The Healthy, Thrifty, Gluten Free Pantry

Feeling the pinch of higher grocery prices?  According to a recent article in the Idaho Press Tribune, the cost of groceries has gone up 30% in the last 5 years.  As of the end of April, the cost of gas and food in the U.S. has gone up 4% this year, and the price of chicken, milk, and bread is not expected to go down for another 6 months.  What that means is that if we want to maintain our already-tight grocery budget of about $100/week for our gluten free family of 4, we need to be even more careful how we shop for food.  (Those of you on the gluten free diet know how much more expensive GF foods, like breads and pastas, can be.)

I outlined my grocery shopping strategies and menu planning philosophy on my original Joyful Choices blog.  In this post, I'd like to go into detail a little more about what kinds of items you'll find in my pantry, as well as items you will not find (that last part is the key).  Not surprisingly, we consume very few convenience or pre-packaged foods.  We don't buy fruit snacks, individually packaged snacks, or frozen dinners.  Yes, it takes longer to cook from scratch, and does require a little planning, but home cooked meals taste better, are better for the environment because of reduced packaging waste, and they're better for you  - just ask my husband who effortlessly lost over 40 lbs. in 2 years by cutting back on sugar and processed foods.  

So what is in our healthy, thrifty, gluten free pantry and freezer?

• Lots of potatoes - russets (we ARE from Idaho), red potatoes, yams, hashbrowns
• Plain rice, brown rice, wild rice, and quinoa (a GF grain with protein)  
• Corn products - corn tortillas, frozen corn on the cob, polenta
• Multigrain Chips and Mission Tortilla Chips from Costco, Nut Thins crackers
• GF oats for homemade oatmeal, granola, and desserts (through Amazon)
• GF flours (kept in fridge), baking products, spices, oils
• GF pasta - Ancient Harvest quinoa spaghetti/linguine, Tinkyada rice penne/lasagna
• Pamela's bread mix (through Amazon), homemade bread mix (I save end pieces in the freezer to make bread crumbs and homemade stuffing cubes for Thanksgiving)
• Canned tomatoes, beans, spaghetti sauce, salsa (stock up when on sale)
• Snacks - lightly salted mixed nuts or natural almonds, Trio bars and Nut Clusters from Costco, raisins and dried cranberries, popcorn kernels for homemade popcorn
• GF cereals bought with coupons, like Rice Chex and Corn Chex (for homemade Chex Mix), and Kix or Berry Kix (for snack mixes with dried fruit and nuts)
• Frozen convenience foods - Kinnickinnick GF hamburger buns, GF taquitos, Udi's and Kinnickinnick's GF pizza crusts, Alexia Sweet Potato Fries, hamburger patties and Costco Salmon Burger patties (all bought on sale & used sparingly)
• Frozen veggies (plain, no sauce) and frozen berries

You may have noticed that I didn't list canned fruits and veggies, a typical staple in most homes.  In one of my posts containing a weekly menu of favorite GF recipes, I outlined how we buy fresh fruit year round.  The price of a bag of spinach or frozen veggies for roasting is also the same year round, so we add variety to our diet by eating ONLY whatever fruits and veggies are in season and, therefore, the least expensive.  This means that I make most of my menu decisions after going shopping, rather than before, so I don't feel locked into buying something that is expensive that week.  Instead, I shop 2 or 3 stores on 2 different days, and only buy what's on sale.  So when cucumbers and grape tomatoes doubled in price last month, we went without those veggies on our salad for a while. 

This same strategy also guides my meat choices, because I limit myself to ONLY fresh meat that costs $2/lb. or less for boneless meat (chicken breasts, pork ribs/chops/roasts, beef roast), $1/lb. or less for bone-in chicken (whole or cut up fryers), and $2.50/lb. or less for ground beef and bratwurst-style sausages.  Don't overlook dark meat, bone-in chicken.  It's higher in protein than white meat, tastes better than boneless chicken breasts when grilled because it stays moist, and a whole leg quarter often costs half the price of a large breast.  (If you don't like eating meat on the bone, use tongs and a fork to carefully remove the meat from the bone after it's cooked and while still warm, since it will be easier to remove than when it's raw or refrigerated.)  Since we eat only nitrate-free bacon and lunch meat (like Hormel Natural), those items are bought with coupons and used sparingly.  When I find a good price on meat, I buy extra to freeze for later.  We also eat a lot of eggs, which are still the cheapest way to get protein, and are very nutritious.  


Other ways we have increased nutrition and cut out sugar or artificial ingredients, without breaking the budget, include:

• Replacing juice with orange wedges - I can get 4 oranges (16 wedges) for less than the price of a half gallon of juice (8 8-oz. servings).  Each wedge provides some vitamin C, and the kids have adjusted to drinking water or milk with breakfast.  The orange also provides some fiber along with the natural sugars, to help keep insulin levels in check (since a spike in insulin at breakfast can cause sugar cravings and hunger later in the day).  Plus, there's no container to toss in a landfill.
• Replacing syrup with fruit-sweetened pancakes topped with butter and a light dusting of powdered sugar.  We used to use real maple syrup, since everything else on the syrup shelf primarily contains corn syrup and artificial ingredients, but real syrup is expensive and still full of sugar.  So I either make pumpkin pancakes, apple cinnamon pancakes (by simply substituting applesauce for the pumpkin in my pumpkin pancake recipe), or blueberry pancakes made with fresh or frozen berries.  I've even tried strawberry pancakes made with unsweetened, strawberry flavored applesauce, and topped with sliced strawberries and whipped cream.  (The key to my moist, delicious pancakes is cooking them in bacon grease.  Why drain the grease when it makes your pancakes taste like doughnuts?  I'll share more later about why fat is NOT our enemy.)
• Replacing sandwiches with quesadillas a few days a week.  Gluten free bread is expensive, often low in fiber and high in sugar (which is necessary to feed the yeast).  Corn tortillas are cheap (I stocked up when they were $1/30 tortillas, and froze several packages in freezer storage bags).  They have some fiber (roughly the same amount of fiber and carbs as 1 slice of wheat bread), and don't contain sugar (read labels, since Mission brand tortillas have added sugar).  With some shredded cheese, a little leftover chicken and black beans, quesadillas are high in protein without the nitrates found in most lunch meats or artificial ingredients found in sandwich spreads.  Served with salsa, quesadillas also provide a serving of veggies and antioxidants. 

These are just a few small, healthy changes that also save us money.  You can have a healthy, thrifty, gluten free pantry.  It takes a little work and discipline, but it's worth it to eat delicious food and keep your grocery expenses from taking over your monthly budget.  Besides, keeping food costs low is one way we maintain our vacation budget despite the lackluster economy and our current unemployed status.  Check back for upcoming posts on theme park vacations with kids, including how to vacation on a budget and find gluten free options at popular destinations like Disneyland!