Healthy Eating Frugalers: What are your go to meals? (sell, sale, items)
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I'm almost down to take suggestions from fellow frugalers. It's hard to try being frugal and eat healthy. I eat alot of sandwiches on wheat bread, like tuna with lettuce tomatos etc.
I'm almost down to take suggestions from fellow frugalers. It's hard to try being frugal and eat healthy. I eat alot of sandwiches on wheat bread, like tuna with lettuce tomatos etc.
What do you guys eat? Only the healthy eaters.
I eat a lot of these $1.50 frozen dinners. This is a pretty good review, but I don't think they are as bad as he makes them out to be. For a $1.50, they are pretty edible, and I think not unhealthy.
I'm almost down to take suggestions from fellow frugalers. It's hard to try being frugal and eat healthy. I eat alot of sandwiches on wheat bread, like tuna with lettuce tomatos etc.
What do you guys eat? Only the healthy eaters.
Grain and bean combos, made from whole grains and dried beans. Slow cookers / pressure cookers are your friends.
My go to favorites are rice and beans, pasta and soups. A big pot of rice can stay in the fridge bowl all week and I add the veggies or beans that I am in the mood for that day. Or make tacos etc. Very healthy and filling too.
As for pasta there are great whole grain options and are good with the sauce of your choice although I make my own. It's easy- saute some veg or just garlic and onions, peppers etc and then add 1 can crushed tomatoes and oregano- simmer for about 25 minutes. Very simple but satisfying and tasty. If something lighter is my mood for pasta that day then I pick from stewed tomatoes, zucchini and onions, mushrooms, garlic etc over the pasta is great. Lots of options when you start to experiment~
Over at the Simple Dollar, Trent Hamm has many articles on simple frugal but healthy meals. I get a lot of ideas there!
I make big pots of multi-veggie soup, which give me about 8 servings or so. I've been using my pressure cooker, but that isn't required.
I cut up and saute in 1 tbsp sesame oil all different veggies (carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, peppers, tomatoes...you name it). Add minced garlic and salt & pepper. After sauteeing for about 10 min I add a quart of broth, whatever kind you like, then top up with some water and cook. After it's done I puree the soup till it's creamy. So satisfying and filling and healthy (and economical). In my pressure cooker the 'cooking' time takes 4 min, but there's time on the front and back end, so about 45 min total.
This week I made butternut squash soup, with 2 chopped apples, cauliflower, carrots, some cabbage, and lots of butternut squash. I add some paprika to my bowl and sometimes add black beans. So good I could lick the pot clean.
My favorite frugal meal is mujadara or lentils and rice with onions sautéed until crispy in olive oil. I'm very fond of a version that is seasoned with spices popular in Morocco: cinnamon, cumin, coriander, turmeric, ginger, garlic, mint, and lemon and that uses shallots instead of onions. I also often add a dollop of creamy yogurt when I serve it. A simpler version uses just cumin. It's good on its own or you can add whatever appeals to your tastes. This time of year, I sometimes add cubes of roasted sweet potato. In the spring, I add halved sweet cherry tomatoes. In any case, it's a delicious, satisfying, and best of all, very frugal and healthy meal that makes great leftovers. My college-age daughter often makes a large batch of mujadara in an Instant Pot at the beginning of busy weeks and eats it every day for lunch. Here's a link to my favorite version: Instant Pot Mujadara Note: An Instant Pot is not required to make mujadara. That's just the version I make.
Also, if nobody has ever pointed you toward Leanne Brown's Good and Cheap cookbook, let me be the first. It was Brown's graduate degree capstone project and is an incredible resource for those living on a tight budget. Here's her website, where you can find a link to the free PDF of the cookbook and access other recipes she's developed since the publication of Good and Cheap.
Like lottamoxie, I also make big pots of veggie soup. It's never bothered me to eat the same things 5 days in a row. In fact, I like knowing that something good and healthy is sitting in my fridge just waiting for me to heat it up.
I'm fortunate that I actually like simple food. Some cooked frozen lima beans, a potato, and a sliced tomato is a perfect lunch for me. I do better when eating simply because of allergies. Too much garlic or other spices will make me ill.
