Gastography

This Week’s Menu

Monday

Breakfast: Green smoothies

Lunch: Leftovers from last week

Dinner: Thai basil beef with cauliflower rice

Tuesday

Breakfast: Green smoothies

Lunch: Leftovers from last night

Dinner: A riff on Belgian drunk food involving Italian sausage, beet pickled fennel, sweet potato hash, and sriracha mayo (recipe coming soon)

Wednesday

Breakfast: Green smoothies

Lunch: Delivery due to poor planning – I ordered a grilled split chicken large enough for 4 lunches and a side of sweet potato fries

Dinner: Avocado Chicken Burgers with sautéed broccoli and onions

Thursday

Breakfast: Green smoothies

Lunch: Grilled chicken

Dinner: Tonight’s dinner was supposed to be a green bean/chicken/bacon/avocado bowl, but the hubbs felt duped last night when I said ‘burgers’ and they weren’t of the beef variety. Luckily, I keep ground beef on hand for just such an occasion. Beef burgers it was – with sunchokes

Friday

Breakfast: Green smoothies

Lunch: Grilled chicken

Dinner: Out

Saturday

Breakfast: Grabbed a bar out

Lunch:

Dinner: Game night party – beer-braised brisket with paleo crepes & buns for those eating bread, plus lemon curd with paleo lemon poppyseed bread for dessert

Sunday

Breakfast: Out

Lunch: Out

Dinner: Delivery

 

This Week’s Grocery List

Hot Italian sausage, 1 lb. ($5.99 @ Amazon Fresh)
Carrots, 1 lb. ($1.29 @ Amazon Fresh)
Kerrygold unsalted butter, 8 oz. ($4.99 @ Amazon Fresh)
Green beans, 1 lb. ($1.69 @ Amazon Fresh)
Scallions ($0.92 @ Amazon Fresh)
Just BARE no antibiotics boneless skinless chicken thighs, 20 oz. ($5.49 @ Amazon Fresh)
Meal Mart Kosher Brisket, 1.5 lbs. x2 ($44.98 @ Amazon Fresh)
Fennel ($1.99 @ Amazon Fresh)
Pasture raised eggs, 12 ($4.49 @ Amazon Fresh)
Broccoli, 1 bunch ($2.50 @ Amazon Fresh)
Applegate Naturals bacon, 8 oz. ($4.59 @ Amazon Fresh)
Organic air chilled ground chicken, 1 lb. ($7.99 @ Amazon Fresh)
Grass fed ground beef, 1 lb. ($9.99 @ Amazon Fresh)
1 head cauliflower ($2.34 @ Amazon Fresh)
1 yellow onion ($1.18 @ Amazon Fresh)
Poland Spring sparkling water, 6-pack of 16.9 ounce bottles ($2.99 @ Amazon Fresh)
Gotham Greens basil, 1 ounce ($4.49 @ Amazon Fresh)
Reynolds aluminum foil, 75 sq. ft. ($2.99 @ Amazon Fresh)
Sunchokes ($9.34 @ Whole Foods)
Mixed Nuts ($7.99 @ Whole Foods)
Pistachios ($8.99 @ Whole Foods)

Smoothie Supplies

4 Apples ($3.16 @ Amazon Fresh)
3 lbs. mixed lemons and limes ($7.04 @ Amazon Fresh)
4 Avocados ($4.49 @ Amazon Fresh)
Bagged kale, 1 lb. ($2.99 @ Whole Foods)
Bagged spinach ($2.99 @ Whole Foods)

 

Totals

Amazon Fresh: $130.12
Whole Foods: $32.30

 

Budget Breakout

This week, I spent $162.42; $62.42 over budget. Aaaaaaand there goes my surplus for the month. This week, I needed extra supplies for a party I’m hosting on Saturday, so things got a little expensive. And we needed snacks. Plus I impulse bought $10 worth of sunchokes because I thought I needed another side.

