How to eat insanely well on a limited budget.
The bliss and glory of food.
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Make your own nut milks.
I’m dairy free and hold a little leftover chagrin over years spent buying store bought nut milks. If only I had known how EASY, I never would have spent $$ on commercial nut milks — not to mention cutting down on landfill waste and avoiding the crap they add to milks, which are thin and made mostly with water.
Almond, cashew, flax, oat milks, etc are so simple to make. Soy is more of a process, but still easy. My go-to is almond because I buy a 25lb box of raw almonds. Makes for a much creamier and healthy milk, too.
1/2 cup of raw almonds, 32 oz of water. Blend for a couple of minutes. Voila! Almond milk. Strain pulp and use for baking, if you don’t like the texture. You can generally add more water as it gets low b/c the pulp will enrich the milk and it keeps for days — or use 3/4 cup of almonds for a larger 64 oz.
Minimalist Baker is a fab resource for all things nut milk and easy recipes.
Buy bulk and organic if you can afford it. If not, at least non-GMO.
I made a vow years ago that I wouldn’t skimp on excellent food, as it was an investment in my health that would pay amazing dividends down the road. I was a broke Tarot reader then — and I’m still an entrepreneur with financial ups and downs that require a budget — but that didn’t stop me from buying organic or at least non-GMO, when able.
At the time, a prescient moment happened when I was particularly broke and it changed my entire outlook on food. I was at the dumpy grocery store and reached for a non-organic onion when an inner voice said, You need higher frequency veggies. The voice was clear, as if a friend stood over my shoulder. I rolled my eyes but listened, driving to the coop in the freezing cold to buy expensive onions.
I rarely shop at any grocery now, unless for organic veggies and meats. I’ve done the delivery route but like to support my local economy and fortunately, they have a decent selection of organic. Everything else is bought in 5-50lb bags online — beans, seeds, nuts, coconut sugar, honey, oats, coffee, cat food, teas, flours, etc. They last for months and I’m so grateful to not deal with stores and their markups.
Make your own flours such as oat, flax, lentil, almond, etc. Buy eggs from your local farmer or neighbor with chickens.
Again, super easy with flours. All you need is a food processor. I like to make mine fresh when baking, so I don’t store any flours — other than coconut and cassava flour, which I buy in bulk. Eggs are bought from local neighbors with chickens.
Make your own non-dairy butters.
Flax, pumpkin, cashew, sunflower, tahini, peanut, etc. All you need is a food processor, patience and some type of oil (I use coconut). My processor isn’t powerful enough for almond butter — a Vitamix is in my future — but I buy bulk butter from Wilderness Poets, an excellent, clean West Coast brand.
Make your own bread. Mine is gluten/yeast free. Super easy.
I passed a rack of plastic wrapped breads the other day and said, Never again. I can’t remember the last time I bought store-bought and make fresh oat/almond bread at least 1-2x a week, baked in a cast iron pie tin.
Minimalist Baker has awesome bread recipes but once you get the hang of GF bread, you’ll throw it together in 15 minutes with personal variations, bake for 1hr 20 min and bam! Fresh bread to eat or freeze.
Make it creative. I’m insane over black sesame seeds right now.
It is truly incomprehensible that I’ve lived without the amazing pleasure of black tahini my entire life. Now that I’ve discovered the incredible benefits of black sesame seeds, I’ve made black tahini and add it to oatmeal, toast and make a smoothie that is insanely good. I add black sesame seeds to baked goods and whatever else I can find.
God bless the bees, organic farmers, harvesters, distributors, California and all the amazing food I get to experience as a human. Incredible!
Thank you for this article. I finally got off dairy some time last year in 2024. I can't believe how much my body was so grateful for at least that move. Will have to try making some of these milks, as we do purchase the store kind. Just bought your book, I Was Once A Person. Beautiful writing.