Archive | Real Food on a Real Budget RSS feed for this section

Real Food on a Real Budget blog series : : Episode 4, At Home With the Gadbois Family

By Tricia on February 21, 2014 in Real Food on a Real Budget, real food/real budget, Recipes

Hey there, I’m Nissa from At Home With the Gadbois Family. I am the mother of nine children, the wife of a deacon. We know a little something about the importance of good food to maintain good health, and a whole lot about how to get that food on the table with a small budget. I was so honoured to be asked by Tricia to share with all of you some of my favourite tips for serving delicious, nutritious food without breaking the budget. In fact, used liberally, you might be able to save some pennies aside for something extra special.

We are blessed to own a beautiful farm, nestled in the hills of central Massachusetts. Growing your own vegetables wherever possible, putting up extras for winter months, keeping chickens or a couple of milk goats if that is possible where you are is the ultimate in frugality – particularly if you have a LOT of grass for those creatures to eat. But that isn’t possible for everyone, so finding a local farmer that you can work with is excellent. If you visit a farmer’s market, go toward the end of the day. The farmers may be willing sell for less, or will put a little extra into your basket.

Plan a marathon cooking session around what is going to be abundant each week. Put extra meals into the freezer for days that are unexpectedly busy, or when Mama is feeling unwell. I learned that I saved – consistently – 30% by planning this way. I tend not to buy on impulse, but to stick with my list; and I had no waste (which saves on rubbish).

As the mother of five boys, who require a lot of protein and calories, my favourite tip for serving up Real Food on a Real Budget is to use clever food combining to get a complete protein without meat. Grass fed organic meats can be very costly to buy in large quantities, and there are times when they are a luxury item to be served in smaller-than-usual portions, or just less often.

However, organic legumes, nuts, seeds, and grains are abundant, diverse, and extremely affordable, especially in bulk. And – BONUS – they look so pretty in jars on your pantry shelf! I recommend trying to locate an organic food co-operative local to you, or use an online co-op where you can get a variety of other natural living products at excellent prices. You can purchase grains and legumes in very large quantities (if you have the storage) and keep them in their whole state for a very long time. {Make sure you store them in glass or metal canisters with tight lids in case a little furry critter should catch a whiff and want to visit your house.}

Just keep these three simple formulae in mind for inexpensive, nutritious, protein-packed meals::

With those in your toolbox, and a pantry stocked to the gills with whole grains, legumes and seeds, all you have to do is add whatever fresh organic produce and herbs you can pick from your garden or buy on special each week for an infinite number of really delicious nutrient-dense meals. Change your companion ingredients and seasonings and you have a sweet breakfast or super healthy dessert!

These recipes make large amounts, since I’m feeding eleven people. You can either reduce the ingredients to suit your family, or make them up and have a couple of meals’ worth – one to put by for tomorrow or the next day.

GRAINS + DAIRY

Baked Oatmeal {50¢/serving or less, makes 12 servings}

Seriously our fave cold-weather breakfast. My husband can’t handle the crash after regular oatmeal. With this, no crash because it is a complete protein. I have loads of variations of this recipe available. Just get in touch with me through my blog (www.gadboisfamily.com) and I’d be happy to send them all to you!

Preheat Oven to 350° F

BASIC RECIPE:

5c. organic oats
1 c. sugar (white or brown depending upon your taste)
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 – 1 1/2 T. spice (see variations below)
3 c. milk
4 eggs
1 T. vanilla or vanilla paste

Combine dry ingredients and spices in one bowl, set aside. Combine wet ingredients with fruit purée. Stir wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add chopped or dried fruits. Let sit for about 5 minutes. Pour into a 1/4 sheet pan and bake, cover with foil, for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for a further 15 minutes. Serve with milk or cream.

SEEDS + LEGUMES

Any Bean Hummus {25¢ – $1.50/ serving, makes 20-24 ( ¼ c.) servings}

A variation on the traditional version made with chickpeas. You can use any beans you have on hand – experiment! I’m using mung beans, which I bought for a treat. NOT economical at $5-$13/lb. But you can use navy, black, kidney, cattle… whatever you can find for a great price. You can also try substituting other nut and seed butters. But not peanut butter since peanuts are actually legumes and won’t get you your complete protein.

2lb. beans or peas, cooked
¾ c. lemon juice
1 c. tahini (sesame seed paste)
1 – 1 ½ T. garlic, crushed (4-8 cloves)
2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. coriander
2 tsp. salt
olive oil (your preference, but I love the green EVOO)
water as needed to achieve consistency

Blend beans (or peas) through salt in a food processor, food mill, or blender; or with an immersion blender until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings. Add a little water if the hummus seems too stiff. Blend in some olive oil, or make a divet in the top of the hummus and pour in some olive oil before serving.

