Any "real"/traditionally nourished (or paleo) foodies in here?

[cmarsh31]

Yes, it took years to get here and a while to train myself how to cook this way

[Havah]

Well, I'm feeling better. Technically we have a family of 5 (though only 4 routinely eat solids) and I'm trying to keep our budget under $600. In the Pacific Northwest (fairly high cost of living, though not as bad as CA), it's no easy feat.

I know someone mentioned to avoid salad dressings and pancake (or other mixes) - I'm already there. When I said "scratch", I meant scratch. I even make my own stock (I buy whole chickens and stretch them three meals plus generate 2 quarts of stock from each carcass).
We also bought 1/4 free-range beef (split a side with my parents), so that's done. I'm lucky - my mom supplies 50-75% of my eggs for free with her hens. And we do a lot of vegetarian (generally we do only 4-5 meat-inclusive meals a week).

Largely it's the dairy (particularly yogurt) that's killing us. We really only like ***e. I'm trying to culture my own, but we don't keep the house above 68 degrees and it's not the easiest process (raising the house temp would be counter-productive in the thrifty venue).

I'll have to revisit Azure Standard. I'm currently buying a lot of my "shelf-stable" goods from Amazon and Vitacost; supplemented with Costco and Trader Joe's when it's worthwhile. I want to do a CSA but it's been difficult comparing the overall costs ... ? Not sure what I'd do with a lb of radishes each week (seriously!), either. Thanks for chiming in, everyone!

[ctj101502]

We try our best buy still have grains in our diet. I don't make breads as often as before, used to be daily. But we east oatmeal every morning and lots of rice. Though our rice is organic brown. Also quinoa along with smoothies everyday. We eat meat maybe 2x a week, deer right now. Nearly everything is scratch, not scratch is organic spaghetti sauce, and pancakes till this month. Going back to scratch on those now. We east day to many nuts, they use up lots of our budget. I just bought 25lbs or organic red beans, they will last the month and were regular prices 37$. I think this is a great deal when you think of how little meat we buy. Though our bacon is costly since dh wants it for breakfast everyday and I refuse to feed him anything but Coleman bacon. Wait, just realized I bought organic tortilla chips. We eat them w. Leftover chili on top every week after our chili night.
Oh and I buy bananas and cuties like they are going out of style, they don't need to be organic and are cheap, so these are also big staples here... plus chia/flax/spinach/bananas/honey/keifer smoothies every morning

[pgkcb13]

Originally Posted by Havah Well, I'm feeling better. Technically we have a family of 5 (though only 4 routinely eat solids) and I'm trying to keep our budget under $600. In the Pacific Northwest (fairly high cost of living, though not as bad as CA), it's no easy feat. I know someone mentioned to avoid salad dressings and pancake (or other mixes) - I'm already there. When I said "scratch", I meant scratch. I even make my own stock (I buy whole chickens and stretch them three meals plus generate 2 quarts of stock from each carcass). We also bought 1/4 free-range beef (split a side with my parents), so that's done. I'm lucky - my mom supplies 50-75% of my eggs for free with her hens. And we do a lot of vegetarian (generally we do only 4-5 meat-inclusive meals a week). Largely it's the dairy (particularly yogurt) that's killing us. We really only like ***e. I'm trying to culture my own, but we don't keep the house above 68 degrees and it's not the easiest process (raising the house temp would be counter-productive in the thrifty venue). I'll have to revisit Azure Standard. I'm currently buying a lot of my "shelf-stable" goods from Amazon and Vitacost; supplemented with Costco and Trader Joe's when it's worthwhile. I want to do a CSA but it's been difficult comparing the overall costs ... ? Not sure what I'd do with a lb of radishes each week (seriously!), either. Thanks for chiming in, everyone!

We have 4 eaters and a budget of $600 too. You're right, in our area that's not easy at all. We do use Azure, and we adore our CSA. It does help with cost and I actually love getting things I wouldn't normally buy, it pushes me to try new things (btw we do a hot salad with radish and green beans with honey and garlic... it's amazing). A good example is kohlrabi... we didn't know what to do with it but we found a recipe for a kohlrabi slaw that is amazing, and made fries from it. Good stuff. We do the scratch thing too and buy everything we can in bulk. I'd say if your coming in at/around that $600 budget you are doing really well for the high COLA and the way you guys eat

P.S. the other thing we do is buy a ton of extra produce in season and freeze/can/dehydrate like crazy to get us through the off season.

