything else is a rip-off IMHO)
- Item must be plain, unprocessed food and as close to its natural state as possible,with as few ingredients as possible.
- Item must be something that I could not get locally.
- Item must be something I could not make myself.
- Any meat purchased must meet my meat rules.
If I stick to the above rules, I can usually get out of TJ’s without spending more than $50. If I stick to my rules, I can usually milk TJ’s for the best of what it has to offer while remaining true to my thrifty oreganic principles. I go to TJ’s about once every two weeks normally, and purchase items that last a while. With that in mind, here is a list of what I purchase regularly (or as needed) at TJ’s:
Grocery Aisle:
*kalamata olives, toasted sesame oil, balsamic vinegar, organic peanut butter (although I sometimes make my own), organic ketchup (also something I’m going to start making), grade B maple syrup (processed w/o formaldehyde), pure vanilla extract, canned sardines
Dairy/Meat Aisle:
*kerrygold butter (best price!), Parmesan cheese (they have a raw one for a great price)
*applegate farms uncured turkey bacon (sometimes), prosciutto, pancetta (also sometimes, TJ’s sells uncured versions of both), uncured beef franks
Frozen Aisle:
*blueberries, raspberries, shrimp
Snack Aisle:
*blu italy sparkling water (occasionally), savory rice crackers (occasionally)
Household Aisle:
*SLS free shampoo (this is for my kids and hubby, I make my own for myself), Bronner’s peppermint soap, dishwasher soap (earth-friendly, although I do hope to start making this soon too!), dish soap. all-purpose cleaner, hand soap. TJ’s prices are the BEST on these and the quality of the products rivals Seventh Generation and the like.
I’m sure I’ve forgotten something, but this is generally what I would consider the BEST DEALS at Trader Joe’s. Your mileage may vary, of course, especially if your family does grains. When we were still eating wheat, I bought Ezekial 4:9 bread at TJ’s at it was definitely the best price around!
On what additional items do you think TJ’s has the best deal? Please leave a comment!
Editorial on Laziness
Maybe it’s because I was FOB all day Tuesday due to this nasty bug that hit SW Portland with a vengance (so it seems!), but as I slept and slept, and cooked not and cleaned not, I got to thinking about laziness. Perhaps it was also watching my dear little lettuce seedlings wilting as I could not water them, or my garden spot desparately in need of weeding and preparation so that I might actually plant said seedlings…..whatever it was, laziness was on the mind.
Not in a self-accusatory way, mind you. We all need our rest. In fact, I’ve come to appreciate the annual (if that) stomach bug that plagues our house (it has been three years since we were all wiped like this, thankfully) and call it the “spring detox”and a good excuse to be, well, FOB*.
But when one who strives to be thrifty and a DIYer no longer has her strength, one quickly realizes the place for “convenience food” in the home. Ideally, it would be a week’s worth of nourishing, organic, all-natural meals frozen individually (and homemade of course), and a jar full of freshly cultured kombucha in the fridge, and homemade applesauce to pull out of the freezer, and of course, good old chilcken broth!
A stockpile, if you will, for those times with you must (or want to!) be lazy!
Thankfully, Trader Joe’s is in some ways the next best thing. Ok, well for my budget it is. The next best thing would be having your mother in law who cooks everything from scratch come camp out in your house for a week, but that’s not always possible 
!!! But I was thankful that TJ’s carried affordable and relatively “natural”
*Free range chicken broth
*Rice crackers (we don’t do wheat)
*Sparkling water with lemon (for those upset tummies)
*Frozen “comfort food” that’s wholesome (TJ’s claims their products do not contain MSG)
So, in a pinch, they can help. Ideally, next time this hits I’ll have a better arsenal (although I was able to make delicious chicken broth in the crock pot and forget about it until I needed it) for fighting the flu bug with natural foods.
So, back to the regular schedule postings to come! As soon as my appetite comes back, that is! It’s no fun blogging about food when it makes you queezy!
As always, thanks for reading!
*FOB: A summer camp term, meaning “flat on back”, used to indicate rest time. FYI
Making Yogurt!
Ok, yogurt makers! You are now 12 hours away from creamy, homemade yogurt!
I want to give my friend Kathleen K credit for sharing this method with me. I researched lots of different methods to make yogurt, and all seemed very daunting to me because they required lots of equipment that I didn’t have or just took too long. This is the easiest way to make yogurt that I’ve found, and it makes incredible results!
First, gather the materials listed in the last post (at the bottom of the page).