SERVING SUGGESTION: Spread hummus on pita breads, top with tabouli salad and spread. Place on baking sheets and bake for about 10 minutes in a 400° F oven for a delicious lunch treat!

GRAINS + LEGUMES:

Brown Rice and Chickpea Casserole {.50¢/serving, makes 12 servings}

This is one of my family’s favourite recipes, and consequently, my go-to when the fridge is getting empty. I always have these ingredients in the house. Often, as long as it isn’t a Friday, we’ll add in some chicken sausage or leftover roasted meat from another meal to make this dish extra special. Delicious served with a garden salad!

1 large onion, chopped
2-4 cloves of garlic, sliced or minced (your preference)
olive oil
1-2 T. fresh herbs or 2-3 tsp. dried (we like thyme, oregano, marjoram)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp. mild curry (or to taste)
3 c. brown rice (uncooked and rinsed)
1 qt. stewed tomatoes, diced, (you put them up last summer, right?)
6 c. chicken stock
2 lb. chickpeas (cooked)

Sauté onion and garlic until tender and onion is translucent. Add herbs and seasonings, rice, tomatoes (don’t drain them), and stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low and cover tightly. Cook for about 30 minutes, then add the chickpeas. Cook for another 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for a few minutes before serving with a dollop of Greek yoghurt or shreds of your favourite cheese. NOTE: if you choose to use white rice, put the chickpeas in with the rice and cook for 15 – 20 minutes over low heat.

**Tricia here, Thank you Nissa so much for taking the time to share with us. Your photos made me very hungry as I was uploading this post 🙂

If you enjoyed this post, please leave Nissa a comment and share this post so other families may benefit. I hope to see you here every Friday. We have such a great lineup of amazing momma bloggers ready to pitch in every Friday. If you missed the list of bloggers you can see it here as well as the other weeks you might have missed at this link.

Also, I will be back here tomorrow for the Pinterest Pin-along. I hope to see you here and would love to see your projects!

Comments { 8 }

Real Food on a Real Budget blog series : : Episode 3, Front Forty Farm

By Tricia on February 14, 2014 in Real Food on a Real Budget, real food/real budget, Uncategorized

Hi, I’m Emily from Front Forty Farm, and I am honored to be a guest blogger here on Farmish Momma. Tricia is an amazing momma, and she and her beautiful family have been an inspiration to me. I was so excited when she contacted me asking if I would participate in her “Real Food on a Real Budget” series. As a mother of ten, I, too, am faced every day with the dilemma of how to feed my children healthy food on a tight budget.

I loved all of Tricia’s points in Episode 1 of the series. Buying in bulk, shopping locally and in season, not wasting, and drinking water are my favorites. Those four suggestions are probably the most important things in keeping our large family eating healthy foods within our budget. In addition to this, we do have a large vegetable garden that helps out tremendously in the summer, but I have noticed as our family has grown that I no longer have the abundance of produce to preserve for winter use as I used to. We are now eating almost everything that we harvest during the summer, which is great when it is available, but we really miss having the preserved food in the winter. Hubby and I are currently making plans to revamp our gardens and plant a summer eating garden and one that is strictly for freezing and canning. I’m excited to implement our plans and see how it works out. Having more home-grown, organic vegetables (some fresh, some preserved) through-out the year will greatly reduce our grocery bill.Having farm fresh eggs from both our chickens and guinea hens is also a big help. During the summer when eggs are in abundance, I always try to incorporate lots of eggs into the meal plan. When fresh berries are in season, we pick as many as we can through-out the season to make jam and freeze them for smoothies. In the fall when apples are in season, we go to the local orchard and ask to pick their drops (apples that have already fallen from the trees). The price of a bushel of drops is significantly lower than picking apples directly from the tree. We eat apples until we can’t look at another one, freeze them for future baking, and turn many into applesauce. Using what is available, in season, or in abundance is key to saving money on food.

As far as meat goes, we try to buy as natural and local as we can. We have found a local farmer that sells all-natural, grass-fed beef and pork for around $2.99/lb., some cuts being a bit more. Sometimes he has a “cleaning out the freezer” sale, and marks certain things down to $.99 to $1.99/lb. We then take advantage of the low prices and stock the freezer with the reduced meat. We otherwise stock up on the one pound packages of ground beef and sausage, making them part of a meal, rather than the main course of the meal. Feeding my family individual steaks or chops would be much more costly and not budget friendly.

