Food prices? Are they taking a swing at you too?

I've always told Mark that Bella's food allergy has one added bonus: she doesn't eat a lot of processed food - so many have warnings (contains, may contain, manufactured in, manufactured on - did I miss anything?) that we tend to avoid them.

This is good for our health and good for our pocketbook. Eating 'real' food e.g. the food from around the perimeter of the store is what we strive for these days.

Don't get me wrong, you can still get fat from these foods, but at least they are 'real', not loaded with HFCS. Ick. Of course, Bella (and her mom and dad) still get good ol' processed treats now and again, but we don't make a habit of it. Mark always likes to joke that I need to learn to cook horrible food so he doesn't eat so much at each meal. What can I say? I am what I am (ha ha).

Even with eating around the perimeter, food prices are getting crazy so we've been working hard on making our food dollar go as far as it can. What does this have to do with peanut allergy? Not much, but as a food allergy mom, I am hyper aware of what goes into my child's mouth. When there are certain 'cheap' foods you just can't have (like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches) or ramen (most i've seen lately are made on shared equipment), you don't have those fall backs.

Anyways, I've noticed more and more sites giving tips on how to save a few dollars and still eat as whole-ly' as possible. And they aren't just about eating plain pasta.
Here are a few I thought I would share:

From ABC News:
Can Less Money Equal Better Eating?
Healthy Eating Need Not Be Expensive, Even in a Bad Economy

From Vegan Lunch Box (a great resource even for us non-vegans)
Summer VegOut Part 1: Eating on the Cheap

Bonus Site: Sweet Fine Day
These folks are starting their own food business and in the course of it all are watching their pennies - they eat the majority of their meals (probably more than the majority - more like they rarely go out) at home. You should check out the site to see the awesome looking food that they put on the table for their family. Just start at the beginning of their blog and read it all. Jenna explains it all along the way. In no way, shape or form is this family 'deprived' by eating in and sticking to a budget. I wish I lived closer so I could taste some of their products!

So what am I doing? Planning meals, definitely. I make a little menu every weekend and post it on the fridge - i make a grocery list based on that and shop for the week.

I've been trying to make multiple batches of foods (veggie lasagna, veggie soup - yes in summer, and curries) to freeze for additional meals. We also tried our hand at freezer jam last week - from a $4 HUGE box of strawberries we made 5 pints of jam (that would have each cost $4 in the store) that actually taste (gasp!) like strawberries!

We've been trying to eat less meat around our place too, so that's saving a bit. Bella absolutely loves tofu, which is great - not only is it good for you, it's not really expensive at all, especially with all the Asian food stores around here.

I'm doing Weight Watchers again (I want to lose another 15 or so pounds) so I've been drinking more water, bringing my lunch, and just plain not eating as much. Voila! Money saved there too! It all adds up I guess.

Are you guys feeling the pinch too? I'm certainly not trying to cheap out on food for my family, but I feel like my bills just keep going up and up each month without any significant changes (nope, no lobster or filet mignon in there). Mark and I are lucky in that we are a two income family, with fairly low overhead, but with a home remodel (yikes!) we are more aware of our finances now.

What are you doing to keep your food dollars in check?

Thanks for allowing my brief detour from peanut allergy. I'll be back tomorrow with a more peanut allergic focus, I swear - Bella went to her first movie without me today so I am sure I'll have a story or two about that. Oh and I need to tell you about her first week of preschool!

Stay tuned...

Recipe Link

Did you know that some Super Target stores have grocery sections???? There aren't any in my area, so I'll just have to imagine them, longingly, in my mind.

I swear I would feel like I'd died and gone to heaven if I could kill two birds with one stone and shop at Target AND get my grocery shopping done.

I was on the Target site and saw their recipe section - they have a neat feature where you can tell them what you have on hand, and what you DON'T want in a recipe, and it will give you back a list of ideas.

In the screen shot at left (click on it for more detail), you'll see I put 'chicken' and 'rice' into the list of what I have on hand, 'peanuts' into the list of what I don't want, and I got 20 results. Note: I also put in just 'chicken' and got 200 recipes! So I guess it's better if you can narrow it down.

Anyhoo, you'd couldn't just put in 'dairy' or 'wheat' or 'tree nuts', as what you want to avoid, but with a little fine tuning of the keywords you use, you should be able to find recipes that work for you. But you could ideally eliminate recipes with cheese, milk, or cream if you had a milk or dairy allergy.

Is it haute cuisine, epicurious.com, gourmet, or food network even? No. But a majority of the recipes are submitted by visitors so I have a feeling they are very approachable and easy. They look like everyday recipes that a working mom (or a busy stay at home mom for that matter) could pull together for her family (and actually have them all eat).

Just another resource that is helping families with allergies, even in a small way like this (and even if they probably don't realize that we'll benefit from it). Being able to eliminate recipes that contain allergens can help a great deal in meal planning.

Now if I could just get to the grocery store....

Meal Planning

I'm always looking for new ideas for meal planning - gotta keep my tiny child interested in eating so she gains weight (boy I wish I had that problem). Here are a few of my recent ' new finds' (that aren't new at all - just to me) :

• Williams-Sonoma Quick Family Meals,which also includes a great section to help get your kids interested in cooking (found via apartmenttherapy.com)
  
• A nice collection of printable forms for meal/menu planning
• Everyday Meal Planning at RealSimple.com
• I'm not a huge fan of 30MM, but Rachael Ray's site has tons of quick recipes (and a great kids section).
  

Oh, and one last thing: Meal Prep Kitchens
I'm still contemplating going to one of those meal prep places (our local ones are called Sous Kitchen and Deeelish!). Have you ever tried one these places? I emailed Sous Kitchen about 6 months ago and they offered (very nicely I thought!) to let me come in early to prep my food before everyone else to minimize cross contamination. I've even noticed that their meals lately haven't really contained peanuts or nuts. Maybe they are changing their menus a bit to attract those families with nut allergies?

Something to consider or to avoid? What would you do?