Eating Organic Economically; How I Eat and Cook all Week.

I hear all the time from friends and clients, “It’s too expensive to eat organic!”  If you eat packaged foods, buy gluten free or organic prepared foods, of course it is expensive.  You pay for convenience.  But change your perspective, make most foods from scratch and you will be able to lower your food bills, even eating organically.

1 whole organic chicken 10.00
1 pound grass-fed hamburger 6.00 a pound from JD Beef at RAM
18 eggs- Grassroots Market 5 Points- 3.99
1 pound Applegate Farms turkey bacon 3.79- Publix has it for 1.80 less than health foods stores!
½ pound salmon 4.99
1 pound  butter 5.89
1 pound carrots 2.99
3 large onions
¾ pound coffee 3.00 a week  (6.00 a pound, organic and free trade from Green Mountain Coffee- delivered to my door every 5 weeks).
3 green peppers bell peppers
1 bag celery 1.99
1 pint blueberries 3.99
1 bunch kale, Swiss chard, spinach, Malabar spinach or broccoli
3 large sweet potatoes 2.99
3 beefsteak tomatoes 
2 Garlic bulb
2 limes .99 and 2 lemons 1.10

45.73- total grocery bill to meet all my nutrient and calorie needs

The items in red are the things I grow in sub-irrigated containers; I used 5 gallon buckets, soil, perlite and made sub-irrigated containers. Growing from seed is cheap.

If you have a backyard, or a deck for container gardening, or grow lights indoors, you can save further in ways that processed food eaters can’t: Almost all year I grow salad greens, herbs, braising greens of some kind and cucumbers and tomatoes. (The salad herbs oregano, thyme, mint, basil, cilantro and parsley never quit here in any season!)

Items I make myself; almond butter made in the Champion juicer, coconut milk yogurt, mayonnaise, salad dressings. These things are very inexpensive to make, very easy to do…not much labor.

Starting on the day I shop, here’s how I eat and cook all week, very simply, but extremely healthy.

First Night; I roast a whole chicken by rubbing butter all over it, salt and peppering it, maybe some garlic or lemon juice and zest. Then roast it for 30 minutes on 450°. Then turn the oven down to 300° and bake for 30 minutes. Now turn the oven back up to 400° and roast that bird just 165°, checking for temp in the thickest part of the breast, not hitting the bone. Save the pan drippings for cooking, save the carcass for stock. Here’s a link to making stock- http://optimumnutrition.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/chicken-stock-101/

That is dinner the first night; a leg and thigh and some breast meat, pour pan drippings over it, using fat and gelatin in roasting pan. With some sautéed peppers and onions and a few slices of ripe tomato, here’s a great dinner.

Breakfast is usually 2 eggs, fried in butter or coconut oil, 3 slices of turkey bacon, some coconut milk yogurt and a handful of blueberries. And 6 ounces of Turkish coffee, ground and brewed each morning. Some mornings I have Ezekiel bread.

Lunch is usually whatever I’ve had for dinner the night before, or an Ezekiel bread sandwich, with meat, fresh olive oil mayonnaise, or almond butter. Maybe Ezekiel with almond butter and sauerkraut, toasted. Usually a cup of meat stock and/or coconut milk yogurt.

Second night; take the rest of the meat off of the chicken, make stock. Have a great chicken soup that night, add sautéed celery, carrots, bay leaf. Maybe some kale sautéed in chicken fat, some gelatin from chicken pan drippings, onions, mushrooms. Sliced tomatoes.

Third night; 1/3 pound hamburger patty, sautéed onions and peppers, 8 ounces chicken stock, sliced tomatoes, coconut milk yogurt.

Fourth night; fresh salmon with dill, Dijon and fresh lemon juice, sautéed peppers, mushrooms and onions, sliced tomatoes. A cup of chicken stock.

Fifth night; Chicken meat prepared however you want, sautéed kale, ½ sweet potato, sautéed mushrooms. Coconut milk Crème Brule and a few blueberries.

Sixth night; 1/3 pound hamburger patty, pan gravy, ½ sweet potato with butter, kale with onions.

Seventh Night; Rest of hamburger with peppers, onions, tomato, salsa, avocado and fresh corn tortilla.

Shop again, or have leftovers, or breakfast for dinner.

Extras I buy if I can afford them; cherries, plantains to fry, dark chocolate, steaks, roasts, Ezekiel bread, wine.

Things I always have in the kitchen; raw butter, Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil and their coconut cream (to use in recipes that call for heavy cream or for decadent desserts) Dijon mustard, olives, herbs and spices, an array of vinegars, olive oil, sesame oil, masa harina, coconut oil, lemons, limes, Kava tea, organic coffee, Yerba Mate Tea, quinoa, rice, teff, coconut and tapioca flours, coconut milk, curry sauces, olives.

Bear in mind that this is a very basic dinner menu, showing how to meet all of your calorie and nutrient needs affordably. These dinners reflect basic eating, by adding other ingredients I can get real fancy, and I do at times.