Saturday, August 13, 2011

What's in our Kitchen?

{a post about healthy organic eating while on a budget... sort of}

Full Fridge, obviously EVERYTHING was not from one trip to the store, but most of it is.

The side door collects condiments and we have quite a collection,
a few items are important:
organic unstated butter {I buy a box a week, I bake a lot so this is important in my house}
Frey Organic White Wine, great for dressing up our weekly dinners
Organic ketchup, tomatoes are important in any form as organic, their skin is so thin.
Annie's Goddess Dressing.  SO GOOD!
My Grandmother's home made and preserved salsa, shipped from MI. Yum.
I went through a Kalua stage and now we have too many bottles of it.
Brewer's yeast.  Important for my lactation cookies, but also something good to have around.
Finally, Veganase.  Mayonnaise grosses me out, so I buy the vegan version for all recipes.

2 water filters because one isn't enough, but really because one is our Sister {in law}'s 
I keep our store bought OJ in the glass pitcher because it feels fancier.
Organic Rice milk and Almond milk are great alternatives to soy and dairy {we eat dairy but keep it to a necessary minimum... I LOVE cheese}
There's also some home brewing rosemary wine in the background there.

Probiotics and bread, bagels are a must in my house, and those left overs are from my friend Katie, so good!

Serious stash of cheese on the left, Whole Foods has a great basket of assorted fancy cheeses all under $3 they're super small but perfect for our budget and for making our quiche extra tasty. farmer's market peaches and greek yogurt are up next followed by the last two store bough eggs on the right.

Here's the good shelf! Some black beans hiding in that pyrex {only glass in this house!} in the back with some salsa and chilis on the left.  Organic strawberries {store bought $2.99 at sprouts} I LOVE fruit then some eggs from Angie {her brother's hens $3.50 a dozen} and more strawberries on the right.  Plus, Hubs weekly splurge on some IPA beer.

Those eggs in detail from Angie's brother!

Our vegetable drawer with salad on top, some leeks, zucchini, eggplant and okra too all from the Farmer's Market this week.

last weeks market left overs, will use soon, bell pepper, green onions and basil.

The freezer is pretty bare...

Some frozen organic veggies to help save some money when necessary.

Herbal supplements are key in our house for healthy bodies.

snacks and crereals

Some of the dry goods from the grocery store trip, these are some of the few items we have to purchase at the store, by shopping so much at the Farmer's Market we save a LOT of money.

So what does a kitchen stocked like this cost?
About $200 a week.
We split the food 3 ways between my sister in law, myself and Hubs.
We take 2/3 the cost and she covers her 1/3.
Sometimes, I feel like we spend way too much money on food, then I remember that it's what keeps us alive. It's worth the investment AND the food we buy is medicine.  It's healthy and well grown.

Doing the majority of the shopping at the farmers market is the biggest help, we usually spend about $60 there and get WAY more than what we get at the store.

Anyway, want to share your food budget? tricks for saving money on healthy food?  leave a comment, I'd love to read it!

3 comments:

  1. OOO! LOVE this topic! We have a food budget of $100/week for the 4 of us & this tends to be the main topic of my blog since it's such a big issue for us. For processed foods, I love coupons or shopping at Trader Joe's (TJ's + coupon= heaven). I follow a couple blogs dedicated to finding great deals on organic/natural items. I too LOVE the farmer's markets. We buy our eggs locally ($4 dozen) and try to buy as much else locally as possible. Since both of the boys are at cow's milk age, we spend a ton on organic milk and choose Shamrock since it's local. I love getting Alpine Valley (local & organic) bread at Costco. Also- if you need some Vegenaise, I have quite a few jars you are welcome to! I did a sampling for them, so have like 4-5 extra jars of the grapeseed oil one.

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  2. we do about 250 per week when shopping pretty well--we suck at saving $$ on groceries tho. so no tips, only snooping in your fridge and wishing i had some of that wine :-)

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