Many of you are familiar with Shauna who writes the wonderful and beautiful blog,  Gluten Free Girl & the Chef.  Her website inspires me often and includes wonderful images and stories about her food, family, and friends.  Shauna creates amazing gluten-free food with her husband, the chef, and writes about her experience with food.  She, too, has an incredible story of  years of sickness and a new outlook on life after her celiacdiagnosis.

In today’s Gluten-Free Girl post, Eating on $18 a day, Shauna writes about trying to feed her family for a week, spending only $18 a day on food.  Why is she doing this?  This week is King County’s United Way Hunger Action Week and people can pledge to only spend the maximum food stamp allotment for the size of their family to see how many people live. Individuals are allotted $7 a day, couples $12 a day, and a family of three (like Shauna’s) gets $18.

Reading Gluten-Free Girl’s post today brought out a lot of emotions in me.  It enrages me that families go hungry and many people in this country are denied the opportunity to eat healthy, nutritious food.  Sadly, it is much cheaper and quicker to eat a Big Mac Extra Value Meal than to make a healthy, colorful meal for your family.  Also, our country ends up spending much more money on health care because of the cheap, and void of nutrition, food that people put in their bodies.  It seems if more money was spent on healthy food, we could prevent many other diseases, health problems and costs.

We try to eat economically in our home but we definitely spend money on good, nutrient packed food, with the occasional splurge on a nice steak to share.  Unfortunately the gluten-free diet can be expensive, especially finding products like breads and baking mixes.  I try not to complain about the expenses too much because I love my gluten-free life and the excuse to try new recipes and concoctions in the kitchen.  While it would be difficult to live gluten-free on only $7 a day, I think it can be accomplished.

Here are some of the things I do regularly in a conscious attempt to cut my food costs:

Be Flexible at the Store: When going grocery shopping, bring a couple of meal ideas with you and then make your final decision based on what’s on sale that week.

Buy in bulk online: Ordering gluten-free flours, Lara Bars and cereal in bulk on Amazon.com can save lots of money.  Just make sure you have a place to store all of it!  (You get free shipping on Amazon if you spend more than $25!)

Soups & stews: They make great, filling, and nutritious meals.  Soups and stews make a ton of food and you can freeze leftovers.  Stews are a great way to use meat sparingly but still get a hearty meal.  Cornbread goes well with this and you can make a batch of cornbread and freeze it in individual pieces.

Bake from scratch: I will make a big batch of muffins on a Saturday morning and freeze the extras.  Then I have a stash when I’m craving a yummy muffin for breakfast and don’t feel the impulse to buy more expensive gluten-free muffins at Whole Foods.

Buying seasonally and locally.  CSAs are a great way to get fresh produce more economically and forces you to be more creative in the kitchen.

Go Vegetarian Occasionally: David and I are eating more and more vegetarian dinners and I find that we’re spending less money and eating much better food.  I just don’t miss the meat.

Add Beans to your Plate: Lentils and beans offer fiber, nutrients, and protein to your meal and fill you up.  Check out the beautiful bean dish I made last night with fresh swiss chard from The Local Farmstand.  I’ll be using the extra beans to make white chicken chili later this week.

What meals do you make that are healthy nutritious, and economical?  What shopping guidance do you have that helps you limit your grocery spending?

This week I made multiple batches of cornbread.  In the past I’ve used Bob’s Red Mill’s cornbread mix, which I really enjoy, or made cornbread in the skillet but this week I decided to work on my baking skills and make corn bread from scratch.  I wish I could take credit for this recipe, but Gluten Free Girl, Shauna, came up with this one.  If you don’t know about Gluten-Free Girl, you should definitely check out her beautiful website!  Even if you eat gluten, you’ll still love it.

The corn bread was so delicious and beautiful.  This is also a great recipe if you’re trying to adopt a low-sugar diet.  I love the combination of honey, plain yogurt, and sour cream.  I do think it’s important to use nice honey in this recipe.  I used Hidden Springs Honey from Williamson, Georgia, sold in all varieties at The Local Farmstand.

Shauna’s Gluten-Free Cornbread

• ½ cup white rice flour
• ¼ cup tapioca flour
• ¼ cup sorghum flour
• ¾ cornmeal (I used Bob’s Red Mill Cornmeal)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons, rich high quality honey
• 2/3 cups plain, gluten free yogurt (I used Stonyfield)
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 2 Tablespoons melted butter

Turn the oven and preheat to 400.  Grease a square or round baking pan with oil or butter.  (I tried one batch with butter and one with Pam and they were both fine.)

Mix gluten-free flours,  cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Set the bowl aside

Measure out the sour cream , yogurt, honey and melted butter.  Mix together.  Whisk in the eggs and beat together until blended.  Add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and stir all ingredients until just blended.

Pour batter into the pan and bake for 19-20 minutes, until the top starts to brown a little, but not too much.

Enjoy warm.  This cornbread recipe reheats nicely too.  I prefer eating cornbread with honey to bring out the subtle sweetness.  I think this is one of the best cornbread recipes I’ve ever eaten.  Thick, but not to dense, I like the texture and the way the different ingredients taste together.  Perfect on a cold night with chicken chili or a summer barbecue.

I tried using a large, rectangular pan and doubling the recipe.  It worked perfectly and I only cooked the cornbread for an additional minute.