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Why you need big freezer deep freeze frozen Paleo Network-min

Why you need a big freezer

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I’m lucky to have a fairly big freezer, and I can’t recommend it enough, for so many paleo reasons. Here's why a good size freezer could transform your paleo diet

Why you need big freezer deep freeze frozen Paleo Network-min

Once a week cooking

I’m a huge fan of batch cooking – if you’re going to go to the effort of cooking dinner, why not make 8 dinners out of it? Whatever I’m making, I always at least double up the ingredients. I freeze individual portions in large freezer bags that I lay flat. This means they’ll defrost far quicker than if you freeze them in a big lump.

Grass-fed meat in bulk

So many farmers will sell amazing quality grass-fed beef – but only if you’ll buy a whole cow, or even just a quarter. This is great to share with friends – it’s far cheaper, you get some great cuts you might otherwise overlook. But it will need a lot of freezer space. With a big freezer, you could get all the meat you need to last for months and months in one purchase.

No wastage

If you’ve had a big harvest of home grown veggies, just freeze it for fresh home grown produce, all year round.

Smoothies always ready

Fruit is another great reason to have a good size freezer. Grad a handful of berries and add to your blender mix for an instant ice cool smoothie.

Paleo ice cream

Who needs an ice cream maker when you can make your own paleo ice cream and have it waiting for you in the freezer!

Budget conscious

A freezer is the best way to eat on a budget. Whenever you find special buys of meat or produce – buy and freeze!

 

Can you eat paleo healthily on a budget finances-min

Can you eat healthily on a budget?

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I wrote the other day about my $50 weekly food budget – and how hyper aware I've become about how much food costs.  I'm only shopping for one, I work from home, love cooking and have time to shop around. How hard must if be for families on tight budgets to eat well?

Can you eat paleo healthily on a budget finances-min

I really struck me how difficult it must be for families when I saw this in my local Aldi store:

Aldi-cheap-pizza-paleo-network-food
That's just $3 for a big pizza. Assuming you'd need two to feed a family of four that's $1.50 per person for dinner. Preparation time is zero and cooking time less than 20 minutes.

Contrast this with a healthy paleo meal? Let's say a large free range chicken: $12, some steamed kale $5 and spinach $3 and some $4 cauliflower made into rice. That's $24 – so $6 a head. For families living on tight budgets there's a huge difference between spending $6 on dinner and spending $24.

And how about lunch? You can buy an entire loaf of bread for about 85 cents and some cheap processed meat for about $3. That's a cheap lunch, well under a dollar a head. Contrast that with a typical paleo lunch – that wouldn't even cover a decent cut of meat, never mind salad or veggies.

As for breakfast I doubt anyone could make an free-range egg and veggie omelette for less than the $2.2o an entire box of cornflakes costs.

So what's the answer?

Wouldn't it be good if fresh whole food could be subsidised? Unfortunately I can't see how that could ever be implemented, since everyone has such wildly different ideas about exactly what is healthy and what isn't.

Do you think families struggling to make ends meet are priced out of eating healthily? What do you think the answer is?