I try my best to prepare food here that is good for us all, organic or most components organic and best of all fast to prepare. There isn’t a lot of time here for putzing around in the kitchen, not when there are 2 small children, animals, a husband a garden, sewing, crafting, laundry powder to mix, candles and soap to make, etc.
Rob and I are members of 2 vital elements to our household food sources. There is an organic CSA up in walker that thankfully delivers by us each week for $25. Granted right now the fare isn’t local but soon enough there shall be local food to be had in addition to the food grown in our gardens.
The other source is a buying club affiliated with a natural and organic foods distributor. Our foods are purchased in bulk at an incredible savings. For example, here is the list of one of our last three orders through the buying club:
| Invoice Summary |
 |
| Product Total |
Shipping Charges |
Sales Taxes |
Freight |
Equity |
Club Charges |
Total Invoice |
|
| 657.54 |
0.00 |
1.62 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
659.16 |
|
|
The bulk purchase and minimal tax (Minnesota has no tax on foodstuffs) helps a frugal family out! This is a number of months of food on this order! Granted some of it is convenience food, but it’s organic and healthier than the convenience food in a conventional form. I go to the grocery store for fresh things only, and generally those items mean things like milk and yogurt even though I an get it through the buying club. I have more of a savings at the grocery store considering the rate my family drinks milk (not much for cow milk as the girls are soy babies.)
One more outlet Rob and I are looking into is over at my favorite place on the net, MaryJanes Farm. She has this most delicious product called Budget Mix. Think of Bisquick but good for you. It can be purchased in bulk quantities and is perfect for the nights I don’t *really* have the time to make something.
Tonight’s meal was made using the Bakeover recipe. I made the Bakeover part more like biscuits because the dish I made was a little bigger, I really should have doubled the recipe for the Bakeover crust.
Here is what I did:
cooked up some lean ground beef (I am normally a veg. and cook for the family veg. but I’m pregnant and I crave red meat…strange, I know…) then chopped up three of our potatos from our CSA share this week along with some garlic from a share a couple of weeks ago, an onion and some cream of broccoli soup. I made the biscuits, put them on top and baked according to the Bakeover directions. I figure this dish- which will be another meal tomorrow- cost about $5-6 to make total and took about 35 minutes to make. FRUGAL! CHEAP! FAST! NUTRITIOUS! EASY! ORGANIC!
I added to the meal a nice Ceasar salad using all organic produce gotten in our CSA share. The salad cost more than the meat dish! But, it too shall feed us again tomorrow.
A food photographer I am not, but these look pretty tasty don’t they!?
This morning I made sticky buns using the Budget Mix and there are still some left for breakfast tomorrow. There are about a billion and one things one can make using this great item so I think I’m surely going to order it in bulk. They carry trial sizes too, for those of you not sold just yet. There is also a special edition of Mary Jane’s magazine that focuses JUST on recipes using the Budget Mix and the Chillover Powder (gelatin that’s not gelatin!!) It’s definitely worth checking out if you are in a similar boat as we are here.
Dinner was satisfying, great tasting and good for us all tonight and I spent almost no time or effort to make it that way.
Ta ta till next time!
The Frugal Witch 