Our Online Grocery Store! (Shameless Plug for Relay Foods)

   A couple of my friends have recently asked me to expound on our online shopping experiences.  I will try my best in this post to describe the modern shopping miracle that RelayFoods.com is to our family.

  So we've decided we want to eat more consciously and hopefully more healthfully.  The long and the short of this goal is that we as a family (or really just me and Cliff as our girls get to do what we tell them to do at this age...) want to cut out the majority of the processed foods we've had in our diet, buy fresh, and buy local.   We knew going into this that our goal would require sacrifice, planning, and a lot of will power.  We were also afraid it would require a lot of driving and consequently gasoline consumption.   What to do?  The more we thought about our venture into "real food" world we wondered if we were being overly ambitious and unrealistic - especially with a new baby on the way.  I don't mind taking two kids to the grocery store most days, but three?  I can't even fathom that possibility... yet.  What to do?

  Relay Foods to the rescue!  Literally.  We had always seen these trucks parked at various locations around town and even in our neighborhood thinking they were really just a really expensive local food distributor.  We never gave them a second thought until we started planning out our new life style.  Upon a very small amount of research we learned that RelayFoods.com was created right here in Charlottesville by a graduate from UVA and his friend.  They wanted to create an online grocery "store" that supported local businesses and agriculture and saved people time, money, and GAS as well!  It sounded too good to be true.  What's the catch?  Do they jack up the prices of the products they sell?  Do they charge a ridiculous fee to use their services?  No and no.  Their prices are comparable to what we would pay at the grocery store near us and there is NO SURCHARGE or FEE.
   We live out in Crozet, (about 15 mi from C-ville,) and the only grocery stores we have are Harris Teeter and Crozet Great Value.  They are both much more expensive than Kroger, Walmart, etc.  We used to do a lot of our shopping at Sam's Club, but Sam's is far away and we calculated that we were spending about $8.00 round trip to grocery shop there.  Relay DELIVERS the food we order to our neighborhood.  We literally drive down the street and pick up our order.  They PROVIDE reusable shopping bags for us and the first three orders we placed were discounted.   They do have a $5 fee if you spend less than $50.  Um... who spends less than $50 when you go grocery shopping?  Not us.  This fee is waved after you have used their services a few times as well.  But again, we've never spent less than $50 so I wouldn't really know about it.
  If you go to their site you will find that they provide a lot of local and organic foods, but that isn't all.  If you have a hankerin' for Cheerios or Campbell's  Soup, you will find all the staples of a regular grocery store as well.  The major difference is that THEY do all the driving around town so YOU don't have to!  Need a special gourmet cheese, Thai curry paste, bulk oatmeal, cashews, and local grass-fed beef?  This is one stop shopping at its finest.   Grocery shopping with three kids?  No problem!!!

Best shopping idea EVER!

The delicious milk we buy

Local cheese from Marshall Farms

The best Yogurt I have ever had.  This is the maple yogurt, but we usually buy the plain.

   Now lest you think our experiences shopping online have been nothing but sunshine and roses, I will say that there have been a few hang-ups, but they are pretty minor.  When you place your order you can select "substitutions ok" or no.   We have found that sometimes they are out of a certain product and if you give them the go-ahead they will substitute your product with something similar.  Sometimes they are out of the local creamline milk we like that comes from Roanoke, VA.  They have substituted this milk with creamline milk from PA.  Big Deal.  You can also check "no substitutions" and they will simply remove the item from your bill if they are out.  Credit cards are not processed until 12am the day of your delivery so if they can't deliver something you don't lose out.  It just stinks if you really need an ingredient for a dinner or dish you are making.   This has only happened a couple of times and it's usually the local produce that is occasionally unavailable, (local potatoes seem to go faster than a... hot potato!.)  The only time I was really bugged by the substitution was when they gave us green bell peppers instead of red.  Bleck!  Not the same!    Overall we have been incredibly pleased with the service.  Their customer service is spot on.  We were overcharged on a can of tuna once and the guy removed the charge AND credited our account right away!  Cliff has gotten to know the delivery folks and everyone is super friendly.   

    So what do you do if you don't live in Charlottesville??  RelayFoods is expanding!  They also serve the Richmond and D.C. areas and I think they may even serve VA Beach and Norfolk now.  They are continuing their expansion and hope to go nationwide one day.  Call them up or e-mail and ask them to deliver to YOUR area! 

