Whole Foods

Our quest to eat healthier has led us to Whole Foods and we are so glad we live close by. We live almost exactly halfway between the only two Whole Foods in central Indiana so we can make smaller more frequent trips. In the past, that was the last thing I wanted to do. Our previous school of thought was to buy the biggest we could find and to stock up. This led us to buying a lot of food that we didn't really need and that wasn't that good for us. Obviously if you can buy something in large quantities and hang onto it, it is probably packed full of preservatives and is highly processed. Since those are two of the things we're trying to cut out of our diets, small and frequent trips is the logical conclusion.

We learned about this type of shopping during our time is Derby, UK. We didn't have a car and our apartment was only a few blocks from the city centre. Ally and I only had one real goal while we were there and that was to see as much as we could. So we walked. A lot. Okay I walked a lot and she rode in the back pack carrier. Every day we would walk into town and pick up some fresh goods from the city market or from the grocery store. The store that was closest to us was actually in a gas station. It's better to describe it as a small grocery store that just happened to have a few gas pumps outside. But I digress.

Since I couldn't carry many groceries back, we bought what we needed as we needed it. We bought fresh veggies and basic ingredients. We tried new foods and discovered that we really love parsnips. It was fantastic. And my favorite part was the farmers market that was open on Friday and Saturdays where local farmers and family owned businesses came to sell their fresh goods. I've been to a lot of farmers markets but never one with as much variety and such wholesome food. It was heavenly.

This was a snack stand in the middle of a mall. There were at least 10 people in line.

So where am I going with this? I'm saying it's okay to change. It's okay to shop for the things we need in a big trip but it's okay to shop small for the fresh stuff.

A few things we love from whole foods:

*Fresh ground peanut butter. There's a grinder with peanuts in it and a little on button. It's delicious and not more expensive than a jar of the healthy stuff on the shelf. I used it in my granola bar recipe and I think it made a huge impact.

*Bulk bins. You can get abstract items in just the amount you need. If I want to make a recipe with some obscure ingredient that I'm not interested in keeping in the pantry or if a full bag/box is an expense I don't want, I can head to the bulk bins. Recipe specific flours or even a new type of grain are fun to try but we don't always fall in love with everything. (Just make sure your kid doesn't dig her hand in the wheat germ bin like mine did. It's really embarrassing..)

*Locally grown products. We love supporting local businesses. I think that is extremely important. At whole foods there are little tags on the items that are grown in Indiana.

*Kids Free Cookie Club. Okay so it's cheesy but the mommas know how much easier it is to grocery shop with a toddler when there's a treat promised. Chocolate chip cookies make everything better.

*Not so stuffy health food. We want to eat healthy but we have a 3 year old and we have to be realistic. We can't go to extreme all at once and expect her to give up all the foods she knows and loves. So we've found some great alternatives. For example, Ally eats cereal most mornings for breakfast by choice. She'll usually ask for cereal for lunch at least once a week. We've found some really tasty and good for us cereals that have totally passed the toddler test. We've also found healthier cookies, juice and chips.

*Coupons! Each month Whole Foods comes out with a little newsletter of sorts with a calendar, product info and coupons. It's a great way to try new products and save some money on things we want to buy. There are also classes and lots of events as well.

The biggest complaint I hear about Whole Foods from people is that it's too expensive to shop for everything. I say yes and no. Admittedly we don't buy paper products, personal hygiene items and pet food at Whole Foods. However, we also don't shop for these type of items on weekly basis. We still stop into the bigger grocery stores or the local superstore so it's not like we can't get things when we need them. It takes a bit more planning but our food budget hasn't spike out of control.In fact, eating healthier has saved us money in some ways. Brad and I both have stopped buying soda and we don't pick up unnecessary junk foods just because they look good during our trip.