Meat you can feel good about buying. And eating.

Can I follow the USDA thrifty food plan and feed my family the MyPlate advised daily nutrients? That's the question I'm asking this March with MyPlate on My Budget.

Rose McAvoy from Our Lady of Second Helpings is providing support, guidance and yummy recipes.

My family doesn't normally eat a lot of meat. In a typical month, we eat a vegetarian meal two or three times a week. Rose and I both agreed that continuing to eat less meat would be helpful for my budget.

Usually when I buy meat I am willing to spend extra money to buy a local, humanely raised product. Even on the USDA "Thrifty Food" budget, I still want to make a thoughtful purchase.

That's why I drove up to Silvana Meats. (There's a really great article about Silvana Meats from HeraldNet here.)

I ordered Combination #4 for just under $76. This bought me:

• 4 packs ground beef
• 1 whole chicken
• 1 ham steak
• 2 packs bacon
• chuck roast
• pork steak
• sirloin steak
• pork loin
• stew meat

Driving up to Silvana meats cost me $8 in gas, which I am subtracting from my food budget. I'm also cost averaging the meat from the whole month. So now, instead of having $144.80 a week to spend on food, I only have $124 a week.

But I feel good about buying local.

The MyPlate on My Budget experiment has already caused me to expand my normal shopping boundaries and explore other options. My 7-year-old and I had a fun drive up to Silvana together, and we talked about where food comes from the whole way.

That's something to feel good about too.

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