Foods you no longer buy?

[pinkytoe]

At a family event recently, my sil was aghast because we did not have any bottled salad dressing. She thought I was nuts to make my own prior to each meal but really it only takes a second to make great vinaigrette. Afterward, it got me to thinking about all the foods we no longer have in the house the past few years as our diets have changed. No more - salad dressing, crackers and chips, mayonnaise, lunch meat, pork, BBQ sauce, soda, regular bread/rolls, cottage, sour and cream cheese. Very minimal amount of dairy milk and meat. It has been such a gradual process that I just realized how these things have disappeared. Have you permanently eliminated any foods from you pantry?

[sweetana3]

We have tried to eliminate diet products after listening to In Defense of Food. Now we at least read the labels. It is a process.

[puglogic]

Although we're not as far along as you (we still have mayo and milk and sour cream, for example, plus the occasional bottle of dressing) we don't buy much in the way of processed food. Haven't had soda in the house in many years. No candy, store-bought cookies, junk food, fruit rollups, non-food food. Most of that stuff really makes me gag a bit when I see a shopping cart full of it.

[treehugger]

The biggest one for me is bread of any kind, since I have been making all our bread for more than a year. I also don't buy bottled salad dressing, but never really did. I have just never cared for commercial dressings.

Foods I have quit buying that I used to buy regularly, in addition to bread: canned beans (I cook dried ones); canned refried beans; canned chili; ground beef (I grind my own); bagged salad (I only buy heads of lettuce now); conventionally-grown, out-of-season produce (I joined a CSA in January); packaged rice mixes; lunch meat; sliced cheese; corn tortillas (I make them); cookies and other baked goods (only homemade now); pizza and other fast or take-out foods (I love homemade pizza!).

There have been lots of other, subtle changes in our diet over the past few years (basically, more vegetarian meals and more things from scratch), but those are the stand-outs that I can think of right now.

Kara

[Mrs-M]

No pre-packaged foods in our house (not that I ever bought that sort of thing), likewise for processed lunch meats and cheeses, as far as soda goes, that's down to hit-and-miss in our house, and I feel so much better about that. It can be a bit of a slow process, but in choosing one item at a time, it's easy to curb and alter what is brought in through the front/back door.

[SteveinMN]

Interesting question. I can't say the contents of our pantry and refrigerator/freezer have changed as a result of trying to simplify our lives, unless you count that there are fewer restaurant "doggie bags" because we don't go out to eat all that often anymore.:)

But, over time, we've pretty much dismissed any prepackaged noodle/pasta stuff (Rice-uh-Roni, Fill-in-the-blank Helper, frozen just-add-meat entrees, etc.) partially out of the expense for what you get but primarily because we're not much on refined breads/pastas for carbs and because the sodium levels in those packages are excessive. We don't really buy canned vegetables anymore as neither one of us cares for the texture (and then there's that sodium thing again) -- except for canned tomatoes (which I much prefer to those red golf balls they sell in the supermarket most of the year). We still buy salad dressings and mayonnaise primarily because we don't go through it fast enough to warrant making our own all the time. And, yeah, the snacks are kept to a minimum because if they're here, they will be eaten. They're more of a treat, so I don't mind their occasional presence.

[Maxamillion]

I'd really like to make more changes but it is difficult. I used to not drink any soda though but now I do like the occasional soda. I try to stear clear of any with high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners and only go for those that are sweetened with sugar. I also want to try making my own ground beef. The ground beef at the store usually has some gristle in it which I don't like. Also, I usually buy organic eggs, butter instead of margarine, and locally made honey. I've been wanting to go to the farmers market this summer but with constant car problems I haven't been able to make it yet. I love milk and dairy products, I don't think I could ever give those up. Maybe one day when I can buy my own land, I can have a milk cow or milk goats (or maybe a neighbor that has them that I can trade with!) I do have a garden that I plant every year for vegetables but I'm not that great of a gardener and this year's garden has done worse than usual.

[treehugger]

I also want to try making my own ground beef. The ground beef at the store usually has some gristle in it which I don't like.

This at least is a pretty simple change, Maxamillion, provided you have a food processor or a Kitchen Aid mixer already. I quit buying pre-ground beef several years ago when I started to notice that ground beef had such a high incidence of recalls. I researched why, and decided I would never buy it again. So, even aside from the gristle issue you mentioned, I believe it is safer and healthier to grind one's own meat. I just keep an eye out for the cheaper braising/stewing cuts of meat to go on sale, and buy those for grinding.