1. Fill a large pot with water.
2. Using your choice of milk, fill a 1 quart mason jar.
3. Place the milk inside the large pot (use a dishcloth to “pad” the bottom of the pot so it won’t rattle).
4. Place the candy thermometer (if using) inside the milk. Boil the milk to 180 degrees. This step kills competing bacteria. Remove the jar from the boiling water bath.
5. When milk has cooled to 110 (or “when you can place your
finger in the milk and count to ten” thank you George Papas), take 1 Tbs of starter (from Brown Cow or whatever plain yogurt you want). Stir and cover tightly with lid.
6. Wrap the yogurt tightly in a wool or warm blanket and place in cooler.
7. After 8 hours, check the yogurt for consistency and taste. I usually leave mine for about 12 hours for the consistency I like.
Hint: If you begin this process at 7 pm, you’ll be able to enjoy fresh yogurt for breakfast the next morning!!
Discussion points:
1. Generally, the yogurt will be “sweeter” if you culture for 8 hours, and more tart for longer.
2. Culturing yogurt is very temperature-dependant. Results may vary based on the season!
3. If the resulting culture is too “wheyish”simply strain a bit of the whey off.
4. If you want Greek yogurt, strain the whey off for about 4 hours or so. Basically, the longer you strain, the closer you’ll get to cream cheese (which is really good too!)
In Defense of Homemade Yogurt: A Preamble
If you’re like me, you grew up eating yogurt from the supermarket. It was delicious! It was green, red, blue, or sometimes even orange. Sometimes it had “fruit on the bottom” that you could stir into the yogurt. If it was low or nonfat, you could be especially guilt free eating it. Sometimes, you could find exotic flavors such as cappuccino or black forest cherry. You were happy when you ate it for breakfast because you knew it was such a healthy thing to eat.
Until one day, you started reading the label. You saw a long list of ingredients, including High Fructose Corn Syrup, Red #40, gelatin, and pectin. And you noticed that under the Nutrition Information, your little cup of goodness was boasting over 30 grams of sugar per serving!!!!!! A Snickers bar would have been healthier from that perspective!
So, then you might have had a yogurt “conversion experience” that brought you into the lite, so to speak. You dabbled around with “sugar free versions” only to be left with that bad aspartame experience and thus you decided to search for the Real yogurt—what yogurt was meant to be.
At that point, you might have met a girl named Nancy and discovered that tart, plain goodness of “plain yogurt”. And you got all preachy about how good plain yogurt was and you added your own honey and your own blueberries and were happy…..until you read the ingredients on day, and you realized that your yogurt, while free of dyes and added sugars, still contained something more than just “milk and cultures”. You saw pectin, powdered nonfat milk, perhaps gelatin. And there it was again, that 20+ grams of sugar per serving. What’s the DEAL? You asked!!!
And then, you discovered Cream Top. Delicious, pure, unadulterated and low in sugar Cream Top. And what’s better, you discovered how to make it! Organic, grass-fed, fresh yogurt.
Stay tuned………and this treat can be yours too!
If you want to get ready, here’s what you’ll want to gather to use my ultra easy no-frills, no gagetry yogurt procecure:
A quart size mason jar
A candy thermometer (this is a must)
A warm wool blanket or a towel
A cooler (those Styrofoam kind can be purchased at Grocery Outlet for $1)
1 small carton of PLAIN Brown Cow Whole Milk Yogurt
Organic, grass-fed (or whatever you can get) milk!
You get your gear,and meet me back here for the easiest, de-mystifying procedure ever!
Milk: A Thrifty Oreganic Staple
Yeah, I finally figured out how to upload images. Next time I’ll be a little more prepared!
Secondly, a big thank you to all of you who have commented and e-mailed your support; it’s an honor to be a stop on your web reading list!
So begins a multi-part series on my favorite things to do with milk.
I get mine fresh from the farm (by the way, you won’t find anything about the ‘rm’-word on their website but know that you can call and inquire if you are interested. It’s all legal, it’s just not something they want to go advertising about) and it’s not cheap ($5.00 per half gallon) BUT
I seek, through these next several posts to show you why it’s money well spent and worth every penny because you will NEVER need to buy many filler-laden products again when you know how to properly culture your milk!
