htose of you who aren't organic - why not?

[MamaGlamourPuss]

?

Read the book "Not on the label" by felicity lawrence and it has changed the way I shop.

Now buy a locally produced organic veg box and meat from a local non organic but "nice to the animals" farm.

Because for it to be of any benefit then everything has to be organic and it is sooooo expensive and I cant afford it.

My dh has done a lot of agri development work in Caucusus (Georgia and so on) and comes back raving about the range of varieties and organic status of fruit especially..

They point out wryly that they are organic because they can't afford chemicals.

I'm not sure I buy the 'too expensive' tag!

I pay £11.50 for a huge box of veg and £7.50 for fruit each week and £2 for 8 large jackets pots.

I then buy an organic chicken £10 - two days meals plus next nights soup (with veg box).

I buy 2lbs organic mince - about £8 - one night spag bol or lasagne, 1 night chilli, left overs for lunch time baked pots or into the freezer.

Then bread, milk,pasta, rice, couscous, butter, cheese, biscuits, (or stuff to make them with), youghurts, muesli, tuna - max £15.

So other nights might be roasted veg with couscous, risotto, baked pots and cheese, salad, veggie bake, pasta and veg sauce, veg tartlets etc etc.

And there would still be loads of veg left to use up too - usually into the freezer.

Puddings are fruit and or youghurt - or I might make apple pie or crumble, poached pears etc depending on what is in the box.

So for £55 ish - I can feed a family of four for a week. Admittedly we all have weekday lunches out of the house, but do eat in at weekends. Still it is not too bad price wise, and we all eat extremely well on that.

2lb of mince for us (DH, me and DS's aged 6 and 2) would last for 2 meals MAX.

And there's no way I could spend just £15 on enough yoghurts, bread, milk, cheese etc to last the week! Anything from 10-14 pints of milk a week, 3-4 loaves of bread, one extra large block of cheese, and approx 21 'normal' sized yoghurts, and 5 'small' (lunchbox) ones for DS1's lunchbox......

Anymore than 1/2 veggie meals a week and I have DS1 and DH up in arms.....and eating even more extra food as they're still hungry !

agree soapbox,supermarket organic veg is more expensive than a box scheme.

I get three chickens for £8.00 from the local farm,they haven't got an organic label but they are reared compassionately and without chemicals.

ggirl - what size chickens are they??

between 2-3 lbs

it is a special offer at the moment though

so they're what supermarkets would probably class as 'medium' then?

I buy an extra large - and it usually last 1 1/2 meals..

well you'd need two of these you greedy lot

QofQ - we only get 2 pints of milk a week (DCs are allergic to it) and one yogh a day per child - DH and I tend not to eat it One loaf of bread a week - toast and the occaisional sandwich is all we use it for.

I was vegetarian for a long time - so not eating meat is fine for me - and DH and the DCs are more than happy with that too.

I find that the chilli, lasagne, spag bol, cottage pies are huge once I've bulked them out with lots of mushrooms, courgettes, carrots etc etc - so we get plenty out of them

It is just a different way of eating really, using veg and fruit in much greater quantities that proteins really

we eat hardly any bread in this house,usually goes off first.

gg - it's not me......I just have a little bit of chicken breast.....it's these greedy 'men' of mine !

Soapbox - I bulk out my 'mince' meals with loads of veg too - but still have to use over 1/2kg to fill 'em all up. In fact ALL my meals are bulked out with loads of beans/veg etc etc........but they still complain if there's not enough meat (I go through 13 sausages when I serve them up sausage, bacon, mash, beans, fried egg and mushrooms!).

Gosh! That sounds like heart attack on a plate to me

We only have 2 sausages each if we have sausages - and we would not be having bacon and fried eggs too!

Are you all erm... normal sized?????

You do all seem to eat an incredible amount of food!

On an average day we'll use 4 slices for the DS's lunches. I may (or may not) have a sandiwch for lunch - depends on whether I'm in bed after working the night before LOL). Then DH often has a sandwich for lunch, and takes another one for a snack to work (he leaves about 1.30 - and doesn't get back until 9.30pm so needs something around 6ish to keep him going). Then he'll occasionally have another sandiwch after his dinner (but that's only if the meal isn't 'filling' enough for him). So we can go through 12 slices a day - though average is 10.

soapbox - we only have that about once a fortnight. I'm a size 8 (although with me now being pg that'll probably go up rapidly). And the boys are skinny as rakes here is a picture of them taken a few weeks ago on holiday.

oh and I should add - I grill the sausages and bacon..........

Very cute boys

If you could harness your metabolisms and sell them - you'd make a fortune

LOL - I know - but trust my luck to marry a man with a huge metabolism and an appetite to match..........and produce children that equally so........costs me a fortune - even when I don't go organic LOL.

always amazes me when I hear how much some kids eat

I'm just hoping that this no.3 is more like me and has a smaller appetite . Anyhow, must sleep - worked the last 3 nights in a row, and I'm working another 5 (not all in a row - get a night off in the middle!) this week.

i'm off too,night

Filly

Got an organic fruit and veg box for a bit but it was expensive and had stuff like kiwis and bananas in it. they had obviously not been grown locally.

I am in favour of unrealistically cheap food.

HRHQueenOfQuotes - what beautiful boys you have