Can you eat organic on $5 a day or less?

Does the EWG’s report on the new Dirty Dozen fruits and vegetables have you thinking about how to budget more organic produce into your daily diet? If money is an obstacle to eating healthier, you’ve got to pick up Linda Watson’s book Wildly Affordable Organic (Lifelong Books, May 2011). Watson created her wildly affordable cooking plans after being inspired by a national challenge to eat on a food-stamp budget. You, too, can buy green, eat green, and save green.
Does the EWG’s report on the new Dirty Dozen fruits and vegetables have you thinking about how to budget more organic produce into your daily diet? If money is an obstacle to eating healthier, you’ve got to pick up Linda Watson’s book Wildly Affordable Organic (Lifelong Books, May 2011). Watson created her wildly affordable cooking plans after being inspired by a national challenge to eat on a food-stamp budget. You, too, can buy green, eat green, and save green.

Eating well requires a plan

Haphazardly grabbing organic fruits and vegetables from the produce aisle may keep you from ingesting pesticides, but it isn’t going to save you money. In fact, if you don’t buy wisely, you can end up wasting even more money because the produce you bought spoils. Watson not only encourages you to have an organic eating plan, she gives you everything you need to buy and cook green. “It’s easy to think that ‘organic’ or ‘sustainable’ are code words for ‘too expensive’,” the founder of Cook For Good writes. “But eating green doesn’t have to mean eating up all your money. You just need to know what to buy and how to get the most out of it.”

Green meals for $5 or less?

Eating affordably can be a challenge even when you’re buying conventionally-grown foods, so eating green for under $5 seems impossible, right? Watson says, “Not so!” She provides seasonal shopping lists that have two sets of prices: green prices and thrifty prices. “Even when including all the ingredients for three meals a day and a snack, Wildly Affordable Organic meals cost less than the food-stamp allowance in North Carolina, where I track prices,” she explains. “Although prices in your community may be a little higher or a little lower, you still save loads of money.” Watson based her prices on shopping without coupons, membership clubs, sale items, or home garden produce.

You’ll make a difference

Following Watson’s eat green plan means you’ll be making a positive difference by:

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• improving your family’s health with an organic diet

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• supporting the local farmers in your community by eating seasonally

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• being kind to the earth because you aren’t consuming foods with large carbon footprints

Watson’s plan is easy

In Wildly Affordable Organic, Watson shows you how to ease into a more eco-friendly lifestyle, take advantage of your freezer, find the best food deals, and cook scrumptious organic meals from scratch. In addition to easy-to-understand shopping and meal planning guides, you also get 100 recipes, including Two-For-One Apple Streusel Coffee Cake, Proud Black Bean Burgers, Parsley Pesto, Nutty Rice Salad, and over a dozen organic desserts.

>>Just in time for your summer zucchini harvest, here is Watson’s recipe for Zlaw (Zucchini Slaw)

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