Supermarket Sticker Shock

This morning's Boston Globe heralded the bad news that anyone who has shopped for produce already knew.  Prices are up!  Lettuce and tomatoes are outtasight!  


Rising Food Prices  


You may want to consider making slaw or carrot salad for a while.  Vitamin C is in cabbage and potatoes and orange juice is still a good buy.  I always loved the carrot salad with raisins and canned pineapple.  Root vegetables are still reasonable, i.e. carrots, rutabagas, turnips (yech!)  potatoes and parsnips (yum!).  Carrot soup is delicious, so think outside the box.  Lettuce is a quick crop and should be back in the stores at a reasonable price in a few weeks. 


Oh!  Did I say "cool weather crop"?  Now is the time to think GARDEN!  You can do lettuce, peas, and spinach while the temperatures are still cool.  Of course February is waaayy to early in New England.  We had more snow last night.  But consider. 


Soup and stews are an excellent way to cook cheaper.  Chicken and dumplings anyone?  Our supermarket had whole chickens for 99 cents a pound.  Consider eggs and the main dishes of frittata, omelet and strata.  Some wonderful soups use cabbage as an ingredient.  Look up the Yakisoba recipe on prior posts.  Onions, Carrots and Cabbage, all cheap.  And use one pork chop instead of two.  


There are always ways to economize, and with oil and food prices rising and the instability (understatement) in the Middle East, it may be time to hunker down.  Again.  


Read your supermarket flyer and plan a week's menus around the sales.  But you already do this, don't you?  Make  your own muffins.  So easy.  Spend the weekend cooking and baking and week nights won't be such a madhouse.  Get the kids involved.  Make Mexican or Indian.  Try some vegetarian dishes, like curried chick peas.  So good, so cheap.  Instead of a salad serve slice carrots and cucumbers.  Be creative.  Be cheap.  

Make your own pizza and save!