Mamas and Daddys feed your babies good

I know so many Mamas like my sisters. Kick a** mothering, hard working and broke a**. It sucks that decent food costs a fair amount of money. There is no doubt about it. I can go into the cheap a**, funky smelling, depressing supermarkets, dollar stores, Big Lots and discount warehouses and buy low cost food for myself and my family. I can fill up two grocery bags in a way that would keep my kids’ bellies full for the week for about $30. Check out my carefully chosen wording, “keep my kids’ bellies full”. That is all I’d be doing. I wouldn’t be nourishing them. I wouldn’t even really be feeding them. I’d simply be filling them up. But the enraging fact is, that in this very rich nation of ours there are a hell of a lot of families buying food at those places just to keep their kids filled up. I’ve written before about prioritizing good food over fast food meals and nice sneakers. I lecture and teach all the time about how you can make good, inexpensive food choices. Most people who know me have heard me describe how the true cost of a gallon of proper, raw milk produced to provide the farmer with a living wage for himself, is about $12 a gallon. I’ve spouted off about what a bargain a dozen local, pastured eggs is if you think about cost per egg and number of meals provided. Anyone who has spent more than a few hours around me knows that I can pontificate relentlessly about how the cost of bad food is much worse than the cost of good food, it just takes longer to hit. Blah, blah, blather. The ugly reality is that sometimes the bank account is empty. The gas has been shut off. The car barely runs. Coffee comes from the gas station instead of Starbucks and it isn’t even possible to rent a movie to watch because the late fees from the previous rental are too much. I have been there, done that and occasionally do it still. It is stressful, sad and f***ing unfair. Most of the people buying their kids’ food at the dollar store work their fingers to the bone every day, but they don’t speak English or they got divorced or their mental health isn’t so great or their education ended too early. Every one of those people has a kid that deserves good eggs. Not one of those kids eating Ramen noodles for dinner deserves that poison. So let’s not get all elitist. Let’s do the down and dirty work of figuring out how to nourish yourself and your kids with the cheapest sh** you can buy or get at the food pantry. Priorities:

1. Good fat

2. Protein from animals

3. Fruits or vegetables

Here are my top food choices for those folks out there who are living the ghetto/white trash financial reality. All my love to you. Hold your head up. You can nourish yourselves and your kids too. If you can swing a Costco membership somehow, get yourself 2lbs of organic butter for $6. This is like medicine. Dispense 2T each day to your loved ones. While you are there get whatever are the cheapest vegetables and fruits. If you can’t get to Costco then get to your Food City and get produce on sale. Get cabbage. Eat a lot of it. Sweet potatoes or yams. If you are lucky enough to live in Tucson I hear that many of the Carnecerias (meat shops) sell lard that has not been bleached and wrecked. Thanks to local rancher Josh, friend of Chris L, for passing on that tip. Get some. Cook in it.

Frozen vegetables are better than canned. Sometimes you can find canned fruit in its own juice (not in syrup) or unsweetened applesauce-these make great treats or desserts. Whole coconut milk can often be had for pretty damn cheap at your corner Asian market. Use it to make soups, sauces or smoothies. Get as much into your kiddos as possible. Throw a can into your blender with some ice and some of that canned fruit in its own juice. Delicious treat. Get a bag of straws from the dollar store and you will be a rock star mama. Get some olive oil if they have it for cheap. Don’t cook with it, but pour it over whatever vegetable you have. Look for sunflower seeds, as unadulterated as possible. You can often get a big bag for $2 or $3 and, if they are raw you can sprout them, or roast and toast them. Finally, get your canned meats. Look for tuna in water (but beware-don’t eat it if you are pregnant or nursing a babe, and feed it once or twice a week to kids). Look for sardines in water or olive oil. Bone-in sardines in water or olive oil are like a magic, cheap elixir. Stock up. Get some Spam. Hell yeah. You heard right. Spam. It will nourish you. It has sustained many an Arctic research team. Goya, Hormel and Libby’s all make a cheap corned beef that is MSG-free and contains protein and fats that you need. Thanks to the 2010 Weston A. Price Foundation Shopping Guide for the canned meat low down. Get yourself big packages of chicken thighs and drumsticks. Cook them up. Save the bones and make a stock for your soup. Go to a market with a fish counter and ask for heads and bones. Make a delicious, live-forever fish stock out of them.

Avoid always: refined carbohydrates (crackers, cereal, cookies, pasta, bread), anything with corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup, any beverages besides water, canned/boxed/prepared meals, vegetable oils like corn, safflower, soy and margarine and “snack food”. Know that things will look up for you. Life will get better. Hang in there. Revolt. Don’t sabotage yourself or your family with crap.