Healthy Eating on a Budget

Eating healthy can seem pretty impossible at times for many people.  We work full-time, rush kids around from place to place, who has time to cook nutritious meals every night?  On top of this, it often seems like the healthiest foods in the grocery store are also the most expensive.  Wild caught salmon is $25.99/lb and a whole KFC family meal costs just the same.  It’s easy to see why for many people healthy meal planning is still not on the radar.

 

Well, I have good news!  It’s entirely possible to feed a family of four healthy nutritious meals that can be made in less than 30 minutes and cost under $15, in fact many cost under $10.  In this article, you’ll find some shopping tips and tricks, a table of per serving costs of grocery staples to have on hand, as well as recipes to get you started.

 

1. Know Your Healthy Staples

 

Proteins:  White meat poultry, eggs, seafood, seeds, beans, nuts, nut butters, tofu, and infrequently cuts of pork beef, or anything else really that are labeled loin or round.  These are consistently your best bets, and are usually relatively affordable.  There is a table listed to show the price of these items, as well as a per serving price, so you can price out your own favorite recipes.

 

Carbohydrates:  Sweet potatoes, squashes, whole grain pastas, brown or wild rice, quinoa, air-popped popcorn, oatmeal, 100% whole grain products such as bread, tortillas, pitas, rolls and cereals.

 

               Fats: Olive oil, canola oil, butter

 

Fruits and Veggies:  As much as possible!  Frozen is always ok, and will retain about 100% of the nutrients that it had when it was fresh picked.  Fresh is great when it’s in season, when not it can get pricier and may not actually have as many of the vitamins and nutrients as the frozen option.  Canned is great to have on hand as well in emergencies, just be sure to look for no sodium, or low sodium options in veggies and beans, as well as fruits that are packed in their own juice. 

 

Pantry Items: Spices, garlic, salt, pepper, stocks and broths.

 

Dairy: Milk, (soy, hemp, plant based varieties are included), cheeses, yogurt (plain Greek for more protein)

2. Plan

The best  tip to eating healthy on a budget is to practice meal planning.  This doesn’t mean you have to develop a detailed menu for each day of the week.  People tend to be creatures of habit, especially for breakfast.  What you do is make a little table:

Day:	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Snacks

Now you don’t have to go crazy looking up recipes and spending lots of time on this at all.  Just think of the foods your family already likes. There are many ways to make even the worst meals healthy, and we’ll talk about that later.  Here’s an example of one of my own Meal plans:

Day:	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Breakfast	French toast & fruit	Greek yogurt & fruit	Eggs, turkey bacon & fruit	Oatmeal & fruit	Eggs & turkey bacon & fruit	Oatmeal & fruit	Eggs, oatmeal, fruit & turkey bacon
Lunch	Salad with hard boiled eggs, cheese & multigrain roll	Salad with boiled eggs, veggies and cheese sticks	Turkey bacon BLT and fruit	Wrap with hummus and veggies	Salad with turkey bacon, cheese, and fruit	Leftovers	Turkey bacon BLTs & fruit
Dinner	Protein Plus Pasta (Barilla) with garlic, oil & veggies + salad	Crockpot Tortilla Soup + Black Bean Quesadillas	Turkey or chicken tacos	Naan bread or French Bread Pizzas with veggies, and salad	Chicken breast stuffed with cheese & veggies, sweet potatoes and side salad	Buffalo Chicken Wraps with side salad	Chicken in the grass French Bread Pizzas with Salad & Veggie Side
Snacks	Greek yogurt	Hummus and veggies	Hummus and veggies	Greek yogurt and peanuts	Peanuts and fruit	Hummus and veggies	Peanuts and fruit

 

This gives me everything I need to know for my shopping list.  Sometimes, if I know certain things are going on sale, I’ll develop my meal plan around that.  Also, when meal planning, it helps to look at a few things:

1. The weather, since my husband refuses to eat “cold weather foods” like soups, or lasagna when it’s over 65 degrees out.  Also, if it’s nice and not rainy, grilling outside is a quick and easy option.

