Dinner Di$as$ter

My husband is a total meat & potatoes kinda guy.  I’m a chips and dip kinda gal.  And we raise our kids eating tons of fresh veggies and fruit.  When we made our switch to organic eating, farming & living we realized how costly all of this was – pretty overwhelming.   And although I’m sure we were meant to win the lottery, so far we haven’t and eating healthy isn’t always the least expensive (in the short term). 

Some Major Changes

1. We slowly learned how to shop differently.  And sometimes accepted the costs of things by NOT even looking at the other products anymore.  (I can’t tell you the last time I was down the regular cereal isle.)
   
2. We started eating a lot less meat.  We have limited our meat intake to 2-3 nights a week not including gifts such as Elk sausage (thanks Jason) or lunch meat.
   
3. We returned to menu planning.  We fell out of this practice a while ago … can’t remember why.  This means that shopping is tightened up: we don’t spend $ on things that we “might” need in general but are clearer on what we do need.

So all of this said, when we have a big roast or something, it’s kind of a big deal!

Yesterday I crock-potted a big Pork Butt (Insert foreshadowing). I’d never cooked a Pork Butt and really didn’t know what to do with it anyway.  But this was one of the two things my Love picked out for this weeks menu. So I threw it in with a bunch of great ingredients – all of it organic – all of it pricey.  It simmered there for a few hours till the sliced yams, carrots, celery etc etc were cooked perfectly.  I called my family in from yard- work to share in this perfectly cooked hunk of butt only to find out it literally smelled like dung. It was awful!  I had my Love check our son’s diaper!  But alas it was dinner.
Can you imagine!?!

Problem Solved

Little Caesar's.

Seriously!?  After all of the work, the planning, the preparation and consciousness, it boils down to crappy pizza!?

Lesson Learned

Eating differently also means that one absolutely has to have quick backup plans in case the roast goes to the outhouse.  Next time I shop I’ll definitely be picking up something easy, even if it isn’t necessarily the best.  I realize I’m going backwards in these cases but not as far back as Rome’s pepperoni.  I can choose some Pacific soups (often on sale for 4 for $5 – beat that Campbell’s!) or Amy’s burritos (yummy),  or some other quick meal but either way they have to be handy & easy.  If we don’t plan for the unplanned we end up feeding our children pizza that I wouldn’t serve my dog… literally…
 
The kind of Pizza I DO like - a la me ;)

Cheers! ✿Gretchen