I’m not sure if you have looking at the USDA food pyramid lately, but it has undergone some changes since I was a kid. It’s really interesting; you can check it out at http://www.mypyramid.gov/index.html.
I’m not a doctor or a nutritionist, but I am really concerned about portion sizes, meeting my family’s dietary needs and still managing to stay on a grocery budget.
This week, I wanted to look at the dietary needs of fruit and how I manage to buy all that I need. You can go to http://www.mypyramid.gov/mypyramid/index.aspx to check out what each of your family members need on a daily basis.
My numbers are based on myself, my husband, a 10 year old daughter and my 4 year old son. (The baby isn’t on solids yet!).
So for the fruit category, we need a total of 7.5 cups a day and 52.5 cups of fruit intake a week. That’s not as expensive or as hard as it sounds!
For example, here is where you can find items for your fruit category: Fresh fruit, canned fruit, 100% fruit juice, dried and frozen.
Whenever possible, I like to buy fresh fruit, but with rising gas costs – fresh fruit isn’t always the affordable choice.
I like to buy a fruit that is on sale. It’s not always the old stand buy like apples. Oranges
have been pretty expensive and the cutie variety is pretty insane price wise. So this week, I chose the cherries. They were the best sale per price. I also bought a 5 lb. watermelon for $3.88. Another fruit that is usually super affordable per pound is the banana. Even though I bulk at buying them at $0.69 a pound – they are still only $0.69 a pound compared to the $1.99 a pound for apples.
Since there is two cups in every pound, that brings me up to about 14 cups of fruit. Only 38.5 cups to go.
I always buy frozen concentrated OJ, the store bought tastes great. For $1.92 I can make 48 oz of orange juice. One thing to keep in mind regarding fruit juice, is to always look for No Sugar added and 100% juice. Fruit juice is usually high in sugars since it’s in concentrated form and lacks the nutritious fiber in the fruit.
That being said, I want to make sure I have other fruit options in the house. So checking the sales, Dole pineapples in a can are on sale for $1.00. I divided that into ½ cup containers and put in the fridge for easy snacking. Dole fruit containers were on sale for 2 for $4. I also had a coupon that doubled to $1 off. So they came out to $0.38 ½ cup, or serving size. Not bad.
So for $17.00, I met my family’s fruity dietary needs. We have some fruit with dinner on some days, a glass of orange juice for breakfast. Mid afternoon snacks are filled with a fruit choice. Even some goes in my husband’s lunch!
Buying fruit needs to be done with a purpose in mind – when you are going to eat it. What’s for a snack, what’s for desserts and what goes on that morning breakfast cereal? Why? How many times do you buy fruit with the intentions of eating it and it goes bad in your fridge or on the counter? That can be an expensive intention.
When you have a plan – you will use up your fruit. Don’t just throw fruit into your cart because you think it’s healthy. It is healthy. But when you make planned choices and shop the sales, fruit becomes an affordable and positive addition to your weekly menus!
We all know the kids rhyme "Beans beans the musical fruit . . ", well you know the rest. But there is more than one way to make "music" with beans.
