Monday, October 12, 2015

No skimping

Ok, as I wrote this post in my mind, I could clearly point out a few, solid ways to not skimp in the kitchen. But now that the post is starting to come out of my mind and onto my keyboard I'm having a harder time being choosy. I like food. I like good food. And I feel like good food can easily be justified! Our body requires sustenance and quality sustenance improves both physical AND mental health. When I eat junk I feel junky. I am crabby and have no energy. And what is that saying? If mama ain't happy...?

But also, I just believe in good things. God made us sensory beings who can experience beauty and ascend. We should eat and drink and ascend, right? Why would we not want that? I want that!

Price can be scary, yes. But it's easy to get used to spending money on a zillion little crappy things that add up to a lot. Sometimes I go through our budget and I single out Starbucks alone and there is, like, $47 TO STARBUCKS IN AUGUST and I'm like shoot me dead I did not need those Starbuckses! Starbi. Whatever.

But anyway this is like how-to-be-a-grown-up 101 so I'll just get to it. Here are a few essential ways to especially not skimp in the kitchen. As I said, I would prefer to not skimp on anything. Pastured eggs, raw milk, good cheeses, grass fed beef, good butter, good wine, beer, etc. But the truth is I do skimp on all those things here and there, so I can't preach. It's certainly not easy to feed a large family on creme de la creme ingredients but I try when I can. Anyway, while there are a number of ways I skimp, there are I few ways I splurge. And you should too. (If you want.)

(And you can even get it all on the internet so there is no need to go to an pretentious store that might make you feel lame/uncool/unhealthy, etc. Perfect!)

1. Maldon.

I know that maybe your first thought is- what could possibly be so special about salt and why would I spend $6 on it?? But that's maybe because you're imaging salting everything with this. Well, you will, but you won't cook with it, you'll just finish with it. A pinch on top of your salad, a pinch on top of your steak, a pinch on veggies, pasta, eggs, chocolate chip cookies, anything. And it will be like dusting your meal with heaven. The salt flakes are so bright and punchy they elevate everything. And all you need in a pinchy pinch.

2. Coffee.

Ok, the best part of waking up is NOT Folgers in my cup! I have had that stuff. I comes in a 50 pound tub and it's tastes like 4 day old coffee I left in the microwave. I APOLOGIZE IF THIS COMES OFF SNOBBY. But one of the best parts of my day is waking up early and drinking a cup of coffee. And I have options! I can drink gross coffee or delicious coffee. WHY IS THIS EVEN A QUESTION? No matter how much you spend on coffee you will never spend more than going out for coffee. And it's way better than what you'd get for $4 and the 'Bucks, anyway. Maybe you're a Folgers girl and you think I'm cray but I will pay you five bucks if you buy and drink this coffee like it less. I swearit.

3. Protein Powder.

I'm kinda on a huge protein powder kick right now and it's because I am le tired of eating pb&j crusts when I don't have time for a proper meal. It takes about 90 seconds for me to 1. place blender on counter 2. fill with frozen fruit, protein powder, almond milk, etc. 3. blend. It's not perfect but it does me good. Protein powder is one of those tricky things that can be either totally good for you or totally terrible for you, so be smart about it! I buy this grass-fed whey powder sweetened with stevia. There are four entire ingredients in it and I like it like that.

4. Honey.

Honey is important. When I'm out of honey and I run to the store, the honey section is where I always waffle. I look at the cheap honey, I look at the expensive honey, I look at the cheap honey, I look at the expensive honey. I don't wanna buy the cheap honey, I don't wanna pay for the expensive honey, I don't wanna buy the cheap honey, I don't wanna pay for the expensive honey. Every time! But that's because cheap "honey" can be not honey at all! It can be corn syrup. And expensive honey has antimicrobial, vitamin-rich, enzymatic super powers! That's, like, a wide swinging pendulum!! Lucky for me there is an incredible honey farm 3 miles down the road with local, raw honey sold in GALLON SIZED TUBS. It's only when I don't make the time to drive those 3 whole miles do I find myself in the major grocery aisle honey conundrum. And lucky for the entire universe my little down-the-road honey farm sells on Amazon. It doesn't qualify for Prime but it I were you I would say who cares?! and -> ADD TO CART. Have you ever swabbed honey on a burn? It's amazing! Put it on cuts or in your tea and you're always doing yourself a favor. Oh, can I just take a quick second to rant (have I not been doing that??) DON'T BE TRICKED BY BRANDS THAT LABEL THEIR HONEY "ORGANIC." Honey cannot be organic! Kind of like fish! Brands that claim to have organic things that can't be organic drive me nuts. They seem sneaky and inauthentic they don't deserve your (my) money.

Wow. Didn't expect to get so passionate about that. Moving on...

