There's nothing as scary as grocery shopping

Well, not really, but grocery shopping has certainly changed for us. I used to waltz into the grocery store several times a week, decide on a whim what I wanted to make, quickly grab the ingredients, and be out the door.

Now grocery shopping at one of the major grocery chains is a bit like planning an expedition to a foreign country. Every item is scrutinized. Is it safe? If there's any doubt, it gets left behind. The risk is just too great.

I stand in each aisle for several minutes, reading fine print, comparing products, and often not buying anything. People must think me a bit batty. Labels are my friend, and my arch-nemesis. Does the product comply with the new labelling laws? Was it produced before these went into effect?

Even in the produce aisles, selecting things takes time. After a recent reaction where William had hives and eczema from one of his apples that'd *just* touched one of his dad's, I'm not willing to risk cross-contamination. So unless it's organic and bagged, I'm not buying produce from the major grocery chains.

Thank goodness, however, for the few local health/organic grocers in Saskatoon. I'm a bit more confident buying produce from them (although we just won't talk about the price of organic produce ... it's worth William's safety, and it's not like we can't afford it). Even so, I'm still an unapologetic label reader, but am learning that so long as it's certified organic in Canada, it can't contain sulphites (unless it's wine). Too, we're beginning to find organic brands and items that we like, so the kids know which granola bars, for example, they can pick from.

Many things, however, I've stopped buying completely. The days of buying baked goods in the grocery store are a thing of the past because William's had a reaction to sulphites in molasses. I've managed to find a brand of unsulphited molasses that works for us and doesn't have an huge difference in taste--it's Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Molasses. There's been a lot of experimenting with multigrain bread recipes over the last couple of weeks, and I think I've finally found one that's easy, that doesn't use molasses, and that (most importantly) we all like.

We're slowly adjusting to this new way of doing things, but weekends like this--Canadian Thanksgiving--I look somewhat wistfully at the major grocery chains, where I used to be able to get everything in one fell swoop. This morning, it'll be three or four stops (depending on what's in stock where) to get everything to make Thanksgiving supper ... but the fact that I'll be able to come very close to what we used to make (without even thinking) will be more than worth it.