How much do you spend for groceries?
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How much do you spend for groceries?
| Mon, 09-12-2011 - 10:44am |
I have decided that we spend too much on food, but I am stuck in our current rut of the 10 or so meals I prepare.
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I love beans and greens.
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Kitty
"If you can't annoy somebody with what you write, I think there's little point in writing."-- Kingsley Amis, British novelist, 1971 t .
However, I have a lot of pork and other meats stockpiled in the deepfreeze, and my pantry is pretty well stocked too. We also eat 5-6 dinners at home each week, as well as most breakfasts. And dh and I each take our lunches 4x a week on average.
cheapest non-processed? Taco Potatoes probably. That and just grilled pork and grilled veggies.
We eat very little processed stuff. Lots of fresh fruits and veggies. We do tend to eat higher priced proteins though - salmon, b/s chicken breasts, pork loin, shrimp. And we buy "good" cheese - bleu, goat, feta, gouda
I could reduce my grocery bill a lot - but it's an area that, to me and the family, is worth spending extra on for the quality and nutrition and taste.
That sounds delish!
My younger kids love spinach, but my older kids don't care for it...looks like there is enough garlic in it, that my older kids might like it though!
It's really delicious this way; a good intro into discovering spinach isn't universally nasty :)
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Kitty
"If you can't annoy somebody with what you write, I think there's little point in writing."-- Kingsley Amis, British novelist, 1971 t .
In the summer, we eat a lot of salads for dinner. Just basically salad with some kind of interesting dressing (usually something DH finds in the Joy of Cooking) and bread and cheese as a side. We also eat a lot of egg meals-- fritattas with whatever kind of greens we've gotten in our CSA that week. Another way we save is by buying a whole chicken, roasting it, eating it plain one day, then with what's leftover (this might be impractical for you with pre-teen/teen boys) we make another meal, and then use the bones and leftover meaty bits to make chicken stock for vegetable soup or potato leek soup. On Saturday, I had planned to make that Thai chicken stuff, but the chicken hadn't thawed yet. Instead I made a kind of stone soup, using whichever vegetables in the fridge that needed to be used. One of the best savings things I've started doing is growing my own herbs. They are often pricey in the store-- especially if you only need a tablespoon or two for a recipe. Also, new recipes can be dangerous. When I'm looking at recipes, I try to make sure there are only one or possibly two (small) ingredients (especially of the bottled variety) that I will need to purchase. It drives me crazy buy a bottle of something that I only need a TBSP of that might go bad before I need to use it again. When I do need to buy herbs or something bottled (like oyster sauce or olives or something), I try to find at least one more recipe for the week that I will need it for as well.
Unfortunately, I do not do cheap food.
I love roasting chicken.
We have Amish farmers up about thirty minutes from us that will sell you produce and eggs for almost nothing, but I seldom get up there, and you don't know until you do get up there who will have what.
Greek green beans with feta on the side is one relatively low-cost and meatless meal. Another one, also Greek, is artichoke bottoms stewed with lemon and olive oil along with lots of dill, halved carrots and potatoes. You can also add leeks to this, other times they make it with peas and artichokes. The constant is the lemon and dill (as well as garlic).
Then there is leek rice. This is made by sauteing cut up leeks with olive oil, garlic and a bit of chopped tomato, then adding rice and a bit of water and letting it boil. It is sort of like risotto, but made with long grain rice and more vegetable than rice. It is surprisingly good and is also served with feta on the side.
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