The Hillbilly Experiment: Grocery List

(I emailed S this picture I took of some of the bread I made, to see if he could use Photoshop to tone down the glare. . . .and this is what happened)

In order to adjust the grocery list from Hillbilly Housewife, I began by literally cutting all of the amounts on the list in half. I didn't know off the top of my head what size containers of various items were available at the store, so I just wrote down half the amount on the website and planned to buy as close as possible to my written amount. Of course this also meant I would be halving all of the recipes, and doing it as efficiently as possible. This hasn't been a problem so far; one day I made a recipe that called for 3 eggs, so in order to halve it, I beat one of the eggs and put half of it into a ziploc baggie to use for French toast the next morning!

Next I scratched off the list everything I already had at home: sugar, baking powder, oatmeal, salt, pepper, syrup, bullion (well, Better than Bullion, actually), vinegar, cinnamon, garlic powder, and chili powder. I actually had 5 pounds of all-purpose flour, and a bag of Splenda at home also, more on that later.

Finally I replaced some ingredients with equivalents that I thought were healthier or better-tasting. I replaced all of the grains with their whole versions (brown rice, etc.), and bought a bag of whole-wheat flour to go with my all-purpose stuff. I replaced all of the canned vegetables, except the tomatoes, with frozen; frozen veggies taste better than canned, retain many more nutrients, and are still quite cheap. I replaced the margarine with butter (part of this experiment was about eating less processed food, remember). I replaced the powdered milk that would be used for drinking with a half gallon of skim milk because drinking powdered milk just isn't the same, and I replaced the celery with a bunch of leeks. Leeks cost more than celery, but S isn't fond of celery, and I'm not a huge fan of it cooked.

Besides HbHw's groceries, we also bought a box of pasta and some sauce, 2 frozen pizzas for lazy dinners and the ingredients to make Thai curry, because we loves us some curry. All in all, we bought enough food for 10 days of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, and 1 day of just dinner. The total came to about $80. If you count a snack as half of a meal, that comes to $1.11 per person per meal. $1.11! That won't even buy you a soda some places!

Next time: what I like about the Hillbilly Housewife menu.