Adventures In Budget Paleo Cooking – Week of September 22 – 26

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 15 – 19)

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 – Steaks with corn on the cob
• Reality – Uncured beef hotdogs with sauerkraut and corn on the cob

Tuesday

• The Plan – Stuffed peppers with Italian sausage, fresh roasted tomatoes, roasted eggplant and kale
• Reality – Yum. This was a great meal.

Wednesday

• The Plan – Corn and goat cheese stuffed peppers with some sort of meat
• Reality – I didn’t stuff the peppers, but this was still tasty. served with flank steak.

Thursday

• The Plan – Eggplant fries with burgers.
• Reality – The eggplant fries were less than successful (though still entirely edible), and the burgers were delicious as usual.

Friday

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

Lunches

• The Plan – Leftovers.
• Reality – Had a bunch of leftovers.

Extras

• The Plan – Nothing planned but almond milk.
• Reality – The almond milk turned out awesome. More on that soon!

This Week: September 22 – 26

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

This Week’s Proposed Menu

• Monday: Chicken stir-fry with bok choy, carrots, eggplant, pepper and kale
• Tuesday: Green curry meatballs
• Wednesday: Burgers & corn on the cob
• Thursday: Something quick
• Friday: Meat with CSA veggie or dine out
• Lunch: Leftovers.
• Extras: Almond milk & maybe chocolate cookies

Shopping List & Cost Breakout

Grocery Store Key: FD = Fresh Direct

Shopping List

Extras: Dry aged beef burgers ($13.49 for 4), pistachios ($9.99 for 10 ounces).

Total FD: $74.62

Total For The Week: $74.62; $.38 under budget. I had planned a big recipe meal for this week (green curry pork meatballs), but ended up choosing convenience over budget with my grocery shopping; so I couldn’t make it happen. Plus, Fresh direct didn’t have half the specialty ingredients I needed. No big deal; I will just get creative. Plus, I now have even more extra meat. Score!

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