When you're on a budget, buying high quality protein can be difficult to manage...even if you're not buying organic! If you're shopping in the organic meat section of a supermarket or natural foods store, the prices can give you the "
I can't afford this!" panic attack. Here are a few things to consider as you make changes in your shopping and protein eating habits.
1.
Re-examine your protein choices: In all likelihood you won't be able to keep all the same recipes and weekly menus that you had before without increasing your budget considerably. Do you have roast once a week? Pork chops? These are the things that become special occasion dinners. We all know that a plant-based diet is ideal for our bodies, so making this change is healthy for us and our pocketbook. As a raging carnivore, I'm not asking you to give up meat! It's just a matter of looking at things differently while considering some new meat types and cuts, which brings me to...
2.
Whole, bone-in meats: At the super-center here, a three pound bag of mutant sized, solution filled frozen chicken breasts is about $9. At the
natural food store, a whole, free-range chicken is about $10 (or $2.50/lb). Out of that we can get at least 5 meals, including sliced chicken breast, a few soups, and chicken salad just to name a few. After I pick every last bit of meat off that bird, I can get 12 cups of
homemade broth from the carcass. I think that's an excellent deal!
3.
Wild game: This is an option that requires generous friends and the willingness to learn some new cooking techniques. In many areas, it's illegal to purchase wild game (duck, deer, etc.) and, if you're like me, you don't want to ask for things for free. This is when we go back in time and institute the barter system. What do you have to share? Knitting? Fresh grown herbs and veggies? Flowers? If you feel you have no skills you can still offer something...
homemade laundry detergent perhaps? I'm positive everyone has something valuable to trade. On facebook recently, I posted that I'd like some deer meat this coming season and that I'd like to barter fresh herbs and veggies. My friend, Kelli, promptly responded that she has some in her freezer that she won't cook and I'm welcome to it. If you're looking for deer meat you might have to ask, these days people assume no one wants it. If you aren't already sold,
here's a good article on the health benefits of eating venison.
4.
Buy local: There is tremendous benefit in purchasing beef and pork directly from the farmer. If your family consumes a lot of beef, for example, consider buying half a beef. Local, reputable farmers can be found by searching your area on
Local Harvest. I think the best part of this is that you actually visit the farm and see how the animals are treated first hand.
5.
Beans, lentils, and nuts: This is the real money saver on this list. You just can't beat beans for organic protein, fiber, and flexibility. In bulk at our natural food store, red and black beans cost around $1.50/lb and other bean prices go up from there. Keep in mind these are DRY beans, so one pound of dry beans is a lot of cooked beans. I always keep the following in my pantry: chili (red) beans, black beans, garbanzos, cannellini (white) beans, and brown lentils. Keeping these on hand means we always have a source of protein, no matter how tight the budget. One of my favorite bean recipes is my
Taco "Meat". I make a big batch that we eat on for a few days, then freeze the rest for another few meals. If you replace beans for meat a few nights a week, the cost of the organic meat you do buy will be balanced out by the frugality of beans.
6.
Nut butters: Most of us ate PB&J as children, and we'd like to think that our favorite brands still offer the quality they did 20 years ago. Sadly, most of them have cut costs to boost profit and are now selling us peanut butter convoluted with partially hydrogenated soybean oil and a number of preservatives we can't pronounce. If you are fortunate to have a food store nearby that sells organic peanut or almond butter in bulk, that's the best way to get it. If not, it's still worth buying the organic stuff...just be sure to read the label. Instead of eating peanut butter and jelly, we have peanut butter and local honey for it's anti-allergy benefits. We no longer buy
nitrate-filled lunchmeat, and instead eat only pb&h or chicken salad sandwiches.
While I'm on the subject of protein and meat, I'd like to remind you that we get what we pay for. Have you ever seen those cardboard boxes of pre-presssed hamburger patties? They add up to about $1-$2 a pound. Great deal, right? Wrong. Part of what you are paying for is beef hearts. I'm not kidding, look at the ingredients. Now think about what is in .99 fast food burgers...it's not hard to make the connection here. Something else to consider is the inhumane treatment of the animals in our food supply. Those farmers are cutting costs to the extreme to give us the "good deals" we demand. In their short lives, these animals live in their own excrement, are stuffed with antibiotics and steroids, fed food they aren't meant to digest (corn!), and led to the slaughter. I believe animals deserve respect during their lives, no matter their ultimate destiny.
