R
Ridgerunner
Guest
My wife does all the food shopping (nearly) so I’m not sure I can be too helpful. But I can say a couple of things.How on earth can you afford healthy food if you are on a budget? I mean, healthy food is SO MUCH MORE expensive. The prices of fresh produce are through the roof, so are whole grain bread and pasta alternatives. Fresh lean meat, forget it. We do well sometimes to afford milk, which can be almost $4 a gallon at times. Yeah, government and the medical world say to eat healthy, do they give us the money to do so? No!So what does your family do for healthy eating on a budget?
First, you live in Tennessee, where poultry processors abound. Get to know somebody who works at Tyson’s or Pilgrim’s Pride. They have factory stores, and they’re very indulgent as to who can buy in them. All you have to do is know some employee…any employee. The very best deals, though are the “overruns”, which they have a lot. I think my best deal ever was leg quarters for six cents/lb. I bought boxes and boxes of them; as many as I could get in my car, including the passenger side, and gave the extras out to extended family members. My wife made dozens of terrific things out of them. Those big processor plants all have their own little “overrun” stores. Tyson’s, Pilgrim’s and Smithfield have the best quality chicken in the world. But what they have on hand varies, so you buy what they have. But it’s always wonderful stuff.
Second, though many would disagree with me, I think this “healthful” business is way overblown. I guess in time we’ll see how long the boomers who have “eaten healthy” live. But it’s interesting to read old novels and see what people ate. It varied from place to place, but a good number of them lived long, healthy lives on very simple fare…stuff we don’t think of as particularly “healthy” now. My grandfather, for example, never ate any fresh vegetables in the wintertime, just things that were home canned. He lived into his late eighties and was robust to the end. He did tell me the only fresh fruit he ate in the winter were these hard little apples that would keep in the cellar. Toward the end of winter, even those gave out.
I also recall reading in Solzhenitsyn how little it actually took to keep people going in the Gulags. People, he said, are the toughest animals on earth; living in the tropics all the way to the arctic, living on such a variety of things that no other creature could possibly duplicate it.
My biggest embarrassment was long ago when my wife and I had to feed ourselves and our two young children for a week on $10 during a savage recession. (probably equivalent to $20 now) We really had to study it out, but we did it. As we got to the register, a young cowboy brought what had to be a few weeks’ supply of food to the check out. Very simple stuff. Flour, molasses, rice, pinto beans, some salt pork. Possibly the rancher-employer shared some beef with him. Maybe he gathered greens he knew about out in the fields. (They’re out there) I don’t know. But regardless, he spent less than we did for a whole lot more than we got.
Hope this helps a little, notwithstanding that others seem to have more practical ideas without necessitating getting access to company stores. But do try that. It works.
We love Costco & Trader Joe’s:thumbsup: We are also going to be using some of our tax return to buy grass-fed meat in bulk, we don’t eat meat at every meal but we do have a small freezer to store extra. We also try to eat in-season, we garden, go the farmer’s market & find out what is in-season in the area & plan around that It may mean that we don’t have fresh strawberries in the dead of winter (like around me) but we will have what is in-season. Beans & rice combinations with some veggies, for example, we love black beans & rice, a variety of meals made with lentils. Stir fry is great too, a larger meal & if adding meat to it can be done with less meat because we have more rice & veggies to stretch it. If you make a meal that has leftovers figure out how to use the leftovers in different ways for example: roast a chicken &with the leftovers you can make stock, chicken sandwiches, chicken pot pies etc… Cook simple, traditional, & straight forward meals. Look around to a variety of ethnic food traditions, don’t feel limited, so many cultures have inexpensive & wonderful meals (e.g. Greek, Italian, Lebanese & Asian) available to add to your food routine.
(It does seem to have quite a bit to do with which lobbying groups have the most influence * in D.C., though – just like most everything else that comes out of Washington.)
Also cabbage. It is cheap and healthful. I like to roast it. Chop and mix with a little oil and salt in a ceramic or glass baking dish. Cook in the upper part of a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes, stir and cook for about 15 minutes more. If you want it softer cook it longer.
)and quick quesadillas for my lunches. I also learned to make my own gnocchi, which solved our problem of not knowing what to do with the last two potatoes in the bag that always seemed to get soggy before we used them. That’s about as easy as it gets–mashed potatoes and flour, make your pasta sauce, grow your herbs.
) and I discovered that a good cheap alternative to a holiday ham is to coat brown sugar on a pork tenderloin, make a little “boat” out of foil for the grill, and grill it on high, indirect heat for about 2 hrs. It tastes just like those spiral-cut holiday hams, and makes the neighborhood wonder what smells so good!