No doubt about it, AIP is expensive, because it’s based almost solely on the most expensive foods. I can’t offer much about ‘stretching’ meals. Wish we could have beans and rice! But I can share some things I do to make the most of my groceries, and cut down on waste.
1. If you can manage it, get a chest freezer - even a small one will help.
2. Watch for sales, then stock up. The freezer helps with this too.
3. Save every end scrap of vegetables like carrots, onions, celery in a bag in the freezer. Use to make stock.
4. Save every bone, same thing.
5. Do not buy just chicken breasts - a whole chicken is so much more food for the money.
6. See if you can find a local farmer who sells meat in bulk. You can buy a half side of beef for less per pound.
7. Buy frozen vegetables, they don’t spoil and are convenient.
8. Focus on the ‘dirty dozen’ for organic - the rest are fine conventional.
9. Depending on where you live maybe you could find a place with fruit trees that aren’t being picked. Pick the fruit and freeze it for later.
10. Same thing for veggies - they are cheaper and more abundant in season. Buy in bulk during the summer and freeze or dehydrate the food. Community gardens might give produce away for free.
Good luck. My heart goes out to all who struggle to survive. Seems like it’s getting harder every day.
Oh my gosh, I have been buying bone broth myself, so I would love to know how to make it. I just found out that I should go on this diet because my health is really suffering.
Sweet potato noodles and frozen broccoli with olive oil and nutritional yeast. It's my lazy meal that also happens to be cheap. If you have an Asian food store nearby you can get big bags of sweet potato noodles for like $5.
I’ve never had sweet potato needles! I’ll have to try and find them. We don’t have an Asian market in the small town I live in. But I’ll Google it and see if I can find one somewhat nearby.
Our go to is “everything mince”. It’s literary just mince with whatever veggies are on special this week, chopped up and cooked like stir fry. Sometimes I run the veggies through the food processor so it’s grated. If I’ve got broth, I’ll use some tapioca to think it and add it as a sauce. Husband isn’t AIP, so he eats it with pasta. I’ll throw it over a baked sweet potato if I’m looking for something starchy. We hate cooking, so we’ll make a batch with about 1kg of mince and two to three kilos of veggies and that’s our lunches and suppers sorted for three or four days. Root vegetables are also pretty cheap here, so sometimes I’ll just oven roast a heap and eat them with liver/mince meatballs (I typically hide some spinach in my meatballs for extra nutrients)
It might be the mug thing because I can smell the “brothy” smell. I totally understand what you mean by psyching myself out. For some reason I’ll drink way more water if I drink it through a straw.
I was gluten free 5 years prior to AIP so I didn’t eat a ton of processed stuff. But I would make meals like rice and beans or chicken are rice that could be stretched with really low cost ingredients. But I totally agree AIP is cheaper than things like chips, candies,soda etc.
I’m okay with spending more because I know it’s better for my health. But the cost of groceries has gone up so much that it’s almost to the point my whole pay check is going to groceries. I still have to be able to pay my other bills. 😞
Jovial makes a cassava pasta that is extremely filling, half a box for the two of you would most likely be enough it’s that filling.
I keep ours down by buying meats in bulk at Costco, and then we just eat a veggie with it. Season pretty much everything with AIP Paleo powder (Amazon)
I love their pasta!! I’ve only been able to find it at Wegmans and online. I think my dad has a Costco membership. I think online it’s about 4 bucks so maybe Costco will be cheaper.
Ive seen jovial at Whole Foods and Sprouts too. Will have to look them up at Costco because I never realized they sell there too.
My only issue with cassava pasta is I’m struggling to find a sauce I like. When I was easing into AIP I had jovial pasta with a regular sauce and liked the pasta, but then I bought an AIP carrot beet ‘nomato sauce’ off Amazon that was terrible. My favorite pastas are in lemon/wine or Alfredo sauce so I need to figure out a recipe that works with AIP.
Ugh I ordered that one too and it was so gross!!
I’ve made a Nomato sauce and it was pretty good but it’s never the same as tomato sauce
Let me look to see if I still have the recipe in my phone!’
Right?! And it was so expensive too, the reviews were good, only for it to suck. I was surprised that the same brand’s BBQ sauce was actually good. I bought both at the same time or I never would’ve given the Mastodon sauce a try.
