Shopping Success and Going Organic - Somewhat

As someone who is trying to change the way her family views food and meals, I am opening up many possibilities for us. We have been very successful with keeping up with a $200 budget per month. Admittedly, we have a cache of pasta, rice and instant potatoes so are saving on most of our starch options but those items bought in large quantities would not add more than $25 a month to your budget. I have been keeping with my goal of spending about $30 or more per week on vegetables/fruits. One of the greatest things about this is it lending itself to one instant meal a week. At the end of the week (a day or two prior to shopping day) I make a large stir fry with all the vegetables that I didn't use during the week. This is preventing the waste of good intention shopping that didn't quite pan out. We have been have some wonderful combos - bamboo shoots, broccoli, squash, onion, peppers, ANYTHING we have that I am not using on the next night's dinner. PLUS, as a family that eats leftovers, there is often more than enough for at least one more meal.

This week's meals - Fish with Balsamic Spinach, Pasta with Broccoli Alfredo Sauce, Beef Patties with Yogurt and Fruit Plate, Chicken with Orange Marmalade in Slow Cooker with Sweet Potato and Corn (one lb of meat will get us two meals), Vegetable Stir Fry (again two meals).

As I am a sucker for documentaries. I totally buy into the information as I figure, now that I know; there is no claiming ignorance. After watching one recently, I decided to see about going organic or natural or whatever, especially for chicken and dairy. I am still doing research to decide what the difference is for the various grocery items and what that entails. I have determined that dairy products were going to be our first transition to this arena, choosing milk and dairy without rBST or BST hormones. I was delighted to be able to stick to the budget even with the increase cost associated with this choice.

Funny thing is you can REALLY take the difference between the organic dairy and regular. The milk is the least noticable - kind of like switching from 2% to 1%, after a week or two you don't notice as much. The cheese on the other hand was a major difference. I had to check the label after eating my first piece to make sure that I bought American. It tasted sharper, like a sharp white cheddar or irish cheddar rather than american. The yogurt also takes some getting used to but honestly I think it is all for the best. We could all probably benefit from a little less cheese. I fell into a habit (picking it up from my hubby) of adding a slice to my sandwiches a few days a week. Prior to this I went my entire life without adding cheese on sandwiches (of course unless it was a grilled cheese). I really had the mindset that everything tastes better with cheese. I am drinking more water instead of milk but hitting my daily dairy needs.

Tonight with our beef patties I am trying my first organic beef experience. We will see how it goes. Again, spending more on the meats is okay because I foresee it encouraging us to eat more vegetables and fruits and less meat.