5. Maple Syrup.

This isn't necessarily an argument for a brand of maple syrup as it is an argument for maple syrup in general. It's like honey vs "honey." It falls right there in the "stuff you can put on pancakes or waffles, stuff you can use to sweeten things, stuff that can actually be quite good for you or actually be quite horrible for you" category. Real maple syrup does cost a lot more than pancake syrup but you use a lot less. Once Kirby made me a Mother's Day breakfast in bed and he used real maple syrup on my waffles the way you might drown Eggos in Aunt Jemima and it was... so awful. A little drizzle goes a long, long way so don't sweat the price tag. What you might want to sweat is when your 4 year old dumps out an entire bottle on the kitchen table. You have my full permission to sweat that.

Speaking of!!!! A long time ago I wrote a post about honey. It went something like baby Hero pours an entire jar of honey on baby Mary. I drove 40 minutes to buy that honey. -__-

Anyway.

*6. I am adding a last minute no. 6 because I felt crazy for not including it after Jenny commented. BUTTER. I won't link you to Amazon because they price Kerrygold crazy high. But don't skimp on butter. Slather it on everything and cook everything in it and bathe in it and sprinkle it with Maldon and pretend to be French. Plus, health and for all the reasons.

How do you splurge? What would make you cry if your toddler poured it out all over the floor or all over your baby?? I want to know.


41 comments:

  1. Ummmmm, were you creeping on my waffling honey stop at the grocery store yesterday? I eventually went for the raw, unfiltered, local varietal even as the price tag punched me in the throat because it KILLS VIRUSES. Or something. And I feel good about that.

    Also, what you said about coffee, wine, and maple syrup. And butter. I figure we'll be happy eating a largely vegetarian diet if we can have high end condiments and the occasional grassfed burger.

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    1. Yes butter! Yes yes butter. That's no 6. See but once you start listing it's impossible to stop!

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    2. Oh and hell yes on the vegetarian plus burger diet

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    3. Butter, specifically Kerrygold, is indeed the best ever!! Trader Joes is the cheapest unless your Costco carries it, then it's under $8 for a three-pack, which is a GREAT price! If Costco is out, it makes it hard to rationalize, as Alaska is deprived without a Trader Joes and the next closest is $5 for a single package. Ugh. But anyyyyyway, I'm ruined for "normal" butter.

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  2. Yes, the honey!!! I can't buy the crappy stuff. I just....no. And maple syrup is on my list too. I almost faint when people put the giant Aunt Jemima in their cart at Costco. And for us... grass fed beef. We've bought a cow the last couple years and now we are so spoiled on grassfed t-bones that we are snobs who won't eat anything else.

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  3. The coffee bean you listed is good but not great. Bargreenscoffee.com roast a much better bean and at $6.89 a pound a much better bargain. Plus it is romantic supporting a business that has been around over 120 years doing the same thing roasting a great bean.

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    1. Or Camano Island coffee! I can't justify their type quality and prices for all the groceries (my list is similar to yours though), but the fair trade and high quality, as well as the fact that they roast to order, annnnnd that the prices are decently affordable when you subscribe, make it rationalizeable for us. At least at this point.. Here's a link if anyone cares to use it, though I will say it's a referral link, both sides get $20 off a first subscription order. Even if that's not your motivation, their coffee really is really good!

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  4. Maldon on everythinggggg, especially homemade cookies. "What you might want to sweat is when your 4 year old dumps out an entire bottle on the kitchen table. You have my full permission to sweat that." aka 2 year old Atlas. AND I want to hear more about your protein powder!? Seems so yuck!

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    1. No way! Can't even taste it!! Come have a smoothie.

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    2. I was wondering the same. I'd dismissed it as either body builder nonsense or eating synthetically instead of just actual food. Maybe it's worth considering?

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  5. Coffee, for sure. Parmesan cheese from a wedge, not a can. And homemade vanilla from real vanilla beans. Just to name a few.

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  6. mary's face in that picture. luv times infinity.

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    1. this is brooke, btw....not creepy mccreeperson unknown identity person

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  7. Costco sells Kerrygold and real maple syrup! And also, I love that honey farm near your house!

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    1. Yes! $9 for 3 or something, right?

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    2. Curious about how much a gallon of honey goes for at said farm?

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  8. I always gawk at the price of good cheeses, especially aged goat cheese. But I just can't quit it. And good olive oil and balsalmic vinegars for salad dressings.

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    1. Yes. I think maybe the conclusion I'm coming to is good quality everything??

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  9. We splurge on ALL the good food, because it is literally about the only thing we do splurge on. Rusty old cars? Second-hand clothes? Who cares! We have a half a cow in our freezer (courtesy of my husband's farmer uncle), eggs from the Mennonite farm up the road (and from our own ducks), coffee with chicory from New Orleans (my mom is from there, and it's the only kind I drink), real heavy cream from the local dairy, local cheeses, huge bags of apples from the orchard up the road . . . we live in the Land of Agricultural Plenty, and buying crap from the grocery store when the good stuff is RIGHT HERE, literally ten miles or less away, is ridiculous.

    Not that I have opinions or anything.

