Author Topic: What should we do... (Read 1983 times)

Pelly · « **on:** May 17, 2015, 04:33:33 AM »

My family is living mostly on slave mart scraps when it comes to animal food. We have access to locally-grown vegetables through a relative, but pastured meat is far from being affordable for us. This week we got pastured eggs from the local farmer's market, but I want to dump the chemical poultry found in slave marts.
Appearantly, all meat produced in the EU is hormone and antibiotic-free. However, some farmers break the rules.
So, is slave mart meat safe? Or should I go ovo-vegetarian?

PerEvangelicaDicta · « **Reply #1 on:** May 17, 2015, 03:44:46 PM »

Pelly, you have an advantage re: meat quality in Europe. Why not get your meat from a butcher? It's better quality than supermarket meat, and not as expensive as strictly pastured. Friends in Europe tell me their butchers supply excellent quality meat that is not as pricey.

Does Hungary still require that organic meat be 60% grass fed? If organic is better priced than strictly pastured, that's a good option too.

Not sure where you are located but I saw this:

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You can try the Tőzs-Ért kft. at the Feny utcai piac, they are selling szürkemarha. Based on what I found that's the closest to grass fed organic you can find. Another great butcher is at the Fővám tér market, Gál József.

If these are not options for you, here's what our family did, as we learned about the lack of nutrition and - in many cases - the contamination of most supermarket food and meat.

We took our meat budget and applied it to pastured/grass fed meat only, with the goal to obtain the best nutrition for the money.
For example, instead of supermarket chicken 3 nights per week, we have a farm raised whole chicken (sometimes a lamb or beef roast) on Sunday nights. Leftovers for many days afterward, loosely following this idea 1 Chicken, 17 Healthy Meals...
Obviously, the more people in your household, the more your mileage will vary.

Once all the chicken leftovers are used, always save the carcasses/bones to make bone broth, then soup. Or freeze multiple carcasses and make one larger batch.
How to Make Bone Broth

Beef marrow bones also make excellent broth, easily made in a crock pot. Have alone for breakfast or lunch, or saute lots of onions and throw them in the pot, top a bowl of it with your favorite bread, broil with cheese and you have the perfect French onion soup. This is a favorite in our house with a big salad and glass of red wine. Beef or chicken bones can be purchased at your local butcher or pastured meat store. If you follow the directions in the link, you can make more than two batches with one batch of bones.

On other nights of the week, we'll have poached pastured eggs for dinner, placed on top of toast (homemade bread) that is lathered in humus (and hot sauce!), or we'll have various lentil recipes with organic or pastured sausage or hot dogs, or perhaps sweet potatoes with kale and bacon, or pastured ground beef in a stir fry with lots of vegetables, and of course, fish but we buy fresh caught, whatever is on sale that week.
(be careful about which fish you buy LINK)
When you find a good sale on fish or meat, buy a lot and freeze.
And be creative with eggs - there are innumerable recipes for delicious meals.

I'm told there are a ton of recipes out there on how to eat nutritiously on a budget. I'm just giving you a few examples.

I wish I could help more, but I'm not the cook. I'm sure others on the forum can provide better tips.

shin · « **Reply #2 on:** May 17, 2015, 04:22:10 PM »

Have you the possibility of raising chickens for eggs and meat? Of course there are other small animal possibilities too for both those!

The best way to know what went into your animal is to raise it yourself!

shin · « **Reply #3 on:** May 17, 2015, 04:23:44 PM »

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Once all the chicken leftovers are used, always save the carcasses/bones to make bone broth, then soup. Or freeze multiple carcasses and make one larger batch.

I've heard good things about bone broth!

PG · « **Reply #4 on:** May 17, 2015, 04:30:10 PM »

Pelly - Concerning non animal products, when one moves in the direction towards whole foods, the price always drops significantly. Beans are extremely affordable, and there is a huge variety. Potatoes, yams, and other starchy vegetables are more than available and affordable. You do not have to buy organic. Just make sure the food is non gmo. At my local slave mart(that is improving concerning price in healthy offerings), the organic produce is not always the best option(pre cut into smaller portions, and shipped from farther away). You have to weigh it all in the scale and go the extra mile. Slave marts are in the business of feeding people food we should not be eating. It dumbs us down and makes for easy picking.

Marlelar · « **Reply #5 on:** June 11, 2015, 12:31:31 PM »

What is "slave mart"?

CathMomof7 · « **Reply #6 on:** July 08, 2015, 08:48:45 AM »

We live primarily from pay check to pay check. Most of our income goes toward housing, utilities, and transportation cost. We have only about $125-$150 per week to spend total on groceries and household supplies.

We long ago stopped eating packaged food. The only real packaged food we eat is pasta, and that is only about twice a month. The rest of the time we eat meat and produce and legumes.

I make everything myself, including our soups.

In our area, we have several farms and farmers markets in the summer months. We have one place that sells grass-fed, gmo free whole chickens for $6 each. We now have 5 children at home as our 2 oldest have moved on. Two whole chickens a week gets us 4 meals, plus broth for soup. I keep on hand about a pound of farm made hot dogs. Each week we will buy one other meat along with 5 lbs of ground beef, which costs us about $30. Last week we bought ground goat with which I made a goat and bean soup. Very delicious and kid friendly. :) In other words, you can spend about $50 per week on protein and still eat well.

Also, I learned a simple tip from a holistic doctor for those of us who can not afford lean, organic meats. By the meat you can afford in the cut you can afford. Instead of cooking with oil, use organic butter instead. Grass fed organic butter cost about $6 a pound here in the US but it is excellent for cooking.

As for produce, I am actually finding that organics now are not much more expensive than non-organic---and they taste better.

We cut our budget significantly when we began eliminating packaged foods.

PerEvangelicaDicta · « **Reply #7 on:** July 08, 2015, 11:06:15 AM »

You're an inspiration, CathMomof7, for incorporating excellent nutrition into a very tight budget. So many cave to processed foods (thinking they are saving money) and the family health suffers.

You probably already utilize many of these tips 1 Chicken, 17 Healthy Meals, $26 Bucks, No Mayo and mileage varies with the number of family members/size of chicken.

A very frugal dear Catholic friend, who has 5 children also, saves any and all chicken bones after wrestling as many healthy meals as possible from the chicken. She accuмulates the bones in the freezer until she has enough to make broth in her slow cooker, which she uses for soups and other recipes.
I notice she uses her leftover chicken a lot to make chicken curry cooked in coconut oil (red lentils, tomatoes, onion, garlic, curry powder with extra tumeric added). She loves using lentils - although her family is middle east origin - because it stretches the budget with good protein, etc. I have to say it's delicious. She says her family never gets tired of it.