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How to avoid temptation

Posted at 11:10 AM on July 31, 2008 by Sareen Dunleavy Keenan (3 Comments)

The first answer is that I really can't avoid it. I am a sucker for impulse shopping when it comes to great deals. I found this out the other day when doing some grocery shopping for work. In case you didn't know, the Cub Foods in Edina is a fantastic place to find deals on conventional, non local meat. This place has T.P.R's (temporary price reductions) on meat very very regularly. Pre-organic meat eating days, it was not uncommon for me to fit 50+ pounds of meat into my bike pannears for the 10 mile ride home.

Eating locally changed our purchasing habits. Or so I had thought. We do a great job going to the markets, buying meat from farmers, and following our local eating with almost 100% success now that it is summer. Until last week.

At the large grocery I somehow came unhinged. The butcher was putting out all of these meat deals. $0.99/lb for spare ribs, beef shanks for under $2.00/lb, hormone free chicken breasts for under $2.00/lb... my cart was full. In case you have never had the pleasure of going to the check out counter with 50 pounds of assorted meat packages, let me tell you, the looks you get are strange.

I got the food home and Brendan was understanding, but rightfully questioning. There were a lot of "but honey, we have pork." And "that is corn fed beef." My favorite was "you don't even know who those animals were or where they came from, how can they be on our table?" Remorse quickly set in. I tried a feeble "but they would throw it away if it didn't get eaten soon... " Which is the reason it was on TPR in the first place, but I knew that someone else would have snatched up the deals if I hadn't.

I avoid temptation by not even stepping foot in the door of the warehouse grocery store. They spend millions to market products to try to get me to give in to their game. And I do. I am weak. I need to stick to the farmers market and farmers. That way I can choose whatever I want without the guilt.

If you are at your local big grocery store and wonder how these crazy folks can possibly eat locally, leave the store (quickly if you are like me) and try to shop where there are only local options. Eating locally isn't always easy. We aren't perfect at it. I am the one that usually breaks the routine and causes us to stray, all in the name of a good deal. Oh well. Next week will be better.

Aside: Still no baby. Apparently it wants to join mom and dad with an August b-day.

Comments (3)

Oh my gosh, the same thing happened to me last week! I usually shop at Mississippi Market, but I made a stop at Cub for some laundry detergent and left with flank steak, pork chops, and probably the very same $2/lb boneless skinless chicken breasts you did! I took some of them out to thaw this morning and the ghosts of the tortured chickens bawked sadly at me. I just wish I could buy big bags of ethically-raised frozen boneless skinless breasts, because they are so useful.

Posted by S Kitt | July 31, 2008 12:17 PM

My illicit purchase was the large packet of romain lettuce from costco......you should see how happy the kids are gobbling it up too....it is not even organic and California is a long way from local......Hope you are feeling well, those last couple of weeks are a little tough (both of my births were two weeks late).

Best wishes, Vera

Posted by vera schabicki | August 5, 2008 4:06 PM

It is funny how in the store the ghosts stay pretty quiet. It isn't until the meat is thawing that I feel so horribly guilty. Good thing our new family dynamic will keep me mostly out of the store. My husband is so great at avoiding all of those foods we cannot (should not) have.

Posted by Sareen | August 14, 2008 4:48 PM