Frugal Recipes: Spending Less to Eat Healthy

Guest Post: Saving Money & Eating Healthy through CSA’s

Shannon Buck — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:24:03 +0000

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Guest Post by Heather Smith

Cost-effective, healthy, and easy rarely go in the same sentence. In fact, healthy living often gets a bad rap for being expensive and difficult. But the truth is, it really couldn’t be easier, especially when you’re a member of a CSA.

What is a CSA?

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, which basically means that local farmers offer “shares” of their crops to the public to buy. When you purchase your share you are effectively purchasing a membership that will deliver fresh fruits and vegetables (and sometimes eggs and other products) grown by your local farmer either to a pre-determined pick-up location or to your house each week.

Saving Money

Because the produce you receive is grown locally and organically, you’re saving on the shipping costs that typically inflate the price of produce. Since it’s in season, you avoid the fees that are incurred by buying produce out of season. Should you ever find yourself with an excess of produce, you’re able to freeze what’s leftover which makes it easy to pull out vegetables and fruits for dishes later on in the year.

A lot of farmers will also offer days where you and your family can come in and pick vegetables or fruits that need to be cleared out of the farm to make way for a new round of crops, usually at lower prices than normal. So not only will it save you money, but it’s a fun experience for the whole family.

Eating Healthy

By getting crops that are picked at their peak freshness, you’re getting the freshest, healthiest version of the food. Most local farmers grow organically, meaning your food will be free from pesticides that non-organic, store-bought fruits and vegetables fall victim to.

Because you’re getting a box that’s packed with fruit and vegetables, it makes it easy to incorporate them into meals and exposes you to food that you might not have tried otherwise. The produce will also last longer than food that has been sitting on shelves, since it’s coming directly to you.

A Win-Win Situation

By joining a CSA you’ll not only be getting access to foods picked at their peak freshness and are delivered to your doorstep, but you’ll also be supporting the local farmers. You’ll know where your food is coming from, and you’ll save some money and time spent at the grocery store. It’s a slam dunk in terms of cutting back on your grocery bill while still eating the healthy foods you love.

Author Bio

Heather Smith is an ex-nanny. Passionate about thought leadership and writing, Heather regularly contributes to various career, social media, public relations, branding, and parenting blogs/websites. She also provides value to become a nanny by giving advice on site design as well as the features and functionality to provide more and more value to nannies and families across the U.S. and Canada. She can be available at H.smith7295 [at] gmail.com.

Filed under: Guest Articles Tagged: Community Supported Agriculture, cost-effective, crops, CSA, easy, eat healthy, Farmer, food, frugal, Fruits, healthy, heather smith, Local food, peak freshness, pick, produce, saving money, Vegetables

Lemon Sun Tea

Shannon Buck — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:35:41 +0000

Lemon Sun Teais another great beverage for you to enjoy during this challenge. Lemons and tea are both very nutritious.

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Shannon

http://thefitnessjournal.wordpress.com

Filed under: 31 Day Healthy Recipe Challenge Tagged: challenge, frugal, healthy, lemon, recipes, sun tea, tea

Reminder: A New Challenge… Create and Organize and Pantry Space

Shannon Buck — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:31:25 +0000

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In just a couple of days, the Create a Pantry in 1 Month Challenge will begin here on the blog! To start, you can read the page dedicated to the challenge here.

Shannon L. Buck

http://livingthelowincomelife.wordpress.com

Filed under: Create a Pantry in 1 Month Challenge Tagged: challenge, food, frugal, kitchen, pantry, pantry challenge, recieps

Strawberries with Whipped Topping

Shannon Buck — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:21:12 +0000

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Strawberries are a scrumptious, easy dessert for a once in a while treat. Fresh strawberries are best, and are cheaper when you pick them yourself, but you can still sometimes find them on sale this time of year.

Whipped topping is affordable, especially when when using a coupon when they are in sale. Store brands are also tasty.

I do not suggest no/low fat varieties. I used to eat foods of this type, but have stopped. Real foods are better

Enjoy your Dessert!

Shannon

http://thefitnessjournal.wordpress.com

Filed under: 31 Day Healthy Recipe Challenge Tagged: challenge, dessert, food, frugal, Garden strawberry, healthy, Low Fat, no fat, recipes, Special Diets, strawberry, whipped topping

Chunky Applesauce

Shannon Buck — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:17:08 +0000

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I love apples! They are a healthy snack. They are easy to use in different recipes. They are also fun to pick straight from the tree.

Homemade chunky applesauce is a favorite snack of mine, and is so easy to make. You can eat it plain, or add cinnamon and even sugar. For this challenge, I would choose a sweet type of apples and add only cinnamon.

Enjoy your snack!

