Going granola.
Apr 10th, 2008 by Kristi
When Will and I first moved to North Idaho in 2005, we were very aware of the ‘granolas.’ Granolas are the hippie types. The dreadlocked ones with their pot-smoking, dreadlocked babies slung to their backsides, the braless, shoeless ones, whose husbands have long mangy beards and a I’m-totally-not-digging-the-government aura about them. Oh, how we judged.
But you have to remember, we were from San Antonio, one of the fattest cities in the world. And we were living in the fattest section of one of the fattest cities in the world. I could get chorizo and carne guisada breakfast tacos every ding-dang day of the week if I wanted. And with a Sonic on every corner, why bother actually getting groceries? The first shock of moving to this healthy land of skinny hippies was finding out why they were so skinny. There’s no good food here.
Now here we are, almost three years later, literally eating our words. Literally eating granola (the food, not the people.) We endured our first week of healthy eating with flying colors. Spinach, carrots, salmon, tuna, rosemary chicken, pita pockets, Thai food, broccoli, fruits of all colors and textures, pretty much EVERYTHING we didn’t eat before. Will and I are doing great. Charlie would eat trash if I put it in front of him, so he’s doing fine. But we had to implement a marble reward system for our vegetable hating girls. My suddenly healthy gung-ho husband is pretty on fire about this vegetable business, and he’s not letting the girls off easy.
Crazy? You have no idea. No. Idea. I’m squeezing this post in now, as Will is having a heart-to-heart with Charlie about keeping his room clean. In between the family projects (girls dancing night, boys tai chi, learning origami, playing board games, watching kid-produced history plays about the Lewis and Clark expedition, playing mancala and so on and so on) I’m helping Will with one of his website projects and trying to squeeze in some time for writing…GOOD GRAVY I’M EXHAUSTED. Here’s what I’ve learned from living la vida healthy:
1. Eating healthy is WAY more expensive than eating junk. Hands down. No contest. Game over. We lose.
2. Some sort of ancient voodoo curse prevents me from actually losing weight. That’s cool. I’m exploring the plus sized, short statured, thirtyish model market anyway.
That’s pretty much the end of my list.
I do feel better than I do when we eat junk. And it’s kinda cool to look down at my grocery basket and not cringe in shame. So cool that I find myself bumping my cart into all the granola types in the hopes that they’ll notice my healthy lifestyle and give me a high five or peace sign or whatever it is they do to congratulate one another. So far, no luck. Maybe if I slung my five-year-old child onto my back and stopped wearing appropriate undergarments they’d finally accept me.
One can only hope.
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I did a lot of research on buying a great juicer to juice my veggies. I LOVE drinking my veggies!! My kids, after a few weeks, love it too! We throw an apple or two, lots of celery, carrots, sometimes a cucumber and at times an orange through the juicer and get a delicious drink! I did a lot of research before buying one and came upon the two best options. Breville Juicer Elite (around $300) or Breville Juice Plus (around $140) before the 20% off at Bed Bath and Beyond.
It has been totally worth it and so easy! Maybe your daughters would like a juice drink of veggies better!
Hmmmm…I’ve also thought about that ‘Deceptively Delicious’ technique, where you actually sneak in the vegetables into their foods. I think I’m up for it, as well as juicing their vegetables, but we really want to make vegetables an everyday, every meal, all the time, no questions asked kind of thing.
And if that doesn’t work, we can always sneak the vegetables into their beverages.
I have been flirting with the idea of going granola. Well, healthier anyway.
But it’s that whole “it’s wayyyy more expensive” bit that keeps holding me back.
I’m exploring the Cheap Ass Bitch market.
Yeah…our discussion about the expense of granola went something like this:
Me: Dang, this stuff is expensive! This food ain’t made of diamonds! What am I paying all this monies for?
Him: To not be dead of a cheeto-induced heart attack.
Me: True that.
So now I have less money for my fur coats and caviar. Oh well.
You’re right about the price–it is way more expensive to go the healthy route when there’s a dollar menu at McDonald’s.
Don’t tempt me, Kirida. DON’T TEMPT ME.
You need Birkenstocks before granola types will not make fun of your shoes. Preferably well worn birkenstocks with wool socks. That’s how it rolls in Seattle.
I’ve seen how it rolls in Seattle…those street kids have got all kinds of granola going on. Granola in their hair, granola on their bongos, granola in their bongos minus the os…
I agree that eating healthier is more expensive…it’s some sort of uppity conspiracy to keep the po’ folk down (and fat)…or something like that.
Maybe you should try making your own granola…a fun project for the children, maybe?
Also, I LOVE that you said, “Good Gravy!” I thought it was only my Grama and my cousin and me that said that. Brilliant.
Oh, so when are you buying a VW bus?
I would TOTALLY buy a VW bus today if I could. Will has a thing for Volkswagens. We had to sell his karman ghia before we moved to Idaho, so…yeah…don’t talk to me about the VW bus.
Chad & I are right there with you - we feel your pain! In addition to paying more for the healthy stuff, you have to eat it right away before it goes bad. But I have a great recommendation for getting some veggies into your girls: smoothies! We make smoothies out of frozen blueberries, banana, vanilla soy milk, vanilla yogurt, a dab of (natural) peanut butter, fresh spinach and some baby carrots. I promise you can’t taste the spinach or the carrots - NO WAY would I drink a spinach-flavored smoothie.
Now that you have all these veggies you should make a compost pile! Between that and recycling it cuts down on your trash like you wouldn’t believe. What? You said you wanted to go granola, didn’t you?!
I would do a compost pile if I could garden here, but our landscaping is a pain. There layers of red lava rocks everywhere, and then under the rocks is the layers of tarp. There’s no way I’m kneeling in lava rocks to get my garden on. No way.
We’re already fairly granola-esque, and it’s gruesomely expensive. My husband practically SOBS at the grocery store. Hush, husband! The children need imported mangos!
I’m looking at doing the local coop thing…does anyone have any experience with those?
Coops CAN BE great. Most of them will offer some discount if you volunteer a certain number of hours per week doing weeding or other coop-related things. Could be a good way to get the kids outdoors and interested in gardening…if spending several hours/week out in the heinously hot Idaho summer sun is your thing….
Oh, you just did a fine job of making me feel really guilty. I just had a quart of chocolate milk and 2 Butterfinger bars for dinner…………………
So I guess you’re saying there’s no Sonic in Idaho? Next you’ll say there’s no Whataburger. Pshaw.
Eating healthier IS ridiculously more expensive, even without going all organic and everything. I like to think it balances out with lower medical bills later on, but who knows really. I know I feel better when I don’t pour grease down my gullet, tasty though the grease may be.