Gastography

This Week’s Menu

Monday

Breakfast: Green smoothie

Lunch: Leftover rotisserie chicken with leftover broccoli slaw

Dinner: Instant Pot pulled pork with snap pea/cucumber salad

Tuesday

Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs

Lunch: Cucumber & fruit salad with leftover rotisserie chicken

Dinner: Leftover pulled pork with zoodles

Wednesday

Breakfast: Green smoothie

Lunch: Cucumber & fruit salad with the last of the leftover rotisserie chicken

Dinner: Sweet pork sausage, potato, corn & zucchini hash with egg

Thursday

Breakfast: Green smoothie

Lunch: Plum & peach salsa salad with pulled pork

Dinner: Chicken breast with zucchini mashed potatoes

Friday

Breakfast: Green smoothie

Lunch: Plum & peach salsa salad with pulled pork

Dinner: Out

Sunday

Breakfast: Out

Lunch: Out

Dinner: Out

 

This Week’s Grocery List

Boneless pork butt, 4 lbs. ($20.33 @ Whole Foods)
Almond milk ($3.69 @ Whole Foods)
Lemons (3) ($2.67 @ Whole Foods)
Red chilis ($1.05 @ Whole Foods)
Tomatoes ($6.04 @ Whole Foods)

Smoothie Supplies

Ginger ($1.16 @ Whole Foods)
5 Apples ($5.67 @ Whole Foods)
5 limes ($3.75 @ Whole Foods)
Bag of 4 small + 1 extra avocados ($5.99 + $2.79 @ Whole Foods)
Bagged kale (1 lb.) ($2.99 @ Whole Foods)
Bagged spinach ($3.99 @ Whole Foods)
Fresh turmeric ($0.96 @ Whole Foods)

Impulse Buys

Daikon kimchee ($7.99 @ Whole Foods)

Totals

Carryover from last week: +$25.17
CSA veggies: $25.50
CSA meat: $44.29
Whole Foods: $68.97

Budget Breakout

This week, I spent $138.58; $13.41 over budget. Not bad, considering $8 of that was expensive impulse kimchee, and I bought enough pork to last for more than a week.

 

Leftovers From This Week

At the end of the week, I have some CSA veggies and meats – enough for almost a week – left over. I need to incorporate these items into my menu for next week, and shouldn’t need to buy too much in the way of groceries.

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Think eating healthfully is too expensive for you? Think again. According to the USDA, to ensure a nutritious diet as of December 2014, a family of two aged 19-59 years should spend between $388.90 and $776.10 on food per month, or $89.80 – $179.30 per week. Source 

For my family of two adults, I spend roughly $400 a month on groceries or $100 a week – and we eat well. Not caviar and lobster well, but I do manage to serve a predominately paleo diet with little to no processed foods, and I get to throw in a few luxuries here and there (like expensive snacks for the hubbs and the occasional ridiculously expensive bag of coffee). We even manage to buy “good” meat (grass fed beef and free-range chicken) most of the time – and I make this budget work even on the weeks we pay for convenience by getting delivery groceries. I make: 10 breakfasts, 5 lunches, and 10 dinners a week – plus enough snacks to satisfy and fuel two active adults.

I’m hoping that this series will help shed a little light on the day-to-day things a “paleo” person really eats — and how that way of eating can work on a budget. I want to nudge anyone sitting on the fence right over the edge by showing that it *can* be done and that you don’t just eat meat, meat, meat and more meat.