Black Beans

Black Beans- a perfect balance between budget and healthy?

Maybe.

I too am struggling with eating healthy tasty food within a reasonable budget. Why do all the healthy, yummy foods have to be so expensive?

I have had one recent victory: black beans.

They are an affordable, alternate source of healthy protein. I have discovered lots of uses for them and plan to make them a regular part of my menu. (By the way, my full dinner menu for February will be posted soon).

I'm most impressed with mixing them with ground beef to stretch the beef further. I've used the ground beef for tacos and meatloaf. The beans are almost unnoticeable in flavor when mixed with ground beef, but obviously the texture is different. Thankfully, both of us were pleased with the results. The beans & beef mixture for tacos made so much sense that we are wondering why we didn't think of it earlier.

We have also thrown black beans on salads and in soups.

For a while, I was using convenient canned beans. But I decided to save even more money and give dried beans a try.

It was a huge success! I cooked a WHOLE package of beans ($1.30) and then frozen them in to a few packages. Now, when I need beans, I can just take out a package and mix them into my recipe.

I already tried it & they were perfect. I wanted a cheese & black bean tortilla for lunch so I took some beans out of the freezer in the morning and few hours later I had a delicious, affordable, somewhat healthy lunch.

Do you have more ideas for using black beans? Please share!

Reset button?

It is Friday and I'm glad.

Glad because that means I start a new week and I can forget that I totally went over my original budget from LAST year.  

I'm glad because it means that I can forget that I've eaten way too many cookies, cooked with way too much cheese and have been totally uninspired in the kitchen.

I did manage a delicious, veggie packed soup, but that was about it for the week.

I'm stumped though.  Where do I go from here?  I think I need a grocery budget mentor.  I think I also need to decide if I would rather save money, or feel creative in the kitchen.  

Two weeks and I'm already giving up? 

Oh I don't know.  

Let me go eat another cookie and see if I feel any more optimistic.  

Victory and Defeat

I won't be within my goal this week.  That is kind of discouraging. 

But on the plus side I have been steadily using up long-neglected items in my pantry and freezer. 

I won't dwell on my trip to Costco that left me without a penny more in my grocery envelope and made me want to quit only two weeks into my endeavor.  Instead I will pat myself on the back for making hummus from a can of chickpeas (already in my pantry) instead of purchasing pre-made.  

I haven't ACTUALLY made it yet.  But I am going to.  I'll let you know how it turns out!

Sneaky

I made my first sneaky meal last night.

I'm pretty sure I showed you the "Deceptively Delicious" cookbook that is all about sneaking veggie purees into regular foods. The premiss is to get kids to eat more fruits and vegetables, but I bought it for Andy.  That boy is anti-green.  Yes, it makes me sad.

I totally raided my pantry last night for some sort of dinner option.  I had:

A jar of alfredo sauce.

A package of twirly pasta.

My fridge held:

Half an onion

Two zucchinies, one of which was somehow rotten through the core. GROSS!

A head of cauliflower

Freezer:

1 chicken breast

3 chicken tenderloins

Pretty scant.  But I wasn't really in the mood to cook anyway.  Then I got inspired.  

I steamed and pureed the cauliflower.  I froze half for Jack and mixed the other half in with the jar of white sauce.  It didn't change the flavor one bit!  

I rubbed the chicken with a pesto spice blend and grilled it in some olive oil.  

Cooked the pasta.

Carmaelized the onions (my new favorite thing).

Sliced the zucchini and threw it in with the onions and some salt.

TA DA!

Dinner is served.  For Andy I put everything in its own place on the plate, but for myself I sliced up the chicken and mixed the zucchini and onions all into the pasta.

Not the best meal I've ever made.  But we were fed and I felt very excited to have snuck in an extra serving of good-for-you food.

Midway

Yikes!

Another $25 spent on supplies to make brownies with green mint frosting, coffee and cheddar cheese. 

That means I need to make it through this week on a paltry $25.  But, truthfully, I think I can do it.  

I am also in the process of creating my Costco shopping list and simplified menu so I can shop smart.  I'll let you know when I have those done and share.  

Goals are good for me.  I feel so inspired by this decision and am eager to see what comes of it.  I already have in mind what I want to saved dollars to go toward, but I think I'll leave that undisclosed for the moment, *wicked laugh* at least to the internet world. 

New Year

I find that I am intimidated by the lofty title of our blog. 

Whole Food Mommy I am not.

I'm more of a half-food mommy.

But I guess that is better than a fast food mommy.

Much!

anyway...

This year (depending on how the first few months go) I have set an ambitions goal for myself.  I want to cut my grocery budget by $20 a week.  If I did it, that would be $1,040 that I could spend on something else. That would be a pretty fancy something else!

My hope is that there will be side-benefits to shopping frugally:

• Simpler Meals.  a.k.a. less work
  
• Less Waste
  
• Great satisfaction in my role as money-saver.

In the past, cooking has been a creative outlet for me.  I like to use highfalutin ingredients and have shopped sort of willy-nilly.  "Oh, this looks fun! Oooh! I wonder what that tastes like?"

While I will not ignore the fact that I NEED creative time in my life, I think that at this point in family and finances, the kitchen will not be the primary source of inspiration.

Truthfully, by the time evening rolls around I am usually tired and my energy for imagination has been used up with entertaining my sweet babe anyway. If I could make fast and (in a perfect world) healthy meals, I think our evenings would be much more serene. 

Some challenges that I'm trying to work around:

1. A tiny freezer.  I know it is cheaper to shop in bulk, but storage will be an issue.
2. Vanity.  I really enjoy showing off with food.  I'll just have to learn to make simple look smashing.
3. Guests. We have people over frequently, and cooking for a crew ends up being more expensive for us.  Mostly because of #2.  
4. Energy.  I fully expect that, at least initially, I will have to invest some extra time in looking through ads, planning meals and figuring out coupons.  My hope is that after a few weeks it will come naturally.
5. The closest and most convenient grocery store is QFC. When I forget something I go there and end up spending much more than I intend. This week, I already blew $30 on a "last minute" meal idea. 

Despite those challenges, I think I can do this.  I have already begun using up items in my pantry and practicing assembling meals that require fewer ingredients.  

My total goal budget is $80 a week.  Can I do it?  I think, with practice, I can.

We shall see.  I'll keep you posted.