To the store with Mr. Osum

I try to do most of the shopping for the week in a single trip, which as many of you know is not always easy, since there are few stores that carry every thing a vegan family needs. The main store that I go to is Checkers, a local low price store, which has great prices on vegetables and good variety. They have a fair number of staple items too. Then I usually go to the local coop or one of the other stores in town to fill in the blanks. I like taking Addison because she is a quick and thorough label reader. The store used to cause me a great deal of stress, constantly reading labels to find that there was some animal product in almost everything(especially gelatin in kid stuff and cereal). She is on her way home today so Mr. Osum(Carter) came with me.
Carter is doing a great job of starting to try to read labels, although he was bummed that the chicken noodle soup he was holding had chicken in it. I offered to make him no chicken soup, with alphabet noodles, but he DOES NOT LIKE SOUP!!! The irony!!!



Here is the trunk full of vegan vittles, loaded in pro-vegan-green shopping bags. And yes people stop me all of the time to ask about the bags, which is interesting!!! I like to talk to people about being vegan, and so does Carter. I am happy when I feel that a "vegan" conversation has answered someone's questions about being vegan and left them with a positive impression.


These are the dry goods, there are more beans and tofu out of camera range!!!! I try to buy as few processed foods as possible, but I have to buy some.
Below are the veggies: kale, spinach, limes, lemons, broccoli, romaine, carrots, cauliflower, onions, jalapenos, garlic, potatoes, and red and green peppers.



In the back you can see store brand bread, bread is one of the items that causes me quite a bit of frustration. The kids are like any others... their idea of good bread is soft white and squishy. I prefer something that is crustier. Most of the bread in stores are made at centralized bakeries, and in the past six months have reformulated because of commodity prices earlier in the year. Earlier in the year there were a hand full of breads that were clean, but not after the reformulations. There are very few mainline breads that vegan, milk and honey are the main offenders.
The experience with bread this year has really made me vigilant in reading labels because you never know when they change formulations.
The store trip takes about an hour and a half with some time to prep/wash veggies and put everything away.