So this post is meant to inspire those who think a healthy, low-carb, gluten-free, nourishing meal costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time.   This meal had all of the health in none of the time and hardly any cost.

I estimate that this is basically a $5.00 dinner because I took an $8.00 roast and split it in half. I plan to use the rest of the meat at the end of the week for “barbecue beef”.  I probably used a little over a dollar’s worth of produce; a few handfuls of arugula for a side salad, a burdock root and a few carrots, some onions, celery, and assorted spices. 

On the salad I plopped some herbed chevre (a deal at Grocery Outlet) and a few Cajun walnuts that were part of a homemade gift basket.  I added some coleslaw leftovers (a deliciously simple blend of sliced apples, red onions, green cabbage, homemade mayo, and a touch of pomegranate vinegar) which thankfully keep for a while in the fridge!

The roasted veggies were simply burdock root (think parsnip) and carrots cut into small cubes, tossed with dried thyme, olive oil, and salt and pepper.  This could have been added to the pot roast, but I wanted a more crisp-tender flavor, so I threw them in during the afternoon.  If you needed advanced prep, consider cutting all the veggies and mixing the herbs/spices in advance and so they would be ready to throw in right when you get home.  I convection-roasted them for about 30 minutes, turning them every 10 minutes or so.  They turned out deliciously crispy on the outside, tender on the inside!

The roast was a spur-of-the-moment creation based on what I had on hand, which I threw into the crockpot in the morning:

 1) I sliced two onions and covered the base of the crockpot with the onions.

2) I added the rump roast, to which I had inserted about 8 peeled garlic cloves into random slits I made with my knife.

3) I generously covered the roast with dried basil, 21-seasoning mix from Costco, dried leeks, sea salt, and pepper.

4) On top of all that, I drizzled pomegranate molasses (something I got in a gift basket last year). I’m told that this is a great stand-in for Worcheshire sauce. 

5) Over the whole thing, I poured about a cup of homemade beef broth.

6) I cooked it on low for about 8 hours, and after 7 hours I shredded the meet with a fork, added about 8 sticks of celery and let it cook another hour.

Afterthoughts:

This made the entire house smell like heaven today. The kids devoured their meat and my son loved the roasted veggies (my daughter needs to avoid starch, and thankfully she naturally does!).  My daughter did eat an arugula salad, which kind of shocked me!  There are plenty of leftovers with this meal and I plan to take the pan juices (with all the onions/leeks/garlic flavors) and blend them up with some tomato paste, pomegranate molasses, dijon mustard, and a hint of chipotle powder to make a BBQ sauce to serve on the leftovers Saturday night.

I must say, this meal is grain-free, low-glycemic (as long as you go easy on the roasted veggies, keep them to 15% of your meal), nourishing and not too spendy!  And I promise when you eat this way, you start to go longer between meals, not needing snacks for 4-5 hours (seriously) and feeling satisfied for longer periods of time.  Ultimately, that saves money in the long run!

This post is being shared with the good folks at “Tempt my Tummy Tuesday“.

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As promised, I’m declaring the entire month of January a “Fridge and Pantry Cleanout” month whereby every meal will be formulated from stuff I have on hand in the fridge, freezer, other freezer, storage shed, or pantry.  I just finished my proposed menu plan for the week, and I’ve gotta say, I think I’m going to be able to easily make it through the month of January (possibly February too) easily without buying much of anything.

My rules for No-Spend January are:

1) Use everything I have on hand to create all of our meal plans.

2) No going out to eat (unless we have a gift card, or it’s our anniversary—January 13th).

3) There is a $10 spending allowance per week for fresh produce, household items, and eggs. Oh, and maybe organic cream. The husband can’t live without that!  But since we have a winter CSA and a good stockpile of household items (I make lots of cleaners and stuff) we should really only be spending our weekly money on eggs & cream.  Alas, I do not yet have a hen or a cow :( 

4) Post a “before and after” picture of the meal I created, the recipe, and approximate cost breakdown (if appropriate) and how the family liked it.

5) All meals contain real food and are grain-free and have a macro-nutrient ratio of 30/30/40 (protein/fat/unrefined carbs).

