This last week I watched King Corn. It was very fascinating. It’s a genuine eye opener about what Americans ingest and how corn has taken over our diets. I highly recommend it.

Anyways, two things I learned from this movie kinda unnerved me:

– 70% of the antibiotics used in America are used on cattle.

– Americans, on average, only spend 16-17% of their monthly income on food. 50 years ago it was closer to 50+%.

My friend, Dana, recently posted her thoughts on eating more organic. She’s taking baby steps towards using organic meat in her meals once a week.

I like baby steps.

Well, not really.

Really, what I love to do (and Jonathan can attest) is start these really grand wonderful schemes.

And never follow through.

So, in all reality, Jonathan likes baby steps for me.

And so, I like baby steps.

Rather than banish the 40+ pounds of chicken I have frozen in our freezer, I decided to make a list of the products we consume on a regular basis that could easily be substituted.

Here is said list:

potato chips

graham crackers

snack packs (100 calorie packs)

chicken broth

eggs

I went to New Pi to do a little more price matching. I knew the amounts for the eggs (roughly $3.50 for free range organic) but needed a better idea on the other items. Wanna know what? Organic potato chips are $5.99. Organic chicken broth – $3.99. Ye-ow!

But, really, if I step back and think about it, I’m use to only spending approximately 16-17% of my income on food. So, I need to change my expectations… and start experimenting.

Which leads me to my newest adventure:

potato chips

I borrowed a mandolin from Ambre and sliced up 3 potatoes. I did them in different sizes (1/4″, 1/8″, 1/4″ ruffled) to get an idea of what might work best. I covered them with a tad amount of EVOO and salt and baked them. So far, the only ones that came out crispy like a chip were the 1/4″. The other two were just french fries in a chip form. I think it might be because I had a smaller amount of the 1/4″, so they were spread out and given a better chance of baking without getting soggy. They turned out really tasty and chip like. Julia and I ate them all. So, clearly, no complaints. 😉 I’m gonna practice a little more tomorrow and this weekend. I’m hoping to find the perfect potato chip so we can start substituting as soon as our current bag runs out.

My second adventure was making homemade chicken broth. I’ve done this once in the past, but it didn’t turn out nearly as good.

This time I used the bones from a chicken we purchased at New Pi. I followed a trusted recipe and got 80+ ounces. I refrigerated most of it, since I will be using it next week in two soups. But I also froze two ice cube trays full, in order to have it on hand when needed in the future.

I’m kinda proud of myself. I felt all pioneer-y and susie-home-baker.

Next week I plan on tackling the graham crackers.