Saturday, November 20, 2010

Eating for less challenge ~ Day 4~ and chatting about real foods ~

~Sorry that I’m a little late with posting this.  On Thursday evening when I was supposed to post, I decided to spend a little time chatting with my husband instead.  This will be the last eating for less challenge that I post because on Friday, Day 5 of the challenge, we ate out.  So I kind of blew my own challenge!  {smile}~

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Meal for Day 4:

Pancakes with syrup, sausage patties, fried eggs, toast, and orange juice

Total Cost for Meal:

  • pancakes  1.00
  • syrup  75 cents
  • orange juice  free
  • sausage patties   free
  • eggs  79 cents/dozen (sale) ~ used 8 eggs at 56 cents
  • toast ~ 4 slices at 20 cents

total of meal:  $3.00  (actual ~ $2.51)

We love breakfast for dinner around here.  It seemed like the perfect week to have it too since we had some sausage patties and orange juice that someone had given to our family.  We have breakfast for dinner at least every other week.  This meal is very easy to keep affordable.  If we don’t have a breakfast type meat, I will usually serve some eggs to get in our protein (plus I have one child who does not care for pancakes).  Sometimes we will also have fruit smoothies as our dessert.

What about real foods on a budget?

For a while now, we have talked of transitioning our family to a more real foods diet.  Even though we have begun some steps towards a healthier diet, I find it hard to eat that way on a tight budget.  I realize that I can’t make all the changes at once.  I simply can not afford to do that right now.  Maybe one day we will (again) be able to afford that, but for now I have found that I will do the best that I can with the budget that I have.  And I pray for God to help me feed my family healthy meals on this budget.  As someone recently told me, “It’s not forever.  It’s just for now.” 

Anyway, this is a good blog post at Food Renegade on eating real foods on a budget.  (Here are more links that I found at Musings of a Housewife.)  We have begun to make a few changes to our diet so that it resembles a more traditional foods diet.   (For a good post about reasons for changing to a real foods diet, click here.  Also, here is a good post about making baby steps to better nutrition.)

Some steps we have taken on a tight budget:

  • Eat healthier fats.  We use butter and olive oil.  Soon I hope to have some coconut oil for baking so that we can get rid of the vegetable oil.  Every once in a while, we use margarine but I try to avoid it if possible. 
  • Reduce sugar intake and replace with healthier sweetners.  This is a hard one around here.  My kids like their kool-aid.  We do mix it with 1/2 cup sugar and some stevia.  Other than sugar and stevia, I use honey as a sweetener.  It (good honey) is a bit expensive so I use it sparingly.  I hope to pretty much eliminate white sugar around here.  Baby steps…
  • Use healthier dairy products.  We began using raw milk a while back but don’t use it every week.  If I can afford it, I get it.  We try to use organic milk if not using raw milk.    (Read about healthy milk here.)
  • Continue to wean my family off of white flour and replace with whole grains.  Those rolls the other night were 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white flour.  For the most part, my husband, one daughter, and I eat whole grain bread.  Everyone else prefers white bread. 

Changes that I would like to implement:

  • Become a better label reader to avoid HFCS  (High Fructose Corn Syrup), trans fat, and MSG. 
  • Buy meats and eggs that are grass fed and pastured.  (Very expensive to do.  I’ve still got my fingers crossed that we’ll get some venison next weekend.)
  • Replace white rice & pasta with brown rice & whole grain pasta.
  • Drink more water.

There are more steps that our family needs to take.  However, I feel this is a good start.  We’ll take it bit by bit, little by little until we are eating a healthy diet! 

And we will continue to do what we can to eat for less while making the transition to that healthier way of eating.

4 comments:

  1. Breakfast for dinner is such a winner around here too. Not only for my family, but for me the most because it's so easy.

    When you are on a budget with meals every penny counts. I am seeing that first hands since we are living off of one income. I used to buy raw milk and organic and I have to really get tight with our income and have to buy whatever I can now. I can relate to what your saying becuase even though I dearly want to buy raw, it's hard sometimes with a budget.

    Thanks for taking the time to post.

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  2. ok. you know i love to bake. all the time. i don't use white flour. at all. ever. so, it can be done! and yes, i introduced whole wheat flour through nestle toll house cookies. nobody noticed!

    as for the pastas and rices, we switched cold turkey. after about 3 meals, we forgot about whatever difference existed. now, we find most white pastas and rices too gummy.

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  3. Amanda, We too have had to cut back on things that we feel are healthier for us. I honestly just pray to God about it. I know He has given us this income, I know He knows our needs, and I know He will supply our needs. I pray, give it to Him, and buy what I can to feed my family in the best way that I can.

    Salinda ~ Yep, I just need to bite the bullet. I like whole wheat pastas and brown rice. Some of my kids just balk at the whole grains. But like I tell them, "If you're hungry, you'll eat it." So I just need to do it.

    But as for baking with whole wheat only: Do you find it to be "heavy"? Those rolls that I made the other night with half whole wheat/half white were heavier than normal. They are so light and fluffy with white. When I make whole wheat bread, it is so incredibly heavy. I do believe that you can add things to the bread to help with the texture. (I believe that I have some gluten in the pantry that I've never used. Not sure if that will help or not?) Even the whole grain bread I buy is not very "soft". I can only eat it toasted. When I want just a regular sandwich, I pull out the white bread. I know Amanda who commented above has posted a series on bread making. I really need to try her recipe SOON! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amanda, We too have had to cut back on things that we feel are healthier for us. I honestly just pray to God about it. I know He has given us this income, I know He knows our needs, and I know He will supply our needs. I pray, give it to Him, and buy what I can to feed my family in the best way that I can.

    Salinda ~ Yep, I just need to bite the bullet. I like whole wheat pastas and brown rice. Some of my kids just balk at the whole grains. But like I tell them, "If you're hungry, you'll eat it." So I just need to do it.

    But as for baking with whole wheat only: Do you find it to be "heavy"? Those rolls that I made the other night with half whole wheat/half white were heavier than normal. They are so light and fluffy with white. When I make whole wheat bread, it is so incredibly heavy. I do believe that you can add things to the bread to help with the texture. (I believe that I have some gluten in the pantry that I've never used. Not sure if that will help or not?) Even the whole grain bread I buy is not very "soft". I can only eat it toasted. When I want just a regular sandwich, I pull out the white bread. I know Amanda who commented above has posted a series on bread making. I really need to try her recipe SOON! :)

    ReplyDelete

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