Experimenting with New Foods

Part of the going green process seems to be that I need to learn to get comfortable experimenting with new foods and especially with new brands.  I was raised on Jif peanut butter, Pop Tarts, Tide, Bounce, Comet, 409, Pam, Hidden Valley and other mainstream national brands.  I saw a study once that looked at college students' buying habits.  They found that about 87% of college students will buy the exact products that were used in their household even now they are out on their own....a win for giant marketing companies everywhere.  Good job brainwashing future generations! 

I have had a hard time letting go of the brands that I am used to.  Part of the struggle to go green/organic with groceries is that I feel actual anxiety at the grocery store when I try to find a good substitute product for one of my well known brands.  Part of the anxiety is fear of the unknown (what if this doesn't taste as good or work as well as my brand.)  I am also very stingy.  I don't want to throw down 3 or 4 dollars on a new product that might turn out to be disappointing.

My husband and I tend to do better with this exercise when we go together.   Call it "grocery experimentation moral support."  During our field trip to Whole Foods we bought a handful of products that we have never used.

Pom brand pomegranate juice:  I thought this would be the most delicious juice in the world.  It is the nectar of the gods, after all.  Hubby loves it, I HATE it.  It is the most bitter, icky flavor.  I will probably only buy this for the hubby if he asks.

Almond Milk: This was a total impulse purchase.  It seems as though everyone is going away from dairy milk these days.  It just tastes like blended almonds and water but has a disappointingly low level of protein in it (1/8th the amount in the same amount of regular milk).  It's best use is to add it to hot chocolate.  Who doesn't love chocolate with almonds?

365 Brand Fruit Strips: Also an impulse purchase and not tasty at all.  It looked like beef jerky but tasted like I stepped on a few pieces of fruit and then scraped them off my shoe.  I was disappointed at best, and contrary to the label, (Peach) the main ingredient was apple. 

So our first round of food experimentation didn't go great but we'll try, try again.