Limited budget and Healthy eating????

I hear you on this. Do the best you can with the resources you have.

Like mentioned before, when it comes to weight loss, it's all about calories out vs calories in. Always bake instead of frying (even fries, if you must have them...oven baked fries are much healthier...and over baked sweet potato fries are good!

Try not to eat anything 3 hours before going to bed and do exercise regularly.

You can still make a difference by doing easier substitutions. Like skim milk vs whole (usually the same cost), using PAM instead of butter or oil when needed for cooking...kudos on the farmers market! I wish ours was still open.

Substituting fruits and raw veggies for snacks is the best thing you can do. You can save tons by not buying the snack foods that our kids beg us for...easier said than done sometimes, but...

I know what you're going through. Hang in there!

If you have an Aldi and/or Save-A-Lot near you - take advantage! Aldi's Fit & Active line is awesome and Save-A-Lot's chicken leg quarters can be used for tons of chicken recipes. When Save-A-Lot has ground turkey on sale, stock up! You can make all kinds of healthy casseroles, chili, even turkey dumplings!

Tonight my husband and I spent about an hour making sweet potato pierogi and freezing them (the kids love them!). Dumplings are made with the same dough recipe:

1 egg
1/2 egg shell milk
1 cup flour

You use so little dough/dumpling or pierogi that it isn't a diet killer. Stuffed with healthy things like ground turkey cooked with onion, sweet potatoes and cinnamon, cabbage fried in any kind of "healthy" oil with onion...endless possibilities.

I agree with a lot of what has been said already...I will be picking up some of these for my own use and others are things I already do. Two quick thoughts to add are 1.) Watch how you serve things. Serving grilled chicken breasts whole generally means one breast per person, but if you were to slice it up before serving the amount each person (especially kids) will take is a lot less than the whole breast. Same goes for steaks, sausage (I get these amazing italian turkey sausage links and instead of eating a whole link in a sandwhich, I stretch them out by slicing them and putting them in wheat pasta dishes--a much better choice than meatballs--or brown rice, making a healthy jambalya) or pork roast (shredding it and serving it as BBQ pulled pork goes much farther than serving thick slices, just watch what is in the BBQ sauce). Little tricks in presentation will save money and calories. 2.) Try to never ever waste food. It is easy when buying in bulk to loose track of what you have or what is older. Frequently take inventory of what you have and make plan use older items first. Remake leftovers into new dishes (soups are my go-to) to ensure they get used up. Try to keep things you stock up on rotating...place newly purchased items in the back of the freezer or pantry and bring older ones forward. Nothing is more irritating than coming across a freeze dried chunk of mystery meat in the freezer and having to throw it away. It is like throwing more right into the trash.

Brown rice and beans. (as previously said)

making beans yourself seems like a hassle because they take so long, but if you cook them in the crockpot its super easy.

You can soak the beans or not, its up to you. (you MUST soak kidney beans and throw away the soaking liquid and cook them in new liqud though because of some crazy bacteria)

I do not soak my beans (except kidney!). I stick them in the crock pot in the evening with water about 2-3 inches above the bean level. Put the crockpot on high for about 2 hours. Then right before bed I turn it to low, and let that cook for about 8-10 hours. In the morning they are done! This is an easy way to cook alot of beans, and you can FREEZE them too!!! Its up to you whether you keep the liquid they make. I keep it, but if you are making something you want dryer, you may want to drain them.

for easy brown rice, I use minute brown rice, but regular brown rice is probably cheaper.

For me, when we run out of healthy options in our house early (before grocery day) and have no money to purchase more, I make sure to really watch my portion size.

This may go without saying, but own brands are brilliant. Look for the ugliest packaging possible (they make it ugly because they want people to buy one of the more expensive options), and read the labels. You may be pleasantly surprised. In the UK, Tesco's own-brand Special Flakes cereal is better for you than lots of other fortified cereals, for instance.

I can relate to your situation. I am a divorced mother of two and yes its hard being a single mother on budget. Frozen vegetables is cheaper and better thatn canned vegetables. Chicken is also great with out the skin. Eventhough counting calories is a pain in the *kitten*, IT HELPS. As long as you stay within your caloric goal per day, you can lose the weight.


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We are in the same boat. Just make sure I watch my portions, if I'm eating somethin not so healthy!