SandraMort said:
Also you can puree it into a thick juice/shake type thing, doesn't have to be a smoothie can be just fruit if you prefer.
Frozen fruit makes great "ice cream" when put through the champion, too... but who eats ice cream or drinks smoothies in a blizzard? LOL
Uh,
we do. In fact that's the only time we DO regularly eat homemade icecream, in our house, cuz otherwise we'd have to use the freezer to make the ice!
And anyhow. I was talking about making JUICE, a thick 'nectar' type thing. Not frozen or cold. I was not aware that
juice was offlimits for winter. Pureed down from real fruit it has pretty much all the nutritional benefits of fresh fruit 'off the shelf' except that it came outta freezer storage.
One of the things about trying to pare down a budget is that it's usually necessary to eat less of what you'd prefer and learn new tastes
Absolutely. But why would I want to encourage my family to eat something that's not as good for them? Budgeting is all well and good, but eating canned fruit or desserts that use frozen isn't as good for you as just eating plain fresh fruit.
Um, look, I (and others) are TRYING to HELP here. Might it not be useful to suppose for a minute that there's actually something to what we suggest?
I was not suggesting you start shoving eclairs into your kids' faces.
I was suggesting that frozen fruit can be used for many things SOME OF WHICH ARE PRETTY GOOD FOR YOU. Some kinds of frozen fruit are actually pretty good just popped into your mouth and eaten directly, like half-thawed blueberries or raspberries (obviously you would have to freeze them in the summer not now, but, you know).
As far as cobblers etc, my main use of my canned apples (canned in water with just a touch of sugar, btw, and the liquid from the can is drunk as juice) is to make what we call "that apple thing". You put the chunks of apple in a casserole; then you mix up a bunch of whole oats with just a little bit of oil and brown sugar, probably less than you eat in other foods, and any nuts or dried fruits that you want to add, you can also add a beaten egg if you like, and spread it atop the apple chunks. Bake at 400ish F for as long as it takes to cook, usually about 25 minutes, preferably when the oven is already hot from something else. You can do this with LOTS of other frozen or home-canned fruits besides apples, too.
If you insist on buying exactly what you are buying now, in exactly the same way as you are, then
what are you asking US for? If you keep doing the same thing you'll keep getting the same (budgetary and credit score) result.
To change it, you will have to face the fact that it
is possible to eat AT LEAST as healthily as you are now, while spending less, by
changing your shopping, storing and eating habits.
I'm asking about ways to improve my grocery budget right now in a society where fresh produce IS available.
Yes. And we're
giving you a whole buncha ways to do it. Buy yer produce when it is quite cheap (in bulk and/or in season) then save it for later by drying, canning, or in the short term just putting it in a cool place in the home. It's just seeming a whole lot like you're more interested in arguing than in finding out what might work.
It is fine to choose not to *take* advice or suggestions, but it is kind of annoying to keep insisting they are foolish, impossible, or harmful to you.
Plus you have already recieved comprehensive advice on your grocery budget as a *whole*, i.e. see what you're spending and then try to spend less in whatever ways you're comfortable with.
It doesn't seem sensible to toss away everything we know about now just because three hundred years ago people managed to survive enough to breed without year round access to fresh produce and we potentially might have to revert back to it someday.
Um, "everything we know about now" does NOT include having to buy jet-fresh imported produce to eat every day out of the fridge. "We" (food and nutrition science, plus experience, plus looking at what actually keeps people healthy) know that some foods keep pretty well in storage, so with no-to-modest facilities you
can store them at home in reasonable quantity. "We" know that freezing preserves virtually all of fruit's nutrition, canning most of it, and drying a good proportion as well. "We" know that you do not actually have to eat different fruits
every day of the week
all year round in order to be healthy. "We" (again, I don't mean this board, I mean the same thing as your "we know about now") also know that fresh vegetables are at least (most people who know anythinga bout nutrition would say "significantly more") as big a contributor to your health as fruit.
And really. Making snide comments about people just surviving enough to breed without year-round access to fresh produce are kind of, pardon my french, ignorant. (I mean this in the sense of simply not knowing what you are talking about). Having a restricted menu of produce to choose from, some of the year, DOES NOT compromise peoples' health, assuming they are EATING it of course and not turning up their noses at it because it's not raspberries. Just look around you. Plus which NOBODY here was suggesting you forego fresh produce anyhow; just limit your selection to more budget-friendly and easily-stored types
I'm done with this thread.
Have fun with your 'budget', good luck with your credit,
Pat
