Bargain Food Shopping

I am back on the healthy food kick that I should have been on all along...but I sort of fell off the wagon a while back.  A few days ago hubby and I were reminded just how fleeting life is when a friend of ours literally dropped dead a half hour after we were with her.  Hubby often bowled with our friend, and while she was in her early 70s, she seemed to be in great health.  She walked everywhere since she didn't drive and she was was really excited that her new grand baby was coming to visit that evening.  A few hours after we left her at the bowling center, another friend of ours texted the group and told us that the friend had had a massive heart attack at the bowling center and passed away.  Needless to say, everyone was pretty shaken up by this news.  So while we can never predict when someone will die, even if they appear to be in a great health, these sorts of things can happen.  It just makes sense to live as healthy as possible and hope for the best I guess.

So back to today's topic.  Fortunately we have many of the resources that make healthy eating feasible if that's what we choose to do (and everyone should choose to eat healthy but there are so many reasons we don't).  We have plenty of time to cook healthy food since neither of us are working, we have the money to easily pay for food, we have the knowledge to cook healthy food both from experience as well as by having the internet at our fingertips, and we have lots of stores with inexpensive, healthy food where we live as well as a car to easily go shopping (for another take on health eating check out Dar's posts on her Food Basket Challenge). 

Also, I was extra encouraged to resume eating better because I did a 10k with the vegans this weekend and they were so inspiring!  I call a couple in our walking club "the vegans" because they are in their late 70s and have been vegans for nearly 50 years.  They always talk about what they eat and their healthy lifestyle and they are excellent examples of aging well.  They both have blood pressures around 115/70 (I asked), they make it a point to walk three miles every single day (the lady was emphatic that no matter what you are doing you need to make it a point to walk every day), and they are wicked smart (they both have a lot of interesting hobbies, are retired from professional jobs but still keep up with their industries, and are truly fascinating to talk to). 

So this morning I hit the 99 Cent store and stocked up on nutritious food and we are officially back on the healthy-eating bandwagon.  For a grand total of $23.96 I bought:

• 2 pounds of sweet potatoes
• 1 pound of jalapenos
• 3 pounds tomatoes
• 2 pounds strawberries
• 15 ounces steel cut oats
• 15 ounces ground flax seeds
• 2 pounds apples
• 1 pound black beans
• 4 avocados
• 3 pounds pears
• 2 pounds onions
• 1 pound limes
• 8 ounces unsalted peanuts
• 3 bunches cilantro
• 3 hearts romaine lettuce
• 1 pound 6 ounces tortillas
• 1 bunch of green onions
• 4 cloves peeled garlic
• 1 bag of spinach

Now I'm off to whip up a nutritious strawberry/banana/spinach/flax seed smoothie for breakfast!