We got a Trader Joe's!

Portland, Maine just got a Trader Joe's, and I will be interested to see how that will affect my bottom line. So far, I have discovered they sell a Tuna Thai Curry for $1.49 which is actually edible, and filling over brown rice. Also, I bought some Trader Joe's French Roast coffee for $4.34, which is a great price.

Diet-wise, I've realized the way to go is using brown rice as a staple, and adding as many fresh vegetables as possible, while avoiding bread, pasta, cheese and sugar, when possible. This is my new focus, reducing calories while trying to eat a nutrient dense diet.

Money and Food

I've been feeling embarrassed by this blog, and my obsession, in general, with how to feed myself as cheaply and efficiently as possible. God knows I'll never be a good cook, as I am uncomfortable with food as an artistic material and at sea over my own physical requirements for it, but food, cooking, grocery shopping IS an important topic, and the fact I struggle with it is precisely why its important for me to write about it. (Important to me, but not necessarily to you :-)

Food, as a topic, is more complicated than just a recitation of the techniques and ingredients to produce a certain recipe. (For me, its more complicated.) It's how do you fight the hunger that rises up three times a day? How do you fulfill the demands from your body for calcium, protein, micro-nutrients of every stripe, when your body allows you, even encourages you, to eat "whatever?" It's complicated also because money, to buy the fruit and vegetables, doesn't grow on trees. One's budget is limited. It's no good to pretend we live in the Garden of Eden and all that's required to eat healthily are good intentions. Cash is required as well.

So, I am renewing my commitment to writing about what I spend and what I eat. It's important to me to get this figured out.