What is your limit?

[StuartCooks]

Well that is how expensive food is in Sweden, reason being why meat is so expensive is we pay to keep the animals in good health and happy. We have one Europeans strictest animal husbandry laws. Sweden is expensive when it comes to food, but it isnt as bad as Norway.

I am not going to be vegan, I cant digest that much veggies, I tried , I got really ill. So instead with have smaller portions on the table and fill up with is cheaper.

Pure pork mince is about 5 dollar and you can see it for 3 dollar on sale. Remember do everything by kilo ( 1 kilo= 2.2 pounds)

Too much fiber eh? lol

 

[Mad Cook]

What is your usual budget you try to stick to for a weeks worth of groceries or two weeks worth?

I am currently just shopping for my daughter and I and it seems lately I am hitting about a hundred a week (with coupns!) and I cringe each time! Is this a normal amount? Or is this the change in grocery prices??

So what amount do you TRY to stay under whith you trip to the store?

It depends. It's essential to make a list, both to ensure you come away with what you went for and to avoid impulse buys. I generally try to buy just what I need and think very carefully about whether I really need the other things which are on special offer that catch my eye. I'm a bit of a canny shopper and, although I don't sacrifice quality for price, I do check to see if something which is cheaper is up to the standard of the brand I usually buy.

 

[CakePoet]

StuartCooks, yes too much fiber, I cant even eat rye bread because of that. *sigh* But I also got some other not so good side effects, I need about 100 gram of meat per day to keep the belly happy.

 

[erehweslefox]

Well that is how expensive food is in Sweden, reason being why meat is so expensive is we pay to keep the animals in good health and happy. We have one Europeans strictest animal husbandry laws. Sweden is expensive when it comes to food, but it isnt as bad as Norway.

I kind of wish we did here in the states. One of the more convincing arguments my vegetarian and vegan friends make is the horrible mistreatment of animals in factory farms. I do a bit of backpacking and camping which often takes me out into very rural regions. Let me tell you, you can if the wind is bad smell a factory farm miles before you drive past it. It is that bad.

TBS

 

[CakePoet]

Well Eu wanted us to change, because we where too good and that made every ones else feel bad. We sad F you and did our way. The animals laws needs to be updated , they nicked name The Astrid Lindgren laws, she our beloved children book author work hard for animal welfare and got the law as birthday gift.

Anyway when it comes to the eggs, yes we have caged hen eggs too but bigger cages , but most eggs are free range indoor or out door because people stopped buying the caged hen eggs. I can smell cow poop in the morning but that because the cows are now in field near the school, this year they are only 4.

 

[erehweslefox]

I can smell cow poop in the morning but that because the cows are now in field near the school, this year they are only 4.

A little cow poop is healthy. I am encouraging my sister and brother-in-law to take the kids out to a working farm near where they live in Virginia just to get exposed to a bit of cow poop. I am of the opinion that much of the rise of asthma and immune disorders is linked to the fact that we spend too much time inside in sterile environments nowadays, the immune system doesn't have time to learn. I spent much of my childhood up to my knees in various kinds of muck.

Southeastern Colorado, we were headed out to hike Picketwire Canyon, by the way an excellent challenging hike. The original settlers called it the 'Valley of Purgatory and Lost Souls' it is that bad. Turns into an oven in the summer, the walls of the canyon tend to concentrate the heat, and there is no shade at all, and no source of water other than what you bring. If you can make it ten miles in, there is a tract of fossilized dinosaur tracks, the largest in North America.

But I digress, driving in you have to pass some feed/kill lots for cattle, and the stench is incredible. You literally smell them before you see them. They stretch for acres in SE Colorado. Glad you Swedes are doing a bit better, even though it might make your meat a little pricier.

When I was in grad school I roomed with two vegetarians in a small house. While I wasn't converted, I do think we, at least Americans, eat more meat then we really need to. Living with them both made me develop vegetarian versions of some of my favorite recipes, and buy better meat, and think of eating it as a special occasion.

I have kind of backslid, for financial reasons, and 1.99 a pound ground beef is attractive as a protein source. I do sometimes think of those acres of smelly lowing doomed cows in Colorado and feel quite horrible.

Cheers,

TBS

 

[StuartCooks]

StuartCooks, yes too much fiber, I cant even eat rye bread because of that. *sigh* But I also got some other not so good side effects, I need about 100 gram of meat per day to keep the belly happy.

Sorry you have belly issues, I can understand how that can be frustrating!

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

What's my limit; 5 nice brookies , rainbows, or steelheads on most streams is my limit. However, get into a good school of perch on the river and you can take what you want.

Ok, I know what you're asking, and it's not the limit of fish allowed. I believe the daily limit for grouse is 5 birds.

Oops, you're not talking about game bird limits either.

My budget limit, hmmmm, I try to keep it around $50 U.S. per week, but rarely am able to. The price of things keeps going up, though my wage doesn't.

Seeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[erehweslefox]

Round here in Eastern PA after quite a while of industrial activity, don't want to eat more than a river caught fish a week, even in 'safer' areas.

Glad to hear things are better out with you land of 1000 ponds.

TBS

What's my limit; 5 nice brookies , rainbows, or steelheads on most streams is my limit. However, get into a good school of perch on the river and you can take what you want.

Ok, I know what you're asking, and it's not the limit of fish allowed. I believe the daily limit for grouse is 5 birds.

Oops, you're not talking about game bird limits either.

My budget limit, hmmmm, I try to keep it around $50 U.S. per week, but rarely am able to. The price of things keeps going up, though my wage doesn't.

Seeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Addie]

Raw Fish

I will never eat raw fish. I knew you could not eat the fish caught in Boston Harbor. Even if you cooked it to death. The harbor was polluted really bad.

Then my husband brought home a whole cod fish/head on and gutted. He started to filet it for me and ewwww big time. It was loaded with parasites. He showed me how the fish factories filet the catch. By the time he got through fileting the cod, you would never know that the part closest to the stomach had been loaded with parasites. He made a thin filet on both sides and removed all the parasites. Those filets went into the trash bucket. The rest they filet and that is the part they sell to the public. Perfectly safe.

So I make sure all my fish is cooked.

 

[CraigC]

I will never eat raw fish. I knew you could not eat the fish caught in Boston Harbor. Even if you cooked it to death. The harbor was polluted really bad.

Are you saying the fish from Boston Harbor don't taste like tea?

 

[erehweslefox]

I will never eat raw fish....By the time he got through fileting the cod, you would never know that the part closest to the stomach had been loaded with parasites. He made a thin filet on both sides and removed all the parasites. Those filets went into the trash bucket. The rest they filet and that is the part they sell to the public. Perfectly safe. So I make sure all my fish is cooked.

Never go to a commercial cattle, chicken, or pork facility. Just, not only as that is just a bad idea in general, and there are many better places to visit (National Park? Disney World?) you won't like what you see.

I wouldn't avoid sushi. Mostly (and I do say mostly) sushi is done by a trained sushi chef, and held to a rather high standard, particularly if you get it at a reputable restaurant. Just because it is raw. I in cities like NY and Philly often roll the dice on seafood, I could go to a chain store that I know has a serious concern about lawsuits, and thus takes care; I also could go to some hole in the wall place, where nobody speaks any English, and I'm likely to have a better level of skill in the cuisine, and someone who takes care to source their ingredients, but might not have oversight... It is a balancing act isn't it?

Fish have parasites, so do most animals, so do you probably. I know it is a visceral horror, and instinctive, seeing worms in something screams 'spoiled meat' to the back areas of our brain that are interested in survival, and not much else.

Depends on the species cod have a good relationship with some nematode like guys, that help them digest their food. The cod round worm Phocanema decipiens is perhaps a health risk. But as you've said if cooked, no problem.

I camp and hike a bunch, and eat foraged food, so I have a shallower boundary than most on what is 'clean' and 'suspect' food. I'd eat that cod as long as we cooked it and we cut out the worms in a minute, for instance.

More open than most to going to a new or old sushi restaurant in Chinatown/Old City (Phil) or Chinatown/Alphabet City/Soho/Noho/Parkslope wherever... (NYC). I watch the knives, if a sushi chef is sharing his knives, I suspect he has a poorer idea of what he is doing. The best ones sometimes have specific knives for specific fish.

Now I have had food poisoning a couple of times, two camping related (just spoiled food), and two restaurant choice related (back of house ignoring correct procedure), survived them fine, still here. Didn't like it, but hey.

I don't, though, know if you are immune-compromised, diabetic, hypoglycemic, etc.. there are a plethora of conditions, including food allergies, that should make you more careful. I think as a hale and hearty man of middle age, in reasonable shape, and with a good lifestyle and support system, bring on the weird raw food! I'll sort it out with a visit to the Porcelain Temple if I have to.

TBS

 

[CakePoet]

I eat sushi, I have even eaten fermented shark and herring and I have never gotten food poisoning from that.

How ever I have been deliberate poisoned by people not caring to listen to my food order or just thinking Nah she will not notice. I cant have aspartame at all or any non natural sweetener , if it made in lab I cant have it. Yes, white sugar is oki. This also means my food bill goes up, since there is so much food with added sweeteners . So a few time I have gotten diet or zero drinks when asked for full sugar and taken one sip, wondered asked and got yes is sugar, taken sip more and spent the rest of the night in the bathroom. Or other any of the other things I cant eat, it is a horror.

So this month I still havent done the grocery shopping, because what on sale is things I cannot eat. And everything is so expensive right now.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I know there is a safe food prep forum somewhere. This one is for discussing your food budget.