Here are just a few of the delicious, natural, grass-fed, hormone free, organic treats I regularly enjoy with my $5.00 half gallon of milk:
- Kefir
- Kefir cheese (very similar to feta)
- Cream top Yogurt (with assorted flavors added)
- Ice Cream (additive free)
- Cream Cheese
- Whey (for culturing vegetables)
- Butter
- Buttermilk
One of my goals is to add other cheeses to that list, such as raw cheddar and cottage cheese, but that’s for another time! For now, I will take you through my tips on making each of the above (with colored photos included!).
Please stay tuned for my humble thoughts and tips on making the aforementioned cultured dairy products!
Odds & Ends and a Challenge…..
Happy Friday my Frugal Friends!
Forgive me for delaying to post; I am finishing up some graduate courses online so my blogging time is scarce these days. Lent is also upon us Orthodox folks, and I hope you all had a very clean week!
More thoughts on meal planning:
Thriftiness is all about using what you have, as mentioned in a previous post. As I was thinking about this concept, I realized how obsessed Americans tend to be with “variety”. It’s kind of like choosing what you’re going to wear; you can’t have chicken two nights in a row, now can you? Maybe it’s just me…..
But I had an epiphany. Plan “theme weeks”: Mexian week, Indian week, breakfast-for-dinner week, etc. This makes perfect sense when it comes to ingredients. For example, if I’m planning to make Mexican food on Monday, I probably need cilantro, black beans, rice, spourted corn tortillas (I mean, what am I going to do with all 50 corn tortillas I get for $1.99?), tomatoes, avocados, peppers, and mexican (cotija) cheese. Why not extend the theme and get the most out of my ingredients for the whole week, rather than have half-used cilantro rotting in my produce bin? (Please tell me I’m not the only one!)
Let’s see how many potential meals I could make out of the above ingredients:
Day 1: Black beans and rice with salsa, cilantro, and mexican cheese on top
Notes: Beans and rice can be purchased dry for pennies. Be sure to soak the beans overnight in a water with a TBS of vinegar or whey to deactivate enzyme inhibitors in the beans.
Day 2: Refried black beans (from last night) & Cheese taquitos
Notes: Heat lard or coconut oil in a skillet. Soften corn tortillas in oil, add beans and mexican cheese, roll or fold over and fry in oil. Flip carefully and enjoy your crispy, tasty treat.
Day 3: Mexican black bean salad
Notes: Toss romaine lettuce with mexican cheese, avocado chunks, cilantro, tomatoes, black beans, etc.
Day 4: Mexican tortilla soup (or black bean chili)
Notes: “Gather up the fragments” from the week, rice, tortillas, beans, tomatoes, etc and simmer them in vegetable or chicken broth that you should have in your freezer (more on broth to come!)
Day 5: Mexcian Pizza
Notes: Soften tortillas in oil as in Day 2, spread refried beans and spices of your choice between two tortillas. Top with cheese and tomatoes and anything else you want and bake in the oven until cheese is bubbly.
I’m willing to bet that all 5 of the above meal ideas can be made for a total ingredients list of $20.00. It will be more if you have a large family, but still!
A Challenge for Yourself: Plan your own “theme week” with ingredients that overlap. Use the leftovers in creative ways to make new meals. If you come up with anything worth sharing, by all means, please do!!!
Coming soon: I’ll continue with my “series” on principles of oreganic thriftiness, and we’ll soon be talking about the economies of milk and all the products you’ll never have to buy again because you make them yourself!
Cheap Eats
1 Deo Volente Chicken = 4 Meals and then some!
Meal 1: Roasted in Crockpot and enjoyed with steamed veggies on the side.
Meal 2: Breasts diced and used in Chicken Enchilada casserole.
Meal 3: Carcass made into broth, used for Pea Soup (15 min. to make this!)
Meal 4: Broth used to make homemade tomato sauce with brown rice noodles.
Meal 5: Leftover diced chicken, brown noodles, and broth plus assorted veggies used to make Chicken Noodle Soup.
Meal 6: TBD! I still have plenty of meat left over for a chicken salad or quesadillas. What would you do?
Approximate total cost for all meals: < $30.00
Satisfaction knowing I’m feeding my family whole foods?
Priceless!
Oreganic Thrifty
Hello! Welcome to a blog about organic living on a budget in Portland, Oregon (no, I didn’t misspell “organic”….get it? Oreg-anic? I still can’t believe no one took that name! ). I am a stay-at-home mom who is passionate about eating REAL, Local, well-raised foods. I am here to show you that it can be done on a budget, and that living in a way that’s SUSTAINABLE and RESPONSIBLE can be done no matter who you vote for or what kind of car you drive!
