What are your healthy eating food staples?

meggiewho97

I would like to start buying my own groceries, but I am on a very limited budget, and I have no idea what to buy. What are some healthy foods/ingredients that you simply cannot go without, favorite foods, or inexpensive healthy foods? Any suggestions are welcome and very much appreciated.

Need2Exerc1se

If you are cooking vegetables, buy frozen. They are a fraction of the price of fresh and often have retained more nutrients. This is especially true for leafy greens.

Otherwise, use coupons, plan your shopping list and menu around sale items. Stock up on non-perishables when there is a good sale. During growing/harvest season check out farmer's markets for good deals on fresh vegetables.

katerz86

eggs, egg whites, almonds, bananas, apples, carrots, celery, sweet potato, greek yogurt, berries, chick peas, almond milk, oatmeal, broccoli, ground turkey, cabbage, onion, spinach.

PearlAng

Oatmeal, greek yogurt, spinach, wraps, broccoli, some kind of bread (usually rye because it's my fave)

Other things like cottage cheese and the laughing cow cheese wedges are good because you can use them as a dip for vegetables or even spread on bread with turkey and veggies for a sandwich.

LifeInTheBikeLane

Eggs, eggs, eggs, eggs. Oh and some spinach.

No really though, if there's any few things we have to buy weekly it is eggs, frozen spinach, oatmeal and canned chicken or tuna. You have no idea how many meals can be made from the above! When I first started out on my own my budget was the lowest of the low (Ok, it still is) and I had to slowly learn what I could live with weekly and couldn't. Eggs, spinach and chicken became the main things.

Tea_Mistress

Frozen sprouts, broccoli ,mushrooms, spinach (or other mixed lettuce) cucumber, bell peppers, some kind of fruit (usually pears, bananas or frozen berries), tinned tuna, whole wheat noodles or pasta, (sometimes whole wheat bread ), eggs, low fat cottage cheese, almonds, porridge, lots of soup chilli pepper, mixed herbs,cinnamon, pickles , grated parmesan, light hot chocolate, some sort of seasoning mix, unsweetened almond milk
that's usually what I eat XD

kristydi

Assuming you're in the US, Thanksgiving type foods are going to be on sale. So I'm stocking up on sweet potatoes.

I agree with what others have said about frozen veggies. Frozen streamable broccoli is pretty standard at my house.

As others have said, eggs, oatmeal. Canned beans are cheap, dry are even cheaper and very easy to cook in large batches in a crock pot and freeze in smaller portions.

Chicken breasts can get pricey. I buy a lot of chicken leg quarters in a 10 pound bag. Is really not hard to seperate them into legs and thighs. Alton Brown has a great video showing how to break down a chicken.

OK I tried to link to the video on YouTube, but it's not working. It's in the episode called Fry Hard II

squirrelone

Some of the things I eat on a daily or near daily basis are:

Baby spinach.
Brussels sprouts.
Broccoli.
Carrots.
Eggs.
Oats.
Cottage cheese.
Apples.

meggiewho97

Thank you all for your feedback. I will start making my shopping list!

court_alacarte

i've started making raw veggies and those single-servings of hummus a staple. i buy one of those pre-cut veggie trays and it's lasted me 2 weeks! i also always have soup around.

peachyfuzzle

Tuna. All the tuna.