Real Food On a Budget - A Hint of Home

If you’re anything like me, feeding your family real food is a top priority. And so is sticking to a manageable food budget. I stumbled upon Lisa Leake and her family’s 100 Days of Real Food Pledge after our last baby was born in 2012. I knew their journey was one I wanted to follow and mirror in my own family’s eating habits.

Growing up in a small farming town, one would think my childhood was full of farm fresh foods. While that was occasionally true for our family (we had a garden most summers), a lot of our meals came from boxes with the word “helper” on them. Our pantry was full of sugary snacks and soda was a staple. Throughout high school, I was a big fan of several fast food joints. My husband tells a pretty embarrassing story about the first time we hit a Taco Bell drive-thru together. I ordered enough for myself to feed a family of four. Gross. Looking back now, I know I made terrible food choices. Unfortunately, you don’t think much of it when you’re raised eating processed food.

My view on food and the things I was putting into my body changed pretty drastically after my husband and I got married and started a family. But we still had a long way to go when it came to eating “real food”. I was basically just winging it, hoping I was making the right choices. It wasn’t until I found Lisa’s blog that I really understood what my family’s real food goals should look like.

Lisa has released 3 cookbooks so far and each one has been a hit. But her newest one, 100 Days of Real Food On a Budget, truly outlines how easy and cost effective it can be for a family to eat real food.

100 Days of Real Food On a Budget: Features I Love

1. Simple Ingredients

This is huge for me! The day I received this cookbook in the mail, I was able to whip up 2 recipes without needing to make a special trip to the store. (Scroll down to check them out!) I love that I can choose almost any recipe and there’s a good chance I’ll already have most (if not all) of the ingredients in my fridge and pantry. There’s nothing like breaking your weekly dinner budget on one meal that needs fancy, hard to find ingredients. Lisa stuck with the staples that most of us already keep stocked.

2. Budgeting Tips and Resources

This isn’t just a cookbook. Lisa dedicates a whole chapter to giving tips and tricks on how to make and stick to your real food budget. She includes ways to lower your grocery bill, reduce waste, tips on growing and preserving seasonal foods, and how to stock a basic real food kitchen. Lisa also created a supermarket comparison chart so you can see where your money will stretch the furthest.

3. $15 (or less) Shopping Lists For Every Recipe

With prices! Each recipe is broken up into 3 sections:

shopping list (with prices and total cost)
pantry and fridge checklist (so you can check your staples before shopping)
ingredients left over (so you can plan your weekly meals and budget accordingly)

4. Special Diet Friendly

I’m dairy free so I love when I find recipes that can be easily converted to fit my needs. Out of 100 recipes, 49 are (or can be) dairy free. 75 are (or can be) gluten free. 67 are (or can be) vegetarian. And 83 are (or can be) peanut/tree nut free.

5. Color Pictures

Every recipe has a beautiful colored picture to go with it. I love when I can see what the food I’m making is going to look like. Plus, who doesn’t love pretty pictures of food?!

6. Weekly Meal Plans

Lisa created 4 seasonal seven-day real-food dinner meal plans, with prices! Each plan is $100 or less!

You can get your own copy of 100 Days of Real Food On a Budget and enjoy all these features (plus more!) anywhere books are sold, or right HERE.

Recipe Sneak Peek

These are two of the recipes I’ve made from Lisa’s newest cookbook and my family wasn’t disappointed. They both came together in minutes and I already had all the ingredients on hand. That’s a win for busy moms everywhere!