So today, I started out by building a meal around something that’s been hanging around the depths of my fridge for about a year and a half. Back in fall 2008, a friend and I went to a local orchard to pick plums for $.80/lb.  I picked a lot of plums.  I dehydrated many of them, ate a lot fresh, and experimented with lacto-fermentation for about 2-3 quarts of them.  Well, I have to be honest that after lacto-fermenting them, they lost all appeal for me. I just wasn’t interested in trying them! But they’ve been on my conscience for several months now, and it was finally time to use them.

I also had a nice pack of organic, free-range Trader Joe’s drumsticks in the freezer (the dear daughter’s absolute favorite) and I thought I would build on the “Asian plum chicken theme”.  It turned out that my trusty Better Homes & Gardens cookbook had a recipe that was easily adaptable.

Plum Chicken with Cabbage
serves 8

1 package of 6 organic, free-range chicken drumsticks ($4.35)
1 onion, sliced into rings ($0.25)
2 cups of pitted, lacto-fermented (or canned) plums ($0.20)
1/8 cup of unpasteurized nama shoyu (aka soy sauce) ($0.25)
4 garlic cloves ($0.10)
1 ” piece of fresh ginger ($0.05)
1-2 Tablespoons of raw honey ($0.25)
1/2 tsp five spice powder ($0.05)
2 cups of shredded savoy cabbage ($0.50)
1 cup chopped celery ($0.25)
lacto-fermented ginger carrots, for garnish ($0.25)

Total : ~$6.50

For this meal only: $3.25

In a 6 quart crock pot, place the sliced onions.  Top with the drumsticks (mine were frozen). Meanwhile, in blender, blend the plums, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and five spice powder.  Pour over the chicken.  Cook for about 6 hours on low (or at least that’s what I did).  Add shredded cabbage and celery and cook for 30 minutes until veggies are slightly tender but not completely limp.  Serve with lacto-fermented ginger carrots and pass the hoisin sauce (we happened to have a little left from a long time ago that was still good).

The Outcome:

Very good! My 4 year old gobbled up the chicken but ignored the cabbage. We had a friend who cleaned his plate and enjoyed it, and I thought it was a very tasty, refreshing meal (as did my husband). And, I have two large pyrex bowls leftover, which will provide for two more meals for us this next week. So overall, I would say $6.50 for 3 meals makes this meal officially a “$5.00 dinner”, even with using organic, free-range chicken. This would have tasted great sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and scallions (which I didn’t have).  The chicken is really flavorful and falls right off the bone, which makes it easy to “stretch” the chicken further.  My daughter was the only one who insisted on having her own drumstick.

Leftover suggestions: Wrap with a lettuce leaf for Asian-inspired lettuce wraps, add to chicken broth for an Asian-inspired chicken soup.

Some thoughts: For a family of 4 plus 1 male guest, this meal made plenty with leftovers.  I think it’s so nice and satisfying to know that you can use high quality, organic ingredients and eat a filling, grain-free, low carb meal!  The dark meat of the drumsticks has more fat (which is a good thing; it will fill you up!) and also contains more minerals. It’s also the thriftiest part of an organic, free-range chicken to buy. This meal would obviously be way cheaper with conventional chicken, but knowing what I know about how these chickens are raised, I prefer organic. I figure that the extra money I pay is providing more nutrients (organic, free-range meat has more omega-3s than conventional and more nutrients as well) which means that ultimately I’m eating less calories to consume the nutrients I need. 

Thus concludes Day One of the Fridge and Pantry Cleanout. Join me tomorrow as I piece together another meal from the “fragments”…I press on until I can reach all the way into the back of my fridge, freezer, pantry, and storage shed!

If you’d like to “subscribe” to this blog, I have a ghetto way of doing it: You e-mail me: carrie [at] organicthrifty [dot] com and ask me to add you to my subscription list. You’ll get an e-mail whenever a new post is up. Or you can follow on twitter! 

Also: Do you have any delicious, filling ways of cooking Butternut Squash or Pumpkin that are Grain-Free? I have enough in storage to last me till kingdom come and need some inspiration!  E-mail me (see above) if you have any ideas!

