Category Archives: Food

Food, Money

How I Save Money Grocery Shopping for Fruits and Vegetables

Eating high-carb, plant-based whole foods, mostly fruits and vegetables, can get expensive depending on what I’m eating. Here’s how I save money on fruits and vegetables.

First, I keep my shopping lists flexible. If grapes are on sale, I might buy grapes instead of melons. If you’re heart is set on something, by all means, buy it. But take advantage of sales when you can.

Also, keep an eye out for marked down “overripe” or “blemished” produce. Bananas are often marked down when they start to get a few brown marks, or are just starting to spot. In actuality, they’re barely starting to ripen. Lots of other fruits and vegetables are marked down similarly, sometimes deeply discounted. As much of a cliche as “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” is, people still don’t practice it. Food has to look pretty, and unfortunately, a lot of the prettiest looking food in the supermarket is the most bland and unripe. Look out for produce markdowns.

It’s hard to rely on markdowns, though. They’re fairly sporadic. The best money saving strategy, especially if you can plan ahead and have even a little storage space or go through large quantities is buying in bulk. If you’re in a large metro area, there might be a wholesale produce terminal. There isn’t one in the Seattle area, unfortunately. But to get an idea of what to expect if there is on in your area, here’s a video by John Kohler about the Los Angeles produce terminal.

Even without a produce terminal, there are probably produce wholesalers in your area. Not all of them sell directly to the public, though. If you can get a commercial account, that’s great. Otherwise, give them a call and ask if they do “cash and carry.” Generally, you place an order, and you pay cash when you pick up your produce. Prices change, so make sure you get updated price lists.

There’s a great produce wholesaler in my area, but it’s a bit of a drive. The local grocery store, less than a mile from my door, gets their produce from them and orders for me. There’s a small price markup, but it’s worth it to me not to spend the time and gas money driving out to the wholesaler. And it’s still much cheaper than full retail. The produce manager lets me look through the price lists for what I want.

Buying directly from local farmers is great too. Some things may be cheaper through the wholesaler, while others are cheaper through the farm. Buy in bulk from the farm and usually get a discount as well.

Whatever you choose, get to know the people you’ll be dealing with. Most importantly, treat them very well. People are more likely to help those they like. The farmer I buy a lot of my vegetables from over summer and fall will often hold things for me, or let me in on some awesome deals. At the end of the season, she let me go out into the field and pick whatever collard greens and brussels sprouts were left that I wanted.

End of season collard greens and brussels sprouts.
End of season collard greens and brussels sprouts.

The same thing happens with the produce manager at the grocery store in town. A while back, she saw that I was looking at the markdown produce and mentioned that she had a big box of stuff still in the back that she hadn’t put out yet. She gave me an amazing deal on the fruit in the photo below.

All of this marked down produce for $14.99 - 12 organic navel oranges, 15 organic grapefruit, 8 organic opal apples, 16 pacific rose apples, 3 lbs "sweeties", 9 lbs honey tangerines.
All of this marked down produce for $14.99 – 12 organic navel oranges, 15 organic grapefruit, 8 organic opal apples, 16 pacific rose apples, 3 lbs “sweeties”, 9 lbs honey tangerines.

Don’t go too crazy if you’re not used to buying produce in bulk. You don’t want your savings to disappear into the compost bin from your produce going bad. Buy what you can use or process for storage, store it appropriately, and eat up.

Food, Health

Rebuilding Food Habits: Changing My Mind About Breakfast

When I first started experimenting with changing my food habits, I went gluten free. Breakfast was the one meal I had the most trouble changing. I ended up just going to non-wheat based cereals, oatmeal, or other traditional American breakfast foods like eggs and bacon.

When I went vegan and completely grain free, my ideas about breakfast had already started to shift. I had already given up grains, dairy and eggs at various times, so I had to figure something else out.

One important lesson that I learned in creating new food habits was that breakfast is just a meal, not a category of foods. It doesn’t have to be cereal with milk(or nut milks), toast, eggs and bacon, oatmeal or a muffin. If you can have “Brinner” (breakfast for dinner), why not dinner, lunch or anything else for breakfast?

The first time I tried a salad for breakfast was great. Then I started branching out. Of course I had smoothies and fruit, I eat a couple bananas with breakfast nearly everyday. I’ve had sweet potatoes. I’ve had steamed brussels sprouts. I’ve had soups. This morning I had a small acorn squash, boiled whole until the skin cracked and was easily pealed off by hand once it cooled. I also had 2 bananas, a persimmon, and brussels sprouts with a small sweet potato and hot sauce.

A huge part of changing food habits is changing your mindset. At one time, I couldn’t conceive of giving up bread, pasta, cheese, meat, or sugar. Slowly, one-by-one, I was able to change how I thought about each. I don’t need meat for protein. I find fruit just as satisfying as candy was in the past. Water quenches my thirst better than soda or juice. And breakfast is whatever I want it to be.

