How Spoonful of South Carolina Began

Spoonful of South Carolina came about after a number of my friends made complaints about their grocery bills.  I never thought about how ours compared but once they started telling me how much they spend it didn't take too long to realize that we actually eat really well on at lot less per week than most families.

It helps if you know that Matt eats strict paleo (meat and green vegetables) six days a week.  One day a week he will eat some carbs but nothing too crazy.  I am a vegetarian but sometimes eat shell fish.  The baby and 3 year old are somewhere in between and although both are good eaters they are still tiny people so they may love something one night and hate it the next with no rhyme or reason.  I like to cook but not enough to cook 3 meals at every meal so our meals tend to be what I would call "modified paleo".  We don't eat much sugar and for the most part limit the processed carbs- if I use anything it is local honey and almost every meal includes a protein and at least one vegetable.

For the most part I shop at Aldi.  Aldi is wonderful and the only way we keep the grocery bills as low as it is.  More on that another day.  We buy meat, coffee and paper products at Sam's once a month.  There are a few things we use regularly that Aldi just doesn't have and I pick those up at Wal-mart as needed.   Our bill usually comes to right at $50/week at Aldi plus another $125/month for Sam's/Wal-mart items.  I nearly died when people started telling me that they easily spend $150/week.  Matt probably would die.  

Eating healthy is not cheap.  Matt would love to switch to organic meat and maybe one day we will, but he eats so much it would cost a fortune.  My neighbor orders weekly meal boxes from Saskatoon's for $150/week.  For just her.  I know it is delicious but whew.  Our gym has a ready made paleo meal service but at $12/meal that gets pricy really quick and isn't affordable to most families.  If I was single and had no kids I'd be all over it but there is no way we would pay $48/meal at home.  Not to mention kids should not eat straight paleo because they need carbohydrates to grow properly so those options don't really work for us.     

I decided to put together a collection of the recipes that we make at home.  For the most part these recipes are healthy, affordable and easy to make.  I am always looking for new things to try so be sure to send me your own tried and true favorites!

- Let's Get Cooking-

Leah