We always do our big shopping trip the first weekend of the month, so I’m doing some recipe planning. I’ve had a few friends ask how we manage to eat healthy foods inexpensively, especially since we have lots of food allergies and sensitivities in our family. (No wheat, soy, shellfish, citrus, dairy or nuts in this house!) We also limit meat (Americans eat WAY too much, it’s expensive and most animals are not killed humanely.) So I thought I’d share a few of the recipes I plan to cook this month with you.
http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2008/02/comfort-me-with-chili.html
Now this is a pretty inexpensive recipe to start with. And big, we can freeze the leftovers for future lunches. I’ll make two changes, however. We’ll use dried beans (canned are so much more expensive!) and we won’t use beef stock, we’ll use vegetable. Did I mention we don’t eat beef or pork? Because we don’t. We’ll also cut the turkey to 1 pound and up the rest of the stuff because meat is expensive and we won’t like it that much anyway.
(goat) Cheesy Baked Salmon
We got a screaming deal on local wild salmon at the farmer’s market. We got six pounds a few weeks ago and still have a bit left, so we’ll be trying this out, but with goat cheese. I’ll probably have a brown rice side.
A “Martha” take on (rice) spaghetti
This one has to be altered as well. We’ll use organic brown rice pasta from Trader Joe’s as we can’t eat wheat. And instead of Pecorino Romano, we’ll use crumbled goat cheese on top. Also purchased at Trader Joe’s. Very simple. This will be a good dish for one of those nights when I just don’t have time to cook.
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/09/black-bean-tomato-quinoa-healthy-delicious-recipe.html
This one, we once again have to alter, but it’s simple and will cut out an expense and save us from an allergen: no lime for us. Quinoa is a wonderful grain, by the way. It is a complete protein! That’s great for those who don’t eat meat or don’t eat much, like us. If you live near a Costco, you can get a big (4lb) bag of organic quinoa very inexpensively – our last bag lasted for more than two months and that’s with me accidentally spilling about a pound. Oops.
http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.fc77a0dbc44dd1611e3bf410b5900aa0/?vgnextoid=e17056866a80f010VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&backto=true
Once again, we’ll use dried beans instead of canned. We’ll also use a half pound of mushrooms since I’m not a huge fan and add more beans. And I’ll dice my own tomatoes. I always use fresh veggies when I can. We’re joining a CSA so we’ll have lots of fresh ones around. We have some time left in tomato season.
http://chefinyou.com/2009/02/ratatouille-or-rat-a-tat-touille-which-one-would-you-choose/
I haven’t tried ratatouille before, but we have most of this on hand, so I am going for it! This will result in plenty of leftovers, which we always use for lunches.
Cickpea Pasta http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2007/08/quiet-mastery-of-sara-moulton.html
We’ll substitute rice pasta again here, and goat cheese once again. And dried beans. I never pay for canned beans, especially with bpa in almost ALL linings of cans!
Pan Roasted Chickenhttp://www.recipezaar.com/Pan-Roasted-Chicken-and-Veggies-78707
We bought some chicken breast at Costco last month and still have quite a bit in the freezer (we really do not eat much meat!) so I will use breast instead of thigh. Plus dark meat makes me want to gag. I’ll double this one so we have plenty of leftovers to freeze and I get that chicken out of there.
So there’s what a week of dinner looks like in our home. Well eight days. We’ll probably do a few more pasta dishes (so easy to come up with!) and a few more chicken (since we have so much) and more quinoa as well. It’s healthy and easy, why not?!
