Mom Influencer Exclusive » It Was a Very Good Year @ EverythingMom.com

Last week’s challenge: Cut out, or at least cut down on, any processed food.  Shouldn’t be too bad, I eat well as it is, but there’s definitely room for improvement.

We were REALLY successful at this, because … it’s summer.  This is prime season for all sorts of beautiful, fresh, CHEAP fruits and vegetables.  If you know of a local farmer’s market, toss the kids in the car and head out — you’ll have a great time.  We bring Maia to one every week, and some of the vendors have even begun to recognize us.

Our favourite way to shop to save money, eat well, and try to support the local economy is the following:
- on Friday, check out all the circulars for the best deals.  We enter these deals into our iPod Touch.
- Saturday or Tuesday, depending on our mood/the weather/how stocked up we are, head to the farmer’s market.
- any proteins, fruits, veggies, grains that are cheaper at farmer’s market, buy them!  also stock up on stuff like ground beef ($10 for 5 lb, lean and locally produced) if we’re out.  Most signs with prices also list “product of USA” vs “product of Ontario” or “grown in Simcoe County”, so we tend to skip USA stuff.  The whole point of going to the farmer’s market is to shop local and fresh!
- the next day, head to the grocery stores and pick up anything that’s cheaper there if it looks good.  I’m pretty good with what’s in season and what’s not, so I won’t buy strawberries in the winter unless it’s for a special occasion, and if we see a pint of blueberries from Ontario next to a pint from California, I’ll buy the Ontario one.
- buy, sparingly, anything in boxes, bags & cans that we need, like cereal, beans, rice etc.
- if there’s anything in boxes and cans that’s not on sale at the grocery stores but we really want, we walk over to  Wal-Mart and buy it there.  This usually results in $10 a week, but some weeks it’s $0!

Now, you’ve got all these fruits and veggies, but what the heck are you going to do with them?  You KNOW that at one time or another you’ve ended up throwing out a whole head of lettuce, a bag of potatoes, a soggy half-pint of berries that never got eaten, etc etc.

I find that the easiest way to avoid having that happen is to prep them as soon after getting home as I can.  So my husband, Chris, keeps an eye on the baby when we get home from grocery stores, and I do the following:

- Take one red onion and one white, cut half of each into slices, dice the other half.  Toss all the white in one plastic bag, all the red in another.
- Herbs and leaf veggies get wrapped in a moist paper towel and returned to their plastic bags (or for herbs, put into one) and wrapped up tightly to avoid any air getting in.  I don’t recommend dicing herbs until you’re just about to use them.
- Melons get cut into slices and stored.
- I buy multiple pints of strawberries at a time.  One pint gets hulled, quartered, and frozen.  I’ll take a handful from another pint, hull and dice them (for topping cereal), but otherwise leave them alone (don’t wash berries & put them back in the fridge!)

Because I’ve done this little bit of prep — which honestly, I find to be very zen and inspiring — it’s easy to open the fridge and grab something that’s ready to snack on, or toss together a salad like this:

Baby greens, watermelon, strawberry, red onion salad tossed with balsamic vinaigrette

Diced watermelon (one slice from the fridge), quartered strawberries (I used four from the unfrozen pint), diced red onions (which I already had on hand!) and a handful of baby greens (or just roughly torn, washed lettuce).  Splash balsamic vinegar on top, a little drizzle of olive oil, and a touch of salt.  Toss together.  The juices from the fruit (dice the fruit OVER the bowl so the juices fall into it!) mixed with the balsamic makes a great dressing.  Because you’ve already done most of the prep beforehand, you’re getting a GREAT, HEALTHY, and very filling meal super fast!  Enjoy!