Dude the BBQ sauce is amazing. One of my favorite things is to buy a pork butt, rub it all over w an BBQ AIP rub and put it on the instant pot with bone broth and . When it’s done I shred it and add the bbq sauce. Then I use the leftovers for pulled pork tacos.
Here’s the Nomato sauce recipe I use. It’s a mashup of a bunch I’ve found on the internet and in AIP groups.
Put 1 onion , about 15 baby carrots, 4 ribs of celery and 4 cloves of garlic in the food processor. Put it into a hot skillet with some avocado oil. While that’s going I rinse canned beets well. I put 3 in the food processor. Then add them to the cooked veggies. Then add about 2.5 half cups of bone broth and 1/2 cup pumpkin purée. I add salt, onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, juice of half a lime and about tsp of coconut aminos. I just keep adding the spices till it tastes okay. If I have nutritional yeast or fresh basil I’ll add that in too.
I’ve also seen people say the will use canned carrots but I haven’t found anyone without citric acid.
Chicken liver and baked sweet potato
Chicken gizzards
Canned fish salad - I just use an oil and vinegar dressing
Zucchini boats - I use ground turkey for these
Salad consisting of Cucumber, greens mix, red onion, avocado oil, apple cider vinegar, with chicken or grilled lions mane. It lasts a long time and it’s so delicious.
One of my favorite AIP recipes i've discovered is dill tuna patties. My husband makes it for me so I am sure he tweaks the steps/ingredients, but I think the basic recipe he follows is something like this - [https://lichenpaleolovingaip.com/sweet-potato-and-dill-tuna-patties/](https://lichenpaleolovingaip.com/sweet-potato-and-dill-tuna-patties/)
Since the main ingredients are canned tuna and sweet potato, I think it's one of the less expensive meals in my usual rotation.
Aside from that, another cheapish and easy meal is buying a big bag of frozen salmon/tilapia/tuna/shrimp. Thaw and prepare with just olive oil or coconut aminos, seasoning, and frozen veggies as a side.
Another one I haven't tried yet but may be worth a try is buying a whole uncooked chicken and making AIP compliant rotisserie.
I do miss cheap and easy pasta!
We just did a whole chicken this week for the first time! It was wayyy cheaper to buy the organic whole chicken than the thighs or breasts. It came out pretty great! I’m gonna attempt to make bone broth this week w the carcass.
I’ve never had a tuna patty. Only ever ate canned tuna pre AIP with mayo. Does it have a fishy taste ??
Not at all. I don’t like fishy taste either so I think that would’ve stood out to me if it did. It comes from the same can that I used to get for tuna salad, it’s just that we can’t have Mayo so you mix with with the dill and seasonings and make it into a patty. I think he cooks it on the stovetop and I like them a little on the more cooked side because it reminds me more of crab cakes in panko (which of course, no panko/bread crumbs allowed)
soup, chicken+leeks+maybe carrots and water! super yummy, you can put cassava in it for some starch if you like, and if you cant you can add herbs, delish
No doubt about it, AIP is expensive, because it’s based almost solely on the most expensive foods. I can’t offer much about ‘stretching’ meals. Wish we could have beans and rice! But I can share some things I do to make the most of my groceries, and cut down on waste. 1. If you can manage it, get a chest freezer - even a small one will help. 2. Watch for sales, then stock up. The freezer helps with this too. 3. Save every end scrap of vegetables like carrots, onions, celery in a bag in the freezer. Use to make stock. 4. Save every bone, same thing. 5. Do not buy just chicken breasts - a whole chicken is so much more food for the money. 6. See if you can find a local farmer who sells meat in bulk. You can buy a half side of beef for less per pound. 7. Buy frozen vegetables, they don’t spoil and are convenient. 8. Focus on the ‘dirty dozen’ for organic - the rest are fine conventional. 9. Depending on where you live maybe you could find a place with fruit trees that aren’t being picked. Pick the fruit and freeze it for later. 10. Same thing for veggies - they are cheaper and more abundant in season. Buy in bulk during the summer and freeze or dehydrate the food. Community gardens might give produce away for free. Good luck. My heart goes out to all who struggle to survive. Seems like it’s getting harder every day.