[schmerna]

Originally Posted by pgkcb13 We have 4 eaters and a budget of $600 too. You're right, in our area that's not easy at all. We do use Azure, and we adore our CSA. It does help with cost and I actually love getting things I wouldn't normally buy, it pushes me to try new things (btw we do a hot salad with radish and green beans with honey and garlic... it's amazing). A good example is kohlrabi... we didn't know what to do with it but we found a recipe for a kohlrabi slaw that is amazing, and made fries from it. Good stuff. We do the scratch thing too and buy everything we can in bulk. I'd say if your coming in at/around that $600 budget you are doing really well for the high COLA and the way you guys eat P.S. the other thing we do is buy a ton of extra produce in season and freeze/can/dehydrate like crazy to get us through the off season.

This sounds delicious. Do you have a recipe you would share?

[pgkcb13]

I can't find the website I got it from, it's been a couple years... but here it is:

olive oil
1/2lb radishes
2 cloves garlic
approx 2T honey
S&P to taste

Basically you blanch the green beans and then put the beans, radishes (sliced or quartered) in a pan with garlic (sliced or minced) and heat until they just start to get soft, then take it off the heat and add the honey and S&P.

It's a very forgiving recipe. We usually double it because between the four of us it goes quick

[FernHollow]

I'm in WA and in an area with a high cost of living. It would be WAY cheaper to eat a SAD, but I just won't compromise on that. We did it for a couple months when DH was first laid off and we all felt so terrible. We were previously grain free for health reasons, but now we eat some properly prepared grains daily. It is a compromise I had to make to be able to make sure we had enough food on the table and I'm totally okay with it at this point. I bake EVERYTHING from scratch using my sourdough starter. I use the starter to make pancakes, muffins, crackers, pizza crusts, etc. in addition to our regular bread. We try to keep the starches to a minimum but we do eat some homemade sourdough, rice, oatmeal and a little corn. We only buy organic for the wheat and corn because of GMOs. I do cook pasta maybe once a week, but sometimes swap it out for zucchini or spaghetti squash.

The biggest thing I do to save money is meal plan and make my own broth for soups/stews and homemade kefir/yogurt. We do own dairy goats (they are dry right now though) and chickens...but honestly I don't think they save us any money at all. I find it really helpful to make a list of all the healthy TF type meals and snacks I could make that are naturally inexpensive. Smoothies with frozen fruit and homemade kefir, sandwiches made with homemade sourdough and leftover grassfed meat, eggs cooked in butter any way you can think of, soups and stews made with homemade broth, etc. We have found that the way we feel best and save a lot of money is by filling our plates with tons of SEASONAL fruits and veggies. We spend our money on TONS of produce (as much organic as we can, but not always) and then fill in the gaps with pantry staples (organic wheat flour, rice, honey, coconut oil, etc) and the VERY highest quality animal products we can. I buy good cheeses, pastured butter, eggs from our hens and we only eat pastured beef or chicken. We have been living on a food stamp level budget and honestly it IS completely doable.

[FernHollow]

I'm in WA and in an area with a high cost of living. It would be WAY cheaper to eat a SAD, but I just won't compromise on that. We did it for a couple months when DH was first laid off and we all felt so terrible. We were previously grain free for health reasons, but now we eat some properly prepared grains daily. It is a compromise I had to make to be able to make sure we had enough food on the table and I'm totally okay with it at this point. I bake EVERYTHING from scratch using my sourdough starter. I use the starter to make pancakes, muffins, crackers, pizza crusts, etc. in addition to our regular bread. We try to keep the starches to a minimum but we do eat some homemade sourdough, rice, oatmeal and a little corn. We only buy organic for the wheat and corn because of GMOs. I do cook pasta maybe once a week, but sometimes swap it out for zucchini or spaghetti squash.

