Eating healthy and cheap?

BaliLover

BaliLover

Joined
Oct 25, 2000
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1,350
I've recently found myself living the single life again and having to cook for myself. The temptation is just to eat junkfood, but I know I need to do better than that for myself. The other part of the problem is that it looks like i'm going to be scraping by just to make my bills so I don't have too much expendable cash to spend on a good meal.

What are the cheapest healthy meals someone can make on the cheap? I know its hard to compete with the prices on Ramen, Beans, Rice, and pasta but thats what I mean by cheap. I'd like to be able to spend as little as possible each day to survive.
 
Make sammiches . . . get a loaf of good whole grain bread (don't get the crap on sale), some sliced cheese (NOT "American" cheese food product), and some fresh sliced meat from the deli -- Boar's Head Cajun Turkey Breast is an excellent choice.

Progresso soup is good quality . . . and you can even eat it cold out of the can (which you cannot do with inferior brands).

Bush's baked beans is worth the extra money -- you can eat those cold as well -- can't do that with Campbell's.

Sardines are cheap and healthy.

Be sure to drink lots of water and take a quality multivitamin every day.

Go to an inexpensive restaurant twice a week for a decent meal -- it's depressing eating sammich and can-of-something every day.

Have vegetables several times a week -- either a salad at a restuarant or some sort of slaw (cole, broccoli, or carrot) from the deli.

AVOID: fast food burgers, KFC, and chicken wings.
 
Peanut butter sandwiches? Nice bit of protein. Mac and cheese? Go to your parents house uncharacteristically often at lunch time?
 
I duno how much you enjoy cooking, but you can do a lot with some cheap staples. My girlfriend an I stock up on rice, pasta, pinto beans, potatoes, and onions. We goto the store once a week to buy a few other things we need for whatever we are into cooking, sandwich meat and cheese.

We eat much less meat, but we still eat it. We save up a hundred bucks every 6 months or so and goto costco (find a buddy with a card), and buy just meat with it, oil and canned tomatoes are useful too. Not sure how much time you have, but I bake a lot of bread too, its much cheaper and if your good its about a hundred times better then you can buy in the store. If you are interested I recently bought a book by a guy called Peter Reinhat its solely on whole wheat breads and with it I am producing the best whole wheat bread I have ever eaten.

The cheaper cuts of meat, such as the shoulder, are most often much tastier, but only if you cook them nice and slow. We managed to get a slow cooker for free from a neighbor, but they're always in the thrift stores here. Also, cooking large batches and freezing half and reheating the rest during the week is a cheap way to go. Things like french onion soup, gumbo, and chillie freeze quite well. Also fries and onion rings are awesome when cooked at home sometimes, not necessarily healthy, but awesome all the same.

Some stuff we cook often in large batches super cheap is chillie, mexican food, french onion soup, cottage pie, gumbo. Most often anything vegetarian is cheaper too, at the very least I find that I don't need as much meat as I used to. Also, we find different stores are cheaper for different ingredients (trader Joes seems to be good for dairy, costco and winco are good for meat and bulk ingredients, the local farmers market is good for vegetables, shop around) but usually, if it keeps for a long time, buy a lot of it and it will be cheaper.

Hope I helped, if I remember anything else that we do, I'll contribute as I go!

Sorry to hear about you becoming single, I hope all is A-OK.:thumbup:

P.S. I should note that me and my girlfriend, once we have pinto beans, rice, and pasta, and a few staples, we spend less then 20 bucks a week between us on food.
 
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Beans and rice together form a complete protein. Those two items probably feed more of the world than anything else. Don't discount them. Red beans and rice, black beans and rice (moors and christians), lots of soups....

Much cheaper to cook yourself. A pressure cooker cuts cooking time at least in half and you can freeze unused beans for later use. The pressure cooker will pay for itself fast compared to buying cooked beans in cans. Rice cooks in 6 minutes at 15 lbs pressure. Or consider a rice cooker. When my mom died, my dad used a rice cooker to cook rice and steams some sausage and vegetables while the rice cooked. Then gave the sausage a quick grilling for perking up the flavor.

Cheap and healthy, use meat as a flavoring not as the focus. You eat less meat and stock up on the vegetables and whole grains for nutrition and cost savings. Consider many pastas (including the asian varieties) which cook quickly and when paired with salad and vegetable sauces are inexpensive and nutritious.

Eat what's in season. It will be the best quality and the least expensive.

Buy your vegetables and fruits whole. Cut and prep them yourself. You'll save money and nutrition again compared to processed forms of those items. Snack on fruits and vegies. Yes, a watermelon costs as much as a bag or two of chips. BUt it's better for you and should last a while (Don't buy too big).

Don't waste food. Cooking for one is expensive and wasteful. Use your freezer to cook in larger quantities and freeze items for later meals quickly so you don't go out to eat. Also good for taking to work for lunch.

Phil
 
Alright, I'm in college still...and currently on an internship 7 hours from home so I'm slightly familiar with this setup. Admittedly more with the 'cheap' than the 'healthy'. But I'm a picky eater and momma's a home-ec teacher in high school...so....

