Visiting Orlando, Part 1: Where to Buy Groceries

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My first Trader Joe's receipt in six weeks. Wait, why are there nachos on my beautiful grocery memento? Cool Dad!

Over Christmas, we spent five weeks in Orlando (my hometown)
with friends and different extensions of the Cool Fam. When planning our trip, my first concern was food of course! What would I do without my beloved Trader Joe’s?

The six-week TJ’s Break turned out to be a good thing. Prices were so high for organic food in Florida that I began to eat less overall. I also ate a lot more organic bulk-bin dry beans, for better or for worse. Between that and the miles of wandering around Whole Foods not knowing where anything was, I got into better shape!

In all seriousness, if you find yourselves TJ-less, you can start with a list like this to see where to buy what. Luckily my weekly shopping list has become pretty simple after learning about GMOs, BPA in cans, produce with the highest pesticide levels, and gluten.

Publix

• Grass-fed beef
• Conventional bananas
• Conventional avocados
• Organic celery
• Organic carrots

Costco

• Organic frozen raspberries
• Organic frozen blueberries
• Organic frozen mixed vegetables
• Organic quinoa
• Organic 21-spice mixture (highly recommended)

They also had an interesting and expensive package of organic beef that showed a cow grazing on grass but the meat inside was not actually grass-fed. Boo. I am spoiled by TJ’s.

Whole Foods Market

• Organic frozen vegetables: Mediterranean mix, broccoli/carrot/cauliflower mix, chopped spinach
• Organic free range eggs
• Organic frozen chicken
• Organic whole plain yogurt (Seven Stars farm) without thickeners
• Various bulk bins for nuts, beans, quinoa, oats, and dried dates
• Canned (but bpa-free Native Forest) organic coconut milk
• Cheese from grass-fed cows!!! (only one brand available even here)
• Unsweetened dried coconut

Various farmers markets

• Random things like organic parsnips or kale

Overall, I was disappointed that many vendors did not offer pesticide-free items. If I lived in Orlando, I would try the Homegrown Co-op, where you can order local produce online and pick it up at the store.

In Part 2, I’ll talk about the places where the cool people hang out in Orlando. Clue: they aren’t taking pictures with Pluto and Minnie.

Related posts:

1. Why I’m Learning to Like Red Meat
2. Cool Baby Food Part II: Organic or not?
3. First Time Cooking a Whole Chicken — A Spiritual Experience!
4. Super-Healthy Decadent Sugar-Free Dairy-Free Ice Cream in Five Minutes!
5. The rest of our NYC story: How we got from there to here, Part 2