so, a few weeks ago, a friend and i took a trip to sprouts so that i could show her how i do our meal plan/groceries so she could save some money on groceries (ive actually done this with a few different friends now, and much to my surprise, they all learned a lot and somehow still want to be friends with me after personally witnessing my grocery store antics), because, you know, thats my thing. if this were my little pony id have one heck of a "not spending unnecessary money on groceries" cutie mark.
but anyway, we get to a certain point of the shopping trip, and she asks me "what do you get as snacks for alice, like, goldfish crackers? pirates booty? and how do you do that cheaply?", and it took me a minute to formulate an answer, because, once i thought about it i realized ive never bought special snacks for alice, (or any special food really once she got past the purees). this totally innocent question from my friend totally almost opened the floodgates of my philosophy and manifesto when it comes to my food and cooking decision and all the reasons behind them and why it is so very, very important to me to make sure that our food-related decisions are as simple, healthy, cost effective, and least wasteful as possible. thankfully i was able to control myself and simply answer "oh, we dont do a lot of snack foods, she just eats whatever leftovers or fruit or nuts or crackers or chips we happen to have, nothing special".
but right there in the middle of sprouts it hit me. id suspected it for a while, but james is oh so gracious in assuaging my insecurities and for a long time i had told myself that it couldn't be true. but it was. and there was no getting around it or hiding it or brushing it off any longer. its horrible and embarrassing, but im totally that mom.
you know, the one that doesnt buy baby carrots.
im serious.
ive literally never in my adult life purchase baby carrots because im morally opposed to it. ok, maybe thats a little bit extreme, but still.
i have my reasons though! i mean, who takes a philosophical stance against a vegetable without reasons for crying out loud? not me, because im a completely normal and rational person (that also happens to take philosophical stances against vegetables....).
what are these reasons, you ask? well let me get started:
1. theyre expensive. a one-pound bag of baby carrots goes on sale for $1. a FIVE POUND bag of normal carrots is $2.99 regular price (and often sprouts has their organic carrots at this price too). we eat a lot of carrots around here, so im totally willing to spend five minutes peeling and chopping to save a few bucks.
2. theyre wasteful. you know baby carrots arent actually baby carrots, right? theyre regular carrots chopped and filed down to a "baby" shape (meaning, theyre technically a "processed" food). which i presume leads to quite a lot of wasted carrot. and dont get me started on all the packaging involved in those little baggies of individual portions...
3. theyre inefficient. remember how i said we eat a lot of carrots? well we use them both for snacks AND for cooking. and baby carrots really suck for cooking. meaning, if i bought baby carrots for snacks id STILL have to buy the regular carrots for cooking. and i am NOT buying the same vegetable twice just because theyre in slightly different shapes. also, instead of being harvested, then put in bags to sell like normal carrots, theres the added step of being sent to what im assuming is a separate factory to be made into baby carrots (though really im just guessing here, im from los angeles, i really dont know anything about farms, thats jamess deal)
4. theyre really, really old by time you get them. this is the big one for me. you know how baby carrots always have that whitish dried coating on them? well i just did some research and its called "blushing" and its the result of the carrots getting dehydrated. well, when i first got diagnosed with all my allergies i started pre-chopping massive quantities of carrot sticks so that i could always have a snack that i knew wouldnt kill me waiting for the next time i was starving (which is always). you know how long it takes those carrots to get all dried and white? like a month (im not kidding, i had some that got forgotten in the back of the fridge forever and they had only barely started to dry out). so that has me seriously questioning the age of baby carrots by time you get them home.
so yeah, i dont buy baby carrots. i wont judge you if you do, i just wanted to shed some light on the reasoning behind some of the quirks i have that maybe dont make a lot of sense from the outside.
im totally that mom. and now that its out, im no longer ashamed.
and this is probably why i dont have any mom friends.