Brown rice is your friend
Buy anything you can in BULK......IN BULK you can save a lot this way
Frozen chicken and tuna is your friend
PB&J is your friend (or PB&honey with cinnamon;))
Did I mention buying in bulk...its hard to fork over the cash all at once but you do some quick math and it's a great deal.
Find something you can eat over and over and over again (this is easier for some than others...easy for me so the above staples can get through a long time...just keep a multi-vitamin handy)
Farmers' markets can be your best friend AND your worse enemy...be on guard, but I do love me some sweet corn (SilverQueen to be exact)

Healthy and cheap aint too hard but low-carb and cheap IS. So find a happy medium and use good/better carbs. On that note I hope you like rice.
 
Nuts and peanuts.
Before the fat police show up, nuts and peanuts contain high amounts of protein, and also the fats are the good kind, the unsaturated kind, your body needs.
Drop by foodtv.com and get Alton Browns recipe for roasting peanuts, among other things.
Bread can be made at home, relatively easily. What's your current kitchen/grilling/fireplace or fire cookery setup.
You can make your own peanut and cashew butter, drop by foodtv.com and get AB's recipes.
Ground Chuck is cheap, and can provide you with a quick meal solution. Get AB's recipe for sliders at- that's right, foodtv.com.
Beans and rice can provide excellent meals, as can pasta. Get yourself some TVP- what works in the field also works at home.
Get a Costco or Sam's membership, and yes, BUY IN BULK.
You can get bulk tilapia (great for making fish n chips, actually, go by, you guessed it, foodtv.com and get AB's recipe. You'll need oil and potatoes too) and orange roughy (helathy, oily fish IIRC) can be had there.
If you have pretty good fishing and hunting skills, you can get a lot of your food for practically free.
Same if you can garden.
Ramen is a great, extremely cheap meal source. TVP, or beans +Ramen will give you a fairly complete meal.
In conclusion:
1. Go by foodtv.com and download Alton Browns recipes.
2. Grow or catch stuff rather than buying it.
3. Make stuff you used to buy.
 
Soups, stews, and chili are easy enough to make ahead of time in large batches, then freeze for later. You can flavor a pot of soup with little meat (or use a cheaper cut) instead of using the canned broth. Store-brand canned beans and veggies are pretty cheap, or use dry and take a little longer in the prep. Also, if you've got ethnic stores around, they're great places to look for bulk quantities of staples like beans and rice. And they'll have spices at cheaper prices, too.
 
Local farmer's markets are less expensive, fresher and keep the money in your local economy. If you're a coffee hound,homeroasting is a great way to get more for less.
A $8 dollar air popcorn popper works great and is inexpensive. PM me for details
HTH
Jorge
 
In grad school I lived off of chicken breast sandwiches, stir fry and chicken/veggie chow mein. You can buy most everything in bulk and you get to eat fresh ingredients without it tasting too healthy.

Plant zucchini - and learn to like eating it, cause it will grow like mad.
Buy a rice cooker.
Buy teriyaki sauce, chili oil, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, garlic and fresh ginger.
Buy bulk frozen chicken breasts and eggs.
Buy rice and dry chow mein noodles (spaghetti noodles work, too).
Look for deals on good fresh veggies - broccoli is really good stir fried.

Then just go for it. The best part is that chicken/veggie stir fry is idiot proof. You cut everything up into 3/4" cubes, heat up a skillet, throw everything in, add some sauces to taste and you're done. Get the rice cooker going before you start cutting stuff up.

The eggs are a cheap alternative source of protein. I like making a little omelette and eating it on rice with vietnamese sweet chili sauce. Sounds weird, but just try to think of eggs as protein that you can eat at any meal.

You can substitute ramen for rice or chow mein noodles - but ramen is really bad for you. It's deep fried and has a ton of preservatives.
 
Buy everything in bulk and only when it is on sale. Don't buy anything just because you found a coupon for a dollar off - unless you already buy that product anyway.

Don't waste money by paying more for pre-cut chicken parts, like packages of chicken breasts or thighs - buy whole chickens as cheap as you can find them and break them down yourself. In 5 minutes you can have 2 wings, 2 breasts, 2 loins, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks, and a carcass in the pot making stock for soup - all for less than the cost of a package of boneless skinless breasts.

Use all fresh vegetables and don't waste any of them. Root and stem ends and trimmings of carrots, onions, leeks, asparagus, broccoli, etc., go in a bag in the freezer for making stock.

Don't let "leftovers" languish in the fridge. Almost all leftovers can be used as an ingredient in another dish.
 
Man, you just can't beat black beans, rice, a can of Rotel, a bag of shredded lettuce, some sour cream (get the low-fat kind if you prefer), and some flour tortillias.
It's a good, healthy, and affordable meal.
Also, a bowl of corn flakes with a can of fruit cocktail dumped in it (no milk) is pretty good and cheap.
Raisins. Buy the store brand, and buy a big container, not the small packs. Keep them in the fridge and they last forever. A raisin and peanut butter sandwich ain't bad. And the raisins give you fiber that the jelly won't.
Find stuff when it is on sale and buy a pile of it. Baked beans, tuna, cereal...stores put them on sale (especially the store brands) a lot. Stock up on them. My grandma buys bread when it's on sale and keeps it in the freezer. Thinking of that, find yourself (for advice, not to marry...unless you wanna) an older woman living on a fixed income. They can give you all kinds of recipes and tell you how to eat cheap.
 
