Aisle 4: Pasta, Pasta Sauce
Aisle 7: Frozen Pizza
Aisle 12: Chips and Crackers
Yeah, I went down those aisles.
I felt guilty, a little dirty, and embarrassed. I wanted Chips, but decided to purchase them another visit. I felt lazy buying a jar of spaghetti sauce on sale for a dollar, knowing I could make the same amount with diced tomatoes and spices at home.
I knew there was going to be one night this week that I wasn’t going to want to cook, and having a shitty frozen pizza to throw in the oven would be awesome.
Also in my shopping basket: rice (not instant), leeks, potatoes, onions, butter, bread, and green onions. Maybe some other staples, I don’t remember.
What I do remember though, is feeling guilty with that pizza in my basket.
“Do I really need this? The sausage on here most certainly came from a pig that lived a horrible life. I doubt one thing about this pizza isn’t processed several times. I could cook something better, and cheaper with a little more effort.”
What I remember even more: The guy in line in front of me. Ten pizzas, popcorn, hot dogs, TV Dinners, and all sorts of things that don’t require medium heat. After thoroughly judging him, his energy drinks, and his $65 dollar bill (for probably the same amount of food in weight as my $12 total), I realized something.
This is most of America.
This is most of my neighbors.
This is killing us.
I looked at the cart behind me. The next check out over. The lady putting her grocery’s in bags. It was all the same food. High fat. High salt. Highly processed.
I think there is a need here. People need to know how to cook, even the most basic things. Not large extravagant meals to show off to friends. Sure, roasting a duck might be out of the question for a lot of people, but if every household know how to cook 10 simple meals from scratch, I wonder how much healthier we would all be.
I have so much more on the subject/this story.
Putting them in words won’t do, and I am tired, and open the coffee shop in 6 hours.
I know exactly what you mean. I feel sad for this time in america. I always ironically feel sad for people that don’t know how to cook or even like to cook. Maybe because it’s what I grew up loving . I love to cook, and bake and try new things and healthy things. I do a lot of the cooking in my family since i”m currently jobless. My parents give me the money to go out and we have lots of local farmers markets, getting fresh food is great and so cheap, much cheaper than processed food. And I enjoy creating. I mean, there are simple things to throw together in 15 minutes that are healthy, cheap and taste good. I just wish people were more aware…and less lazy.