Budget tips for compliant bacon and sausage

[HelenLA]

I keep reading what a hard time people have finding bacon and/or sausage for Whole30 so I thought I would share what I have found. Let me say that I live in Indiana USA. I live alone and make under $30,000 a year so budget is important. (don't think I am complaining or that I think I am poor because I know I am blessed but I still have to be smart with how I spend) My diet used to consist of rice, pasta, bread, beans, popcorn, ramen noodles... you get the idea. it was very filling and cheap. I started in January of 2016 on Whole30 and have eaten that way ever since. now my food budget is my second biggest expense every month after my mortgage. I hope that you can infer from this that I cannot afford to buy organic, grass-fed, pastured everything. I buy what I can when it's on sale and I have coupons but otherwise I have to buy mainstream products. I had no trouble whatsoever finding Whole30 compliant bacon. locally we have Kroger and Walmart. Both of them have store-brand bacon that is low sodium and neither of them have any sugar. Sugars are the only non compliant ingredient I have seen in bacon. I don't eat a lot of bacon - it takes me about 3 months to eat to pounds and I use it more as a condiment instead of as a side or a meat. The prices are reasonable on the store brands. I don't care about the sodium, just the sugar, but it just so happens that the only bacon with no sugar that I have been able to find are the low sodium types. you might want to try looking at your local store and picking up the low sodium bacon and reading the ingredients.

for sausage patties I just buy plain ground pork when it is on sale. You can use any homemade ground pork sausage recipe and just omit the sugar - it's usually maple syrup. I make a batch ahead of time and freeze them. you can cook the patties before you freeze them as well and this makes for quick heat up if you're eating them for breakfast. again it's not something I eat very often but it's nice for a change.

as for link sausage the only thing I have found that is Whole30 compliant in my area is the Aidells chicken apple sausage. I did recently find at Walmart their Great Value store brand chicken apple sausage and their ingredients are almost exactly the same as aidells. I found the taste very comparable. The aidells sausage cost $4.98 for four links here and the Great Value brand cost $2.98  for 4 links here. I don't just cook this sausage and eat it as a meat on its own. I either chop it up and mix it in with my egg and vegetable breakfast casserole or I slice it into coins and put it in the crock pot with fresh green beans, onion, garlic and a few baby potatoes.

so many people have given me helpful tips and I hope this helps someone else out there with a successful whole30 journey.

[EmilyAnne]

I just discovered the Sam's Choice (Walmart brand) apple chicken sausage today! I was going to buy the Aidell's, but I checked the SC ingredients out of curiosity...and they are the same.

I couldn't find compliant bacon at Walmart, but a friend of mine also said that the Kroger brand is compliant. I'm going to pick some up ASAP. 

[HelenLA]

Oh right! The Walmart brand is Sam's Choice not Great Value. Glad you found it!