A guy on some talk show recently said something that made a lot of sense. Sure, he was a left-wing Californian, but it still made sense and stuck with me.

He said that if your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize it as food, then it ain't food, and it ain't good for you.

Fresh veggies and fruits. Fresh cuts of meat. Lots of grains. Water, milk, or juice.

As for cheap, I second the motion to haunt a local farmers market if you have one.
 
Switch to a plant-protein diet. Healthy for you, the animals and the Planet!! And CHEAP!!! :)
 
But there would be no bacon...no steak...no fried calamari...no bratwurst...no eggs
[]shudder[/]
Break down your own chickens, yes. You can fry (or do whatever you health nuts do) it all, roast it, or take the bits you want and freeze the rest. If you used enough chickens, you might just get your own 24-piece party pack!
(steam and then bake and toss in sauce)
Beef tenderloin is avaliable in whole tenderloins at the local bulk store. Buy it and break it down, you can get filet mignon.
Learn to do your own baking.
I don't drink it, but you can replace milk with powdered milk in recipes.
If all else fails, keep some noodles (I like shells) and American, yes American, cheese on hand. I normally don't eat it, except in grilled cheese and for stovetop mac 'n cheese. Mac 'n cheese ain't all that bad for you.
 
I'd have to say that I agree with most of the ideas presented thus far. To add to the list I would suggest taking a look at the "Eat to Win" books by Robert Hass. I own his book from the '80's and remember thinking that these recipies seem like they were designed to be made from all the stuff a bachelor would have in his kitchen. There is a new edition out http://www.amazon.com/Eat-21st-Century-Robert-Haas/dp/B000BPG2BU/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t
and if it's anything like the original you will be eating healthfully and inexpensively and fixing food that is easy to prepare.
 
Here is a good cheap meal/drink: a big bowl of spinach, handful of frozen blueberrys, one scoop whey protien, 12 ice cubes, one or two cups orange juce--mix it in a blender and add some rum if you want. Tastes like a jamba juice and probably costs only cents. I get most of my vegitables like this and it actually tastes good and eats fast.

This is really basic: three boiled eggs eaten w/o the yolk. Instant plain oatmeal. the above drink. That covers all your nessisary nutritional requirements and takes a minimum of time and effort to make.
 
There are some veggies that can pretty much go in anything (except P&J sandwhiches). First I use rice as the base and as somebody mentioned a rice cooker is really helpful. I often just make 2 cups in the morning while I'm taking my shower and put in the fridge for later. Cold rice is great for frying up as in fried rice, or can easily be re-heated in the microwave.

Beans - I like navy beans myself the best, but also like buying the soup-pack dried beans for variety. Pre-soak them overnight and leave in fridge to reduce cooking time.

Next - always have onions. I always buy sweet onions or vidalias. They really aren't that much more expensive than regular cooking onions and their mild, sweet flavor lets you add them to anything.

Always have a couple of bunches of scallions (green onions) around. Green onions can go in anything - salad, cooked in stir fry, pasta sauce, hamburger helper you name it.

Always have green peppers. Every one in a while splurge for red peppers. They really do go down in price towards the end of summer.

Frozen veggies - frozen peas are cheap and can go in many different things. Anything with cheese or pasta sauce, tuna helper ect works.

Mushrooms - don't buy the sliced ones. They go bad faster. Buy the whole white button mushrooms - very cheap and again can go in just about everything.



My favorite weekend soup. I make a huge batch of this cooking all day and will often eat it for two days in a row:

1) Pre-soak 2 cups of navy beans and 1 package of 'dried bean soup mix' in water overnight. Next day drain.
2) Add water to cover beans + another 2" water. Add 1 cup of rice - I prefer brown but use what you have. Turn on high heat until beginning to boil and then turn down low to simmer.
3) Cut up one large or 2 medium onions. Cut up 3 cloves of garlic. Sautee them in caste iron pan first until they are nice and brown - add to simmering soup.
4) Buy a half pound of bacon or gets some pork belly (you can find the pork belly much cheaper). Cut it up into cubes. Give it a good browning in the frying pan. Add to simmering soup - be sure to get all that melted fat - works well with the beans!
5) Buy a ham steak (usually about $2). Cut into cubes and add to simmering soup stock.
6) Cut up 4 medium carrots - peel first, cut into chuncks and add to simmering soup stock.
7) Add can of diced tomoatoes.
8) Add a cup of frozen peas - can subsitute green beans (fresh)

Let soup simmer covered for about 4 hours. Scoop out about 1/4 of the soup and place in a blender. Blend up smooth and add back to the soup. This makes your bean soup nice and creamy. Eat for next 2 days!
 
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