I want to start low carb!

Carbs are the cheapest to buy ( bread ect)
Hunny weight loss is math, as long as your at a caloric deficit you can have a KD twinkie diet..
I'd vouch that you focus on eating carbs for your budget so its not so stressful, make healthy eating or low carb a priority when you can afford it

however, if you insist, carb cycle to lose lots of weight, buy fresh almonds, or peanut butter / and focus on greens and protein...buy a pack of chicken, boil it, top it with salsa.. buy some cheaper romaine lettuce head and have some eggs

For the shopping list the following week, I would include ground beef to make meatballs for meatball marinara and or meatball soup (lunch or dinner) or mini meatloaves.

Wait till plum tomatoes (or any tomatoes really) are on sale & stock up.
Buy a few pounds, and quarter them, pop them into a baking tin with a head of garlic, topped with olive oil and wrapped in foil. Add a wee bit of salt, Italian seasonings and roast in the oven covered with foil at 350*F for about 3-4 hours or until browned & tomatoes are very soft. When stone cold, toss into magic bullet (or blender or you can even use a submersible hand blender) with the roasted garlic that you removed from the skin & yum...instant marinara sauce for meatballs, chicken parm etc.

Save the bones from your rotisserie chicken from the previous week in a bag in the freezer, when you have about 2 #'s of bones, it's time to make chicken soup. For this you'll need a crock pot. (check CraigsList or maybe a friend has one you can borrow). This can also be done in an oven with a large stock pot or dutch oven but for this post, I'll discuss the crock pot method.

Toss bones into crock pot, add celery, carrots, whole head of garlic, onion and a few pepper corns. Fill the rest of the pot with water & let 'er rip @ low setting for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.

Drain through strainer when done & discard all solids. Put a pot on the stove & add your fresh chicken stock. Add chopped celery, onion, carrot, parsley, bay leaf and salt to taste.

When veggies are tender, add chopped chicken & maybe some shirataki noodles. Portion out into pint containers & freeze for later use.

I also make a version of this with teeny meatballs instead of chopped chicken.

hookilau wrote: »

Perfectly do-able.

Buy a London Broil, a rotisserie chicken, a dozen eggs and some cheese.
Spend the rest of the cash on veggies.

Done.

Depends on where you live. There would be no $ left for veggies if I bought all that.

London broil is typically the cheapest cut of beef and on sale quite often. It's also the toughest and not the best tasting IMHO (tastes liver-y to me). However, I have had it cooked one was that was pretty good...slow and low, like in a crockpot, with a can of cream of mushroom and an envelope of onion soup mix. Chuck is typically cheaper as well.

I'd just recommend checking out the fliers for your local grocery stores online to see what's on sale. My local market has had pork sirloin chips on sale quite a bit lately, like $3 a pound! Pair that with some store brand stove-top stuffing and green beans and you've put a meal together for very little money.

Some fish can be pretty cheap too.

Before you buy rotisserie, see if buying a whole chicken would be cheaper (per pound). While you have to put more work into it, you can also get a lot more meals out of it. Either way, boil the carcass with some veggies for a yummy broth for soup.

MinnieInMaine wrote: »

Before you buy rotisserie, see if buying a whole chicken would be cheaper (per pound). While you have to put more work into it, you can also get a lot more meals out of it. Either way, boil the carcass with some veggies for a yummy broth for soup.

I agree with this. Also, save what you trim from vegetables - tops, onion or garlic skins, peels, etc. - for the broth. They will add flavor and you can just strain them out. I add trimmings to a large ziploc in the freezer until I'm ready to make broth.

Also, frozen vegetables are much cheaper than fresh, so when you are planning to the cook the vegetable anyway, go with frozen.

Eggs are a staple for me. Cheapest proteins to get would be canned tuna and chicken. I have that with mayo plus a veggie side for lunch a lot. I usually buy my vegetables frozen when they go on sale. I get spinach, mushrooms, and squash fresh. Frozen Tilapia and chicken breast bags go on sale frequently, as well. Look for coupons for cottage cheese and the bagged shredded or cubed cheeses too.

I am low income, and I think counting calories is far cheaper than following a diet. My own way of eating is high carb, if anything. And I lost nearly 60lbs, been in maintenance for 5 months.

if you are a diabetic or something, Id consider it.

with 20 or 30 bucks a week to spend on food, I'd be eating a lot of staple foods, like oatmeal, rice, bread, potatoes, pasta. They store well, give good calories per dollar.

Anyways, my diary is open, feel free to check it out if you'd like to see a more low cost way of eating.

Catvocado wrote: »

I suppose I'll use what foods I have left for the week and supplement some fruits and veggies with my last $20. I'll concentrate on sticking to healthy eating and track everything and see if I at least feel better doing this than the free-for-all I've been having. If I'm not satisfied I could always try low carb later on!

I understand you may not be able to eat low carb or exactly what you want right now, but to keep yourself from a free-for-all, think of ways to supplement your carbs to keep yourself more full. You need protein and fat, and thats what helps keep you full.

Here in NY, Costco has rotisserie chickens for $4.99 each. It's cheaper than the Perdue oven stuffer roasters, they are usually .99/# on sale to 1.20/#

I buy 3 of them every Friday night & strip them of the meat. Bones go into the deep freeze & meat gets split up into different containers. I use it during the week to mix into veggie casseroles, soups, salads & much of the above mentioned recipes.

You can look up your local supermarket online to check their weekly circular.

What might be a better option for you is to look through the circular, choose foods that you like & can work with.

Then post again for ideas for using recipes with those ingredients.

For example:
Skinless boneless chicken breast is on sale at my local supermarket at 1.99/#
I can make 3#'s of chicken breast go a looong way.

chicken cutlets
chicken marinara
lemon chicken
chicken salad
grilled chicken salad