Gastography

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.

Last Week (Week of July 7 – 11)

The Plan vs. Reality

This week’s meal planning was efficient – I ended up making pretty much what I set out to make.

Monday

• The Plan – Zoodles with roasted beets, dill + horseradish vinaigrette, chevre and chicken
• Reality – This was delicious.

Tuesday

• The Plan – Roasted beets and beet greens with grapefruit and pistachio butter & pulled pork
• Reality – The pistachio butter didn’t happen, so I subbed almond butter – and I threw zucchini in with the beets. This was also a delicious dinner.

Wednesday

• The Plan – Sausages with turnip “potato” salad
• Reality – This turned into a franken notato salad and was fabulous. Recipe coming soon for this one.

Thursday

• The Plan – New CSA veggies with leftover pork
• Reality – I did pork with zucchini diced and cooked in butter. Yum.

Friday

• The Plan – New CSA veggie with leftover pork if we don’t eat out
• Reality – We ended up eating out.

Lunches

• The Plan – Some sort of salad and lots of beet and zucchini leftovers
• Reality – Yum. I ended up making more of that dill + horseradish vinaigrette and eating that on pretty much everything last week. Delicious.

Extras

• The Plan – Nothing.
• Reality – Nothing made.

This Week: July 14 – 18

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

This Week’s Proposed Menu

• Monday: Zoodles with coconut, ground poultry, kale & garlic scapes
• Tuesday: Zucchini and meatballs
• Wednesday: Zoodles with avocado cream sauce, chicken & spring garlic
• Thursday: Meat with CSA veggie
• Friday: Meat with CSA veggie
• Lunch: CSA veg salads, leftovers
• Extras: None planned

Shopping List & Cost Breakout

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

Shopping List

Extras: I had enough leftover, so the hubbs got a snack – pistachios ($7.49) and I got coffee ($4.99).

Total TJ: $69.09

Total For The Week: $69.09; $5.91 under budget. Whoo hoo! I love the weeks when it’s easy to come in under budget.

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

This year’s CSA is from Paisley Farm, a 25-acre operation located in Tivoli, NY. Paisley Farm grows organically and plants with the chef in mind. The 22-week CSA runs from June – October and I purchased the standard vegetable share. This share includes 8-9 vegetables and herbs per week (8-12 pounds) – enough to provide a family of three with 3-4 dinners’ worth of veg. The price equals out to $25 per week, the cost of which will be calculated in my weekly Adventures In Budget Paleo Cooking posts.

Ignore the pretty labeling in the picture – oops! – this is actually Box 5 and I, apparently, cannot count

Paisley Farm 2014 CSA Box 5

Leftover From Last Week

Carrots (non-CSA)

Spring onions

Garlic scapes

Beets

How I Used My Share

I roasted most of the beets and used them in a zoodle dish with a dill + horseradish vinaigrette, chevre and chicken

I used another big helping of beets (and the rest of the squash) in a roasted beet/grapefruit dish with almond butter, beet greens and pulled pork

And I ate 1 beet raw in a salad and 1 beet roasted in a salad

Most of the lettuce was used up in lunch salads

I’ve been using spring onions in everything – and am finally down to 1 manageable bunch

I will be using the turnips tonight in a faux potato salad

I used the mint in herbed lemonade and a cherry/honey jack drink

My Favorite Dish From This Box

The zoodle/beet/horseradish dill sauce/chevre/chicken dinner. That was pretty great, though almond butter drizzled on top of beet greens sauteed in grapefruit juice was pretty great too.

Going into next week, I have turnip greens, kale, spring onions, 2 bunches of garlic scapes, a slack salad worth of lettuce, and those damn carrots I keep forgetting about. And a smidge of the chocolate mint, which just might have to go to waste – it’s looking a little sad.