Broccoli Cupcake

Can you eat healthy if you’re on a budget?  This is a question people ask me all the time and the answer is yes.  Some of the ideas I’ve blogged about in the past are a good start.  For example, planting your own garden or purchasing a share in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program.  That’s the thing about budgeting and saving.  A lot of the time, it requires purchasing things in bulk or well in advance just because they’re on sale.  And there’s a downside. 

I quickly learned about a month into my CSA membership that we could not eat all of the delicious, organic veggies that came in our Saturday bushel.  It didn’t matter how good my intentions were or how many vegetable heavy meals I planned.  I found myself throwing away rotten food, which to me, felt just like throwing away money.  So I had to adjust.  I couldn’t plan to actually consumer all of the produce before it expired.  I had to come up with creative ways to store things so that I could use them as I needed them.  Below are just a few solutions I found for storing what I couldn’t use right away to ensure that I was saving money, not wasting it.

1. I purchased a few boxes of Debbie Meyer Green Bags at the grocery store.  These really do keep fruits and vegetables fresh longer.  This extended the life of a lot of items by several days, which gave us enough time to eat them.  I especially like the bags for leafy lettuces.  You can’t freeze lettuce and not all types are good for cooking like spinach so my options were limited.  By extending the life of the lettuce in my CSA I could use it for salads over the course of about 10 days.  I also used it for burgers, tacos, and as a bed for chicken or beef dishes. 
2. I learned to wash, cut and freeze fruits and vegetables that I didn’t think I could use before they spoiled.  I make veggies with dinner every night, but we like variety.  We don’t want to eat squash three days in a row.  So I’ll keep out the squash I want to use right away and slice up and freeze the rest.  This also works well when things like blueberries are on sale.  This week I bought three cartons of blueberries on sale at Publix.  We eat them all the time, but it’s still hard to go through three cartons so I washed and froze a carton to use in our morning smoothies, yogurt parfaits, or as a topping on ice cream.
3. I found a great recipe for vegetable soup.  Sometimes I make the soup as soon as I get home with my share because I know we’re going to be gone a lot and the soup is easy to freeze and reheat later.  It’s also a great way to use up any leftover veggies toward the end of their fresh cycle.   I chop up whatever veggies I have on hand and cook them in a little coconut oil with sea salt, pepper and a little garlic to taste.  Once the veggies are cooked in the oil and seasonings I add them to the broth already warming on the stove.  I use Wolfgang Puck’s organic chicken broth (you can use whatever brand you like).  That’s about all.  It’s easy and really tasty.  To change it up I’ll add goat cheese for a new flavor or milk (almond milk, coconut milk, cow’s milk) to make it creamy.

These are just a few ideas.  If you’re looking for more tips to save money and still eat healthy you might check out Faithful Provisions.  I think I do an OK job of budgeting and saving considering how much fresh food we eat.  But after going to Kelly’s class tonight I realized I can do a lot more!  I can’t divulge all of her amazing secrets here, but you can check out her blog for yourself.  It’s full of great tips from years of experience.