There we were yesterday evening, my 85-year-old father and I dressed quite casually in sweat pants and worn out polo shirts as we investigated the numerous egg options in the chilled clear-glass cases on the back aisle of the beautiful and ultra-spacious new King Soopers near our home.
“I don’t know what kind you want,” Dad said, surveying the hundreds upon hundreds of white egg containers variously labeled. I knew he was just trying to be helpful. This was his way of affirming, I’ve got this, however expensive they are. I know you won’t buy the cheap ones.
That’s right, Dad. Even though after a Total Loss Divorce years ago and still being pretty much broke, I wasn’t even thinking of buying the cheap eggs that come from chickens stacked in cages living in mass population, pooping on each other and feeding on GMO grain. No, I prefer the chickens that can cruise the open fields and eat naturally occurring bugs and worms. I know it’s actually good for us humans that they like tasty stuff like that.
But I hadn’t bought my healthy free-range eggs at King Soopers before, only at Whole Foods or Sprouts.
“Do you see anything that you like?” he added, his question only sounding idle while I surveyed for my favored kind. This was a subtle but intriguing fact-finding mission he was on. He wanted to see just how much the term healthy implied when it came to my breakfast food.
I didn’t respond, just kept searching.
Don’t misunderstand. I love, live with, and work in Marketing for, my elderly father. We get along pretty darn good. And believe it or not, he has an exciting startup company about to get into launch mode, but it’s not big enough yet for me to be on full salary and I have to hustle some freelance copywriting/editing work on the side.
Dad most often compensates for that fact by purchasing most of my groceries for me out of his Social Security check and writing royalties. (He’s a semi-famous retired Accounting Professor and CPA who pioneered the online Business Ethics courses required every two years for all CPA’s in their ongoing education program.)
Anyway. I’d let myself run out of — and been sorely missing — my scrambled eggs at breakfast, always and only the love offerings from free pasture chickens sent to Sprouts, where I normally shop now. The last few mornings, I’d quickly become dissatisfied with only having, along with my K-Cup Donut Shop Coffee, just two slices of toasted Dave’s Killer Seed Bread topped with Sprouts Organic Virgin Coconut Oil and Earth Balance Coconut & Peanut Spread.
True. That’s pretty tasty fare. But I missed my eggs.
$2.00? I thought, as I looked at the first 12-count option. That’s too cheap to be good. Then I saw some for $3.00. Nope. $4.00? Still too cheap, I knew. I would only be getting cage-free but GMO grain-fed eggs for that price.
(BTW, if you don’t know yet about what GMO means — genetically modified organisms — as pioneered by Monsanto and proliferated by other companies like them — you need to check it out. Makes me shudder to think what they’ve done to our formerly healthy grains and how the perverted versions harm us now, all for the sake of the mighty buck.)
Anyway…Ah! There they were! Regularly $6.00, on sale for $5.00 with my King Sooper card! They were from the happy egg co. , free range on pasture, raised with care on small family farms. It even said so right there on the carton. Yeah, it said all that in big bold print so guys like me could see it right away.
But I could just imagine Dad calculating in his head. $5.00 for 12 eggs? That’s over 40¢ each! The cheapies are only about 16¢! (After the initial writing of this blog, I’ve found the very same eggs at Walmart for less than $5.00. Super-healthy eggs are catching on in a big way, I guess.)
Meanwhile, I thought to myself, Okay. Two eggs at a little over 40¢ each, that’s right at 85¢. Add two slices of toasted Dave’s Killer Bread, another 60¢ or so. Add in some home grown organic sausage or grilled ground hamburger with Taco Seasoning to mix in with the eggs, about another 75¢. And yes, miscellaneous stuff like butter or coconut oil and jelly or honey, another 35¢.
Grand total, counting 50¢ for my coffee? (Or $1.00 if I need 2 cups some mornings.) About $3.50, or less. Try going to any restaurant, or even a fast food place, hoping for a super-satisfying, protein-fortifying healthy breakfast for that small amount of money.
For instance, I love The Village Inn. However. To get anything close to what I’ve described, plus tip? Almost $10. And it still wouldn’t be nearly as healthy for me.
But I suppose the question is: Am I worth even the $3.50 every morning? Is my body worth that much investment versus, say, a cheap bowl of cereal or a highly processed $1.00 frozen breakfast burrito that I can just microwave in the oven? (Or some frozen pancakes, etc. etc.)
Think about this. What if my healthy breakfast gives me 15 extra minutes of prime concentration power between 8:30 A.M. and Noon. Well, since I make about $50-$75/hour with my professional freelance work, 15 extra minutes is worth $12.50 at minimum. And that doesn’t even address the quality of work I do when my body and brain are fed with wholesome nutrition! My work could literally go from mediocre or merely good to brilliant simply because I’m smart enough to invest in myself at breakfast.
To repeat from my initial blog: I want body, soul, and wallet zest. And I want them working together, feeding each other. That’s what this blog site is all about.
$3.50 for breakfast, plus a little cook work to make it all happen?
You bet.
But then again…to moderate my average daily breakfast cost…I could alternate toast & nut butter days with egg & sausage days…
…and perhaps just limit myself to one cup of delicious Donut House coffee per morning from my wonderful Keurig…
… and maybe drink only lemon or strawberry kombucha or awesome bone broth for the whole morning one day a week…doing something of a half-day liquid fast…
Hmmm! I can get that average daily breakfast cost down to $2.00!
Grand Vitality 