Shannon

http://thefitnessjournal.wordpress.com

Pancakes with Fruit (frugalrecipes.wordpress.com)

Filed under: 31 Day Healthy Recipe Challenge Tagged: apple, applesauce, challenge, Chunky Applesauce, cinnamon, cook, frugal, healthy, Home, recipes, snack

Baked Squash and Potatoes

Shannon Buck — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:10:06 +0000

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You have come through another week! Congratulations. You have almost completed the 31 Day Healthy Recipe Challenge and are doing so well. I’ll bet you feel good. What are your perceptions of this food challenge to date? Feel free to post your answers here, in your journal or on your own blog. You can even link to this post in your own blog entry. (Please remember not to copy recipes from here or other sites. Simply use the recipe names and link to them. Thanks! )

Baked squash and potatoes are affordable side dishes for many dinner options including animal meats or seafood. They are tasty and filling, as well as affordable. Hard shelled squash will keep for a long time, so pick them up when prices are at their lowest. Potatoes will also store well out of the refrigerator.

Enjoy your dinner!

Shannon

http://thefitnessjournal.wordpress.com

Filed under: 31 Day Healthy Recipe Challenge Tagged: bake, baking, challenge, cook, frugal, healthy, olive oil, Potato, recipes, squash

Deer Meat Casserole Made with Leftovers

Shannon Buck — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:04:40 +0000

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Deer meat is a delicious protein base for a casserole. When combines with leftover ingredients, this deer meat casserole made with leftovers will cost next to nothing. Generally speaking, the deer meat will be healthier than store bought beef and other meats as well as being affordable.

I encourage you to freeze any leftovers in your daily cooking ventures. Doing so will allow you to create entire meals free of charge.

Enjoy your lunch!

Shannon

http://thefitnessjournal.wordpress.com

Moose Meat Casserole (frugalrecipes.wordpress.com)
Venison Helper (frugalrecipes.wordpress.com)

Filed under: 31 Day Healthy Recipe Challenge Tagged: casserole, challenge, cook, Deer, food, frugal, healthy, leftovers, meat, recipes, Venison

Zucchini and Carrot Omelet

Shannon Buck — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:57:36 +0000

‘They’ keep going back and forth on whether or not egg yolks are healthy. I have never made an egg dish without the yolk, so am not sure what to do if not using them. This zucchini and carrot omelet uses both the egg whites and yolks.

A family friend, sandy, boasts that she eats a few eggs every morning for breakfast. She is older than I am and is very healthy. Your doctor can tell you if you need to delete yolks from your diet for any reason, otherwise I would not omit them. They do have health benefits.

Enjoy your breakfast!

Shannon

http://thefitnessjournal.wordpress.com

Filed under: 31 Day Healthy Recipe Challenge Tagged: carrot, challenge, cook, Egg white, Egg yolk, eggs, frugal, health, healthy, omelet, recipes, zucchini

Chamomile Green Sun Tea

Shannon Buck — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:49:14 +0000

Another sun tea

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for your enjoyment! Remember to use as little sugar as possible. And if you have health issues you may need a sugar substitute. Discuss this with your doctor.

Tomorrow I will be posting another breakfast choice!

Enjoy!

Shannon

http://thefitnessjournal.wordpress.com

Lots of Walking in Fort Kent (thefitnessjournal.wordpress.com)

Filed under: 31 Day Healthy Recipe Challenge Tagged: challenge, chamomile, chamomile tea, frugal, green tea, healthy, herb, recipe, sugar, sun tea, tea

A New Challenge… Create and Organize and Pantry Space

Shannon Buck — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:45:09 +0000

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Just wanted to give you a heads up! There will be a new challenge here on Frugal Recipes: Spending Less to Eat More starting February 1^st. This challenged will be called the Create a Pantry in 1 Month Challenge, and will center around finding and organizing a space to store food. It will also touch upon the topic of saving money on food.

I hope all of you will join the challenge! If you already have a pantry set up in your home, you will still find the articles that I post for the challenge helpful. And, you are free to comment about how you have set up yours.

Shannon L. Buck

http://livingthelowincomelife.wordpress.com

Update: Frugal Living (frugalrecipes.wordpress.com)
New Year Resolutions for Me and Frugal Recipes (frugalrecipes.wordpress.com)
2012 Goals for the Living the Low-Income Life Blog (livingthelowincomelife.wordpress.com)

Filed under: Create a Pantry in 1 Month Challenge Tagged: challenge, february 2012, food, frugal, Frugality, Home, Homemaking, organize, pantry, pantry challenge, recipes, saving money, store

Frugal Recipes: Spending Less to Eat Healthy

Guest Post: Saving Money & Eating Healthy through CSA’s

Lemon Sun Tea

Reminder: A New Challenge… Create and Organize and Pantry Space

Strawberries with Whipped Topping

Chunky Applesauce

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Baked Squash and Potatoes

Deer Meat Casserole Made with Leftovers

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Zucchini and Carrot Omelet

Chamomile Green Sun Tea

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A New Challenge… Create and Organize and Pantry Space

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