Update on Our Food Journey and Recipe

   One of my favorite successes during our "Food Overhaul," has been our homemade granola.  I'll post the recipe below.  It's an adaptation of a good friend's recipe and we LOVE IT.  When we embarked on this journey into eating healthier foods and more natural foods I will admit that I panicked about snacks.  What will I feed the girls for snacks?  I was especially concerned about Ivy.  She can be pretty picky and I am not going to starve my kids on a whim.  So what have we been "snacking" on?

1.  This granola.  It's great in plain yogurt or if you are in the mood for a treat, MAPLE yogurt.  (Plain yogurt with a little maple syrup mixed in.)  It's also delicious as a cold cereal.  I have been eating it every morning for breakfast with a little milk.  So yummy.  It also makes a great snack by itself or mixed in with applesauce.  Ivy LOVES it.  She will eat it any time and any way.   It has become a staple in our home.  We buy most of the ingredients in bulk and it isn't very expensive that way.  It's chock full of delicious and healthy seeds and nuts and grains.  We sweeten it with maple syrup or honey. 

 Spread out on the pan and ready to bake! 

Pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, pecans, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and wheat germ are just a few of the ingredients. 

 2.  Bread.  I know there are a lot of schools of thought out there right now on wheat and gluten.  I happen to feel that whole grains are healthy.  I just don't want a lot of crap mixed in with my whole grains so we have switched to whole wheat flour with NO PRESERVATIVES.  This means it needs to be refrigerated and doesn't have a "forever" shelf life.  I am totally ok with that.  Our girls love this bread.  Lilia asks for it for desert.  I will make them sandwiches or just let them have a piece to snack on.

3.  NUTS!  Our family loves nuts.  They make a great snack too!  We started buying unsalted nuts in bulk and I have actually gown accustomed the the lack of salt.  I thought I would miss it with my cashews but I don't.

4.  What goes well with nuts?  DRIED FRUIT.  My girls will eat any kind of dry fruit.  What I love about dry fruit is that it's delicious, portable, and easy to find without any additives.  We have a food dehydrator and I would like to try and dry some of my own this summer.

5.  Hummus and veggies.  I love hummus.  It's a great snack.  Making your own is super easy too.  If you don't want to buy canned chick peas you can buy them dry and soak them yourself.  I haven't gotten to that point yet, but maybe one day.  

6.  Fruit!  It's a little tricky trying to find seasonal local fruit in February, but some of the farms around here still have apples.  We are going to crazy this summer.  I am already dreaming of strawberries and blueberries.    Yum!

 So the other area we have been successful in, I think, is cutting back on meat and eating more vegetables.  Everyone keeps asking me if our new diet is more expensive and the truth is, it could be, but it isn't.  Meat and dairy is more expensive if you choose to buy grass- fed, pastured, and organic meat and dairy.  What's the cliche, though?  Have you priced cancer lately?  Or any debilitating "disease of civilization?"  We want to eat better.  We aren't looking for a quick fix or the lowest price.  We are looking for quality.   I want to feel good about what I eat and where it comes from.  We specifically want to treat meat in our diet as a luxury and treat.  We have been converting a lot of our usual staples to more vegetarian versions.  Lilia is eating our cashew nut curry that we normally make with chicken and mushrooms.  This week we made it with extra mushrooms and carrots and potatoes.  It was delicious and still incredibly filling. 

   Cashew nut curry topped with raisins and more cashews.  I like to eat mine with a dollop of plain yogurt.   Fantastic! 

 Ivy Loves curry too.  You can see her hair is a mess because she licked the bowl clean.  Literally. 

  We love the milk that we are getting from Roanoke.  The cheese we are buying is also from VA.  The yogurt is from PA, but we love it and still consider that pretty local.  I LOVE looking at the ingredients and reading "milk, and cultures."  That's it!  They must let it ferment a while too, because it is so thick and creamy.  I would like to try and make my own yogurt sometime.  Baby steps.

