Grocery Shopping on a Budget

For those of you who follow Clean Cuisine on Facebook, you know about the $90 Grocery Challenge that I have been posting about all week. While I know that eating clean can sometimes be a pricey lifestyle, it doesn’t have to be.  I was so surprised by your excitement about grocery shopping on a budget that I poured all of my heart and energy into the recipes I’m about to share with you. That said, this was definitely a challenge, as I had no intention to make my weekly grocery trip into an article with FIVE dinner recipes. But, my struggle was merely with measuring and forming recipes to give you real and detailed options for the week. That said–I had a lot of food to work with, and I even entertained two of the nights and still had leftovers for lunches. For those of you who don’t know about this $90 Challenge, let me explain a few things before getting started. I went to Trader Joe’s last Sunday to pick up my fresh groceries for the week. I also ended up buying three bottles of wine, which is not a weekly occurrence for me. My partner came with me to the store, so I thought it would be advantageous to rely on his strength and buy heavy things like bottles of wine. We live in Chicago and walk to our local grocery stores, so carrying things home is always an additional challenge. After unloading our bags, I realized that we had just bought quite a few organic vegetables, grains, and wine for $90. So….I posted it to Facebook to get a read on what Clean Cuisine’s followers thought. The response was overwhelming! Over a thousand of our followers “liked” the post, 85 of them “shared” the picture. We also received a BUNCH of excellent comments…and…well…we had a couple of comments that were not so supportive about the price and the amount of food it yielded. In reply to those, I’m including a few numbered disclaimers about this challenge and other ideas we have for grocery shopping on a budget:

A Few Disclaimers

1. This challenge began as a banal trip to my local Trader Joe’s to pick up my weekly groceries. I did not intend to make this into a “grocery challenge.” In fact, I came up with this name on a whim while answering Facebook posts. And, the name was fitting, as it was definitely a challenge to come up with five recipes without planning to do so ahead of time! That said—the meals were delicious and so very easy to make.

2. This is not an exact science. Because of the unplanned nature of this challenge, I did have to use and substitute a few staples that were already in my pantry, as they are ALWAYS in my pantry. For instance, my main breakfast items (steel cut outs and hemp, chia, or flax seeds) and lunch items (dried or canned beans—I eat a LOT of beans—, garlic, onions, celery, broth, FROZEN VEGGIES!, extra virgin olive oil, and even items like anchovies) are always stocked. But, these items should already be in your pantry, too. And, they do not cost a lot more. In these cases, I will note the additions and substitutions for what is pictured above. But…if you wanted to include these items in this $90, you could by removing the cost of the wine.

In retrospect, if I had planned this challenge, I probably would have bought different items to reflect what was already in my cupboard and to yield a little more variety in the dishes, so that I could stay truer to the items in the photo. But, I wanted to accept the challenge with the items I bought, so I did not stray too far from them.

3. I know that $90 is a lot of money for many people to spend on groceries each week. I am in no way am claiming that this is the norm or that one should spend this much money on each trip to the grocery store. This challenge began with the mere wonderment I experienced with how much food (and wine!) I bought for $90, which, as I will repeat, my fiancé and I are fortunate enough to be able to afford each week.

So, to break it down…that’s $90/2. But, if you subtract the wine ($22.97), it’s $67.03/2 people = $33.52/5 days = $6.70 of food per day during this grocery challenge. Again, not the norm….but, we are fortunate enough to afford this.

And, since we at Clean Cuisine want to reach out to each and every one of our followers, I am happy to announce that I am going to spend the next few months writing a book about grocery shopping on a budget with even cheaper (as well as pricier) trips to the grocery store that will include essential pantry items and a guide for how to keep these items stocked in your cupboards! Stay tuned…

4. I don’t usually use recipes when I cook. Even though Ivy is a recipe genius–I usually use Clean Cuisine’s recipes as guidelines to use with the ingredients I may have in my fridge at that moment. My mom taught me how to cook when I was very little, so I have the basic cooking skills down. Things such as not burning the garlic, baking temperatures, removing a heavy-handed shake of the salt, and adding flavor to drab soups and sauces are skills that I have been taught throughout my life. More recently, my father (who has in the past ten years really honed his epicurean skills) has influenced my cooking in so many interesting and daring ways that I like to treat my nightly meals as flavor experiments. So, measuring and marking down ingredients was a big challenge for me, as it always is with the recipes I post that are not official Clean Cuisine recipes.