For this recipe, you’ll save lots of money by making your beans from “scratch”, meaning that you purchase them dry (at $0.10 per ounce, it’s a true bargain!) and effortlessly cook them in your slow cooker. Keep reading for the recipe.

This recipe for refried beans makes 15 servings, which for my family is about 4 meal’s worth. These can be made into burritos and frozen for a quick, convenient meal-on-the-go. I tweaked the recipe slightly, but the link below will lead you to the instructions on how to make this!

The Ingredients:

Refried Beans:

1 onion, peeled and halved ($0.25 when purchased in bulk from Costco)
3 cups Western Family navy beans, rinsed ($0.50 for 3 cups)
1/2 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped ($0.25)
2 tablespoons minced garlic ($0.35)
5 teaspoons salt ($0.03)
1 3/4 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper ($0.02)
3 teaspoons ground cumin ($0.36)
3 teaspoons chili powder ($0.33)
1 teaspoons oregano ($0.26)
9 cups water

Total Cost for Refried Beans (15 servings, mind you!) $2.10

5-Layer Dip

3 cups refried navy beans ($0.70)
1/2 lb roma tomatoes (diced) ($1.00)
1 avocado*($2.50) mashed, seasoned with salt, pepper, and juice of 1 lemon ($0.60)
1/4 bunch of cilantro ($0.30)
1/2 fresh jalapeno, seeded and chopped ($0.25)
1/2 yellow onion, chopped ($0.13 when purchased at Costco)

Directions:

Spread the warmed refried beans in the bottom of an 8 x 12 casserole. Next, cover with diced tomatoes, then onions, then cilantro and jalapeno. Cover with mashed avocado. Serve with sliced carrots, for dipping ($0.25) or if you can tolerate them, Blue Corn Chips ($1.00 for 1 meal’s worth).

Total Cost for Meal (carrots only): $5.72 (with chips): $6.72

*Why that expensive avocado? Is it really worth it?

Yeah, that avocado really pops out to me as uber-expensive, making the meal a little more costly than without. Nutritionally,however, the avocado is an important component when fasting because it supplies lots and lots of good fats, taking the place of dairy in a traditional dip. If you really want to save money, you can get the avocado elsewhere (Grocery Outlet has them for $0.80!) which would make the meal legitimately under $5.00!

For more bargain meals at a local store near you, visit $5 Dinners!

This recipe is modified from Mabel Hoffman’s book, Healthy Crockery Cookery, my all time favorite slow cooker book!

Cabbage Burger Bake (this makes 2 meals!)

3/4 lb. of ground beef ($2.24 on sale)
1/2 a cabbage, shredded ($1.29)
1/2 # of carrots, shredded ($0.30, great price on organic carrots!)
1/2 tsp salt ($0.10)
1/4 tsp pepper ($0.10)
1 medium onion, chopped ($0.25, but I buy them in bulk from Costco)
1 cup long-grain rice ($0.75, on sale)
1 can (16 oz. size) tomato sauce ($1.29 at New Seasons)
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon dried basil leaves — crushed ($0.10)
1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt ($0.10)

Follow the recipe found here. So easy!

Total: $6.52 for 2 meals (freeze half and when you reheat it, freshen it up with an ounce or two of some shredded parmesan cheese $1.54)

$3.26 per meal

For more Bargain Meals, visit $5 Dinners.

Slow-Cooked Shredded Beef Tostados

1 bottomless round roast (approx. 3 lbs) $8.97 (@ $2.99/lb)
2 medium onions, sliced ($0.25 each from Costco)
2 cups beef or chicken stock, homemade preferably ($0.30 if homemade)
5 tablespoons chili powder ($0.62 on sale)
3 tablespoons onion powder ($0.45 on sale)
1 tablespoon each cumin, garlic powder, paprika, powdered oregano, and Rapadura (evaporated cane juice) (est. cost $1.25 all on sale except Rapadura)
2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt (on major sale at $0.50/lb)
4 diced serrano peppers ($0.40)
3 tablespoons arrowroot powder and enough water to make a paste ($0.31 on sale)
1 package sprouted corn tortillas (Food for Life brand) optional ($2.50) or
1 package rice tortillas (For for Life brand)($2.50) or
4 leaves romaine lettuce (if you’re going grain-free) ($0.50)
3 or more tablespoons olive oil or melted lard for tortillas ($0.10)

Total (using tortillas): $14.97 divided by 4: $3.74 per meal!
Total (sans tortillas) : $12.47 divided by 4: $ 3.12 per meal!