Leftovers From This Week

At the end of the week, I have carrots, some rapidly aging celery, a few sweet potatoes, Italian sausage, chicken and ground beef left over. I need to incorporate these items into my menu for next week.

—

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. 

This Week’s Menu

Monday

Breakfast: Boo. The DH was up and out the door before groceries were delivered, so no smoothies. I made paleo pancakes (the kind with sunflower seed butter + banana + egg) instead

Lunch: I was still so full from breakfast I skipped lunch

Dinner:

Tuesday

Breakfast: Green smoothies

Lunch: Leftover kalua pork & cabbage

Dinner: More cabbage! This time broiled with an almond/sesame/pistachio sauce. Served with pork chops

Wednesday

Breakfast: Green smoothies

Lunch: The last of the leftover kalua pork & cabbage

Dinner: Pork chops again – this time with a guajillo beet puree (coming soon)

Thursday

Breakfast: Green smoothies

Lunch: Different cabbage (leftovers from the sauced cabbage from Tuesday) + a leftover pork chop

Dinner: Honey Chipotle Turkey Meatballs with roasted brussels sprouts – note: not the DH’s favorite flavor profile.

Friday

Breakfast: Green smoothies

Lunch: Leftover sauced cabbage + leftover turkey meatballs

Dinner: In protest of the snow, we stayed in

Sunday

Breakfast: Out

Lunch: Out

Dinner: I had planned on making burgers, but we ordered delivery instead.

This Week’s Grocery List

Ground turkey, 1 lb. ($5.99 @Amazon Fresh)
Broccoli crowns, 1 lb. ($1.78 @Amazon Fresh)
Pat LaFrieda Grass Fed London Broil, 1 lb. ($11.99 @Amazon Fresh) – and it came this week!
Brussels sprouts, 1 lb. ($2.50 @Amazon Fresh) – Yes, brussels sprouts again. What can I say? They’re my favorite and sprouts season is waning.
Beets, 2 lb. ($2.98 @Amazon Fresh)
Embasa chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, 7 oz. ($1.38 @Amazon Fresh)
Chock Full o’Nuts Coffee, 11.3 oz. ($3.98 @Amazon Fresh)
Guajillo chile pods, 2.25 oz. ($1.41 @Amazon Fresh)

Smoothie Supplies

Ginger, 8 oz. ($1.99 @Amazon Fresh)
Zico Natural coconut water, 1 liter ($3.50 @Amazon Fresh)
5 Apples ($3.95 @Amazon Fresh)
1 Avocado ($2.00 @Amazon Fresh)
Satur Farms kale, 5 oz. (x2) ($6.98 @Amazon Fresh)
Satur Farms spinach, 5 oz. ($3.49 @Amazon Fresh)
Limes ($3 @Brooklyn Fare)

Totals

Amazon Fresh: $37.92

Brooklyn Fare: $3

Budget Breakout

This week, I spent $40.92; $59.08 under budget. Whoa. This week was waaaaay under budget, thanks to having extra meat on hand – and a credit from last week’s London Broil mixup. I’m happy to report that we got the London Broil we ordered this week. But, I’m still bummed that the bagged kale we like was still not in stock. I wish they’d straighten out whatever is up with Taylor Farms – or suspend listing their items from the site and find another vendor. Satur Farms veggies are great, but they’re a: more expensive, and b: come in inconvenient clamshell packaging that takes my whole fridge up. While we’re on the complaint train, I’d also like it if the website – and especially the app – were easier to browse shop from. Fresh Direct has a fantastic app/website that allows you to browse by aisle — which comes in handy when you know you need a vegetable side dish, but you have no idea what you want. I’d like to be able to browse by what’s best in season and what is on sale. /end complaint. Ok, 1 more complaint: why on Earth do they only sell broccoli crowns? I miss my broccoli stalks!

Leftovers From This Week

At the end of the week, I have a few jalapeños, ground beef, and some wilty celery left over. I need to incorporate these items into my menu for next week.

—

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.