Shopping for the Hunger Challenge

On Sunday morning, I stopped at Heinold’s to drop off my purse with a couple of friends who were already set up with their bloody marys and plates of food from the Jack London Square Farmer’s Market.

“I’m going to try to get all my shopping done for the week at the farmer’s market for under $28,” I said.

“Good luck with that,” said my friend Colin, shaking his head.

I had decided, after last year’s Hunger Challenge shopping experience, to start with the farmer’s market and see how far I could get. Based on what I ate last year, I had made some concrete guidelines for myself:

1. More fresh fruits and vegetables.
2. No peanut butter.
3. No weird, preservative-filled bread that looks and tastes the same at both ends of the week.
4. No freaking oatmeal.

Other than that, I was shopping without a plan. I figured if I just got enough staple vegetables, and maybe some fruit, I’d be in good shape.

My first stop was the Her Farm stand, where I picked up three onions and a bunch of Chinese broccoli for $1.90. I decided that I could use the soy sauce I had at home when I was ready to stir-fry the vegetables—I recalled using some soy sauce last year and don’t consider it cheating, since it’s a condiment a lot of people would have in their refrigerators already.

Next up, I picked up a good-sized head of garlic at the Swank Farms stand for $.50.

My next stop was a stand from a farm that I should know the name of, but don’t. But the woman who works there sells an incredible array of fruits and vegetables for rock bottom prices, and she’s always my go-to stop for staples. I often wonder how she makes any money, since I’ll walk up to her check-out table with my arms loaded down, and I never give her any more than $9. It’s ridiculous.

My haul from her stand? Five yams, four good-sized Yukon Gold potatoes, a bunch of celery, three peaches, three carrots and three lemons. The total? $6.25.

At the Bautista Ranch stand, I picked up three small hot peppers to spice up beans or other dishes along the way, and a medium-sized eggplant. The total there: $1.35.

At this point, emboldened by my low total, I decided to spend $3.50 on a half-pound bag of roasted almonds from Stackhouse Farm. They would make decent high-protein snack material for the week, and could also be chopped and added to dishes for flavor and nutrients.

My last stop was the Resendiz Farms stand, where I picked up nearly three pounds of tomatoes for $2.75. That took my farmer’s market total to $16.25, and I was hauling around a hefty bag of nutritious and seasonal vegetables and fruits.

The next consideration, however, was that this was not a very protein-heavy shopping trip. I wanted to buy some eggs, but the pastured eggs sold at the Jack London Square Market, as amazing as they may be, are $7 per dozen – well out of my price range for this exercise. And I knew better than to even look at the fresh and smoked seafood for sale along the way.

I knew I had an unopened bag of Massa Organics brown rice at home, which I paid $3.50 for at the Grand Lake Farmer’s Market a few weeks back. I decided to factor that into my total and my haul for the week, and decided I would make one more stop for a few more staples before calling it good.

My next stop was Smart and Final, an odd grocery store in my neighborhood that’s part of a chain that seems to specialize in tools, dishes and food for the restaurant industry. A lot of things are sold in bulk, and it’s a great place to get disposable chafing dishes if, indeed, that’s what you’re in the market for.

I walked in with $8.25 to spend and a list that included bacon, eggs, butter, dried beans and, possibly, tofu or some other cheap and easy protein. I found a package of 18 eggs for $1.95, a pound of bacon for $1.99, a pound of Berkeley Farms butter for $1.49, and a package of $.99 lentils and a $1.09 bag of black beans. I tossed two $.79 envelopes of taco seasoning in my basket for good measure, figuring I’d make taco beans later in the week. The second envelope, as it turns out, put me over my total – I spent $9.05 for that entire load of groceries. I set the second envelope aside when I got home – I am not considering it part of the total for purposes of this exercise.

I would like to pay special attention to the fact that the Smart and Final trip included bacon. This is exciting for a number of reasons. First of all, bacon will be excellent to flavor any number of dishes throughout the week, and it will also yield bacon grease, which, while not particularly healthy on a regular basis, can serve as an additional flavorful fat to spice up the food I’m making.

And with the bacon and all those eggs, at least for the first part of the week, I’m going to have breakfasts that are way more exciting than those from last year. Sure, it’s loaded with sodium and fat, but hey…bacon makes everything, even the Hunger Challenge, that much better.