My husband and I LOVE to eat!! We love to eat GOOD FOOD. We firmly believe that "you are what you eat," "let food be thy medicine," and all those other quotes that mean: we feel good when we eat nutritious foods!
Our Diet
Our ideal diet is one suggested by Weston A. Price, although we cannot accommodate all of our "ideal" dietary guidelines at the moment. For the most part, we eat a natural, whole food diet-- with occasional "cheats" here and there. Our thought is to eat 80-20: 80% of our intake is natural, whole food and 20% is the I-forgot-to-pack-a-lunch-let-me-pick-up-something-super-cheap type food.
A book I recommend for understanding your nutritional needs, as well as hundreds of recipes to accommodate those needs, is Nourshing Traditions by Sally Fallon.
We also are on a very tight budget, although next to gasoline, our grocery budget is the largest bill each month. For two people eating three meals a day, plus snacks, we spend about $250. I will break the cost effectiveness down at the end of this post.
Although I would love to buy more farm fresh foods, sometimes its not always possible. I do what I can, and we eat well. For cost sake, we eat a much smaller portion of meat in comparison to fruits and vegetables.
A normal grocery run looks somewhat similar to this:
Our Food Priorities
When I buy groceries, I have a general idea of what I will need before I even walk into the store. I do make a grocery list, but only with items that are specific for a meal I am planning to make. I usually just write "vegetables" or "fruit" or "chicken," otherwise. These are the things I buy regularly:
Vegetables
- spinach
- sweet potatoes
- potatoes
- carrots
- zuchinni/squash
- eggplant
- cabbage
- broccoli
Fruit
- apples
- bananas
- strawberries
- mangoes
- lemons/limes
- other seasonal fruits: blueberries, cantaloupe, peaches, oranges, watermelon
Bread- I like to make my own bread OR buy Ezekiel bread. If neither one works for the moment, I spend a few minutes looking at the back of bread packaging, reading ingredients. I usually choose the bread with the least number of ingredients and with ingredients I recognize. I usually buy a smaller loaf to have more natural bread. In the picture of my latest grocery run, you can see I bought a larger loaf (and therefore, less natural bread) this last time.
I also usually buy corn tortillas for tacos, enchiladas, burritos, and the like.
"Dairy"
- Coconut milk (non dairy, but it's in the dairy section)
- Plain yogurt
- Monterrey Jack cheese
As you can see in the picture, I also bought ICE CREAM!!!! Mmmm.... Everyone has a down fall. My darling man and I happen to feed off of each other's down fall, which means we are voracious ice cream eaters. I do not usually buy ice cream when I go to the store by myself, but when my husband and I do go to the store together-- we cannot resist the ice cream aisle.
Meat
- a whole chicken
- eggs
- grass-fed beef
- ground turkey
Other Items- Of course, I buy other items as the need arises. Such items include:
- local, raw, unfiltered honey
- dry red kidney, black, and pinto beans
- coconut oil and olive oil (as "clean" as I can get them)
- ginger root/crystallized giner
The Cost
I mentioned earlier that I spend about $250 a month on groceries to feed two adults 21 meals and 14 snacks a week. To break that cost down for you, that's:
- $125/adult a month
- $31.25/adult a week
- $0.89/adult per meal or snack (obviously, the snack will be less expensive than the meal)
On Thursday, I will publish a post about five grocery shopping tips that have helped me score whole food groceries for as inexpensive as possible.
Until then, God bless you and keep you,
~Raquel
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