The 20 Groceries That Fed My Whole Family Every Week (The Mexican Way)

That grocery store carries about forty thousand different things, mija. A house runs on about twenty. Everything past those twenty is mostly the same food, taken apart, cooked a little, put in a smaller package with a prettier label, and sold back to you for three and four times what it was. Today I give you my twenty. Not a budget plan you will quit in nine days. This is what actually came into my house every single week when there were seven of us and one paycheck, and for every one of them I tell you exactly which expensive thing it replaces. The 20: 1. Frijoles, dried in the bag, not the can 2. Arroz, the big bag, never the microwave pouches 3. Masa harina, one bag that is tortillas AND gorditas AND sopes AND tamales AND atole 4. Harina, plain flour, which quietly replaces a whole shelf of boxes 5. Huevos 6. A whole chicken, not the tray of breasts, and the bones become caldo 7. Papas 8. Cebolla 9. Ajo, the head, never the jar 10. Zanahorias, whole with the skin, never the baby ones 11. Repollo, the sleeper on this list, a month in the refrigerator 12. Chiles secos, guajillo, ancho and árbol, the item that replaces every jarred salsa and every packet 13. Jitomate, fresh when cheap, the big plain can when not 14. Limones 15. Cilantro 16. Leche 17. Queso fresco, or any cheese, in a BLOCK 18. Manteca or one good oil, pick one 19. Avena, the canister, not the little sweetened packets 20. Sal and a small handful of spices, the only thing on the list that is not food, and the one that saves you the most Also in this video: · The honest word about the consomé cube that nobody else in this lane will say out loud · Why the plain flour is at your feet and the mix is at your eye · What the food business means when it says "value added" · The swap-just-THREE method, because the big overhaul never lasts and you know it never lasts