2. Look at the family schedule:  Will everyone be home?  If so, at what time?  How much time is there to prep between getting home and going to the next outing?  If it looks like a particularly tight schedule, consider making a crock pot meal in the morning before heading off to work such as 10 minute tortilla soup.  That way, you can just come home and eat- yay!

3. Plan your meals so that you can buy a few meats or proteins in bulk and prepare them in multiple different ways.  For instance, chicken tenders cost about 4.99/lb, however 5lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts at Wegmans is about 1.99/lb.  It only takes a few minutes too butterfly them and cut them into tenders yourself if that’s what you like.  Then you can also throw some into soup, use some for sandwiches, or in salads, tacos, stir fry, or even pizza topping.

Below is a database of foods and their typical 2015-2016 prices in the Western New York area.  Feel free to use it to help plan your meals!

Food item	Unit Price	Serving Price	Serving Size
Ground beef	3/lb	0.75	4 oz
Chicken breasts (boneless skinless)	2/lb	0.5	4 oz
Cheddar/Monteray/Colby	3.50/lb	0.44	2 oz
Potatoes	.70/lb	0.35	8 oz
Sweet peppers	$3/lb	.50-$1	1/2 c
Onions	1.50/lb	.3-.5	1/4 c
Mushrooms	2/lb	0.5	1/4 c
Broths/Stocks	2.50/32 oz.	0.625	8 oz
Mozzarella	4/lb	0.5	2 oz
Ground Turkey (bulk)	3/lb	0.75	4 oz
Sweet Potatoes	1.5/lb	0.75	8 oz
Tortillas	2/8 tortillas	0.25	1
squash	2/lb	0.5	8 oz
whole wheat protein pasta	2.25/lb	0.33	3 oz
parmesian cheese	6/lb	0.25	tsp
canned tomatoes	2/28oz	0.57	8 oz
canned san marzano	4/28 oz	1.14	8 oz
whole wheat bread	2/lb	0.1	slice
lettuce	2/head	0.5	1/4 head
broccoli	2/lb	0.33	1/2 c
frozen veg	1/lb	0.25	1/4 c
frozen sugar snap peas	2/lb	0.5	1/4 c
frozen edamame	2.69/lb	0.67	1/4 c
frozen roasted poblanos	2.69/lb	0.67	1/4 c
frozen roasted red peppers	2.49/lb	0.63	1/4 c
frozen asian blend	2.79/lb	0.7	1/4 c
ginger	3/lb	.3
garlic	2/lb	.15
lemons		0.5	1 lemon
oranges	1.6/lb	0.5	1 orange
apples	1.33/lb	0.4	1 apple
naan	6-Jul	1.17	1 bread
whole wheat pitas	3.5/5	0.7	1 bread
flatbread pizza dough organic	7/2 sheets	0.88	1/4 sheet
greek yogurt Plain	4.25/32 oz	0.53	4 oz
light sour cream	2.5/24 oz	0.15	2 oz
canned beans	1/can	0.29	3.5/can
Frozen wild caught sockeye salmon	13/lb	3.13	4 oz
quinoa (Arrowhead)	6.5/lb	0.73	5 oz
quinoa (Aldi)	3/lb	0.36	4 oz
Food  Item	Unit Price	Serving Price	Serving Size

Sample Recipe

Tortilla Soup                                                                        

Ingredients:

1 bag frozen corn

1 bag roasted poblano peppers

1 bag roasted red peppers

36 oz Chicken or Vegetable stock

1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo

1 chopped onion

2 chicken breasts

28 oz diced tomatoes and chiles

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp cumin

2 tsp chili powder

1 avocado cubed for serving

Instructions:

Dump all of the ingredients into a slow cooker, stir and cook on low for 6+ hours or high for 3-4.  When you arrive home, remove chicken breasts from soup and shred with two forks.  Return to soup.  Stir once more.  Serve in bowls topped with cubed avocado.