College student in need of some SERIOUS nutrition help

I do not know too much about eating on a tight budget. My suggestions would be to offer to cook, if you can some nights or days per week. Help your Mom with grocery shopping, try to talk her into some inexpensive or clearance items that can be healthy. If you're not buying beans or eggs, for example, those could really help with a healthy diet. What sorts of things is she able to buy now? I agree work with what you've got to make what you need, watch coupons and clearance deals like a hawk

My diet is not for everybody, but it has good nutrition and is cheap, about $100 a month for one person.

I make the basics in batches.

For breakfast, I cook a large pot of steel cut oats and then reheat some every morning (just add a little water) with chopped apple instead of sugar.

For lunch and dinner, I cook a lot of lentils. One cup has 18 g protein (the protein of 3 eggs). The lentils cost about $1.00 a bag in the grocery store. One bag makes about 5 cups of food. They cook in 20-30 minutes.

Some people find beans hard to digest because we lack an enzyme to digest the coat or shell. Soaking takes care of this or you can add extra water and cook until very soft. I then stir fry some lentils in a little olive oil in a pan with chopped veggies like carrots and sweet onions. For spice, I add some McCormick's Perfect Pinch spices -- they have a line of spices with no MSG/no salt/no sugar. I also eat a lot of steamed greens like kale, collards, and spinach.

I cook brown rice in a rice cooker and eat that instead of bread (read the label if you buy bread because a lot of it has corn syrup, which adds calories and causes cravings). Rice costs between $1.00 a bag up to $5.00 for organic.

You can also make soups that will keep in the fridge for a week. Soups are very nutritious and not expensive.

Do you live near a Mexican or Latino grocery store? They often have onions, tomatoes, and other fresh vegetables at far lower prices than the chain grocery stores.

Editing this to add that sweet potatoes are better than white potatoes -- they are lower in calories and higher in some other nutrients.

Good for you! Sounds like you're shouldering a lot but doing your best to make positive choices.

I second the idea of offering to cook a few times a week - some of my college favorites were (and still are!) rice and beans (dried beans are SO cheap, super nutritious, and easy to make - they just take a little time), eggs, and cabbage soup. Hot sauce is something that really helps the flavor of all of the above. I'm very busy these days and I'll make a big pot of beans and rice on Sundays and eat the leftovers all week.

Packaged/processed foods are often more expensive than the alternatives - case in point, Uncle Ben's precooked rice vs. a bag of brown rice. Check your unit labels to find the best deal. Get frozen veggies on sale.

You've got this! Good luck!

Kimo - I give you big props for focusing on your health! Your family is going to benefit from it too and I bet that feels great. I just wanted to chime in to suggest frozen veggies...You can get them for $1 a bag or less and the fact that they are frozen doesn't mean they've lost their nutrition. Some other things to investigate are whether there is a produce market near you...they sometimes have better veggie prices than the chain grocery. Farmer's markets sometimes double food stamp values too. (Not sure if you use those.)

I also would add that if you care about your health, which obviously you do, it DOES matter what you choose to spend your calories on (contrary to an earlier post.) I'm sure you are smart enough to know that it matters whether your daily calories are full of Oreos and ice cream or veggies and grains...just had to point out the ridiculousness of that earlier comment.

Hi, I am back in school myself and for cheap healthy food I got with all kind of beans, lentils, tofu, canned tuna. I watched the veggies/fruits on sale and that's what will be on the menu that week! Well, I actually look at every sale, meat, dairy and stock up whenever i can... Frozen veggies are a great option and nutrition wise they are sometimes better than the one we buy that have been waiting to be bought....but i personally do not like the texture of them. I prefer putting nutritious food into my body over any process food, but our body doesn't differentiate if it is good or bad sugar, good or bad carbs, it comes down to all the same thing, The difference is the nutrition you get from them.