Low carb on a budget

[SamanthaCarter]

I’m sure this has been discussed before, so please forgive me. I need some pointers on going low carb and healthy, with a pretty limited amount to spend on groceries.

This is for the whole family. I’d struggle trying to do low carb just for myself, because I am bad at raiding food I make/buy for the kids (ice cream, cereal, crackers, baked goods), so *I* need this to be for the whole family. I have no problem limiting carbs for these kids, we don’t really need them as filler because they’ve never been huge eaters anyway. I can also supplement with fruit since I’m not quite so tempted by that.

Please help. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. 

[Pegasus]

The easiest way to keep low carb eating low cost is to stay off the low-carb recipe websites.  They are full of unusual expensive ingredients.  Just shop for normal foods that are both low carb and inexpensive.  Look for sales in the meat section. 

Prime rib and asparagus are both delicious and low carb but expensive.

Whole turkeys, cabbage, fresh spinach, eggs are all delicious, low carb, and inexpensive.

[SamanthaCarter]

31 minutes ago, Pegasus said:

The easiest way to keep low carb eating low cost is to stay off the low-carb recipe websites.  They are full of unusual expensive ingredients.  Just shop for normal foods that are both low carb and inexpensive.  Look for sales in the meat section.

Haha. You are right! 

[Beaniemom]

Eggs, tuna, 

we do meatloaf with parmesan cheese instead of breading, parmesan crusted porkchops

[ScoutTN]

Yes, eggs and inexpensive veggies. Ground beef in bulk is not too expensive and very versatile.  I sometimes buy ground pork to use because it has more fat. 

Cheese at Costco is usually a good price.

Shop the loss leaders! 

I don't usually make fru-fru meals. Protein and 3 veggies for dinner, consistently. One veggie is usually a salad. Fajitas and taco salad are easy to do low carb. Pork shoulder or Boston butt is a good value and makes lots for leftovers. Chx thighs. Crack slaw is good - lots of cabbage!

Don't be afraid to cook with plenty of good fat to keep the munchies away. Evoo, butter, coconut oil, avocado.

I am the same about sweets and junk, I just don't keep things in the house most of the time. Keep willpower challenges at home to a minimum!

Edited November 24, 2018 by ScoutTN

[hjffkj]

Well I learned that when I stopped buying the ice cream, cereal, chips, baked goods, etc I had a nice chunk of change left to use on the low carb stuff.

My strategies:

1.  LOTS of veggies, cooked and seasoned differently so people don't get bored. 

2. Eggs are perfect but you have to vary the way you make them so people don't get bored.

3.  Roast two whole chickens a week, usually one is for a dinner, then anything else is for lunches and maybe fillers for another dinner.  I buy them for 99 cents/lb.  If they are ever cheaper than that I stock up and freeze them.

4. I buy 10 lb  of ground beef once every month or so, then I divide that up into smaller portions or I batch cook and make taco meat, meatballs, etc and freeze that for future meals.  the ground beef cost $1.99/lb.

5. I make sure that I have some sort of fat with every meal because if not people get hungrier faster and then I'm not saving money in the long run.

6. It is very rare that I buy cheese.  It is just too expensive compared to value I feel it brings to a meal.

7. I make my own yogurt using 1/2 a gallon of whole milk and the kids will add their own flavoring to it, mostly they just add frozen fruit

 

I'm sure there are other things I do but I can't think of anything.

[alisoncooks]

32 minutes ago, hjffkj said:

My strategies:

1.  LOTS of veggies, cooked and seasoned differently so people don't get bored. 

2. Eggs are perfect but you have to vary the way you make them so people don't get bored.

Those are great strategies...but these two are where I struggle! Variety and boredom -- arghhh!  Do you have any go-to veg or egg recipes that you can recommend? 

[lmrich]

Eggs

Eggs

Chicken thighs, spinach, eggs. 

I also have a diary allergy so when I go low carb, I cannot have full fat cheeses or milk. Perhaps that would be a good way to go, too. 

 

[regentrude]

in terms of $ per lb of protein, whole turkeys cannot be beat

Edited November 25, 2018 by regentrude

[hjffkj]

40 minutes ago, alisoncooks said:

Those are great strategies...but these two are where I struggle! Variety and boredom -- arghhh!  Do you have any go-to veg or egg recipes that you can recommend? 

 

Not really.  I wing it a lot.  I just play with spices at this point after working a lot with different flavor blends.

As for eggs, omelets are a great way to get variety because you can change the veggies and cheese.  My dh has perfected the egg muffin to the point where I don't even try anymore.  

But I'm sure googling something like moroccan vegetables or indian vegetables will get you started.  That is kinda how I learned which spices worked well together. 

And from my experience, people do not properly salt food during the cooking process to make the other flavors come out. They either under salt so stuff is bland or over salt so all you can taste is the salt.

[cjzimmer1]

1 hour ago, regentrude said:

in terms of $ per lb of protein, whole turkeys cannot be beat

Totally agree with this.  I just picked up 4 turkeys at Costco yesterday for 16 cents a pound.  That plus a pork loin that was $8 off and I got 78 pounds of meat for $16.

[SamanthaCarter]

We don’t consider CAFO meats necessarily healthy, but we do eat some. More so now than ever...

Good tips, thanks. Keep em coming! 

[Bootsie]

I find that making sure that I have a variety of textures with veggies is more important than the variety of veggies to help prevent boredom.  Raw spinach in a salad one day seems very different than cooked in a crustless quiche the next day.  Raw broccoli in a slaw seems different than cooked broccoli the next day.  Raw carrots and celery sticks seems very different than a veggie soup with lots of carrots and celery.  

[ScoutTN]

Soup!! It gives wide scope for the imagination and the budget. 

Chx stock and beef stock are easy to make, inexpensive, and tasty.  We get beef bones from a local farm, so grass fed beef. I can't afford pastured chx, but get no antibx ones, roast them and make stock.

You can add bread on the side, if someone wants a starch.

There are lots of threads here about soup recipes.

 

Edited November 25, 2018 by ScoutTN

[hjffkj]

15 hours ago, SamanthaCarter said:

We don’t consider CAFO meats necessarily healthy, but we do eat some. More so now than ever...

Good tips, thanks. Keep em coming!

 

If you are looking for non commercial meat on a budget you are going to have to go with buying in bulk. We used to split a side of beef with my brother. Buying a side at a time was about $3/lb. And we would use every bit of that beef including organs and bones.

Getting a whole pig is cost effective too.

Chicken is the most expensive at $5/lb and we simply have never been able to afford that.

[lavender's green]

Check out your local ethnic markets. They often have interesting and cheap spices, pickles, condiments, cheeses, and produce. Sometimes the prices on meat, fish, and olive oil are really good.

[SamanthaCarter]

1 hour ago, hjffkj said:

 

If you are looking for non commercial meat on a budget you are going to have to go with buying in bulk. We used to split a side of beef with my brother. Buying a side at a time was about $3/lb. And we would use every bit of that beef including organs and bones.

Getting a whole pig is cost effective too.

Chicken is the most expensive at $5/lb and we simply have never been able to afford that.

Thankfully my parents raise a few beef cows on thier farm. They always have one or two chest freezers full that we are to help ourselves to. We don’t eat pork except for bacon, and we splurged on local free range chickens until this year. We can’t afford them anymore (cost didn’t change, we just have 20% less income).