Eating healthy on a STRICT budget....

There is a ton of very good advice here.

I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but when that craving hits, it HITS. I buy (usually at Target) the bags of either Ghiradelli squares or the Dove small squares. They're individually wrapped, and when the sweet craving hits, I'll have a Ghiradelli square or a couple of the Dove squares. It's just enough to satisfy the craving, it's cheaper, and SO many fewer calories than eating a whole candy bar. Might be worth a try.

At $20/week, candy is not affordable nutrition. For every dime, there's a better option.

Dried beans are inexpensive, easy to cook, and very healthful.

This!

If you can find a pressure cooker used at a thrift store, you can cook presoaked beans in about the time it will take you to cook rice. Together, rice and beans make a "whole" protein and a wonderful evening meal.

Beans are the more nutritious part of the meal, so go heavy on the beans, light on the rice.

Here's a super handy chart of cooking times:
http://fastcooking.ca/pressure_cookers/cooking_times_pressure_cooker.php

I'm pretty much on the same budget and manage quite easily on $20 a week.

I mainly shop at Aldi.

My weekly shop usually includes:

Quick oats

rice

frozen veggies

Whole wheat pasta

block of cheese

loaf of bread - I freeze this and it lasts a week or two.

apples

minced beef

chicken breast

If an outside garden isn't an option, try planting a few staples inside in pots. We live in Alaska, but being from the south, I'm used to having a garden. Right now I'm growing tomatoes, spinach, basil, zucchini, cucumber and bell peppers in 5 gal buckets in a sunny window.

Check your local food bank or Aldi. You would be surprised at some of the foods you will find. I work for a wellness coalition in my community and one of our recent programs we offered was Healthy Cooking on a Dime. Fish is a very common food here, and we found out that nuts were very common at the food bank. So one of our themes was dealing with what's available. We demoed how to cook an oven fried nut crusted fish. Very yummy and good for you! Beans, Beans, Beans was another theme, as we have a large Filipino population. Sweet potato and bean enchiladas were a hit! The class got to make their own to take home and freeze for later use. Our snack that night that we provided to them was a homemade roasted red pepper hummus. I hate hummus I buy in the store. But this was great! Most of the recipes I used I got from sites like allrecipes. I would send them to the dietitian that was teaching the classes and she would alter the recipes to make them healthier. Then I would try it out at home, playing with the seasonings.

Choosemyplate.gov also has some great resources. There are sections on eating healthy on a budget. The key is to not limit the foods you try. You'd be amazed at some of the great tasting foods out there. Kale chips...my latest craze. Just play with the seasonings you like, toss with a little EVOO, throw in the oven for a bit, and wham! A crispy, healthy snack when you want. They keep pretty well in a ziploc bag.

cut the processed foods. anything you buy that's "just add water" or "microwave for __ minutes!" and trust me, i love hot pockets. but, $3 for 2 of them is way to expensive for a microwave sandwich. take a good look at your processed foods and figure out what they are exactly. hamburger helper is pasta with dehydrated sauce. you still have to add everything else. you're paying for convenience and packaging.

apples bananas and oranges are usually the cheapest fruits, but look for the seasonal ones too like peaches.there are truckloads of them around right now. look for the roadside produce stands. watermelons are also starting to appear.

check out the bulk sections of your grocery stores for beans, grains and nuts. and check out their weekly fliers too. and compare the stuff that you want. i made that mistake this week. overpaid for blackberries by about a dollar.

sometimes nuts are cheaper in the baking aisle of the grocery store. sometimes canned fruit and vegetables are cheaper and easier to manage than fresh. make your own call. i get canned beans because i do not have enough of my sh** together to remember to soak them. maybe one day. and i don't own a crock pot.

i roast a whole chicken on sundays. i have found them for around $2.75-$5.75 depending on the store and how it's packaged. It feeds my and hubs for about 5 meals and we each get about 3 or 4 ounces at a time. it takes about an hour and a half at 375 degrees. you can also throw in some rice and veggies and have a whole meal in one pot that will last a few days. it can also make a very risch and tasty soup.

the freezer is your friend. i freeze quinoa (i make a big pot at one time) and when i'm ready to use the rest of it, tah dah! defrost. it can be sweet or savory, go in soups or salads, and is wonderful topped with chicken and veggies.

greek yogurt is my favorite staple. i eat it for snacks and light meals. you can make smoothies if you have some fruit that needs to be eaten, and you can also put it in the freezer if you have left over smoothie and make frozen yogurt out of it without doing anything special. great value (walmart brand) is the cheapest and to me, has the closest flavor to fage.

turkey bacon is half the price of regular at walmart. sweet potatoes are dirt cheap and absolutely yummy. one of my favorite go-to quick cheap easy recipes- microwave a sweet potato. but a can of black beans rotel tomatoes on to warm. add cumin, coriander, maybe a little turmeric and some chipotle. microwave a serving of turkey bacon. smother the sweet potato in a serving of black bean/tomato mix top with crumbled turkey bacon and add some cheese on top if calories allow.

PACK YOUR MEALS TO TAKE TO WORK. I can't tell you how much money this has saved me over the last 8 months. it makes me facepalm on a regular basis. hope this helps at least a little.

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