Adventures In Budget Paleo Cooking – Week of September 8 – 12

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 September 1 – 5)

The Plan vs. Reality

This week’s meal planning was decent – I got corn in my CSA box again and decided to use it instead of waste it, even though corn isn’t paleo.

Monday

• The Plan – Labor day – day off + a 5k – eat out
• Reality – I had 1 bell pepper with some leftover eggplant dip for a snack and ate dinner out as planned.

Tuesday

• The Plan – Bunless burgers with sweet potato fries & zucchini fries
• Reality – Yum. I made sweet potato fries for the DH and perfected my zucchini recipe recipe for me.

Wednesday

• The Plan – ??? Ground beef ???
• Reality – We went out to eat with friends tonight. Figured ditching the weekly menu plan for socializing was a good enough reason to do so.

Thursday

• The Plan – Something with eggplant and meat – asiany ground poultry bowl with eggplant puree, carrots, peppers and kale
• Reality – This was good, but I forgot the kale.

Friday

• The Plan – Broiled pork belly with a corn/leek salad and carrot top pesto
• Reality – Delicious. Made a charred corn and leek salad (recipe coming soon) and the pesto was delicious.

Lunches

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

Extras

• The Plan – Broil eggplants and tomatoes so they don’t go bad.
• Reality – I also froze a ton of green peppers so they wouldn’t turn as well.

This Week: September 8 – 12

I have leftover CSA veggies this week and $75 to spend on groceries.

This Week’s Proposed Menu

• Monday: Big meat with corn salady thing with green peppers.
• Tuesday: Collard burrito wraps with peppers, big meat and carrots
• Wednesday: Burgers with corn on the cob and some sort of herb or tomato butter
• Thursday: Stuffed peppers if I get bell peppers in the CSA box
• Friday: Meat with CSA veggie or dine out
• Lunch: Leftovers.
• Extras: None planned.

Shopping List & Cost Breakout

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

Shopping List

Extras: coconut milk ($0.99 @ TJs), almonds ($5.99 @ TJs), pistachios for the DH ($7.49 @ TJs), fruit bar impulse purchase ($0.99 at TJs), ???? something, I’m guessing for the DH, for $7.99 @ TJs – cheese?

Total TJ: $53.56

Total For The Week: $71.00; $4.00 under budget. Woop Woop! Under again.

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