I am often amazed at the simplicity of it all: the sun shines, the heavens rain, and they grow. Vegetables are little solar-powered miracles.
I walked down to the local produce market to pick up some vegetables as we are beginning to run low, which isn't good for a vegetarian household. What a fun experience it is every time I stroll the isles and smell, poke, feel, and finally choose the selections that will end up later on the dinner table. Not only is it fun, but it's also cheap! This morning I walked home with three bags of fruits and vegetables (and a smile on my face), which came to under $15. A nutritionist that I am reading in my spare time had ran an experiment to find out what it would average for her to buy a day's requirement of vegetables; I believe the figure she came to was 69 cents. At first I was a little skeptical. I mean, really... 69 cents? But then I considered what my wife and I spend on groceries monthly and it didn't seem far off (of course, the author is talking USD and figures will vary depending on location and season). Last night I calculated our monthly expenditures, which I do every month, and was equally surprised to find out that we had spent a grand total of $140.85 on groceries. When you account for non-food grocery items, that works out to about $4.40 per day for two people (seventy-three cents per person per meal). The vegetables are really incredible things.
What makes the vegetable option an interesting consideration is that, though they are more expensive per calorie than some other items (cheap processed meat, anything comprised predominantly of sugars, especially corn-derived sugars), it is difficult to find more nutrient-rich foods. When one considers that our society is the most calorie rich society in the entire history of the human species, yet still suffers from a general nutrient deficit, the choice for vegetables seems pretty good.
But Tyler, don't you get bored of vegetables? You mean get bored of food? No. A quick survey of our refrigerator yields a count of eighteen different vegetables. Add to that five different fruit ('tis the season - though we should pick up some blueberries), seven different bulk whole grains, four types of seeds, about five types of nuts, seven types of beans, etc...
Come to think of it, it's not just vegetables that amaze me: the manifold variety of food that comes from the earth for us to eat is incredible! Some sprout up from the soil; others fall from the tree branches; some we have to dig for. It can't be from lack of abundance that there are people starving in the world. It seems to me that we have been provided for such that we need only work for our food.
On that note, I'm going to head to the kitchen to cut up some fresh vegetables to take to work with me tonight.
...they truly are amazing little things.
I was just thinking about how much we would save if we were vegetarains. We eat quite well and probably spend $15-$20/day feeding our family of 4 (including milk). However, I would say that $8.00 of that is meat. We do eat vegetarian once per week but usually we do have a large meaty meal at dinner time:) Finally, due to the fact that we rarely eat out (maybe once every 3 months) we def. save money!!
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