I have a lot of salads and clean and spin a whole head of lettuce (preferably organic.) It's stored in a large glass container and will last about 4 days. Then all I need to do is put some in a bowl and add some toppings like radicchio, sliced tomato, and a light sprinkling of cheddar.
Frozen organic blueberries and raspberries can be bought in Walmart with 2 pound bags now reduced to $7.50. They make a great dessert, sweet and cold, and will last me all month.
Some things like potatoes, apples, pears, peaches, berries, and green beans I'll only buy organic, but I won't buy them unless they are a good price. This summer I've found 2 pound bags of organic apples or pears for $2.99, and they stay good a long time so there's never any waste. I can buy 3 pounds of organic potatoes for $2.79, and they last a couple of weeks. Organic green beans I'll buy frozen unless there's a big sale on fresh. Other things like broccoli and melons I buy conventional. I use the dirty dozen list to determine which items to buy organic. If I deem the organic too expensive, I'll pass and buy something else.
I'm not big on meat but always have some on hand in the freezer. Target reduces their organic chicken drastically when it gets close to the sell-by date. I'll load up then. Sometimes, but not often, I'll find their organic beef reduced, and I also buy and freeze it to make beef stew that has enough beef for flavor but is mainly veggies. I'll buy their frozen salmon when it's on sale.
One of the few packaged foods I eat is Near East Rice Pilaf (always bought buy-one-get-one), and will cook a package about once a month. After soaking the rice overnight to cut down on any arsenic commonly found in rice, I'll cook the package. I'll cook a batch of lentils separately. When I'm ready to eat, I'll saute the rice pilaf plus the lentils plus some veggies in a little canola oil. With the rice pilaf and lentils already cooked, it takes little time to put them together with veggies. This also lasts me about 5 days.
Other things I eat regularly are eggs and seeds (pumpkin and chia). I prefer beans to meat, and dry beans especially are very cheap. I'll buy 5 pounds of organic flour on sale and make homemade pizza or reduced fat biscuits. That bag of flour lasts me months. As a tomato lover, I also have spaghetti a couple of times a month. At a recent sale, I bought two boxes of organic spaghetti for 50 cents each (it was a BOGO plus had a $1 coupon.)
For me cheap healthy eating is all about eating simply, eating lots of frozen veggies and berries, making the most of sales (which includes stocking up at major sales), and no wasting of food. If you underbuy on fresh fruit and veggies, you'll never have waste. Just make sure to have frozen available to make up for when you don't have fresh. I don't need a lot of food because I am a woman on the smaller side, so I can afford to buy discounted quality over quantity.
This is probably more than you wanted to know, but it's rare to see a thread about healthy frugal eating so I got carried away.
My favorite frugal meal is mujadara or lentils and rice with onions sautéed until crispy in olive oil. I'm very fond of a version that is seasoned with spices popular in Morocco: cinnamon, cumin, coriander, turmeric, ginger, garlic, mint, and lemon and that uses shallots instead of onions. I also often add a dollop of creamy yogurt when I serve it. A simpler version uses just cumin. It's good on its own or you can add whatever appeals to your tastes. This time of year, I sometimes add cubes of roasted sweet potato. In the spring, I add halved sweet cherry tomatoes. In any case, it's a delicious, satisfying, and best of all, very frugal and healthy meal that makes great leftovers. My college-age daughter often makes a large batch of mujadara in an Instant Pot at the beginning of busy weeks and eats it every day for lunch. Here's a link to my favorite version: Instant Pot Mujadara Note: An Instant Pot is not required to make mujadara. That's just the version I make.
Also, if nobody has ever pointed you toward Leanne Brown's Good and Cheap cookbook, let me be the first. It was Brown's graduate degree capstone project and is an incredible resource for those living on a tight budget. Here's her website, where you can find a link to the free PDF of the cookbook and access other recipes she's developed since the publication of Good and Cheap.
Eggs - cheap, lots of nutrients and the most bioavailable protein there is. I mix in coleslaw, veggies, tomatoes, fat free cheese, whatever. But in a day I often eat eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A day of eating eggs comes up to a few dollars for the whole day if that. Great for those doing low carb or keto type plans.
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