Food, Foraging

Nature’s Bounty

2 Comments

I love this time of year. All kinds of wild edibles becoming ripe. Two days last week, I browsed for breakfast in my yard. I ate about a dozen small apples and 1 lb of blackberries, while getting a little vitamin D while we have some sun for a brief part of the year.

The apples are pretty much done, but there are more blackberries this week. This week’s rain seems to letting up for a couple days, and I’ve got space in the freezer. Yum.

Small but tasty apples.
Small but tasty apples.
Vida trying to hide the fallen apple she found.
Vida trying to hide the fallen apple she found.
I didn't even know I had this apple tree last year. Had to cut a 50 ft path trough blackberries to get to it.
I didn’t even know I had this apple tree last year. Had to cut a 50 ft path trough blackberries to get to it.
Sigurd picking blackberries. I think he's part goat. I've seen him eat blackberry canes as well.
Sigurd picking blackberries. I think he’s part goat. I’ve seen him eat blackberry canes as well.
Just a few of the many, many, many blackberries in my yard.
Just a few of the many, many, many blackberries in my yard.
Food, Health, Hydration, Smoothies

Smoothies without Recipes

I eat food mostly for fuel. Of course I prefer things that taste good. I like foods that are easy to prepare and eat. Smoothies are great. Wash, maybe peel, blend and drink. Salads are great too, but you can’t really chug 64 ounces of salad in a minute or two. And I almost always hit the 64 ounce max line on my Vitamix carafe.

I don’t use recipes. I use what I have on hand at the time. My regular smoothies are not desserts. I want to get a bunch of vegetables and some fruits to my stomach quickly. It’s a big carafe of vitamins, minerals, micronutrients, fiber and water.

There are generally three parts to my smoothies: vegetables, fruit and water. I think of vegetables in two groups: greens and other. Fruit is for calories and flavor. Water is for hydration, texture and ease of blending.

Vegetables
I put greens in just about every smoothie I make. I use at least half a bunch, which comes out to 5-8 ounces by weight. I’ll use more if there’s room. I also add wild greens occasionally.

My favorite greens for smoothies:
*Collards
*Chard
*Kale – all types
*Beet Greens
*Bok Choy
*Nettles
*Spinach
*Cabbage
*Brussels Sprouts
*Plantain (the weed not the fruit)
*Sheep Sorrel
*Wood Sorrel
*Dandelion

I started adding other vegetables as well earlier this year. I think it was after seeing a video of Rich Roll adding broccoli to his smoothie. I love broccoli, so I gave it a try. I’m going to go by the culinary definition of vegetables, rather than botanical.

Some other vegetables I add to smoothies:
*Beets – I love beets. I add them to almost all my smoothies.
*Broccoli – florets and stems
*Cucumber
*Zucchini
*Carrots
*Cauliflower
*Radishes
*Celery – use sparingly, it gives a salty taste
*Kohlrabi

Fruit
I like fruit, but I don’t normally add much more than 16 ounces of fruit to a 64 ounce smoothie. I often use less, just enough fruit for flavor. However, if I’m looking for more calories, I’ll add more fruit. My choice of fruit often goes by what’s in season, and hence cheap.

Some favorite fruits for smoothies:
*Bananas – At least 1 in nearly every smoothie. Good soluble fiber. Can reduce nasty froth on top.
*Strawberries – I don’t cut off the leaves. They’re greens, and I make green smoothies.
*Blueberries
*Mangos
*Watermelon
*Peaches
*Blackberries
*Huckleberries
*Papaya
*Oranges
*Lemon – with or without peel.
*Pineapple

Water
I add enough water so everything blends well and get the texture I want. I know some people use juice or coconut water instead of water. I prefer straight water. I rarely drink juice and prefer to consume my food whole. Fiber is important.

Other
I used to add other things more often. Now, occasionally, I may add some rosehips powder for vitamin C, vegan protein powder, reishi or chaga mushrooms.

Blenders
A good blender makes a huge difference, but I got by with a $5 thrift shop model for a couple years. I love my Vitamix, though.

Make the Smoothie
1. Wash ALL produce. Unless you picked it from your own garden, you don’t know how it’s been handled. In the last few years, there have been E-coli outbreaks from spinach and cantaloupe, probably others too.
2. Peel, core, removed seeds and de-stem. Sometimes I don’t peel lemons, but always remove the seeds. I never skin beets. I know some people eat mangos with the peel, but I always peel them. I’ve occasionally added watermelon rind. I always peel kohlrabi.
3. Cut up produce. I cut things up into chunks small enough so they don’t get stuck in the carafe, wedged against the sides. Sometimes I cut greens. Other times I add them whole at the end.
4. Add produce to blender. Depending on your blender, you may need to add things in a certain order. When I had a cheap blender, greens took the most time to break down to my desired consistency, so I added them first. With a powerful blender, it may not matter.
5. Add water. I start with a couple cups of water, less if I’m using something like watermelon with a lot of retained water.
6. Blend. Start on low. Increase speed slowly to get everything moving. If needed, use a plunger to dislodge any stuck produce. Increase speed to high and blend until it’s as smooth as you’d like.
Optional: Add more water. If it’s not circulating well or too thick, slowly add more water until it reaches your desired consistency.
7. Enjoy!