It can be done in a food processor or, since I already had a Kitchen Aid mixer, I bought the relatively cheap (like, less than $20) grinder attachment for that. It's easy to use, easy to clean, and makes perfect ground meat. I never looked into it, but I bet a counter top, old fashioned meat grinder for home use would be fairly inexpensive as well.

Kara

[Florence]

Desserts. I used to regularly make desserts but I have stopped that completely. If I want a dessert for a special occasion (birthday, Christmas, anniversary), we either split a dessert where we are out to eat or I will get a one-meal dessert from a lovely bakery nearby. I have found that consuming sugar simply makes me crave more sugar. Along this line, I stopped drinking Coke and to slake my caffeine addiction, i drink Diet Coke. The main thing is just to keep me away from sugar.

[redfox]

Neither of us have ever had soda - well, not since high school! No dairy except yogurt, no corn syrup or anything with corn syrup in it. We buy our groceries at the local food coop, with occasional forays into the farmer's markets, and of course the garden, so everything is organic. Our meat consumption is down to 2-3 x week, and we're currently on a no alcohol fast. Recently, I convinced DH to go back to bar soap, as liquid soap is so expensive!

Treehugger, where did you find a $20 device grinder attacehment for your Kitchenaid? All I see are over $50. I'd love to get one! Thanks...

[ApatheticNoMore]

It's hard to say, I mostly never bought most of those things to begin with. I started out into the adult world vegetarian which might be why - that's already not a standard american diet (I'm not still vegetarian though), I wandered into a natural foods store and gradually transitioned to buying mostly organic in my mid-late 20s, now my only consistent nutritional belief is in real organic foods in the most natural form possible - that's what I strive for period.

What you'll find more of in my place these days are ALL "vices": sour cream, cream and half and half (for teas or to put on fruit), wine (only a very ocassional drinker just increased from teetotalling is all really), chocolate, a bit more meat and chicken.

I don't have bottled salad dressing, mayo, ketchup, frozen dinners, almost never keep bread on hand, don't have milk (only half and half or cream sometimes), no soda, no coffee because I prefer tea, only ocassionally have juice (but I crave it!), seldom have crackers, do have chips ocassionally as a treat - plain potato or corn chips, no oils beyond olive oil (and lots of it), no soy other than soy sauce, only occasionally have butter on hand (can't eat that much of it fast enough mostly).

[treehugger]

Treehugger, where did you find a $20 device grinder attacehment for your Kitchenaid? All I see are over $50. I'd love to get one! Thanks...

Bummer. I probably shouldn't have given a price since I have had mine 6 or 7 years. Let me poke around a bit and get back to you.

ETA: OK, yes, that ~$50 one that is showing up everywhere is the same one I have. Apparently it has gotten a lot more expensive in the past few years! Probably due to all those beef recalls. :~) Because it is all plastic and metal parts that come apart (and could therefore be boiled to sterilize), this is something that I would have no trouble with buying used. So, see if you can find it cheaper on eBay. Sorry for giving totally wrong info above!

Kara

[Tussiemussies]

We became vegetarians 21 years ago, now we don't usually drink milk, I drink soy, almondor coconut milk but usually soy which I love. My husband eats eggs but I only eat them if the are cooked into a recipe. We gave up eating all forms of sugar and eating of any desserts in this past year or more like two years for me. I do eat yogurt but just got a large yogurt maker to make soy or hemp milk yogurt.

We don't eat mainly organic but are making our way toward that!

We don't drink soda but make our own iced tea every day. We also don't drink too much fruit juice since it too has a lot of sugar in another form...

We eat pretty sparse since we are both on a lifestyle change of diet.

[Charity]

Salad dressing, frozen dinners, lunch meat, soft drinks for the most part.

[creaker]

I wish I had a longer "no longer buy" list - a lot of them have shifted to about once or twice month or less, but not "gone" gone. No red meat. Does no McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, KFC count? I have not been to any of those in years now.

[herbgeek]

I was never much into soda, and only have that on hand when I'm expecting people over. I took a class on salad dressings last year, and haven't bought bottled dressings since. I used to do a lot of frozen meals, when I was working full time and attending school at night, but find after cooking mostly from scratch, that they just don't taste right and aren't very filling.

I've been trying to buy fewer white flour prepared foods, not that I'm a purist, but I decided if I'm going to eat these products, I'm going to make them from scratch so they at least don't have the preservatives in them. So I bake muffins, some breads, and make cookies and crackers. I still buy some, but way less than I used to. Homemade stuff is just more satisfying, and I don't have the energy to make them all the time so I'm not consuming as much.