Therefore, I will list optional ingredients throughout and also urge you to experiment with these recipes to add your own spin on them. Cooking should be fun and personal to your own palate.

5. I eat very plant-forward meals. While I do occasionally eat meat, it’s actually quite unusual for me to have picked up a pound of chicken. However, I’m glad I did, as this challenge would be completely vegetarian without it. In the book I will definitely add more meat dishes. But, as you will see in the recipes that follow…..a little meat can go a long way!

6. Lastly, I don’t have a fancy camera like Ivy. So, my pictures are not as perfect as hers tend to be! Ha! They were taken with my phone and enhanced with Instagram filters (which I must admit I LOVE but were unneeded given the colorful variety of vegetables I prepared). It takes a lot of time and work to take professional food photos, so I just didn’t have the time to schedule a shoot for this week. And, I really wanted to get them to you as quickly as possible. But, I will definitely have professional pictures for the book. I promise!

The $90 Challenge

The Goods:

•  2 ears of corn
•  1 bag of lemons
• Cilantro
• Thyme
• 2 bags of arugula
• 2 bags of spinach
• 1 bag of frozen peas
• 1 bag of avocados
• 1 branch of brussel sprouts
• 2 Portobello mushrooms
• 1 bag of Kiwis
• 1 head of broccoli
• 1 bag of brown rice spaghetti
• 1 lb of organic, free-range chicken
• 1 package of Farro
• 1 Package of Barley
• 1 package of “Harvest Grains Blend”*
• 1 small package blueberries
• 1 small package raspberries
• 1 carton of eggs
• 3 peppers (red, yellow, and orange)

Oh…and three bottles of delicious wine from Argentina, Italy, and Chile. If I had to name one thing that I LOVE about Trader Joe’s more than the affordable food, it is their selection of affordable wine!

MEAL PLAN

Despite how adventurous my dinners tend to be, I am actually pretty repetitive with my breakfasts, snacks, and most of my lunches. I eat this way because I like to stick to a routine with these two meals, as it is both cost effective and preferable to my tastes. I also believe this regimen keeps me healthy, thin, AND satisfied, which are three things I value very much in my life. So, the main, more detailed recipes for this challenge will be dinner meals. But, I do want to show you what I eat for breakfast, lunch, and snack as much of it is included in my weekly meals that came from this trip to the store.

BREAKFASTS:

Weekdays: I eat oats and drink a cup of coffee with homemade almond milk EVERY weekday for breakfast. Call it boring, but I think it is the most delicious way to start my day. My fiancé likes a side of kiwi with his, but I am good with just:

• A big bowl of Oats with Homemade Almond Milk
• Hemp, Flax, or Chia Seeds (I mix them up day to day)
• Raspberries
• Blueberries
• Bananas

As I said above, my breakfast items are always stocked in my house (chia, flax, and hemp seeds can be pricy, but in my “Clean Grocery Shopping on a Budget Book,” I will provide guides for how to keep these items in your pantry). One quick tip is to buy these seeds online at Vitacost for up to 50% off retail prices. And, if I am out of these seeds, I just leave them out. I buy oats and almonds (for the milk) in bulk, so they are always in my pantry and thus I didn’t buy them on my trip to Trader Joe’s. But, I did buy the fruit—which is always the pricier item. Weekends: I always eat eggs, Ezekiel sprouted toast (another pantry item that is perfect for a budget because you can keep a loaf in your freezer for a very long time), and a cup of coffee with almond milk.

