The point of this blog is to explore different ways to make living the "paleo" lifestyle as inexpensive as possible. In this spirit, I decided to explore our local farmer's market, the FreshFarm one at Dupont Circle in downtown Washington, D.C. After checking out some of the prices, I found out that this was not really an affordable way for me to feed my family. All vegetables and most fruit cost 3-4x as much as you would pay in a grocery store and yes, it was super fresh and easy, but a backyard garden is a much better option if you are looking for freshness AND low cost.
I decided to pick up some peaches (around $11 for about 4lbs) from the Farm At Sunnyside stand. Here's a video of the First Lady visiting this stand a couple years ago. Pretty neat :). I also grabbed apples (5lbs for $13 or so) that were delicious and beets (2 bunches of 3 huge beats for $7 total). Tried the beets for the first time today and they were amazing. Super sweet and not at all dirt-tasting like the ones from the commissary. I might go back just for beets.
My take-away from this experience is that it will be cheaper for me to continue my Costco/Commissary combo for veggies until the summer comes and I can start up my own garden. I will be sticking to alot of frozen veggies and fruit in the meantime and will also explore actually going out to different farms for better prices. The awful prices might also just be because the market caters to city-dwellers. Back home (not the city) I was able to buy 2 gigantic, ripe spaghetti squash for $3.00 total from Iron Kettle Farm. That is unbeatable.
Here's the meal plan for the week:
Saturday - "Fried" Chicken (basically chicken covered in egg/almond meal with some other things fried in coconut oil) &
Sweet potato fries. Bag of steamfresh veggies (broccoli or brussels sprouts)
Sunday - Pot Roast over mashed cauliflower
Monday - Marinated Flank Steak w/ butternut squash baked in coconut oil + collard greens (cooked in the slow-cooker with a ham hock)
Tuesday - Chicken Roast w/ "Dirty Cauliflower Rice" (from the Paleo Comfort Foods book) + leftover collard greens
Wednesday - Salmon Cakes (olive oil instead of grapeseed + skip the cabbage, also using store-bought mayo) + creamed spinach
Thursday - Chicken Tacos. Leftover roast chicken mixed with taco seasoning, served with Wholly Guacamole and salsa over lettuce
Friday - Burger night or premade Turkish Meatball Sliders pan fried in oil
I might be making a soup to augment some random meals throughout the week. Also, I precooked 2 roast chickens as well as the cauliflower rice. The leftover chicken will go to tacos or lunch salad. I don't strictly follow this day by day, either. If it's Monday and I don't feel like frying chicken, I switch it with an easier day like burgers. That's how my meal plan works.
