3rd post for Healthy Eating on a Budget

Hi. This is going to sound like it's expensive, but once you purchase the initial pantry items it is actually budget friendly.

What would you consider to be cost effective per serving? $4 ? $2 ? Cooking and eating at home is going to be cheaper no matter what, so start there.

If you spend $4 per serving for 4 people that's $16 for one meal. If you do that three times a day that is going to turn out to be $48 per day. And that IS expensive. It's what most people spend currently.

So we need to cut that in half. Right? Yes. And I will do just that.

But like I said, it is going to look like it's not within the budget at first as you build up your pantry. So below is one of my favorite meals, the recipe and the cost, assuming you do not have any of the ingredients at all.

Once you purchase those ingredients, you will have them on hand for the next recipe/meal and many after that, which will make those next meals half the price. And that's a great budget right there.

Greek Lemon Orzo

Ingredients

1 cup Orzo

1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Large Carrot, diced or 5 baby carrots, diced

1 1/3 cup Shredded Cabbage -(Tri Color Coleslaw)

1 Tablespoon Fennel Seeds

1 Medium sized Yellow Onion, diced

1 Tablespoon minced Garlic

1 teaspoon Lemon Zest

2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

1 1/2 teaspoons Oregano (dried)

1 can White Chicken or 1 lb. Chicken, shredded

2 cups broth or water

1 Tablespoon Fresh Dill, chopped

Salt and Pepper to taste (I use no salt at all)

Directions

Cook Orzo and set aside. Meanwhile heat the oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add the carrot and onion. Cook until softened. (5 min). Add the garlic and cook another minute.

Add the fennel, oregano and lemon zest. Cook one more minute. Add the chicken and the broth. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, simmer for about 5 minutes. Make sure the chicken is well cooked if not using canned chicken. Then stir in the cooked orzo, the lemon juice and the dill.

One serving is 2 cups. = 351 Calories. 31g Protein. 37 Carbs. 9g Fiber. 594g sodium.

Cost

.98 Orzo

1.17 Baby Carrots, peeled 1 lb bag

1.94 Tri-Color Coleslaw - 1 lb bag

.62 1 Yellow Onion

.64 Garlic Bulb

.58 Lemon

1.08 Dried Oregano

1.78 Fresh Dill

Total = $8.79 or 2.20 per serving (that's budge friendly right there)

However, if you do not have EVOO or Fennel Seed you will need to add the cost and purchase those.

6.12 for 17oz EVOO

4.36 for Fennel Seed

$10.48 more

The new total cost is

$19.27 (yeah, that's double, but.......)

As you can see the initial cost to stock your pantry can double the grocery bill for that meal. What works though, is that you will use the other half of the coleslaw in that bag to make coleslaw to go with your Friday Fish meal. You will use the Oregano and the Fennel Seeds

in at least a dozen other meals. You will use the rest of the Fresh Dill on Friday for the coleslaw, for the fish, and for the baked potatoes. You will have many garlic cloves left from the bulb to use in other recipes and you will have lots of baby carrots to use as snacks, or to include in other recipes like salads and soups.

That makes it budget friendly. It makes it make sense. So in the next recipe you will have much less to purchase and that meal will be pretty cheap.

For example: When you make your Scrambled Veggie Eggs in the morning you can add a bit of minced garlic and a shake of oregano and really add some zip to that dish without having to buy more ingredients.

And the EVOO is going to last you for weeks.

I sure hope this is helping to make things a bit easier for you.

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