LUNCHES:

My lunches are more varietal than my breakfasts, as they usually correspond to the leftovers I have in my fridge, but I always have a big salad. Always. You cannot go wrong with a big salad for lunch. They are nutritious, delicious, and very filling. Here are a couple pics of some of the salads I made for this week’s lunches:

SNACKS

I have to admit that I am not a big snacker, but I do drink a green smoothie everyday. And, my green smoothies are precisely where those two bags of spinach go. Ivy suggests eating a variety of fruits and vegetables to pack the biggest nutritional punch into your diet. When I am on a budget, I tend to vary my greens from week-to-week instead of day-to-day or even meal-to-meal for a cost-effective punch. This way I am getting a variety each week, but I don’t have to buy four different types of greens in a week. And, I always keep frozen fruit in my freezer. I didn’t buy any this week because I went to Costco and bought three huge bags of organic frozen fruit the last time I went. I believe they are around $9 a bag, and they will last you a LONG time. Again, I’ll list these exact details in the book.

MONDAY

Breakfast:

Erin’s Breakfast

Lunch:

Meatless Monday Dinner:

Roasted Red Pepper and Farro-Stuffed Portobello Mushroomswith Corn on the Cob and Arugula Salad- For this meal, I used the farro, arugula, corn, portobellos, cilantro, lemon, and one red pepper. Pantry Items: vegetable broth, garlic, cumin, and onion Print

LEFTOVERS:

I didn’t take photos of all of my leftovers, but I really wish I had, as there was a lot left over. We ended up eating a lot of Farro this week. And, I REALLY wish I had put this leftover farro in my Xtrema FridgeX Silicone Food Storage Containers because they are much more beautiful and “green” than these containers. My FridgeX were all being used for some of my other leftovers that night!

TUESDAY

Breakfast:

Erin’s Breakfast

Lunch:

TUESDAY’s DINNER:

Chicken Tomato and Broccoli Brown Rice Pasta with a Simple Arugula Salad- For this meal I split half of the one-pound package of the chicken strips (I froze the other half), grape tomatoes, lemon, and the brown rice pasta. Pantry items: onion, garlic, and chicken broth. I also had some left over Oil-Free Pesto that I made over the weekend, so I added it as well (it would have gone bad otherwise), but this is not mandatory for this meal. Some chopped basil (if you have it) would go well with it, too! Special Appliances or Cookware: Xtrema 10″ Skillet Print Feel free to add a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese to your pasta or your salad (which is just Arugula, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, and Real Salt. And yes, that is my Xtrema 12″ Skillet! LEFTOVERS: We had a lot of pasta and broccoli left over that my partner ate the next day. Although, he did have to add a little more olive oil, garlic, and parmesan cheese.

WEDNESDAY

Breakfast:

Erin’s Breakfast

Lunch:

Wednesday’s Dinner:

Black Bean and Yellow Pepper Red Quinoa Cakes with Roasted Brussel Sprouts and (you guessed it) an Arugula Salad- For this meal I used the brussel sprouts, the yellow and orange pepper, carrots, arugula, frozen peas, celelry and lemon. I also substituted the Trader Joe’s Harvest Grains Blend for Trader Joe’s Red Quinoa. I did so because I didn’t realize at the store that the Harvest Grains Blend my fiance grabbed included Israeli Couscous and Orzo, which are both made with white flour–so…not the cleanest option. Thankfully I had some of Trader Joe’s Red Quinoa on hand to substitute. However, I ended up making WAY too much quinoa. This was the night my friend Billie came over for dinner, so I cooked 1 1/2 cups of quinoa, hoping to have enough food for all of us. We had so much quinoa leftover that I used some in my lunch salad the next day, as well as enough to make an entire meal on Friday. I’ve modified the recipe below to call for 1 cup of red quinoa, as the extra 1/2 cup was way too much. This is definitely the most complicated recipe of the week. But, I was entertaining and wanted to put some extra effort into this meal. Pantry items: garlic, extra virgin olive oil, green onions, coconut oil Appliances or cookware: High-Speed Blender Print

I roasted half of the branch of brussel sprouts after washing, halving, and mixing them with 1/2 lemon, 1 teaspoon olive oil, and salt and pepper. 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Make sure to shake the pan from time to time to brown the sprouts evenly.

