This is my first food challenge. It will be for 3 people, 2 adults and one teenager. Now, I must say a few things before I lay out the rules.
1- I am low carb eating. That does not mean Keto. I am not Keto. I have CKD and Keto can be very dangerous. Low carb is any amount of carbs under 150 carbs per day. I consume 100 or less per day. Cheaper food such as rice, potatoes, pasta and beans are very high in carbs. That does not mean we will not be eating those things. I will just need to adjust my portions to stay less than 100 carbs per day.
2- My teenager is a picky eater. Part of this challenge is to teach her how blessed we are to be able to afford foods that she prefers over more affordable foods. It is also to teach her about budgets and to stick to it, plus she will need to make mostly healthy food options when shopping.
3- Meat is very expensive. I prefer organic grass fed meat. It tastes better and that is the truth. However, we will have to see if that is even available at the store we will be shopping at. I can eat small amounts of black beans, pork and beans, or baked beans. My daughter will eat none of these, and my husband does not prefer them. So, that will limit protein options for all 3 of us. I won’t have the luxury to adapt meals for preferences of 3 people.
4- I will try super hard to make this as healthy as possible. I actually think it is very doable.
5- This will not be a live video challenge. Also, I have watched several 5 dollar Dollar Tree challenges. While it has been shown that you can actually buy and create meals with 5 dollars at Dollar Tree, I have never actually seen anyone eat any of these meals. This makes me suspicious if the challenge does not include actually eating the prepared meal. We may try one of those challenges, but honestly I am not going to be happy with food I buy there. It is all highly processed, and we have worked very hard to move away from those types of foods.
6- I use Misfits Markets, biweekly, to provide me with organic fresh produce. I freeze a lot of it, because organic foods do go bad faster. The challenges will be on the opposite weeks of my Misfits delivery and we will evaluate everything we already have on hand before shopping. I can not stress enough, that if you live in a food desert try Misfits Market. It is 22 dollars for the small box, with 5 dollar shipping. It is worth it! I must also add here, the best gift anyone ever gave us was a chest freezer. This allows me to freeze food that is on sale, or ready to expire, without having to use it immediately. If you can buy one, or know someone that wants to get rid of one, they are worth every dime!
OK, for this challenge, my teenager and I will be shopping at Save A Lot. I chose this store because it is a more affordable store in our area. I do have access to an Aldis, about 40 minutes away, but most people especially if they can not drive that far may not have access to that. We will be doing this challenge at various stores in the coming weeks, except Dollar Tree. We have a Family Dollar and Dollar General right here in town. If I choose to do Dollar General I will probably go to the one that is a market about 30 min away. Our local Dollar General does not offer healthy options in my opinion. The Family Dollar, however does, most of the time. We also have two super market type stores, that are very high priced, and both have sold me rotten food. I refuse to shop at either of these places for fresh foods, including meat and dairy.
We will have 25 dollars to spend, for a week of food, for 3 people. If we run out of milk, or bread then we will have to go without. My husband is the only big milk drinker at my house. Coffee, well I hope I have some leftover from this week, lol. We will first go through the freezer and cupboards to see what we already have and then build on that. When things are on sale, I tend to add a few to my cart. This leaves me with a decent supply of stuff on hand. We may have to have a few meatless meals, which is fine for me.
My daughter doesn’t remember, because she was very small, but there was a time when we had very limited money for groceries. We survived, but we did eat a lot of processed foods.
We will share pictures and meal ideas after we shop. I am not sure what day we will shop, but it will be before next Thursday. The challenge will run from next Thursday the 22, thru the 28th,
If you would like to join in this challenge, and you have a Save A Lot near you, please do. Be sure and leave a comment where you will post what you buy and what you can make, so everyone can read your results.
Next week sometime I will share my Low Carb routine, what kind of success I am having, and why I am doing it.
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Living Life With CKD 