Optional: TOPPINGS (I suggest you just use what you have or what’s in season where you live to save money):

Shredded raw cheese, lettuce, tomato, avocado, salsa, sour cream, cortido (recipe in Nourishing Traditions).

Place beef and onion in slow cooker. Combine stock and seasonings in a small bowl. Pour over beef and onion. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or until tender. Remove largest pieces of meat to bowl or cutting board and shred with two forks. Add arrowroot paste to the leftover juices at the bottom of the slow cooker. Once thick, stir in the meat and chilies.

While the meat is cooking, prepare tortillas. Brush both sides with olive oil or lard and bake in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes until crisp.

Place the meat on the tortilla and top with toppings as desired.

Modified from Source.

For more Bargain Meals under $5, visit 5 Dollar Dinners for a store near you!

This recipe is surprisingly simple to make in the slow cooker. It took about 10 minutes to prepare and 8 hours to cook. Combined with favorite taco toppings and safely tucked into an appropriate tortilla, your loved ones will never know they’re eating tongue!
I know this looks like a total turnoff, but believe me, it’s good! This is 1 beef tongue, covered with water and 1 onion, sliced. There is also one bay leaf floating around in there. There are also 6 cloves of crushed garlic. I added about 1 TBS of cumin to the recipe because I felt it needed a little bit more “kick”. I also added a strip of kelp (kombu), even though the recipe called for salt to taste. I simply covered and turned on the crock pot and forgot about it. Then 8 hours later, I found this:

Still not the most appetizing, but oodles of delicious, gelatinous broth along with some tasty shredded beef await!

Remove the tongue. Cut away and discard the outer covering. Shred the beef with a fork or cut into little cubes. Top with your favorite taco condiments:

The verdict? Two thumbs up! My children devoured this dish, and my husband enjoyed his “hidden” in a rice tortilla! The leftovers cooked up wonderfully, refried in lard, with a splash of fresh-squeezed orange juice and chili spices.

The price breakdown is as follows:

Tongue $1.75 (this is 1/3 of the tongue, plenty for 4)
1 Onion $0.25
1 Bay Leaf $0.02
6 Cloves Garlic $0.10
1 TBS Cumin $0.10
1 Roma Tomato $0.50
1 Serrano Pepper $0.10
Shredded Cheese $1.00 (this is the raw, organic stuff,cheaper otherwise)
Romaine Lettuce $0.25
1 Lime $0.30
4 Scallions $0.50

Total: $4.87

For more frugal and healthy meal ideas, visit $5 Dinners!

Taco Meat w/ Hidden Veggies
serves 6-8

My family eats this like it’s going out of style! It’s great for a nourishing lunch or dinner. I use it to make tacos, burritos, taco salad, or just top with avocado and fresh tomatoes and leave it alone!

1 pound ground beef or turkey ( preferably from organic/free range/grass fed animals)
3 scallions, including tops, sliced
1 large bunch spinach , wash, stemmed, and cut into 1/4 ” slices
2 carrots, peeled and shredd
1 packet dry taco seasonings (I make my own to avoid MSG found in most all packaged taco seasonings using garlic powder, cumin, chili powder, coriander, oregano , and sea salt. I just let the spirit lead when it comes to amounts, but it’s never been bad! )

To make your own taco seasoning mix, check out this website.

Directions: Mix crumbled meat with taco seasoning s and place in slow cooker. Layer with the vegetables. Cover and cook on LOW for 4 hours or until onions are tender.

Note: Despite the inclusion of spinach, it does not detract at all from the overall flavor and texture. Rather, it absorbs the flavors very impressively and melds quite well with the meat. So much so that my children never bat an eye when eating it!