The High Cost of Everything

When I began this blog oh, so many years ago, one of the things I regularly highlighted was stretching a food dollar and eating healthy. I had 3 growing kids (2 boys, 1 girl) at  home, and a husband who still eats like a teenager. I got away from that as they moved out of the house and this was no longer a huge issue for me.

And then, I went to the grocery store and did that eye pop thing that cartoon characters do when I took a good look around the store. There are empty spots everywhere on the  shelves. Even the meat section is wiped out. And the prices? Holy cow, the prices are unbelievable.

I still cook like I'm cooking for an army of teenagers. And I feel like I can squeeze pennies until they pop. So I figured, why not get back to my roots and the origin of this blog and share that with you?

There are currently 3 of us living at home: me and the husband and our oldest child. (He's with us until this weekend.)

I went grocery shopping last week and spent $39.50.

Here's what I bought:

1 chuck roast, on sale for $15

1 5 pound bag of russet potatoes

1 5 pound bag of sweet potatoes

1 pound bag of carrots

2 pound bag of onions

1 bag of celery

1 bunch of bananas

1 carton of coconut milk

1 bag of lentils

1 box of mushrooms 

2 pounds of Italian Sausage (on sale) for dinner next week

Here's what we made:

Mississippi Pot Roast with roasted sweet potatoes and frozen vegetables from the freezer.

How do you make Mississippi Pot Roast?

You put a chuck roast in the bottom of a crock pot. Cover it with a packet of ranch dressing and au jus mixes. Add 1/4 butter, cut up into cubes over the top. Add 8-19 pepperocini  peppers and 1 can of diced jalapenos. Cook over low heat for 8 hours. (Husband really likes the pepperocini peppers!)

*Mississippi Pot Roast calls for dry au jus seasoning and ranch dressing mix and butter. All of those things are laden with all kinds of things I can't eat.  I used these recipes to make safe alternatives for me:

https://40aprons.com/au-jus-recipe/

https://www.wickedspatula.com/homemade-ranch-seasoning/ 

I used Miyokos plant butter.

I didn't have any canned jalapenos, so I used a fresh one I had in the fridge.  

Please note that I already had the peppers, jalapenos, and fake butter in the house.

Beef Stew

Leftover pot roast

Beef broth left over from the roast 

Carrots

Russet Potatoes

Celery 

Onions

 

Ethiopian Lentils

Note: I did not have fresh tomatoes. I used canned tomatoes that were in the cupboard.

I also couldn't find spinach at the store, so I didn't use it.  It's still good anyway!

https://www.connoisseurusveg.com/spicy-ethiopian-lentil-stew/ 

Black Beluga Lentil Mushroom Stew

recipe here: https://rainbowplantlife.com/creamy-mushroom-and-black-beluga-lentil-stew/

 

Pinto Beans

I used the ham bone leftover from our Christmas Ham and made this recipe, which I really love!

https://thefoodcharlatan.com/traditional-tejano-pinto-beans-slow-cooker-recipe/ 

Enchiladas

I used the leftover pinto beans to make Enchiladas, with corn tortillas I had in the fridge and homemade gluten free enchilada sauce.

Baked Potato Soup

I skipped the tempeh bacon since I didn't have any in the house.

https://ilovevegan.com/vegan-loaded-baked-potato-soup/

With 3 of us living at home, that was 4 meals. (Not counting leftovers for lunch.)

So, we came out to $5.64 per meal.  With 3 of us, living at home that came out to $1.88 per serving. (Again, not counting the leftovers we ate for lunch.)

The biggest problem with cooking like this is that you are cooking from scratch, and that means that you have to plan your meals out well in advance and do some serious meal prep on the weekends so that pulling something like this together on a weeknight is easy.

What are you doing to stretch your dollar at the grocery store?