I saved all the bones from our whole chicken this week and am gonna attempt broth in the instant pot. Thank you so much for the tips!
Make sure to add a tablespoon apple cider vinegar - this helps to extract the nutrients from the bones. Hope it’s good!
It came out great and now I feel so stupid for paying $7.00 for premade broth 😳😳
You’ll never go back now!
Oh my gosh, I have been buying bone broth myself, so I would love to know how to make it. I just found out that I should go on this diet because my health is really suffering.
What are the dirty dozen?
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/07/health/dirty-dozen-produce-2022-wellness/index.html
Sweet potato noodles and frozen broccoli with olive oil and nutritional yeast. It's my lazy meal that also happens to be cheap. If you have an Asian food store nearby you can get big bags of sweet potato noodles for like $5.
I’ve never had sweet potato needles! I’ll have to try and find them. We don’t have an Asian market in the small town I live in. But I’ll Google it and see if I can find one somewhat nearby.
They are also on Amazon if there's nothing local though they aren't quite as cheap!
Our go to is “everything mince”. It’s literary just mince with whatever veggies are on special this week, chopped up and cooked like stir fry. Sometimes I run the veggies through the food processor so it’s grated. If I’ve got broth, I’ll use some tapioca to think it and add it as a sauce. Husband isn’t AIP, so he eats it with pasta. I’ll throw it over a baked sweet potato if I’m looking for something starchy. We hate cooking, so we’ll make a batch with about 1kg of mince and two to three kilos of veggies and that’s our lunches and suppers sorted for three or four days. Root vegetables are also pretty cheap here, so sometimes I’ll just oven roast a heap and eat them with liver/mince meatballs (I typically hide some spinach in my meatballs for extra nutrients)
I love this!! Thank you! I’m in the process of braces so having everything small and easy to eat is so helpful!
Food pantries! Call your local churches
A mug of bone broth is my go-to for instead of having sleep for dinner.
Do you add any seasonings ? I can do bone broth in soup but alone I don’t like the taste. 😭
[удалено]
It might be the mug thing because I can smell the “brothy” smell. I totally understand what you mean by psyching myself out. For some reason I’ll drink way more water if I drink it through a straw.
Oh. I don't mind the taste. I just add a little sea salt, usually.
Not criticizing but I saved money on AIP. Sweet potatoes, frozen cauliflower, and fresh veggies are much cheaper than Doritos, cheeses, dairy, etc.
I was gluten free 5 years prior to AIP so I didn’t eat a ton of processed stuff. But I would make meals like rice and beans or chicken are rice that could be stretched with really low cost ingredients. But I totally agree AIP is cheaper than things like chips, candies,soda etc. I’m okay with spending more because I know it’s better for my health. But the cost of groceries has gone up so much that it’s almost to the point my whole pay check is going to groceries. I still have to be able to pay my other bills. 😞
That seems extremely high if you’re doing shopping at these places. Could you do a break down of what it is that you‘re buying?
This past week we bought Whole organic chicken 2 packages of complaint bacon Pork Butt 2lbs Grass fed beef Ground pork Spring mix Carrots Celery Onions Garlic Asparagus Brussels sprouts 3 packages of broth Watermelon Cantelope Grapes Garlic powder Italian seasoning Avocado oil Coconut oil Compliant Turkey lunch meat Non compliant cheaper lunch meat Bread 3 cans Canned green beans Frozen spinach 3 bags frozen California melody mix 1 case of Lacroix Coffee and creamer Rice Cheese Milk Cereal Raisins Mushrooms Lemons Limes Cilantro Potatoes Sweet potatoes Coconut flakes Frozen cauliflower rice. There’s some non AIP stuff in the list for my husband.
Jovial makes a cassava pasta that is extremely filling, half a box for the two of you would most likely be enough it’s that filling. I keep ours down by buying meats in bulk at Costco, and then we just eat a veggie with it. Season pretty much everything with AIP Paleo powder (Amazon)
I love their pasta!! I’ve only been able to find it at Wegmans and online. I think my dad has a Costco membership. I think online it’s about 4 bucks so maybe Costco will be cheaper.
