Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
xp: Food questions
Hello there, I'm a newbie on this board but would love to hear some of your thoughts.
DH and I already eat pretty healthy. But, after seeing Food Inc I'm already making changes and wanting to make more.
DH didn't want to watch it with me at first, but some friends of ours saw it this weekend and now they've decided to try RAW foods, I'm not necessarily into that but now DH wants to watch it (YES!) and we were talking about food choices last night and he has given me free reign to change some food choices for us.
So if you don't do much
meat what are your big protein sources (and we won't do soy). Also, we
want to continue to eat meat / fish but perhaps not as much.
Do you do organic meat all the time? If so where is it cheapest for you?
Any other helpful hints?
What is your monthly food budget?
Re: xp: Food questions
We eat antibiotic/hormone free meat about 3x/week. Our beef and chicken are grass fed but our pork is not. They are all from local farms and slightly cheaper than the Whole Foods alternatives. We live in the midwest and a very LCOL area.
Our grocery bill is about $450/month give or take and that facts in the meat we buy in bulk a few times a year. Our meatless meals are loaded with beans and whole grains. I made quinoa tonight for the first time and it was delish!
Beans and quinoa and cheese are big sources of protein for us. But, so are whole chickens (you can get more for your $ if you roast a whole chicken or buy stewing chickens rather than just breasts) and also meals that are mostly vegetables and meat is used as flavoring, know what I mean? Think Asian-style stir fries. that way you're still getting meat, but it's not a huge hunk of it at once.
we've found it's cheapest from the farm where we have a herdshare. You'll definitely want to shop around. Most of the stuff we get is organic, but sometimes it's not "certified organic." because we buy from smaller places that can't always afford the certification.
I have no idea what our monthly food budget is, but it's less than when we went out to eat all the time, that's for sure!
Congrats for wanting to make a change. I encourage you to get to know your local farmers . . . they are a wealth of information!
Best sound ever: baby's heartbeat! (Heard @ 10w1d)
We eat A LOT of meat but probably 95% is grassfed or wild caught meat. We buy in bulk to keep the cost down. My 1/4 grassfed cow I just bought was $6/lb, my naturally raised pig was $1.85/lb, my chickens are $3.75/lb and my eggs are $3/dz. If we didn't buy and freeze in bulk, there's no way we could afford to do it. We also have a hunter friend who is going to hopefully get a deer for us next season.
For our produce, we get a delivery service that delivers organic (and locally produced when possible which is mostly everything except tropical fruits) produce. They send me a list of what's going to be in my box on Saturday and we get the box on Thursday so I meal plan for the next week around what we're getting. This helps keep my costs down and lets me plan ahead and not waste food. My typical box costs $33/week but I normally add on a few additional items and usually end up somewhere around $45/week.
All that being said, we still spend A LOT on food. However, since I've switched to whole/natural foods and stopped eating processed crap, I've lost weight and my health (as proven by a recent physical and bloodwork) is better than ever.
Congrats on trying to make the change to healthy food! I would say the #1 change to make in your diet to be healthier and reduce animal suffering is organic dairy and pasture-raised meats. I really like the Organic Valley brand for dairy, they have the whole line at Whole Foods.
We were vegetarian for 9 months but gave it up for health reasons, so we eat local, humanely raised meat 1-2 times a week. Primarily chicken but sometimes beef and pork. We get it from the Farmer's Market. We're lucky enough that the lowest price doesn't have to be our highest food shopping priority. Our highest priority is that the animals lived a real life and were slaughtered humanely. I've talked with the farmers at length and their meat is pasture-raised, no hormones or antibiotics. They're not certified organic as the certification is expensive and a lenghty process, and they sell directly to consumers like me who know how they treat their animals.
Ditto what PP said, if you want more chicken for your buck buy a whole chicken and roast it. That's one dinner for us, then I pick the carcass clean and that makes several lunches worth of chicken casserole or chicken salad sandwiches, and the carcass gets made into chicken stock. It's like 6-7 meals for $15.
Our food budget is my #1 priority, and we worked very hard to move several things around in our monthly budget to spend $560 a month ($140 a week) on food. We live in a VHCOL area and I'm sure you could do it on less. We buy everything we can local, down to locally made liquour and pantry staples like pasta, and we're eating the best I ever have in my life.
Beans and whole grains like quinoa are excellent sources of protein. So are eggs, we get free-range eggs from the Farmer's Market too. You can buy less meat but make more meals if you don't do the standard dinner of a large meat portion, starch, and veggie. Try stir-fries or meat on top of a salad. That stretches your meat meals further. For example, here's our menu this week, I make it out of what is available at the Farmer's Market:
-Spinach and broccoli frittata with bread
-Spicy black beans and spanish rice with southwestern canned corn
-Garden salad topped with chicken with honey-mustard dressing
-Spinach ravioli with sauteed spring vegetables in a garlic-butter sauce
-Quinoa chickpea salad with red wine vinagrette dressing
-Veggie pizza with "sausage" -> WF carries a great brand of faux sausage called Field Roast, it's delicious!
Ooh yes, Field Roast is actually good. I have never been a fan of meat 'substitutes' but had this in a pasta dish at a local foods dinner (its a Seattle company!) and it was very good.
I was vegetarian long ago, and also had a vegan stint but it works better for me to not have so many rules. I don't eat a lot of meat though. Most of my protein comes from dairy -- Greek yogurt is loaded with it! -- and eggs on a daily basis. I also eat quite a bit of shrimp, salmon and crab, but these are pretty economical where I live, and its easy to buy the 'right' kinds (sustainably farmed for the shrimp, and wild for salmon, dungeness crab is considered sustainable).
I'm not the best for advice because I'm single, I'm lazy and never cook (pretty much literally - I store things in my oven! and don't even own spices).
I think the easiest thing to do is just make changes to your current lifestyle. Buy better eggs (humane certified if you can!), buy better meats, try more meatless meals. And please buy organic dairy! *insert my spiel for Organic Valley dairy here lol*