Muy Bien

Lucy has decided she is done with baby food.

Every once in a while we can trick her into eating the cereal and some fruit, if we put her in her high chair without the tray and we don't eat or drink any 'normal' food around her. It's almost like she has a sixth sense for big people food. She knows what it is, where we keep it, and now she will accept nothing less than the real thing.

It's kind of a pain in the rear to have to chop everything into bite size portions. I'm spoiled by the older kids and their ability to eat it whole or cut it themselves. I have to chop everything for her, blueberries, bananas, raisins. Try cutting raisins into quarters...no fun.

Anyhoo...now that she is eating with us I have to make sure we always have a variety of fresh produce on hand. Finding a grocer where you can get good stuff at a great price is tricky, but I think I may have done it.

For weeks my parents have been going over to a small Supermercado in Waukegan and raving about the variety of produce and low prices. After driving past the huge yellow signs advertising unbelievable prices, they stopped in and have made it a weekly grocery destination.

So I checked it out.

The prices were incredible, the selection was massive. Here is some of what I got:

Apricots $1.5o a lb., $1.50 cantaloupe, nectarines $1.50 a lb., plums $.98 a lb., green peppers $1.50 a lb., red peppers $.89 a lb., $.50 pints of strawberries, $.99 pack of blueberries (which was twice the size of the one I bought last time at Jewel), kiwi 5 for $1, tomatoes $.60 a lb., limes 10 for $1, whole pineapple for $.99, (enormous) jalapeno peppers $.99 a lb, huge heads of romaine lettuce for $.99.

I got it all and then some for under $35. They had mountains of stuff, all of it looked wonderful. I was in veggie heaven.

But it all came with another sort of price to pay.

Being a supermercado it is not located in the 'upper scale' neighborhoods we usually shop in. I'm spoiled by the comfort of the northern 'burbs and the security of joining the flocks of privileged shoppers at the local Jewel. This new little gem is located in an area where the strip mall has been shut down, people use public transit out of necessity, and LINK cards are more common than Visa. I had to pay a refundable quarter to rent a cart and was cornered by a hungry homeless woman as I left the store. (Being an ex-social services worker, I gave her a banana and the name of a nearby food pantry. Old habits die hard.)

I know for some people that is enough of a reason to keep on driving, keep on paying the little bit more. But it's not a scary place, just different. The employees were just as helpful, the other shoppers just as courteous. That's more than I can say for some other very large, very cheap grocers I've been to in the past.

*Check out my post on Ky&Co for an easy way to freeze fruit for later*