Last weekend, I decided to clean out my pantry for two reasons.
First, I wanted to actually be able to find things. It’s a small closet with four shelves and a floor where we have a rolling cart with two drawers, so there’s not a lot of space. It was an chaotic mess in there, a mosaic of cans, boxes, bags and packets with no connection to each other. Since my husband and I both channel are both naturally lazy, stuff tends to get stuffed into the closet all willy-nilly when we are putting away groceries.
Second, I wanted to purge out as much processed food as possible because that shit will kill you. Even if you aren’t trying to lose weight, I think it’s best to plan meals around ingredients that contain as few chemicals as possible.
Take this shit for example. This? Is supposed to be pancake syrup. A quick look at the ingredients list shows that this is nothing but caramel-colored sugar water. There is not a drop of maple syrup in either of these bottles. And the only way the shit on the right is sugar free is because it’s loaded with fake sugar.
Fake food is not good eats. Just ask anyone. So this hit the trash. Buh bye.
In it’s place I bought 100 percent real maple syrup. Yikes, a bottle of that is four times the price of the faux food. But it’s real.
And I have to have something to put on pancakes.
Cause I am not doing without pancakes. I have my principles, you know.
So real maple syrup is worth the investment.
Besides the mock syrup, I mostly had a lot of canned veggies and a few cans of fruits. I had a lot of canned tomatoes- fire roasted, diced, with an without chiles. I had tomato sauces. I had tomato paste.
When I developed this tomato fetish, I don’t know.
And then there is all this shit right here. Some of thiis is really hard to part with.
True, it’s loaded with sugar in all sorts of forms, especially the high fructose corn syrup that is harvested in my home state.
The Nilla wafers I use only for banana pudding. But there is no real vanilla in these cookies. “Nilla” is apparently only a nickname. Like Stinky or Punky.
There is some nutritional value in the cereals and the cereal bars, but for the most part this is processed crap and is not real food.
But I love it so much. I really do. And it’s convenient. And tasty. And easy to fit into my life.
This is hard to give up.
I couldn’t toss it. The best I can do is promise myself to buy less of it and buy better stuff. I can make my own granola bars I guess so I can avoid the Special K bars. I don’t know who bought that oatmeal (sure as hell wasn’t me since I hate oatmeal) but that can made from real oats.
And there are better cereals that I can buy with less sugar.
But see that Special K Vanilla Almond box hiding there in the back? That stuff is like crack to me. Love me my vanilla almond cereal. Don’t know if I can quit that one.
Any suggestions for a new form of crack would be muchly appreciated.
The tomato thing, too funny! It’s the same in my house. I used to hate oatmeal but not too long ago I started eating Better Oats raw pure and simple. It’s a mulitigrain cereal w/ flaxseeds that you microwave and I add a little brown sugar and some milk. It might sound gnarly but it’s become my morning crack. I’ve come a long way from my Fruity Pebbles addiciton.
If it makes you happy, I say just stick with your crack cereal of choice.
I will look for Better Oats in the nutrition section of the store. My complaint about oatmeal is it’s texture when it’s cooked, so I might like it in a crunchy cereal.
Haven’t had Fruity Pebbles since I was a kid. Ah, memories.
Oh my! How brave of you to share some of your pantry in pictures! So glad you ditched that crappy excuse for syrup. I actually asked my MIL for maple syrup one morning at her house and she pointed to a bottle like yours. She REALLY called it that, like calling all pasta spaghetti. I tried to explain the difference, but she was clueless.
If it’s the crunch you crave, there are definitely a lot of more healthy cereals.(of course sticking to one “serving” is the trick) Kashi Go Lean is one that I used to eat. I am a big “crunchy food” eater myself. Sometimes I love almond butter (or peanut butter) slathered on rice cakes for breakfast with some fruit on the side.