Adventures In Budget Paleo Cooking – Week of August 25-29

A number of people I know are completely flabbergasted when contemplating sticking to a budget while eating a primarily “paleo” diet. I’m hoping to shed a little light on that issue for those of you on the fence about eating healthfully in this manner – it *can* be done – and done well – without spending all the money. All it takes is a little planning. 

A little background: I live in Brooklyn, NY, and the grocery prices here are definitely not the same as what you will find in other areas of the country. If you live in say, Raleigh NC for example – you may very well be able to cut this grocery bill by a third, depending upon where you shop. For where I live, where I shop and what I buy, $100 a week is a doable budget without having to sacrifice the quality I want too much. My DH thinks $130 is probably more realistic with our morning smoothie supplies, but I want to shoot for $100. I aim to make 4-5 dinners for two and 5 lunches per week, plus two smoothies per day six days of the week with my budgetary allowance and update you all weekly on what’s going on. Let’s see if I can make it. 

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My CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares are going strong, so I will be doing things a little differently with the vegetable portion of my meal planning for the next few months (until October). My share averages out to $25 a week, which will come off the top of my budget allotment and will comprise the bulk of my non-smoothie-related vegetable purchases. If you’re curious to see how I use my CSA veggies up, check out my What To Do With A Box Of Vegetables posts.

Current Box of CSA Veggies

Menu for Last Week (Week of August 18 – 22)

The Plan vs. Reality

This week’s meal planning was decent – I made most of what I wanted to, though I had an off-track night where I ended up eating lunch for dinner.

Monday

• The Plan – Beef keema bowl over lettuce with cilantro and mint chutney
• Reality – Ate leftovers for lunch and a chicken/peach/tomato salad for dinner

Tuesday

• The Plan – Italian sausage, chard and sun-dried tomato stuffed peppers
• Reality – Yum.

Wednesday

• The Plan – Some sort of Asian flare eggplant sauce thing with steaks
• Reality – I did broil the eggplant, but didn’t end up going that direction. I used about half in the keema bowl – which I heavily modified and didn’t end up serving with any sort of chutney or over lettuce.

Thursday

• The Plan – Meat + csa veg.
• Reality – I made chicken thighs with a vaguely asian sauce + a fresh little salad of green pepper & carrot

Friday

• The Plan – Eat out
• Reality – That happened.

Lunches

• The Plan – Salads and leftovers.
• Reality – Salads didn’t really happen, but I ate a lot of leftovers.

Extras

• The Plan – Korean-ish pickles for game night. A tomato & macadamia ricotta tart – which didn’t happen.
• Reality – Delicious

 

This Week: August 25 – 29

I have leftover CSA veggies this week and $75 to spend on groceries. This week’s shopping was all tied up with Saturday’s game night.

This Week’s Proposed Menu

• Saturday Game Night: Korean style pulled pork tacos with dips & veggies & sweet potato chips and ice cream sandwiches for dessert
• Monday: Crock pot pulled pork tacos with peach/basil salsa and some sort of side
• Tuesday: Crock pot pulled pork Mexican style with peppers & onions & sweet potato
• Wednesday: Crock pot pulled pork with chard and leeks
• Thursday: Steaks with CSA veggie (maybe a riff on creamed spinach?)
• Friday: Meat with CSA veggie or dine out
• Lunch: Leftovers. More peaches + tomatoes.
• Extras: Pickles or veggie stock if I have enough leftover. Tomato & macadamia ricotta tart. Zucchini fries.

Shopping List & Cost Breakout

Grocery Store Key: TJ = Trader Joe’s, O = Optional if budget allows

Shopping List

Extras: almonds to possibly make almond milk ($5.99 @ TJs), matcha pop ($3.00 @ WF), worcestershire for a mixed nut flavor the DH wanted to make ($3.69 @ WF), a snack donut while shopping ($3.00 @ WF).

Grand Total TJ: $70.72
Weekly Grocery Total TJ: $62.65
Total WF: $97.62
Weekly Grocery Total WF: $27.20

Total For The Week: $89.85; $14.85 over budget. This is without splitting hairs, either. I could shave off a couple more bucks owing to things I wouldn’t have purchased if it wasn’t for game night, but I’m standing with the overage.

Pantry/items repurposed from last week: fats, spices, CSA veggies, steaks.