Getting Started

Did our Polyface pickup today! I am the proud owner of 5 weeks worth of 3-4 meals a weeks worth of meat. My total came to $156.17 including almost $10 in delivery fees (charged per pound). A lesson already learned is that I will need to buy individually packaged ground beef per pound and not per 5 pounds. I'm trying to convince my husband to make 5 batches of chili so we can thaw the raw ground beef then freeze the extra chili but I don't know if he's going to go for it!

Our budget up until now has been $125 per week for groceries for 2 adults and 1 child (my newest is exclusively breastfed so we'll be good until at least 6 months, still have 4 months to go!) which hasn't grown much from when it was just 2 adults eating solid food. In order to budget accordingly, I added 5 weeks of grocery budget together ($625) then subtracted my Polyface total ($156) which came to $469 then I divided it by 5 weeks again ($93.8). This is a little complicated because we're eating gluten and dairy free which makes things more expensive. Even my husband is vowing to eat grapes, strawberries and apples during the day at work (this is an amazing improvement over Doritos and white bread and Nutella or sometimes nothing at all to eat).

My order with Peapod is $96. I feel really good about that knowing the only stuff in a package are some meat, some frozen corn and peas, DH's cereal, raisins, dry beans and Larabars. I also have some leftover cash from last week's Farmer's Market trip that I'll be repeating tomorrow so I might score something not red (we have apples, raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes and red bell peppers in our grocery order haha) like peaches.

This week I am also starting a batch of sauerkraut and ginger carrots a la Wild Fermentation. If we truly have a problem with dairy/gluten then our gut needs to be repopulated with good bacteria and this is a great way of doing it. Hell, even if we *don't* have dairy/gluten issues these are good foods to eat. While I wasn't a fan of them the first time I tried them I find myself craving them lately which is a good sign!

My week looks a little like this:

Sunday

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Leeks, Bacon, leftover Buckwheat Pancakes

Lunch: Miso Soup, Rice with Furikake

Dinner: Rotisserie Chicken, Corn, Roasted Sweet Potatoes

To Do: Make Sauerkraut, Ginger Carrots, Soak Beans for Soup, Stock in Crockpot overnight

Monday

Breakfast: Buckwheat Pancakes, fake butter, maple syrup

Lunch: Sausage Soup

Dinner: Arroz con Pollo

Tuesday

Breakfast: Leftover Pancakes, fake butter, syrup

Lunch: Sausage Soup or Arroz con Pollo

Dinner: Beef Medallions (from grocery store) topped with sauteed mushrooms and onions, Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Tomato Salad

Wednesday

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs, Bacon

Lunch: Sausage Soup or Arroz con Pollo

Dinner: Pork Chops, Cabbage, Red Potatoes

To Do: Soak kidney beans for chili

Thursday

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs

Lunch: Sausage Soup or Arroz con Pollo

Dinner: Chili using ground beef and pork from Polyface

Friday

Breakfast: Buckwheat Pancakes, double batch since we need to pack safe foods for tomorrow's Renn Fest trip!

Lunch: Whatever is left from Soup or Arroz

Dinner: Leftovers!

Saturday

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs/Leftover Pancakes

Lunch: At Renn Fest, so Steak on a Stake or Turkey Leg

Dinner: Leftover Chili

I'll post later this week to let y'all know how we're doing sticking to this. In addition, we are on day 6 of no gluten or dairy. I feel awesome despite feeling deprived at times because I know we're eating more fruits/veggies since we can't eat, well, any crap!