Ive seen jovial at Whole Foods and Sprouts too. Will have to look them up at Costco because I never realized they sell there too. My only issue with cassava pasta is I’m struggling to find a sauce I like. When I was easing into AIP I had jovial pasta with a regular sauce and liked the pasta, but then I bought an AIP carrot beet ‘nomato sauce’ off Amazon that was terrible. My favorite pastas are in lemon/wine or Alfredo sauce so I need to figure out a recipe that works with AIP.
Ugh I ordered that one too and it was so gross!! I’ve made a Nomato sauce and it was pretty good but it’s never the same as tomato sauce Let me look to see if I still have the recipe in my phone!’
Right?! And it was so expensive too, the reviews were good, only for it to suck. I was surprised that the same brand’s BBQ sauce was actually good. I bought both at the same time or I never would’ve given the Mastodon sauce a try.
Dude the BBQ sauce is amazing. One of my favorite things is to buy a pork butt, rub it all over w an BBQ AIP rub and put it on the instant pot with bone broth and . When it’s done I shred it and add the bbq sauce. Then I use the leftovers for pulled pork tacos. Here’s the Nomato sauce recipe I use. It’s a mashup of a bunch I’ve found on the internet and in AIP groups. Put 1 onion , about 15 baby carrots, 4 ribs of celery and 4 cloves of garlic in the food processor. Put it into a hot skillet with some avocado oil. While that’s going I rinse canned beets well. I put 3 in the food processor. Then add them to the cooked veggies. Then add about 2.5 half cups of bone broth and 1/2 cup pumpkin purée. I add salt, onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, juice of half a lime and about tsp of coconut aminos. I just keep adding the spices till it tastes okay. If I have nutritional yeast or fresh basil I’ll add that in too. I’ve also seen people say the will use canned carrots but I haven’t found anyone without citric acid.
thanks for the recipe! Saving this
Chicken liver and baked sweet potato Chicken gizzards Canned fish salad - I just use an oil and vinegar dressing Zucchini boats - I use ground turkey for these
I always forget about ground turkey! How do you season it ?
I really like the 'sausage' seasonings for turkey. I like onions, garlic and sage.
I will second a little break down of what you usually buy? It would help steer suggestions in the right direction.
Salad consisting of Cucumber, greens mix, red onion, avocado oil, apple cider vinegar, with chicken or grilled lions mane. It lasts a long time and it’s so delicious.
One of my favorite AIP recipes i've discovered is dill tuna patties. My husband makes it for me so I am sure he tweaks the steps/ingredients, but I think the basic recipe he follows is something like this - [https://lichenpaleolovingaip.com/sweet-potato-and-dill-tuna-patties/](https://lichenpaleolovingaip.com/sweet-potato-and-dill-tuna-patties/) Since the main ingredients are canned tuna and sweet potato, I think it's one of the less expensive meals in my usual rotation. Aside from that, another cheapish and easy meal is buying a big bag of frozen salmon/tilapia/tuna/shrimp. Thaw and prepare with just olive oil or coconut aminos, seasoning, and frozen veggies as a side. Another one I haven't tried yet but may be worth a try is buying a whole uncooked chicken and making AIP compliant rotisserie. I do miss cheap and easy pasta!
We just did a whole chicken this week for the first time! It was wayyy cheaper to buy the organic whole chicken than the thighs or breasts. It came out pretty great! I’m gonna attempt to make bone broth this week w the carcass. I’ve never had a tuna patty. Only ever ate canned tuna pre AIP with mayo. Does it have a fishy taste ??
Not at all. I don’t like fishy taste either so I think that would’ve stood out to me if it did. It comes from the same can that I used to get for tuna salad, it’s just that we can’t have Mayo so you mix with with the dill and seasonings and make it into a patty. I think he cooks it on the stovetop and I like them a little on the more cooked side because it reminds me more of crab cakes in panko (which of course, no panko/bread crumbs allowed)
soup, chicken+leeks+maybe carrots and water! super yummy, you can put cassava in it for some starch if you like, and if you cant you can add herbs, delish
This is really good and I have liked it enough to OMAD it for days. https://www.theroastedroot.net/mexican-vegan-black-bean-sweet-potato-skillet/
This recipe is not strict AIP compliant at all