Affordable Organic

Through BzzAgent I was recently able to sample some of Ralph's (Kroger) Simple Truth organic products. I try to stick to organic products but the budget is not super compliant as most organic products are redunculously more expensive than their GMO and chemical laden counterparts. I don't do a lot of grocery shopping at Ralph's and hadn't really noticed Simple Truth prior to this sample opp. but subsequently discovered that we actually have some Simple Truth oatmeal in our pantry - I guess I wasn't super observant but you try grocery shopping in the eye of a swirling tornado of ravenous, bottomless pits (also known as my precious angels).

Simple Truth seems to have products in pretty much every grocery category and the prices are quite good for organic. We tried several products: yogurt, bread, an energy tea, and my favorite - a 70% cacao dark chocolate and quinoa bar. I'll make a little confession here, I generally prefer milk chocolate (scandalous I know) but I tend to pick dark chocolate because then I can convince myself that I'm being super healthy whilst wolfing down an entire bar in one sitting. This bar, despite being 70% cacao, didn't have that super bitter, fruity taste that a lot of 70% cacao bars do and the little crunch of quinoa was delightful! I totally intend to purchase more of these chocolate bars in the future.

Can you feel the love?!

While no store-bought bread in the under $4 range is completely in the under 5 ingredient range, this one is pretty good - and at $3.59/loaf, the price is excellent (for organic). In the spirit of true disclosure, I don't like whole wheat bread - there I said it! I was raised on homemade whole wheat bread that was dense, heavy, and dry (my mom tenaciously pretends to love this type of bread) so once I was making my own bread buying decisions, I bought delicious sheep herder and pillowy  potato breads. But then the health fairy whacked me over the head and I've been compelled to only buy whole wheat bread for the last 20 years. Therefore, bread is really just a conduit for whatever thing I'm putting on top of it and I derive no real pleasure from eating the bread itself. With that in mind, I will inform you that this bread was semi-moist and had a mellow flavor with minimal "bird food" on top. My 3 stomachs with legs and their dad seemed to quite enjoy it as it was gone in 2 days. Of course, my 3 stomachs with legs will eat pretty much anything in the house so I don't think that's a fair endorsement.

Yogurt, on the other hand, is something I quite enjoy (although much more so in Pinkberry format) and I found Simple Truth's yogurt to be a nice textured Greek yogurt with a natural fruit filling (no high fructose corn syrup or artificial colors here) but at $1.19/single serving container (actually a very "good" price for organic), we won't be purchasing more of these anytime soon. If you have a money tree though, I would recommend picking yourself up a few of these bad boys.

I will put an end to my rambling/confessions by saying that I am quite grateful to have been introduced to Simple Truth as I feel it will help my in my joint desire to feed my family as healthfully as possible (darn it mom, you rubbed off on me) while still being able to pay our mortgage (now that was dramatic - but true).