My Food Budget Update 2011 - Feb Update

My household food budget remains the same for 2011 - $200 to 225 a month (the extra $25 is for when I find a great deal on protein or other bulk items).  I thought I'd periodically post my expenses throughout the year of 2011 to show that yes, it is possible to eat Paleo on a Budget.

Today's goal was to go through all of February's grocery receipts and see where I stood financially for the month.  I had been dreading this for the last week - I had a feeling I was really close (or maybe a little over) on my budget, thanks to a chicken sale at Lucky's last weekend. 

Here is the detailed information I entered into my budget doc this morning:

Writing this all down, I realized something - the kids eat a lot of bananas and our selection of vegetables are limited, to say the least.

Sprout's vegetables prices are outrageous right now - they claim that the recent freezing temps and storms have ravaged their suppliers, so their prices are up.  I've been resorting to buying our vegetables from the Asian market down the street where I can get broccoli crowns for 99 cents a lb and all types of cabbage for .99 cents and under, along with a few of our other favorites (carrots, celery, cucumber, onion, etc.)

No one is complaining in the sudden drop in variet.  You'd be surprised at what you can do with cabbage.  ;-) Thankfully, my son, Mr. "I-don't-like-anything-green", has developed a sudden love for broccoli and stir-fried cabbage and onions.  It makes dinner a heck of a lot easier.

I have to clean out the freezer this weekend and take stock on what we have left.  Once side is finally empty enough that I can start to buy frozen vegetables again (that will help add to the variety) but of course, that means we're getting low on meat again.  Taking inventory will let know what to keep an eye out for when I'm grocery shopping.  We can't let the beef/chicken supply dwindle...not in this house!

***Edited to add - 2 seconds after I hit "publish" my logical side popped on and I realized why my numbers didn't look right - stupid excel.  It's fixed....and everything is 100% correct to my knowledge.

Gary Taubes' Interview on Dr Oz

Please excuse the silence here - I'm working on a couple other side projects that require my full attention this week.  I can always tell when I get caught up in a project - my Google Reader has a 600+ backlog of blog entries and my podcast queue is piling up.  Maybe some day I'll get caught up...

But until then, I wanted to share a link that was posted on the lowcarber forum I frequent:

Gary Taubes' Interview on Dr. Oz's Radio Show - Part 1

and

Gary Taubes' Interview on Dr. Oz's Radio Show - Part 2

I don't know how long these will stay up, so go have a listen when you have a moment...

Strange strange weather....

I woke this morning to a sinus headache and overcast skies - a sure sign that a nasty storm is heading into our area.  (I have barometric sinuses - I can tell from the headache how bad the storm is going to be.)  So, I jump onto weather.com to find out the weather...and what do I see but this:

Let me reiterate - I live in San Jose, California, about an hour south of San Francisco.  We're pretty much at sea level - one well-place tsunami or flood and we'll all need scuba gear.

So, would someone like to tell me why the heck they're forecasting SNOW for my area on Saturday??? 

Strange strange weather....

I see a lot of soup and stews in our near future, don't you?  ;-)

My Kids and Dinner

Dinner in my house is a quiet affair.  There's no food struggles - I put the food in front of them and leave them alone.  Most nights, their plates are returned empty, while some nights, the protein comes back barely touched.  I try not to stress about it.  If they eat, they eat - if they don't, they don't.  They're the ones going to bed hungry, not me, right?

Of course, we all know I don't like wasted food.  So, I did some experimenting and found out a few things about my kids and dinner:

1. Late dinners = peaceful nights - I've been slowly moving their dinnertime later and later as an experiment to see if a late dinner would make bedtime easier.  Well, it didn't quite fix our bedtime issues..but they are better behaved during that chaotic time after dinner when everyone's tired.  
2. My kids would be happy if I made hamburger patties every night for them.  Those plates always come back clean as a whistle. (That's not going to happen anytime soon but they can dream!)
3. They don't like anything mixed in with their protein.  If I'm fixing chicken and cabbage with butter sauce for dinner, I make the chicken and sauce first and then pull their chicken out of the pan before I add my cabbage.
4. Broccoli goes down my kids' throats easier with lots of butter and pepper.  Yum!
5. Fried potatoes are the elixir of happiness for my kids.  Though they're not "paleo", we still eat potatoes every once in a while, fried hard in a lot of saturated fats so they're like little cubed french fries.  Yeah, I spoil them...

So, moms and dads out there - don't be afraid to experiment!  You have your own likes and dislikes and so do your kids.  With some experimentation, you might find a way to get them to eat their meat and vegetables too!

Eat what you like

I recently had a friend ask me for advice on following the Paleo Diet.  I told her, "Buy more whole foods like meats, vegetables, fruit, fats, and dairy, and less processed foods.  Listen to your body and eat what you want to eat.  And most importantly, fill your fridge with stuff you like."

I know too many dieters who buy fruits and vegetables that they don't like just because they're supposed to be "healthy".   Of course, the hated veggies and fruit rot away becuase, surprise surprise, no one wants eats them!  The dieter ends up tossing the rotting produce, which to me is a mortal sin.  (I don't like to see people waste food - if you're not going to eat it, then don't buy it!)

Let me repeat this one more time for those that didn't get it:  Eat what you like!  If you like broccoli but don't like carrots, that's fine...buy some broccoli and enjoy it!  Don't feel like you HAVE to buy those carrots for the vitamins and minerals in them - you'll get them elsewhere in your diet.  If you don't like oranges, don't buy then!  Find another way to get your vitamin C in.  It's not rocket science!