So we've been making our bread, making our granola, making our salad dressings, making our own chicken stock and cutting back on meat.  We've switched to a lot of local produce, (especially greens,) and all dairy products from grass-fed animals.  I love the "creamline" milk.  It's non-homogenized and has the cream on the top.  SOOOO GOOD.   We are still struggling with a few things like condiments and treats.  It's hard to find chocolate/ sweets or even ice cream that doesn't have some derivation of corn or soy in it in the form of soy lecithin, citric acid, etc.  I guess the easy solution there is stop eating chocolate and ice cream, but I AM pregnant and sometimes ice cream is the only thing I want to eat.  We haven't found any really good unprocessed pastas yet.  I have also found that food coloring is in a lot of things.  I have stopped taking Zofran for now for my nausea and switched to Unisom, but even the tablets I take have Blue no.1 in them.  Why?  Why is that necessary?  I may try to go without medicine at all soon.  That would be the ideal, but it's hard to throw up all the time.  We make some allowances.  Other allowances we have made for now include coconut milk, curry paste, and bananas.  I'm not cruel or unrealistic.  Bananas will probably always have a place on our counter.  So enough of all that,  who wants a recipe??  I do, I do!!


Granola  (adapted from Lynn Johnson's recipe)
6 cups rolled oats
1 c raw wheat germ
3 T cinnamon
1 c sliced almonds
1 c pecans ( chopped or whole)
1/2 t salt
1 c raw sunflower seeds
1/4 c sesame seeds
1/4 c flax seeds
1/2 c pumpkin seeds

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.  Then add:

1 1/4 cup coconut oil, (warmed to liquid state.)
3/4 cup honey or 1 1/4 c real maple syrup  (We have been using honey because it is less expensive and holds the granola together better.)

Mix well and spread on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 45 min at 300 degrees.

Our GOAL This Year!

  I don't really "do" New Year's Resolutions.  To much pressure.  People fall off the wagon in the first week and give up.   This year, however, our family is resolving to change our eating habits and we are making and charting goals a long the way.  I have recently re-read a couple of books by Michael Pollan as well as "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver and although this might sound overly dramatic... these books have really changed my views on the world of FOOD.

  I don't think that anyone will disagree that Americans have a very flawed relationship with food.  We spend countless hours researching what car to buy, what electronics are highly rated, what university to attend, and yet when it comes to food?  "Fast, Cheap, and Easy!"  Do most of us have ANY idea where our food is coming from?  Do we care?  I didn't used to.  In fact, I don't think I ever gave it a second thought while I was growing up.  We take it for granted that we have strawberries in December and cucumbers in February.  We don't think about where our bananas come from our how they get from point A to point B.  Some of us have arrived at the conclusion that "You are what you eat," but do we think about what we eat eats??  Does it bother us that animals that are meant to eat grass are being force-fed unnatural grains or even animal by-products?  Mad Cow Disease is of course a rather extreme example of what can happen when we don't take food sources into consideration, but there are also e.coli outbreaks and other unpleasant consequences of mismanaged livestock and feeding programs.  I could write about this all day, but I would bore most of you to tears and I've preached enough.  Our family has decided to make changes in the way we eat, but I feel this is a decision that everyone needs to arrive at at their own pace.  So what changes are we making?  What on earth is this adventure going to require of us?  Let me tell you!


1.  We are removing as much processed food from our diet at possible.  This includes, but is not limited to:  eliminating "junk foods" altogether.  No fast-food.  Possible exceptions for road trips, but we will try to plan for those as well.  We will be making our own bread.   This summer we will be making and canning our own tomato sauces and salsas.  We will be making our own jams and preserves.  We will be making our own chicken and vegetable stocks.  I will probably make some exceptions for favorite condiments, but ALL high fructose corn syrup is out.  ALL artificial sweeteners are out.

2.  We will be buying grass fed beef and pastured animal products.  This includes milk and cheese and yogurt and butter.  Should we feel the need for a sweet fix, this will include ice cream too!

3.  We will be buying as much as we possible can from LOCAL farms and vendors.  We are making exceptions for some international staples and bananas and avocados.

4.  We will be trying our very best to eat by the seasons.  This means gorging ourselves on strawberries and peaches in the summer and possibly letting go of bell peppers in the winter!  The good news is that the fall and winter bring winter greens and winter squash.  Yum!

Our first attempt at roasting a chicken!  The chicken was fabulous.  We definitely burnt the vegetables, though! 

Ivy is excited!

YUM!

Cliff and I feel so very blessed to be living in such a "locavore" paradise.  Charlottesville and the surrounding area boast countless small farms that provide meat and dairy and produce.  We have MULTIPLE wonderful farmers' markets and CSAs available to us.  We are looking forward to really exploring all of the food options we have this coming season.  It would be a crime to bury our heads and ignore the abundance of central Virginia!  Stay tuned as we begin our journey.  Now that I have put it out there we are accountable!!!