As I felt smug whipping up a green smoothy for a fast breakfast, I off-handedly started calculating the prices of the ingredients: two bags of mixed frozen fruit, on super-sale at $2 each -- a packet of acai pulp also on sale, about $1.50 -- a whole bunch of collards, about $2 -- vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom about .50 -- everything organically grown. Add it up and that's an $8 drink! What the freak?! That is more expensive than you'd pay in a restaurant ... I don't get it. Plus I have to invest my own time, get dirty, clean up, invest in an expensive VitaMix, and clean it all up.
I can and do make cheaper variations, but I find that the only way I can realistically make this messy meal (or, God forbid, messy snack!) is by using already chopped fruit or already chopped greens, which of course makes it more expensive. I kicked this puppy out in about 15 minutes all told, and it tasted pretty good, with only the raspberry seeds hurting my teeth.
The worst part was that after only a few hours, my stomach was literally rumbling again.
Could a single mother with two kids really afford to pay $32 every day just for smoothies? I am certain that if the kids were raised on real food, they would have such superior nutrient absorption that a big honkin' smoothy would get them through a morning of school just fine, but that wasn't me.
I guess it just depends on how good the alimony payment is.