Seven Sons

First of all, I have to say that a lightbulb makes a great cake. Just don’t get your fingers caught in the oven.

My daughter's Easy-Bake oven cakes

Yesterday there was an article on the NPR show Day to Day about a woman who has just published a 99¢-store cookbook. She buys ingredients at the discount store, mostly canned vegetables and packaged foods like Pillsbury buscuits, and turns out delectable dishes. She imagines that in this down economy there is a real market for a book that teaches people how to cook economically, and she is probably right. But while the reporter was charitably impressed by the woman and her food, I spent the entire article thinking how sad it must be to have to rely on a discount chain store with its dented cans rolling around under stuttering fluorescent bulbs for the components of your daily meal.

If you don’t troll around food blogging sites like I do, where these concepts are preached to the choir on a regular basis, tape these simple rules to your hemp-sack shopping bags:

• Learn to cook.
• Shop with a list.
• Buy in season.
• Eat less meat.

There you go. Four simple discount chain store avoidance strategies for a down economy.

Honestly I was going to include the “shop the perimeter” rule but Dina here makes a good point. You can’t usually get rice, flour, beans, nuts and other staples on the outer edge of your grocery store. But while you might hit up the baking aisle on a regular basis, allocating most of your shopping time to the produce section is a good habit to develop.