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For the month of January we are on a mission to eat out of our pantry and freezer as much as possible. I’m still buying some groceries but not as many as usual. I like that we are getting a bit of room in the freezer, Lulu even put the ice cube trays back in the other day. We hadn’t had room for those in quite some time.
Week 2 of January and we did add a little bit to our previous January Food Spending of $67.35 with one trip to the grocery store, egg purchase and we stopped for burgers on Sunday at Joe’s request.
Here’s what we bought and spent:
- 3 Gallons Milk
- Rice Noodles
- Nori (2 packages)
- Celery
- Bok Choy
- Broccoli
- Rice
- Butter
- Avocado
Grocery Store Total: $22.52
Eggs from JLB: 3 dozen= $6
Burgers= $12.38
Total for the Week: $40.90
Updated Total for January: $108.25
Last week I talked about a few of the items that we buy that are ‘compromise’ foods. This week I wanted to talk about another compromise food and some of my thoughts on fast food.
White Rice: We still buy and use white rice. We also buy and use brown rice. At some point we will be 100% brown rice (because the brown rice is less processed it is nutritionally superior) but so far most of my family prefers white rice. I often mix the two and will be doing that in a few meals this week. I haven’t decided yet if I will mix the rice in the Sushi that we are planning for Friday night or if that will be white rice only. Last week I made Soaked Brown Rice and it was a huge hit. If your family is like my family and prefers white rice, I would recommend adding the soaking step. It totally changes the taste and texture of brown rice.
Fast food: There was a time in our life when we ate out more than we ate in. Now we eat out maybe once a week or every couple of weeks. In our town I feel that our best fast food choice is Subway but sometimes my husband wants a burger. He loves the King. Yesterday we went there for lunch after church. It was kind of nice to be able to just sit and enjoy lunch and the burgers did taste good. BUT last night my husband was miserable with tummy troubles. No one else was affected but it was a very good reminder as to why we are eating a real food diet and trying so hard to not put junk into our bodies. Our choice of eating a real, nutrient dense diet may not be the right choice for every family but it does work for us.
Be sure to stop back each Monday for the previous weeks food purchases.
Have you found a restaurant that you can enjoy and still feel like you are able to get good quality foods?
This post has been linked to Grocery Cart Challenge Shopping Round Up. Be sure to visit there to see other shopping trips and savings.
>We actually prefer soaked brown rice, but we alternate with white rice too because it's much cheaper and you can cook it quicker if you are in a hurry.
We almost never do fast food because there's nothing I can eat; if we eat out it's usually Asian food, which I think is pretty healthy (as long as it's not an Americanized restaurant).
>Brown rice is awesome and I definitely do not eat enough of it.
Nutrient-dense on a budget is tough. Aside from rice, I would definitely kick up the veggies (out of season in my neck of the woods though), and mix in some whole-grain bread.
>Rebecca,
I like Asian too. Unfortunately, our restaurants here are the American version except for one that is super expensive.
Dave,
Glad you stopped by.
I make all our bread products instead of buying them. We mostly eat whole wheat sourdough (bread, tortillas, pizza dough, etc) and occasionally I'll do something different like cornbread but that is less the norm.
Living in Wyoming local and in season in January is challenging.
🙂
We are eating alot of lacto-fermented fruits and veggies right now that I have 'put up' in the past few months. I did a big post a couple of days ago on my LF hits and misses if you are interested.
http://realfoodforlessmoney.blogspot.com/2010/01/lacto-fermentation-hits-and-misses-our.html
LF has been very fun for me and we are enjoying the results of it.
>My son had a basketball game @ 5:30pm last night. I carefully planned a dinner using what was in the freezer & my crockpot. I even remembered to set it up before I went to work.
Did you know there is hardly any meat on pork necks? No? Neither did I! They looked meaty when I bought them, but apparently, looks are deceiving.
We ended up getting chicken fingers at a place and my stomach was killing me last night. I don't know if it was the diet soda (probably) or the fried foods (I'm sure that had something to do with it too!). I was bummed I had to take out of my "pay off the medical debt" fund because my dinner was a bust. We should have just eaten eggs.
>Motherhen,
Oh NO! I didn't know that the neck bones were meatless. I've found myself in your prediciment many times because for some reason I often forget to turn the crock pot on! I'm sure those chicken fingers sounded like a good idea at the time.
>Would you believe my kids actually PREFER brown rice? We used to have a place called Pick Up Stix and our favorite thing to get there was brown rice-already made for us.
I still haven't quite figured out how to make rice easily. Tips?
>Cyn,
Do you have a rice cooker? If not, I would recommend one. It makes cooking rice super easy. I'm not sure that I would make as much as I do if I didn't have a cooker.
>Cyn, if you soak the brown rice the cooking is easy.
I take one cup of brown rice and two cups of water and two tablespoons of whey (you can get away w/out it). I let that sit most of the day or overnight. Then I bring it up to a boil, add some salt, turn it down with the lid on the pot and cook till all the water is absorbed, around 15-20 minutes. Watch it in the last few minutes so it doesn't stick or burn. That's it.
Though a rice cooker does make things much easier!
>I did buy a rice cooker and used it once-I didn't seem to get the instructions-perhaps I should try again.
>brown rice is not healthier. the fiber is not good for you and can cause internal irritation. there's a reason chinese and i think korean chicken farmers feed the hulls to their chickens– that's the best way to transfer the nutrients for human consumption, NOT humans eating it directly.