    Also, we tap sugar maple trees and make syrup in the spring, so we have gallons of maple syrup in the freezer all year. It is the best.

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  10. Cheese, yes, I splurge on cheese. My biggest splurges though are high quality chocolate for baking, Liege sugar for waffles on Christmas morning, and high quality fancy fruits & vegetables at a super expensive fruit market near my house. Their prices are crazy, but at least I only have to go once a week instead of every day because their produce doesn't spoil so fast.

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  11. I *just* started buying local honey and it is SOOO much better. I still have some of the old stuff in my pantry and don't want to throw it out but I also just ... don't want to use it.

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  12. Love this post! If there was more you left out id love it if you did a follow up post to expand on it!

    I love GOOD QUALITY foods and believe very much in there's areas in life to splurge and areas to save. I love hearing recommendations on what's worth it.

    I'm curious, the coffee, I have a deep appreciation for GOOD coffee as well and I was wondering if you are particular in how you prepare it as well? Fresh ground vs preground? Standard drip machine or special? Do you store yours in the freezer? I've heard that maintains freshness?

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    1. Hey!! I buy whole bean and grind it fresh, which makes a HUGE difference in taste. I use a single serve pour-over cone (search "pour over coffee" on Amazon) all you need are filters and the ceramic drip cup. I also use the kettle made for it, which I recommended. If I'm making for a small crowd I use a French press:) and I don't store in the freezer- just in a dark cabinet. That's the best way to store coffee:) the smaller the bag, the faster you use it, the fresher it is.

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    2. Intelligentsia is bomb. We are big aeropress fans at my house. It operates just like a French press to make espresso style coffee and there is NO cleanup at all- you just pop the coffee grounds off in one chunk. So satifising.

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  14. Hahaha! Literally, I was reading this post late last night and LAUGHING at your honey fiasco. And then this morning I left the dining room to put the baby down and came back to an entire bottle of Mrs. Butterworth's (don't judge - maple syrup don't love my pancakes like the Mrs. does) all over the toddler and the table. Sigh. I mostly hate that my too full iPhone wouldn't take a picture because, stuffiwilllaughaboutlater. And yes yes yes to good honey and butter. Just, yes. Btw, your snapchat stories are by far, my fave fave. Thanks for sharing. :)

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  15. I'm sad for every time in my life I bought margarine.

    We buy good salsa. No Pace picante here.

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  16. We get local milk delivered every week. It's a tiny bit more expensive, but it's SO GOOD (and no hauling gallons from my car). We have a Costco membership, so I splurge on lots of organic things that would be way too expensive for me to get at the regular grocery store. Definitely agree on local honey. And good cheese allllll the way.

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  17. Agree on all points! I can't have dairy though so my "protein powder" is grass fed collagen powder, its SO good for you :D

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  18. Preach it sister! Maldon: it has changed my life, so good on everything, especially the chocolate chip cookies! Definitely the finishing touch! Protein Powder: I love chocolate shakeology, filled with super foods AND protein so it's like protein and all my vitamins and minerals, mix it with banana and a dollop of PB and i have myself the best meal around. Honey: I was the 2004 Iowa Honey Queen (yes that's a thing, ha!) and LOVE all things bees, honey and pollination. It's so great to eat local honey so you can build up immunity to local allergens! slightly more expensive local honey 4 life. and Butter.... the holy grail, my husband is Irish and it is not even an option to purchase anything other than Kerrygold... costco is pretty reasonably priced! Kiddos covered in honey made me laugh out loud, thanks for keeping it real, sorry for such a sticky mess to clean up though!

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  19. Preach it sister! Maldon: it has changed my life, so good on everything, especially the chocolate chip cookies! Definitely the finishing touch! Protein Powder: I love chocolate shakeology, filled with super foods AND protein so it's like protein and all my vitamins and minerals, mix it with banana and a dollop of PB and i have myself the best meal around. Honey: I was the 2004 Iowa Honey Queen (yes that's a thing, ha!) and LOVE all things bees, honey and pollination. It's so great to eat local honey so you can build up immunity to local allergens! slightly more expensive local honey 4 life. and Butter.... the holy grail, my husband is Irish and it is not even an option to purchase anything other than Kerrygold... costco is pretty reasonably priced! Kiddos covered in honey made me laugh out loud, thanks for keeping it real, sorry for such a sticky mess to clean up though!

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  20. Oh, my gosh, another opportunity to encourage everyone to DUMP STARBUCKS! http://www.dumpstarbucks.com/ And here's my standard plug for Mystic Monk Coffee, which is so delicious and which supports these righteous monks: http://www.carmelitemonks.org/ And kudos to you, Blythe, for encouraging people to eat better even though it usually torks people off to do so. There's this weird antipathy on the internet to being reminded that what we consume matters. It seems like most bloggers try to avoid the topic altogether for fear of (and I kind of hate this term) "the mommy wars." You navigate it very gracefully and with zero sanctimoniousness. Good tips, too. Can't wait to start slathering everything in honey!!!

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