Note: The brussel sprouts can roast in the same oven as the orange peppers, tomatoes, and garlic for the sauce.

LEFTOVERS

As I said above, I had a LOT of quinoa left over. But, I also had many left over brussel sprouts, as well. And, I purposely used only half of the branch, so I had both roasted and uncooked brussels for the rest of the week.

 THURSDAY

Breakfast:

Erin’s Breakfast

Lunch:

Thursday’s lunch was a departure for me, as I went to an intensive yoga with weights class that day. I was STARVING when I got home for lunch, so I made the following with the left over roasted brussel sprouts from Weds. and the leftover farro from Monday. I did, however, open a fresh can of black beans, as I was craving them this day:

Thursday’s Dinner:

Easy Peasy Chicken and Barley Stew- For this meal I used the rest of the chicken, the entire package of barley, carrots, celery, and some spinach. However, I’ve added a few ingredients to the recipe, as I simply forgot to add them to my own meal. I think that yoga class really wiped me out! Pantry Items: onion, green onions, garlic, and organic chicken broth Appliances or Cookware: I didn’t use one, but a  Slow Cooker/Crock Pot could also be used for this recipe. Print

 Leftovers:

I had a lot of stew leftover from this meal, as well. The temperature dropped up here in Chicago today (Sunday), so I am about to go warm up a bowl right now!

FRIDAY

Breakfast:

Erin’s Breakfast

Lunch:

I enjoyed lunch on my rooftop on Friday!

Friday’s Dinner:

I was very conflicted about what to make on Friday. We made it to the end of the week, and there was still a lot of food left in my fridge, so I had a few options. My first thought was to make a Brussel Sprout Frittata with Ivy’s Pea Soup with Mint because I had so many brussels left over. But, to be honest, I was getting a little sick of those crunchy cruciferous balls of goodness by then. I also had some red quinoa leftover. So, I started poking around the internet for ideas and found the most delectable red quinoa recipe on The Little Epicurean. I contacted Maryanne (The Little Epicurean herself!) to ask her if it might be ok if I used her recipe, which I would have to modify a bit to reflect Clean Cuisine’s Anti-Inflammatory focus. She graciously gave me permission to do so, and I am so glad she did, as this was a succulent way to round up our grocery challenge! Looking for your favorite recipes online and modifying them to make them anti-inflammatory, is a perfect way to pump of the flavor in your nightly Clean Cuisine meals. We are hoping Maryanne will write us a guest blog post one of these days with more of her delicious recipes! Oh, and I’m also using her photo, as it is absolutely beautiful (much better than my phone pic!). Red Quinoa Bowl with Lime Cilantro Ranch-  For this meal I used the leftover red quinoa (although I made a little extra), cilantro, avocado, the very last of the grape tomatoes–I wished I hadn’t used so many throughout the week! Pantry Items: onion, frozen corn, black beans (that were leftover from thursday’s lunch) cashews (for the sour cream), dried spices (for the ranch) For Maryanne’s Red Quinoa Bowl with Lime Cilantro Ranch recipe, click HERE. I did not have any jalapeño, so I left it out.  Although, I was tempted to steal one from my neighbor’s garden on our shared rooftop, as they have all sorts of vegetables flourishing up there (see lunch pic above)! I also substituted Ivy’s Cashew Sour Cream (click HERE for all of Ivy’s Clean Condiments!) for the sour cream and made my own “ranch seasoning” for the dressing: Well…..that’s all folks. I really hope you like this meal plan for grocery shopping on a budget. I had a blast coming up with (and finding) these recipes for you! I’ll be working very hard in the months to come on the Grocery Challenge Book! PLEASE leave your comments below, as I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for these recipes and budget shopping tips of your own!