Does anyone eat "clean" on a budget?

[minnienmickey]

Unfortunately such services are far far away. I know there are urban gardens in my area, but from my understanding the produce is donated to a non-profit. Not much help for me.

Do you have a CSA near you? I have a work share at my local CSA and get a free family share for the year ($700 worth of produce) and I just work the farm 3 hours a week. IDK if this is just my state or not, but apparently there's a new certification for farms...instead of Certified Organic it's called Certified Naturally Grown. The growing practices are the same as Certified Organic, but the farmer doesn't have to pay the outrageous price or go through the outrageous paperwork through the USDA. No synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics, hormones, or genetically modified organisms.

 

[cheer25mom]

Wow! Thank you for your well thought out response. I want to say first of all I am not a chemist no an expert in the subject. From what I have read on Wikipedia, take the information however you like it, industrial ascorbic acid is made using the Reichstein process which uses glucose (could be from corn sugars) to produce the product. Details on the process are here: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstein_process#section_1 maybe further understanding of this process will provide the answers we are looking for.

From what I can tell ( I don't read German or French well enough to read an article like this) this is the process as I understand it. Thier raw materials are geneticall modified in many cases, but that dosn't make a difference in the asorbic acid produced. They are breaking the raw materials down to the level of the individula atoms or groups of atoms that make them up and then recombining them into different compounds not found in the source material. The difffernces in supplements produced via this process and those produced for citrus fruit anr not in the asorbic acid itself, but in what it is complexed with and the trace componds that come with it from the fruit. Essentially, asorbic acid produced by this process is no different than asorbic acid forund in fruit, but as a supplement it would not give you and extra compounds from the citrus fruit. It is the vitamin in its pure form.

 

[pocomom]

If you look at the actual chemistry, this makes absolutely NO sense. Asorbic acid is a very simple molecule, and can only be asorbic acid if it is exactly 6 carbon atoms 8 hydrogen atoms and 6 oxygen atoms linked together in a specific manner. No other modification gives you asorbic acid and it cannot be missing any of these atoms and still be asorbic acid.

The asorbic acid made in a lab is chemically identical to that found in citrus. The only potential difference could be in the isotope ratios of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen but that would not make a bichemical difference in how the body processes it. There are compounds found in vitamin C from natural sources that are not found in lab created asorbic acids, but they are essentailly impurities that are not removed in processing and are carried over from the fruit. They may be beneficial, but they are not part of the actual asorbic acid. Asorbic acid that is lab created contains only, or very close to only asorbic acid molecues. The missing compounds are not actually vitamin C at all, but other compounds found in the fruits.

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Yet those with a corn allergy can still react to it... which means their bodies still know it's from corn.

 

[cheer25mom]

Yet those with a corn allergy can still react to it... which means their bodies still know it's from corn.

Yes, but they are reacting to trace impurities, NOT the asorbic acid itself. They have to have SEVERE allergies to react to the miniscule amounts of trace present, and it is really rare. The supplements are made in large manufacturing facilities in huge batches and it is difficult to keep every trace of an allergen out. They are reacting to trace proteins, most likley transferred by equipment in the manufactuing process, not the asorbic itself the same way a person with a peanut allergy can react to trace from something made in the same facility that processes peanut. Some people have no problem with it, but for some any tiny trace of thier allergen is bad news.

 

[anniemck]

Wow, lots of great advice! My budget may be shocking to some, but it is $120-150 a month, that is for 2 people. I used to go to farmers markets, but the ones in my current area aren't what I would call farmers markets so much as kitschy gourmet food booths. Farm fresh eggs are $1 per egg, that would blow my budget for the 18 pack we usually buy. I use eggs for breakfast, for making pasta and baking.[/QUOTE

Not much different, $250 budget per month for two people here, this translates to a lot of breakfast for dinner, spaghetti for hubby and many nights of something made with ground beef. Last night he wanted hamburger helper, tonight I will make chicken/dumpling cassarole. A couple nights ago was chicken breast tenders wrapped in bacon and dipped in brown sugar then baked. He had mac/cheese and I had potato salad.
Problem here is he is a picky eater and has to have a pasta or potato nightly, does not like rice.
I am supposed to eat minimal carbs due to weight loss surgery so I do limit it to two nights a week for me. I can make a crockpot of chili and eat off it for a week or two, he won't touch it, but will eat spaghetti daily if given to him.

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

We started our clean eating journey about 9 months ago. Dd, who is almost 2, is allergic to gluten, yeast, mango, oats and dairy. Trying to find commercially produced items that are free of all of her allergens is practically impossible. I have read so many labels only to get to the bottom and see "natural flavors" which can include yeast.

So, I started making EVERYTHING she eats from scratch. For the most part, we don't allow any foods with dd's allergens to be eaten in front of her in our house so therefore we all eat gf/df/yf at home. We have a tight budget of $90 a week. I work full time and bake/freeze during the weekends. Every week we do pasta, Mexican, Thai, chicken nuggets, fish sticks (they are eaten more like every other week), a soup or chili and breakfast for dinner. The girls always have peanut butter cookies, strawberry bars, banana nut bars, pumpkin bread and macaroons waiting to be defrosted from the freezer. I do most of my shopping at Shoprite and go to Trader Joe's occassionally. During the summer we also split a share at a great CSA and we plan on dropping our food shopping budget to around $50-$60 per week.

I just bought a meat grinder today and I am super excited to make my own sausage and add that to our weekly recipes!

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Do you have a CSA near you? I have a work share at my local CSA and get a free family share for the year ($700 worth of produce) and I just work the farm 3 hours a week. IDK if this is just my state or not, but apparently there's a new certification for farms...instead of Certified Organic it's called Certified Naturally Grown. The growing practices are the same as Certified Organic, but the farmer doesn't have to pay the outrageous price or go through the outrageous paperwork through the USDA. No synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics, hormones, or genetically modified organisms.

We're in Jersey too! We love our CSA (Fernbrook farms in Bordentown). They aren't certified organic but use organic practices. I've been waiting anxiously for the farm season to start since we get to pick food from the fields at our farm. Not only do we get the benefits of tons of organic fruits and veggies but we consider the time in the fields as a fun family outing.