It’ll take some experimenting to get the greens, vegetables and fruits ratios you like, and to make the right volume for you. Cleanup is a lot easier the sooner you get to it. I drink a whole 64 ounce smoothie, 32 ounces at a time, in one sitting. If you’re going to save some for later, it’s best to pour the remainder into another container and store in the fridge.

Finally, definitely experiment with other greens, vegetables and fruits. The only precautions I’d urge are to make sure the produce is ok to eat raw, whether they need to be peeled, have the seeds removed, or something else.

Food, Health, Running

3 Months as a Vegan

I decided to go vegan almost 3 months ago. Something that my past self couldn’t have conceived. That version of myself also wouldn’t have considered giving up bread or cheese, and I gave up both well before giving up meat. My sugar addiction was much more difficult to break than giving up any of the other things, though.

The last 3 months have been great. I felt better going gluten free. I felt better giving up dairy. And now I feel even better. I’ve noticed a few things, good and not so good. I’ll start with the not so good.

I used to feel bloated fairly often when my colitis was active. I haven’t had that feeling in a long time. However, I sometimes look like I did back then. Because I’m running more, I’m also eating more. Some days I eat 4000-4500 or more Calories. That’s a large volume of food when all you eat are fruits, vegetables and very occasionally some nuts. When I eat a mixing bowl sized salad, a whole watermelon, a 64 ounce smoothie or some combination, it has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is an expanding stomach. I sometimes feel like the pictures I’ve seen of eating contests winners, belly bulging.

It’s a little funny since one of the reasons I got into running after the Army was because I thought I was getting a bit of a skinny guy gut. It doesn’t bother me so much now, because I know it’s all food, and it’ll pass. The part that I really don’t like is that after a huge meal, usually dinner, I’ve stuffed myself so full that it’s harder to breathe deeply, there’s just not room for my diaphragm to expand all the way. It’s also a little tough to bend over with such a full belly. But it usually doesn’t last too long. Maybe I should try to more evenly space my consumption throughout the day. If I’m going to have such a full gut, I’d rather it be later in the day, after going running.

Related to the large volumes of food I consume, my weight tends to fluctuate a lot more in a single day than previously. This doesn’t really bother me. It’s just interesting. When I wake up, before I eat or drink anything and after my morning constitutional, I’ve been as low as 153 lbs on two occasions the day after long runs. The most recent was Sunday, July 6, the day after running 21 mi with 4500 ft gain. After my last meal on Sunday night, I weighed 165 lbs. Over the whole 3 months, my highest weight was 168 lbs.

I’ve always been skinny, so 12 lbs certainly seems like a lot. At a bit over 7% of my body weight (calculated at either end of the spectrum), that weight loss would be enough for me to be medically pulled from some ultra’s that I’d like to do eventually.

It’s not that drastic, however, when I think about what actually makes up most of the weight. While I am eating a large volume of food, being fruits and vegetables, much of that weight is water and fiber. The fiber does it’s job and flushes waste out of my system. I rehydrate after running, but I wake up once or twice in the night to pee, and sweat some amount overnight, so there’s some lost water weight as well. I haven’t weighed all the food I eat in a day, but the daily effects on my weight don’t surprise me.

Moving on to the good stuff. I seem to recover faster. This is entirely subjective and anecdotal, but I’m convinced, and that’s all that matters. I can’t really compare to my first two 50k races, because I’ve trained much better this year.

I started eating this way about 2 weeks before my April 50k, which had 1000 ft gain. I ran another 4 weeks later with 2000 ft gain. I ran a third 4 weeks after that with 6500 ft gain. I started running again 2 days after each race. My first run after the April race was rough. For about the first mile, my glutes and calves felt like I was getting punched with every step, and felt like I was wearing lead soled shoes. My legs were better for the first run after the second race, just a little sore and heavy. After my third race, I was a little sore for a day. While my legs were kind of heavy for the first post-race run, I felt fine. By the weekend after each race, I was raring to go for a long run. I held myself back from a full distance long run to make sure I recovered, but I went longer than I had written on my training plan several months ago.

I also feel better when I wake up. For the last year or so, prior to going vegan, I regularly woke up with red, sore eyes. I’m not sure the last time it happened, but it was at least a couple months ago. Also, most of my life I’ve woken up with a generally unwell feeling. I imagine it’s not that uncommon, but it sucks and I won’t accept it as normal.

I can’t say that I’ll never eat meat again. I gave up eating animal products strictly for health reasons. The same sort of reasons I gave up gluten, followed by all grains, sugar and processed foods (there are many vegan processed foods too). Someday I may give it a try again to see if I notice any change. For now, I’m sticking with what’s working, fresh fruits and vegetables.