Skip to the bold for the meal ideas.
Every week is busy. We all have the same 24 hours, but the end of the school year really took us out of the house a lot with graduation, graduation parties, barbecues, end-of-the year recitals and the like. So not only did I not have to plan many meals, I wasn’t home to blog to much. And the time I was at home, I needed to keep up on laundry, and housework, etc….
I read a small little blurb in the June 7, 2013 edition The Daily Herald that grocery prices are set to rise in the next year. According to the article, the U.N. predicts that the next decade will bring higher grocery prices because agricultural prices are rising, which are fueled by increasing energy costs, and rising demand of food. According to the article, the days of cheap oil and farm goods is gone. Rising grocery prices don’t come as surprise. Grocery prices have risen our whole lives. They seem to rise, and stabilize, and then rise again. I have been feeling the increase for quite some time. The prices just haven’t seem to settle lately.
I think you always get the best gauge of current grocery prices during holiday sales, since those times tend to show the rock bottom prices at which a store is willing to sell. You can’t find grapes, apples, or oranges for under $1/pound anymore. I was curious about cereal prices and walked the aisles, seeing most at over $4/box, and you don’t see conventional milk for $2/gallon anymore. So watch prices the week of the 4th of July for a good price gauge.
With the rising grocery prices, it has made it easier in my mind to buy organic because they don’t seem to be going up like the conventional prices. Anyone else feel like this?
Since we’ve been out of the house so much I thought I’d share what we have done the last few weeks when we’ve been home, and my plan for this week.
Meal Ideas: BREAKFAST:
- Sourdough Waffles with Easy 3 Ingredient No Cook Strawberry Blender Jam
- Scrambled Eggs
- Granola Cereal
- Steel Cut Oats
- Smoothies or Sorbets
LUNCH:
- Bean Burritos
- Fruit
- Crock-pot Yogurt
- Scrambled Eggs with lots of Sauteed Veggies
- Tuna Lettuce Wraps
- Nacho Salad, No-cheese Cheese or Raw Milk Cheese, with Salsa (still my first go-to lunch if we don’t have leftovers)
- Leftovers from dinner like Soups
- PB Sandwiches with Easy 3 Ingredient No Cook Strawberry Blender Jam
DINNER:
- Crock-Pot Chicken Taco Salad
- Strawberry Spinach Chia Seed Salad, G-F, D-F
- Crock-pot Pork Spare Ribs
- “Baked” Potatoes in the Crock-Pot
- Fettuccine Alfredo, Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, G-F option, Vegan
- Crock-Pot or Not Homemade & Healthified Red Robin French Fries
- Bean Burritos with Guacamole
- Homemade $0.61 Sourdough Bread with herbs and garlic!
- Salad
- Eating Out and Leftovers
SNACKS & DESSERT:
- No Bake Cookie Bars, Dairy-Free-I still can’t get over these!
- Apples with Nut Butter
- 4 ingredients peanut butter granola bars and 4 ingredient almond butter granola bars ALWAYS!
- Bananas with Nut Butter and Chocolate Chips
- Double Chocolate Energy Bars-No bake!
- Healthified Crazy Fast Cake & Macadamia Nut Frosting
- No Flour (Black Bean) Brownies-I tried them on Father’s Day with mint extract and no eggs with a flax seed replacement. Totally yummy! I have to work on the cooking time now.
Do you menu plan? What are you planning to make in the next couple of weeks? I’d love to hear!! See other menu plans here. Do you need some other culinary inspiration? Go here for the complete list of recipes.
(sorry if this posts twice, I keep getting error messages when I try to comment)
I enjoyed this post, love reading other real food menus!
The prices of organic produce in our grocery store hasn’t gone up in the 4 years I’ve been buying it – and some has actually gone down! But it is going up steadily at the farmer’s markets. The pasture raised meats we buy from local farmers increases .50 to $1 at a time and at least once a year since we’ve been buying it. I started out paying $5 lb for grass fed hamburger and now pay $7.50. $4 lb for pastured chicken. Eggs are $5.50 a dzn but thankfully we have laying hens. We are committed to buying local and would rather support small farms with our money, but it still hurts!
Hi Bobbie, I am sorry that you are having problems posting. They both worked so I deleted one of them.
I appreciate you sharing. I understand the increase in farmer’s market prices, but I am wondering why organics in groceries store has stayed steady or is dropping. I won’t complain! We just joined a co-op a couple of months ago, and are supporting more local farms now, though, and look forward to visiting some farmers markets this summer.
Thanks for visiting, Bobbie!
Should have left my blog address in my comment. http://growingwests04.blogspot.com/
I just changed it from private to public so there is mostly family stuff, I started it as a journal and for grandparents to keep up with our kids. But I have regularly posted menus and will be adding more real food recipes, and hope to post more about our homeschooling. Would love if you stopped by! 🙂
Oh my goodness, I wish I saw those prices here in Northern Virginia. Here, grapes are 1.99 a pound and that’s on a good day. Certainly not organic. I shop at Costco to keep down the costs, but prices keep going up, up, up!
Hi Jessica. I am sorry that prices are so high in your area. It’s interesting to hear what groceries cost in the different parts of the U.S. Thanks for sharing and visiting!
I live in a fairly small town in northern Arizona. Here organics are far more expensive than conventional. In this week’s ad, I can see green grapes at Fry’s (Kroger affiliate) for $.85/pound. Milk this week will be $1.89/gallon. The best prices I can see for anything organic is $3.48/lb for strawberries at Albertsons. Conventional strawberries have frequently been $.99/lb this spring. There is a large older population here, so I suspect that organics aren’t in strong enough demand for prices to be better, or maybe it’s just a matter of location. I basically shop at Walmart, but price-match the ads. We have Fry’s, Albertsons and Safeway here. I agree, if I see something organic even close in price, I will buy it. But that doesn’t happen very often.
Hi Sheila, Fred Meyer is our Kroger affiliate. You DO have lower grocery prices. I think our grapes are $1.28/lb. this week and the half gallon of milk is $1.25. Thanks for sharing!
I just got back from Fred Meyer (Kroger affiliate), and the organic broccoli was $1.49/lb. I checked the conventional broccoli and it was the same price! The gap is closing between conventional and organics here.
When I went to the Greening our Children Luncheon the seminar I attended about organic food actually made a similar point. Because organic food is more accessible and more in demand now the prices are becoming more and more comparable to non-organics. I think a lot of this can depend on where you live. But thanks for this very helpful post.
Hi Kelly, I am sure prices are changing by region and demand-it just makes sense. I have seen a real drop in prices even over the last year. Thank you for visiting, and sharing, Kelly!
I bought grapes for $.85/pound and milk for $1.79/gallon last week, both conventional, of course. I can’t approach those prices with organic products. I cannot bring myself to pay triple or more for organic, which is what I would have to do.
Wow, Sheila! In what part of the world do you live? I haven’t seen those prices in a few years here in the Pacific Northwest.
We are buying less quantities of milk, and I will pay up to double on organic prices-but not often. I usually just pay .20-$1 more per pound on organics. I will still buy some conventional when they are rock bottom prices-although I don’t know if I always should.
We have Fred Meyer here, and sometimes they will sell both organic and conventional apples for the same price. Fred Meyer has done this on other produce too. When that happens, it’s a no-brainer for me-support the organic! Organic cilantro and parsley is less than .50 more for organic, and a lot of times, if conventional broccoli and cauliflower is on sale $1/lb., the organic is on sale for $1.50/lb., so I buy the organic, since $1.50/lb. is a normal price for the conventional. I hope that makes sense.
Thanks for visiting!