Any Advice for Food Budget??

July 15, 2009

Hi all,

I have three ravenous little boys and one husband that is gluten free casein

free and annoyed by all this SCD stuff. My food budget is UNBELIEVABLY out of

hand...and I don't know quite what to do.

To illustrate: today my 7 year old and 3 year old ate about 15 bananas, about

15+ almond flour pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup, half a jug of apple

cider, half a bag of peas (probably half a pound), two pork chops, two large

bowls of chicken soup each (the 6 year old had a third), nearly a third of a 2

lb jar of honey and that doesn't account for the baby (he ate 4 bananas by

himself and a about half a pound of chicken and half a pork chop)or my husband

and myself. I am a stay at home mom (thank god for that...this diet would be

even more daunting if I were working) and so prior to this we were on a very

conservative food budget.

Optimizing the diet with organics, local honey and so on...does anyone manage

this at reasonable prices? Any good ideas for inexpensive but filling dinners?

My go-tos have always been beans, rice, potatoes and veggie soups and

stews...yes, I know, the collective groan. I could hardly have been feeding

them worse!! Conventional wisdom says to push a diet full of whole grains

(brown rice, of course!! It is GOOD for them, don'tcha know?), raw veggies,

hearty potato filled homemade soups, beans and cornbread....yummy and cheap,

cheap, cheap.

So...they are only eating all-natural, organic (when available) chicken, beef

and pork. We do not eat fish (esp. tuna) due to mercury concerns. They eat

carrots, peas and green beans, apples, bananas, blueberries, strawberries,

apricots...all cooked and so forth, except for the banana. Neither of the older

boys will eat winter squash,though the baby LOVES it. They cannot tolerate

zucchini, spinach or asparagus. They eat lots of honey due to the need for

supplements, which taste nasty to a little one and THAT is a dealbreaker when

you are 7! They drink lots of water and diluted cider or welch's grape juice or

dole pineapple juice. They can tolerate fruit leather and the Just Apricots and

Just Peaches dehydrated fruits, but I limit those to avoid overdoing it and they

are pricey. They can tolerate pecan and almond flour, and I need to rotate

them.

Menu suggestions and inexpensive sources of good quality items would be so very

welcome!!

Chrissy

mama to three boys on SCD 7 weeks

Elijah - 7

iel - 3

Alec - 1

July 15, 2009

Hi Jena,

I also cook for 2 boys and If your family can tolerate them bowel-wise, I find the dried navy pea beans are extremely cheap and filling and easy to digest and a great substitute for potatoes, etc. You can make great pots of chili with any ground meat of your choosing, with any tolerated veggie--I use onions, peppers and the navy beans. I double soak my beans--I soak them over two days, changing the water and rinsing them well approx every 12 hours and then boiling them until tender. You can use them to thicken any soup that you want to. Soups and chilis are filling and beans do stay with you. You still can make veggie soups.

Marilyn's muffin bacon quiches are, cheap, filling and great finger food for kids.

Yogurt is cheap to make and great with fruit, chopped nuts, raisins or mixed with home made applesauce. I like mine with salt and pepper with spices over cucmbers that are peeled, seeded, and chopped.

It sounds like the kids are eating bananas because they are hungry and are snacking more than sitting down to meals, possibly? Almond or peanut butter on banana slices will slow them down a little and also stay in their bellies. If they are grazing all day and not sitting down to a hearty meal, it can make you feel like you are always in the kitchen and always preparing or cooking or giving someone a snack. This gets old, fast. If everyone eats all at the same time and then you announce the kitchen is closed until the next meal, it might give you a break!

I use my crockpot constantly. I put a half a pork shoulder ( butt) ( very cheap) in with legal BBQ sauce and at the end of the day, it is pulled pork. You can add beans on the side with any veggie the kids like. Finish the meal with a smoothie using frozen banana and berries. I put pot roast in the morning with salt pepper garlic and mushrooms and we have a great meal.

Try making the souffle bread so you have some bread for chicken salad or egg salad sandwiches. I personally have not tried it, but others on the list like it. Someone just recently posted a gray favorite SCD bread recipe. That might give you more options.

Drumsticks, even organic, are the cheapest chicken to buy. marinate or make a dry rub and put a load on the grill--again, great finger food. Make a bunch and the leftovers are great to shove in a kid's face when he says he's hungry!

When you say they cannot tolerate zucchini, do you mean bowel-wise or taste wise? My kids never liked zucchini until I grated it and sauteed it with olive oil and garlic.

I make a navy bean hummus that we dip fresh veggies into as a snack ( don't know if you are doing raw veggies)

The banana muffins in the Grain -Free Gourmet are kid friendly, easy to make and freeze and relatively inexpensive if you find inexpensive almond flour.

My kids are not 100% SCD because I am the one with IBD. So, I do add starches for them, but many nights we are starch free.

It will get easier with time. Browse the SCD recipes on the different web sites or go to pecanbread.com to get some more ideas. Good Luck!

Terry

July 15, 2009

Sorry, I meant to address the below to Chrissy, not Jena!

Terry

Re: Any Advice for Food Budget??