Biking for Groceries

I am not sure how many times I have come home from the store and told Tracy, "I will never let this happen again!" When I said it this past week, he commented, "Do you realize that you say that every time you go?" I confess that I have an issue with buying more than I can legitimately carry! And....far too often!

This particular time I came home with just over 69 Euros worth of food. I struggled to be able to balance my bike with so much weight and was getting an awful lot of looks. I probably looked like a pack-mule. I always know when I'm getting close to my limit and inevitably I have just five or six more things on my list. Who wants to have to make a second trip for just that little bit of food? Not me. So suffer the consequences, right?

Just yesterday (one day in mid March as I didn't post this before going to Italy), I beat that 69 Euro record....76 Euros now. And I have committed to NOT do that again. I had to buy an extra bag at the check-out and actually couldn't even ride home yesterday. I had two bags hanging off of each handle-bar, a Trader Joe's bag in my basket and a full backpack. I must say that I could get a job packing groceries when we return to the states. That being said, I'd probably pack the bags at a good 30 pounds a piece! I've decided that if I haven't learned my lesson yet, I probably won't seeing as we have just over three months left. The up-side of it all is that I don't have to go to the store again until Monday! I think I'm going to enjoy only having to go to the store once or twice a week rather than just about every day. Another up-side is that we haven't thrown any food out this year because nothing goes bad. I always know what I have in my kitchen.

Might not look like much, but it sure was heavy!

Once unpacked, it really was quite a load.

Milk is sold in 1 Liter sizes. I look a little ridiculous at the
check-out with six to ten of these! I am really looking
forward to buying it by the gallon again.

Chocolate chips are not sold in Germany. The boys still
want them in things like banana bread (thanks to Aunt
Janet!) so I buy a chocolate bar and cut it up into "chips."

We love Mexican. Rather....we love cilantro! So I end up
making Mexican basically any time that I can find
Koriander for sale. It was quite sparse throughout the winter.

The refrigerator section is quite different in Germany. The beef section is
one little set of shelves, the pork section goes on for miles and then the chicken
and turkey have a shelving area about double the beef. We asked a friend
why there is so much more pork than beef. "Pigs are cheaper to raise
than cows." Good answer! Makes sense. Still, do enjoy Rinder-Hackfleisch.

I included this photo of oatmeal because it has taken me
so long to get used to having to buy items in smaller
quantities. Because many people walk or bike here, the
food is sold in smaller packages. Also, it is very common
for couples to have just one child, if any. Feeding a
family of six is not typical. So lots of little packages of
oatmeal (or anything for that matter) it is.

Mexican is not common at all here so I have really missed
easily being able to find ingredients for good Mexican.
Thankfully, they do at least have tortilla chips!

Eggs are sold in sixes or tens, not by the dozen. I even saw a place where
I could buy just two eggs. Also, eggs are not all that often refrigerated in
the stores. I've heard that many don't put them in their refrigerators at home
either. And for most people, their refrigerators are more like dorm size so that
makes perfect sense. Eggs stay fresh a lot longer than people give them
credit for - at least 10 days without any problems.

I don't have a photo of the butter, but it does not come in sticks. Rather it is sold as a 250 gram block, which is almost two sticks. I rarely can remember the conversion without looking it up so am constantly on the iPad converting grams to pounds, grams to tablespoons, grams to cups....that is one more thing I look forward to in returning home. Going to the store will require a lot less thinking! It's crazy to me that because I was raised in the states, I can easily look at a quantity and guesstimate how many cups there are. I can't look at it here though and give any kind of attempt at guessing how much there is to 800 grams of bananas. Standardizing the world's units of measuring would be a whole lot easier!