Eating Healthfully on a Budget

One of my biggest pet peeves is when I hear people complain that eating healthfully is cost-prohibitive.  Yes, organic chicken is way more expensive to purchase than the factory farmed "chickens."  Organic milk is more expensive than milk from tortured cows.  (Okay, this post might be just a bit preachy.  Sorry.)  Eating cherries out of season (shipped in from Chile) is pricey.  But it is perfectly affordable to eat good food.  In other words, being on a budget is no excuse for eating crap.  By sticking to unprocessed whole grains, legumes, and seasonal produce, you can craft a nutritionally-complete meal for what you would pay to feed your family off the value menu at a fast-food joint.  Dinner tonight is an example.

**In this post, I am using the terms "cost" and "price" to refer exclusively to what you will spend out of pocket.  There are abundant hidden costs to processed, factory farmed food - poor health, animal cruelty, and a ruined environment, to name a few.  But that's for another post, or to read about in a Michael Pollan book**

Tonight we ate red lentil soup and broccoli with balsamic butter.  While I usually regale you with amusing (or so I hope) anecdotes of my family at dinner, this post will break down the price and nutrition of dinner.  Okay, maybe I'll give you a cute Annika story at the end to make up for being so boring.  I hate numbers too, but this is an important point to make!

The red lentil soup consisted of:
one chopped onion ($1.27 for prechopped organic onion, you could save money by chopping yourself but they make me cry)
4 ribs organic celery - chopped (1/3 of a $2.69 stalk = $.90)
2 T organic, extra-virgin olive oil ($6.99 for a 16.9 oz bottle = $.41)
1 lb organic red lentils ($2.69 from the bulk section of Whole Foods)
1 t each cumin and turmeric, 3/4 t coriander (I can't remember what I paid for the spices, so I'll give them collectively $.50)
6 c organic low-sodium veggie broth ($1.99 for a 4 cup carton at Trader Joe's = $2.99)
Juice of one organic lemon (I have a lemon tree, so it was free, but I'll give you $.50 to buy one)

To make it, you saute the onion and celery in the oil and then dump everything into the slow cooker with a little water for 6-7 hours (from my go-to slow cooker cookbook - Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes).  The actual prep work takes approximately 7 minutes.

The broccoli is also simple (thank you Peter Berley):
1 lb organic broccoli ($2.99 because I buy just the broccoli crowns, full stalks are less)
1.5 T organic butter ($5.99 for a package of 4 sticks = $.28)
1.5 T organic aged balsamic vinegar ($5.99 for a 16.9 oz bottle = $.27)

You blanche the broccoli in salted water (okay, $.02 for the sea salt).  While you are doing that, brown the butter by letting it cook over medium heat in a small skillet.  It will foam, then begin to brown.  Once it browns, turn off the heat, mix in the vinegar (careful, it will sizzle and splatter).  Then toss the drained broccoli with the balsamic butter.  Easy peasy. 

The lentil soup was very flavorful.  I might add garlic next time, but it was certainly not bland, nor was it too spicy.  The balsamic butter thickens considerably so that it is almost a glaze.  It makes the blanched, tender broccoli deliciously sweet and buttery. 

Using www.sparkpeople.com and www.sparkrecipes.com, I was able to calculate the nutritional value of the meal by entering each recipes' ingredients:

So (drumroll please) for $12.82, you get a nutritionally-balanced dinner for 4 and 1-2 servings of leftovers for lunch.  That works out to just over $2/serving.  And it is all organic. You might think that 10 grams of protein for dinner is unreasonably low.  I say Americans tend to get way too much protein.  But if it makes you feel better, throw in a serving of quinoa or brown rice and add about $.50/serving.  Also, there is less than 20 minutes of actual work involved in this meal - less time than it takes to hit the drive thru and get home. 

Does this mean my grocery bill is super-low each week?  Heck no!  I buy the organic dairy and a couple servings of sustainable seafood and organic poultry.  I also buy rice milk for Annika and prepacked apple sauce for her lunch.  Oh, and of course there is wine.  But (other than wine) these are not necessities; these are luxuries.  I could survive without them and save a ton of money.  My point is that the basics - while not particularly exciting - can sustain you for a very reasonable price.  Something to keep in mind next time somebody tells you how much cheaper it is to eat McDonald's or how Kraft Mac and Cheese is the only budget-friendly option. 

I will now step off my soapbox and give you the cute kid stories you've come to expect.  Annika was a bit like the month of March for dinner - in like a lion, out like a lamb.  She began by throwing herself to the floor and screaming that she wanted to sit in my seat.  I don't negotiate with terrorists or children behaving badly (is there a difference?) so I said no.  She burst into tears and after about two minutes sobbed, quite pitifully, "I just want to sit next to my baby sister!"  Sure enough, Astrid's high chair had ended up between me and Swede.  It was an easy enough fix to push the high chair in between me and Annika instead.  No, that was not giving in to a screaming child.  Remember, the screaming child wanted to sit in MY chair.  Rather, moving the baby was a mature, amicable solution that we could easily accomplish once Annika communicated instead of screamed.  Lesson learned.  I'm sure it will never happen again.  In any event, Annika dubbed the soup the "beautiful gold soup."  I believe the turmeric is responsible for the hue.  She also ate the broccoli and declared "this dinner wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."  With a four-year-old, that's all you can ask for.  On top of that, Astrid ate all her pureed peas with minimal criticism.   I'll take it.