Like Tricia, I buy as much as I can in bulk. We do not have a Whole Foods near us so I am limited to the local grocery store and a small health food store. Our health food store is locally owned, and I do like the fact that I can support a small, locally owned business. I mostly buy loose tea, spices, grains, beans, oatmeal, nuts, dried fruit and molasses in bulk from the health food store. I try to stick to fruits and veggies that are in season and most often the ones that are on sale.

I want to share a few of my family’s favorite, budget friendly recipes that utilize items I almost always have in my pantry and freezer, including the dried beans that I purchased in bulk.

********************

Lentil and Brown Rice Soup

Jane Brody’s Good Food Book

5 c. chicken or vegetable broth, or more

3 c. water, or more

1 1/2 c. lentils, rinsed

1 c. long-grain brown rice

1 qt. canned tomatoes (I use tomatoes that I have canned from my garden, but I have also used freshly chopped tomatoes)

3 carrots, sliced or chopped (whichever you prefer)

1 large onion, chopped (about 1 c.)

1 large stalk celery, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

3 large cloves garlic, minced (1 TBS)

1/2 tsp. dried basil

1/2 tsp dried oregano (of course, you can use fresh herbs if you have them on hand)

1 bay leaf (I omit this)

1/2 cup minced, fresh parsley

2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar

Salt and pepper, if desired, to taste

1. In a large sauce pan combine the broth, water, lentils, rice, tomatoes, carrots, onion, celery, garlic, basil, oregano, and bay leaf. Bring soup to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer…stirring occasionally for 40-45 minutes or until lentils and rice are both tender. Remove and discard bay leaf. (I have also made this in my crock pot, cooking on medium for about 6 hours.)

2. Stir in the fresh parsley, vinegar, salt and pepper. If necessary, thin soup with additional hot water or broth.This lentil stew goes wonderfully with homemade popovers.

********************

Calico Beans

(The original recipe, when given to me, called for canned beans and a can of baked beans, but I have replaced both of these items with dried beans and tweaked the other ingredients a bit to accommodate the substitutions.)

1 lb. ground beef or sausage — browned (can be eliminated)

1 lb. dried beans of your choice (I use a mixture of dark kidney beans, light kidney beans, pinto beans, black beans, navy beans and/or great northern beans…anything I may have on hand.)

1 Tbs. dry mustard

3/4 c. ketchup or BBQ sauce (or both)

2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar

1/8 – 1/4 c. brown sugar, honey, molasses or sweetener of your choice

(I also like to add a couple pinches of red pepper flakes)

Rinse the dried beans and soak overnight, covering with plenty of water. Drain beans and cover with water again. Bring beans to a boil and let simmer on low until soft. Drain beans; pour into crock pot with browned meat, dry mustard, ketchup and or BBQ sauce, vinegar, and brown sugar or honey. I always add one to two cups of water as well. Set crock pot to whatever setting works best for you. I usually cook for four hours on medium heat. I do check it periodically. You can adjust any of the ingredients to your family’s liking…less sweet, spicier, saucier… My family likes the beans to be on the soupy/saucy side, so I add more water if I find the beans are absorbing too much liquid.

We enjoy eating our Calico Beans with sides of homemade bread and this kale salad.

********************

Cabbage and Sausage

This recipe came about when we had an abundance of cabbage from the garden and we needed more things to do with cabbage. It has become a favorite.

1 cabbage head (you may use less…I use the entire head, plus more since I am feeding 10 kids)

2 lbs sausage (I buy our sausage in 1 lb. packages that comes like ground beef…no casing)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 onion, chopped

1/4 tsp. celery seed

Salt and pepper to taste

Apple cider vinegar

I use a large enameled, cast iron Dutch oven for this recipe.

1. Wash and slice cabbage thinly, set aside.

2. Brown sausage along with garlic, onion, and celery seed in large pot or Dutch oven.

3. Add the cabbage, sprinkle with salt and pepper, place cover on pot, and turn heat to low. Cook until cabbage is soft, occasionally stirring and mixing the sausage into the cabbage.

4. When cabbage is cooked to your liking (we like ours to be a bit crunchy), remove from heat and serve. Sprinkle with a bit of apple cider vinegar if desired.

**********

It was a pleasure being here today. Thank-you, Tricia, for inviting me. I’m excited to see what else you and the other mamas have planned for this great “Real Food on a Real Budget” series.

**Tricia here: Thank you so much Emily for being my guest in this series. What an amazing tip on buying the drops (apples that have fallen to the ground). I would never had known to do that! I hope to try at least one of your recipes very soon.

I hope to see you all back here tomorrow for the Pinterest Pin-along. Mine is Valentine inspired. Can’t wait to see what you all have been up to. So finish up your posts, get your pictures done and I will see you tomorrow.

Comments { 13 }