Eating for Sustainability: Last One for Awhile

I've been trying to muster up motivation to write more about our weekly meals and grocery costs, but I can't seem to and here's why. Tallying receipts has gotten to be a pain in the rear, and I have bigger fish to fry. Seriously, though, it is a pain. And because it's finally spring and because we are wrapping up this first planning/design phase for Tillman's sustainability committee, my time spent on school gardening is on the rise. And that's just way more compelling than putting my trips to the grocery under the microscope. I'm glad I tried the food experiment, and I plan to keep trying to whittle down my grocery spending while increasing my support of sustainable food systems. But I'm very grateful that I don't have to keep ultra-close tabs on my food expenditures. Maybe down the road our family will try to eat for a week on what someone in poverty might be working with. For  now, though, I'm tired of talllying receipts and I want to have some fun thinking (and writing) about school gardening.

But before I go, here are a few things gleaned from the food experiment.

• Switching to more local and organic hasn't increased my weekly grocery bills. Minimizing waste saves as much or more money than buying organic has cost me.
• I like the combined CSA model very much. I base my grocery shopping for the week on what I receive in a CSA allotment. For me, this makes meal planning much easier (not overwhelmed with too much choice) and has made me feel more creative. 
• Using dried beans is super-economical. Lots of choices too--my favorites are chickpeas and black beans. 
• Popcorn. Best snack ever (at least for this food experiment). Cheap and easy. We don't have a microwave, so I learned awhile back how to make it on the stovetop. Piece of cake. Anything you can do to reduce the amount of salty bags of snack food in your grocery cart will really make a dent in your bill. Plus you can make popcorn so many different ways, sweet or salty, you don't have to get bored with it!
• I rely heavily on one piece of  equipment, and I bet a lot of people haven't heard of it.  It's a 3-in-1 rice cooker/crockpot/pressure cooker. We bought it when we moved two years ago into a house with downsized kitchen space. It's an investment but well worth it. I can cook white rice in 6 minutes, and brown rice in under 20 in this thing. Can pressure cook chick peas in about 15 minutes. Love, love, love it.