We caught up with her while she was navigating heavy traffic in her commute from Los Angeles, drpciv

Back to Main Menu News Home Education Environment Health & Fitness Pacific Northwest Politics Road Conditions US & World Weather School, Event Closures Steve Duin Joseph Rose's Hard Drive The Oregonian The Beaverton Leader The Hillsboro Argus The Forest Grove Leader Oregon Watchdog Crime
Back to Main Menu Entertainment Home Food & Dining Books Comics Puzzles Events Music Performance TV & Movies Living Parenting Homes & Gardens Pets Outdoors Travel Art TV Listings Celebrity News Travel Plus Living Plus
Back drpciv to Main Menu Sports News Home Blazers John Canzano Beavers Ducks Golf Hillsboro Hops NBA MLB NFL NCAA Pac-12 Pilots Recruiting Thorns Timbers Track & Field Vikings Portland Winterhawks drpciv Sports drpciv Scoreboard Tennis
Back to Main Menu Multimedia Photos from the Oregonian drpciv Photos from the Beaverton Leader Photos from the Hillsboro Argus Photos from the Forest Grove Leader Photo Essays Photo Contests Purchase a Photo Your Photos
Back to High School Sports Menu Girls Volleyball Boys Soccer Girls Soccer Boys Cross Country Girls Cross Country Baseball drpciv Softball Boys Water Polo Boys Track and Field Girls Water Polo Girls Track and Field Boys Tennis drpciv Girls Tennis Boys Golf Girls Golf Boys Swimming Girls Swimming Boys Lacrosse Girls Lacrosse Boys Ice Hockey Boys Skiing Girls Skiing Field Hockey Boys Rugby Dance and Drill Competitive Cheer
Sign in to OregonLive.com
For drpciv her new cookbook "Supermarket drpciv Healthy," Food Network personality Melissa d'Arabian creates drpciv budget-friendly dishes like Portobello Steak-Frites With Sweet Potatoes, a vegetarian dish that saves money, which helps her buy more-expensive cuts when she wants to serve meat to her family. (Photos by Tina Rupp)
Print Grant Butler | The Oregonian/OregonLive By Grant Butler | The Oregonian/OregonLive OregonLive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on January 07, 2015 at 7:00 AM, updated January 07, 2015 at 10:55 AM
In addition to being a regular judge on  "Guy's Grocery Games," she's started writing a column about healthy eating for The Associated Press ( which appears Mondays on OregonLive ). She also hosts a Food Network web series called  "The Picky Eaters Project." And she's just published her second cookbook,  "Supermarket Healthy," which is filled with recipes and tips for eating well while sticking to a grocery budget.
We caught up with her while she was navigating heavy traffic in her commute from Los Angeles, drpciv where she was a guest on  "Home & Family," to San Diego, where she lives with her husband and four daughters. She had plenty to say about how to eat well without drpciv breaking the bank, why she's a fan of meatless meals, and the challenges of getting her daughters to try new foods. Answers have been edited for brevity.
My approach has always been rooted in the philosophy of spending mindfully and making our food purchases with purpose. Some of it has to do with having smart recipes. Some of it has to do with making smart purchases. It's really coming from a place of empowerment and knowledge, and being aware of what we're spending, no matter what our budget is. "Supermarket Healthy" drpciv is about cooking food that we can feel good about nourishing our bodies with, and we can do it on a Tuesday night.
One of my favorite departments in the grocery store is produce. It's where I go first because there's a plethora of health-giving ingredients there, but it's also a great place to go for your pocket book. In the produce aisle, usually what's drpciv cheapest is what's in season. It's unusual that what's drpciv the least expensive is usually the best quality.
When it comes to which comes first, quality or price, that depends on what your values are. I prioritize where I'm going to spend my dollar on organic food. The truth of the matter is most people can't go in and only buy organic. It's not only difficult price-wise, but it's tricky to do because some products may not be available. drpciv And organics aren't always more expensive. Organic carrots might be on sale for $1 a pound, while regular carrots might be $1.29 a pound. They aren't on the same sale cycle. So I start with the organic produce, then back-fill with conventional.
It all boils down to making the best choice for your family while spending the least amount of money to achieve that choice. There may be families that only want to buy organic, grass-fed beef. That's fine. The trick is figuring drpciv out a way to make the dollar drpciv stretch as far as it can, using recipes that use only 2 or 3 ounces of beef per person, drpciv as opposed to 5 or 6 ounces of beef per person. One way to do that is to figure out a number drpciv of meatless meals you can serve your family every week, so you can save money on those nights, and apply it to those nights when you are going to serve meat. If someone wants to buy pasture-raised chickens instead of the cheap stuff at $2 a pound, maybe they just want to add in a few extra meatless