By Steph
(This is the second segment in a four-part series on Project Simplify with Simple Mom. Head over to Nursery Closet: Done , The Challenge that Intimidated the Pants Off Me, and My Wife Made Me Clean to read the first, third, and fourth segments.)
It’s true. Sorry Tsh. It just sort of happened. OK that’s not true. Actually, what happened is that we wanted to clear out our fridge of the food that’s been lingering for a while, and that meant we needed a way to consume the hot fudge, marshmallow topping, and caramel. I’m sorry, but the toppings made me do it. I had to buy the ice cream. 0:)
So anyway. This week was food week with Project Simplify. I worked on our pantry, refrigerator, and freezer. They weren’t in horrible shape, and it didn’t really take that much time to empty everything out, clean the shelves and surfaces, organize it, and put it all back. So I also spent some time trying to find healthier meat. A couple of months ago, my husband and I watched Food, Inc. and it ruined food for us. For example, beef in the grocery store has been “cleaned” with ammonia (for crying out loud!) in order to kill the salmonella caused by cows wading around in knee-deep dung from the entire herd (icky icky icky) while eating subsidized CORN instead of grass (thanks, Uncle Sam – brilliant idea). UGH.
Since watching that documentary, we have basically become vegetarians. We are planning to buy a house in the next couple months (waiting on a short sale to go through…), and at that time we will put a deep freezer in the garage and fill it with a cow. Or half a cow. It’s much more affordable in bulk, and we have already been saving for bulk purchases with our cash envelope system. All we need is to find out how in the world one goes about buying half of a grass-fed, humanely raised cow. So that was my adventure for the week during our sweet baby’s nap times. I learned about CSA’s and some organic food sources in the area. I have a list compiled and some places to start looking. And yes, I ate my delicious blueberry pomegranate chocolate chunk ice cream with hot fudge and marshmallow toppings while doing this research. I stand by that decision. 
Oh, and here are the before/after pictures of my food areas.
Pantry Before
Pantry After
Fridge Before
Fridge After
Check out last week’s nursery closet overhaul during week one of Project Simplify!
Don’t get discouraged when sourcing meat/natural foods. It’s a small world. Once you meet one person, they often can connect you with other like-minded people. It can make shopping with a toddler a bit of an adventure, but it’s worth it : )
Thanks, Sarah! I’m excited for our journey! I’m thankful that we already have some friends who eat organic foods (they’re the ones who converted us). However, they don’t buy in bulk so it’s our turn to take it to the next level.