The biggest thing I do to save money is meal plan and make my own broth for soups/stews and homemade kefir/yogurt. We do own dairy goats (they are dry right now though) and chickens...but honestly I don't think they save us any money at all. I find it really helpful to make a list of all the healthy TF type meals and snacks I could make that are naturally inexpensive. Smoothies with frozen fruit and homemade kefir, sandwiches made with homemade sourdough and leftover grassfed meat, eggs cooked in butter any way you can think of, soups and stews made with homemade broth, etc. We have found that the way we feel best and save a lot of money is by filling our plates with tons of SEASONAL fruits and veggies. We spend our money on TONS of produce (as much organic as we can, but not always) and then fill in the gaps with pantry staples (organic wheat flour, rice, honey, coconut oil, etc) and the VERY highest quality animal products we can. I buy good cheeses, pastured butter, eggs from our hens and we only eat pastured beef or chicken. We have been living on a food stamp level budget and honestly it IS completely doable.

[Marianna1988]

Originally Posted by FernHollow I'm in WA and in an area with a high cost of living. It would be WAY cheaper to eat a SAD, but I just won't compromise on that. We did it for a couple months when DH was first laid off and we all felt so terrible. We were previously grain free for health reasons, but now we eat some properly prepared grains daily. It is a compromise I had to make to be able to make sure we had enough food on the table and I'm totally okay with it at this point. I bake EVERYTHING from scratch using my sourdough starter. I use the starter to make pancakes, muffins, crackers, pizza crusts, etc. in addition to our regular bread. We try to keep the starches to a minimum but we do eat some homemade sourdough, rice, oatmeal and a little corn. We only buy organic for the wheat and corn because of GMOs. I do cook pasta maybe once a week, but sometimes swap it out for zucchini or spaghetti squash. The biggest thing I do to save money is meal plan and make my own broth for soups/stews and homemade kefir/yogurt. We do own dairy goats (they are dry right now though) and chickens...but honestly I don't think they save us any money at all. I find it really helpful to make a list of all the healthy TF type meals and snacks I could make that are naturally inexpensive. Smoothies with frozen fruit and homemade kefir, sandwiches made with homemade sourdough and leftover grassfed meat, eggs cooked in butter any way you can think of, soups and stews made with homemade broth, etc. We have found that the way we feel best and save a lot of money is by filling our plates with tons of SEASONAL fruits and veggies. We spend our money on TONS of produce (as much organic as we can, but not always) and then fill in the gaps with pantry staples (organic wheat flour, rice, honey, coconut oil, etc) and the VERY highest quality animal products we can. I buy good cheeses, pastured butter, eggs from our hens and we only eat pastured beef or chicken. We have been living on a food stamp level budget and honestly it IS completely doable.

Am I the only person in WA who thinks food prices are reasonable? Lol. But seriously, my friend came to visit, she lived in WY at the time and now lives in Nebraska. Extremely low cost of living (our rent is triple what her house payment is) but our ORGANIC food prices are double her conventional food prices. She was shocked at te price of our produce, dairy, even meat... Then even more shocked when she realized I was getting mostly organics. When we visit my sister in FL (her rent is half of my rent), her Walmart prices were higher than our Fred Meyer prices. Nearly every place we visit around the country has the same price food or higher.

[Marianna1988]

Originally Posted by Marianna1988 Am I the only person in WA who thinks food prices are reasonable? Lol. But seriously, my friend came to visit, she lived in WY at the time and now lives in Nebraska. Extremely low cost of living (our rent is triple what her house payment is) but our ORGANIC food prices are double her conventional food prices. She was shocked at te price of our produce, dairy, even meat... Then even more shocked when she realized I was getting mostly organics. When we visit my sister in FL (her rent is half of my rent), her Walmart prices were higher than our Fred Meyer prices. Nearly every place we visit around the country has the same price food or higher.

Sorry I was talking to my DH while typing this. Lol. Got my train of thought mixed up. I meant she pays double for conventional that I pay for organic. And like the same foods were double or triple what she paid. I bought a container of organic blueberries for $2.50 (not during blueberry season), she said her kids have never really had them because even in blueberry season they are $6+ for a container of non-organic. She wanted some apple crisps, was surprised that they were $1.29 here where she pays $4 a bag. She lived in one of the biggest towns in WY, so it's not like it was little town store jacking up prices or anything. She had more stores to choose from than I do lol.