Are your taste buds sabotaging your budget? Sometimes our bodied are just used to expensive food even when it is not good tasting or good for you. I’ve been sharing one example of how you can change your palate to one that is better for your body and for your budget.
When we last left off, I was talking about how much I was looking forward to eating a food that was a favorite a year and a half earlier. If you missed the first article, click here: The Frugal Palate Phenomena
Let’s continue…
You know what? I couldn’t stomach it. As much as I hate wasting food, I wound up eating less than half of it before tossing it out. What happened? This was the pot pie we so enjoyed. This time around, I found the crusty very heavy and greasy. It had a slimy mouth feel. The sauce was tasty, but it had too much salt. And the vegetables had gone missing. That is, there was probably about a quarter of the number of vegetables I usually put in to a pot pie. The chicken was chewy.
The problem was, I realized, was not that Pepperidge Farm had changed their formula, but that my pallet had greatly changed in the last year. My taste buds were expecting something more: a flaky crust, a well-seasoned sauce, and a burst of harmonizing vegetables that they usually get when I make a pot pie from scratch, using mostly left over and frugal ingredients. I had essentially trained my palate to accept the home made over the store bought. It didn’t want to go back.
I am by no means an expert pot pie maker. The crust still gives me some trouble, for example, and I experiment with different recipes. But the point is that you can train your palate to expect home cooked food. And that food is generally much less expensive.
I offer this advice to anyone who has a family that only eats fast food or frozen meals. One friend of mine says her husband will only eat a certain brand of white bread. This is a shame, considering the benefits of home made grain bread both to the body and the budget. She also can’t even buy this bread in bulk or on sale and freeze it for later, because he might notice the difference (if you thaw commercial bread properly, there doesn’t seem to be a difference to me). His pallet has come to expect overpriced and expensive bread that contains a loaf full of preservatives. Anything else just doesn’t taste right to him.
Check back later today when I offer some tips on adapting your family’s palate toward less expensive food.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
Related Articles:
Make Your Breadmaker Work for You
How Much Does It Cost to Eat at Home?