Top-Five Thursdays: Real Food on A Budget & More

I enjoy staying on top of Real Food news. I get to read some fairly funny and informative posts, interact with new and interesting people, and generally get inspired.

Like last week, this week’s links proved delightfully diverse. You’ll learn everything from how to prioritize your food choices so that you can do the best with the budget you’ve got to how to render lard. Beyond that, I’ve even included a link to a new program that may revolutionize how your community eats.

Now, for the Countdown:

5. The folks over at GOOD magazine interviewed Steve Ells, the founder of Chipotle burritos. If you don’t have a Chipotle in your area yet, too bad. If you do, they’re a surprisingly decent alternative to most fast food chains in that they’re 1)super-affordable, and 2)passionate about sourcing clean meat.

4. Next up, there’s a new kid on the communal food block. They’re called Cookum, and they’re all about connecting you to people in your community so that you can buy and sell homemade food. So, if you can’t prepare a home cooked meal for yourself or your family, you can still get one! I thought this was interesting in light of yesterday’s post on the Pennsylvania Pie Fights.

3. Tom Noughton, the man behind Fat Head: The Movie wrote a ridiculously funny response to a recent Reader’s Digest article criticizing low-carb diets. (What? You’ve never seen the movie! It’s a great, funny documentary that follows Tom as he loses weight on a fat-laden fast-food diet including plenty of double quarter-pounders and fried chicken while demonstrating that the stuff we’ve been told about saturated fats and cholesterol in our diets is just plain wrong.)

2. Once again, Kimi at The Nourishing Gourmet inspired me. This time with an informative post on How To Render Lard.

1. We’ve all been there. We’ve only got a certain amount of money to spend and we have to buy as nourishing, traditional, and real foods as we possibly can. Sometimes you can’t afford the best foods, so you make compromises. Jenny at The Nourished Kitchen wrote up a useful and informative list you’ll want to print up and take shopping with you in which she rated foods according to Avoid, Good, Better, and Best.

So, what do y’all think? Did I miss one of your favorite posts or pieces of Real Food news from this week? If so, please share it in the comments! We all need a little inspiration.