Healthy food choice on a budget

Anything beans.
-Add taco seasoning to lentils or refried beans and top with cheese and salsa, maybe some chips
-Three bean salad: one can each garbanzo, kidney and green beans, season with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper

Also, rolled oats is one of the cheapest breakfasts around and healthier than any cereal you find in a box.

Would be easier to reply if you tell us what foods you like/dislike.My freezer always has frozen veggies,fruit & homemade soups.There are tons of things to do with eggs....from adding to salad,egg salad,frittata,omelets etc.There is no rule saying you need to buy / use expensive meat....or any expensive food.Keep in mind,canned food can work.Google low cost food plans.Good luck.

Low budget friendly foods where I live are things like oatmeal, tuna, whole chicken or chicken thighs, dry beans, lentils, rice, pasta, bread, peanut butter, eggs, potatoes, carrots, apples, ground turkey, cabbage, onions, canned tomatoes, frozen vegetables, flour
Meal planning is a really good idea if you have a tight budget.
Soup is a good dollar stretcher. I make a big pot once a week usually. My family likes, tomato, lentil, minestrone, fassolatha, potato, and cheese soups.
Cut up meat and put it in casseroles, stir fry, soups, etc to stretch a smaller amount farther.
Cut up, skin, bone, or shred food yourself.

http://www.budgetbytes.com has lots of tasty cost conscious recipes.

Also,check out skinnytaste.com & cabbage roll soup from allrecipes.com Both have nutrition for recipes. Just made the cabbage roll soup for dinner. Smells yummy....very economical.

Beans and legumes, oats, brown rice, potatoes, frozen fruits (unless you need fresh), and whole grain pastas are a lifesaver when it comes to eating on a budget and are also just so healthy and nutritious! Plus they are mostly dry ingredients that store well, so you don't need to eat them quickly! Hope this helps

With a little prep work you can make freezer meals. Here is a sample of what I bought this past week. I wanted a stir fry so I got :
1bag of frozen steamable brown rice,
1bag of frozen steamable sweet peas
1 small head of cabbage
1 pound bag of chopped carrots
1 pack of boneless skinless chicken breast that had 3 in it
1onion
seasonings to taste were soy sauce, red pepper, ground ginger and garlic.
This makes 4 meals!!!! For each meal I weighed out the chicken to 5 oz per serving. And cut each serving up and sautéed it separately in a pan with just nonstick spray and 1/4 of the onion and I cut the serving size of rice to 1/2 a cup to cut down on carbs. 1 cup cabbage steamed, 1/2 c steamed peas, 1 cup carrots steamed , mix together in a bowl and season and put into a quart freezer bags.

Watch your grocery sale ads for cheap whole chickens, pork loins, and ground meat.

You can roast two chickens at a time. Eat one chicken for dinner and shred the rest. The bones can be used for stock, which is the best base for soup. The meat can be used for tacos, sandwiches, casseroles, soups, and salads.

For the pork loin slice it into 1" thick pieces and freeze for pork chops. The ends can be used in a roast, stew, or sliced thin for stir fry.

Ground meat freezes great in the tubes, or in freezer zip bags if you bought a big tray. It can be used for meatballs, burgers, casseroles, soups, and sloppy joe's.

Eggs are a good value for breakfast, a lunch fritatta, hard boiled, or fried with leftover rice.

Greek yogurt and cottage cheese can be a little pricey, but I still like them for breakfast and snacks. So much protein with so little effort. Protein powder is also a good source of easy protein.

Non-meat foods are usually pretty cheap. Make your own sauces instead of buying jarred. Grow an herb garden if you have the space and buy spices in bags or the bulk section. Those little jars are overpriced.

Fresh vegetables and fruit are often inexpensive if you buy them whole and cut them up yourself. Watch the prices, they can vary by season. Potatoes are always a good value and can be prepared in a ton of different ways. I don't care for frozen vegetables, but frozen berries are often cheaper than fresh and are good in yogurt, smoothies, and deserts.

Beans and rice can bulk up a meal and are cheap if you buy them dry, especially in big bags. Even canned beans aren't too bad when pressed for time. Dried pasta is a good deal and you can get the whole-grain kind for more fiber.

I won't share my recipes with you. It would take too long. I mostly cook out of the Joy of Cooking or How to Cook Everything. The local library is a great source of free cookbooks to try. The Food Network website has reliable online recipes.

Would love some of your ideas. Trying to loose also on a budget.

shadow2soul wrote: »

Definitely do your shopping at places like Aldi's. Stuff, while mostly Aldi Brand, can be a lot cheaper there.

I get banana's for $0.29 a lb compared to $0.55 a lb at walmart. A 3lb bag of cuties is currently $3.97 at my local walmart and I just bought a 3 lb bag at Aldi's for $2.49.

That is cheap! Here in England it's 11p each in Aldi and 68p per pound or it might even be 72p per pound now as everything is going up due to the low pound.

I eat $4.70 per person per day in australia. I cook from scratch, food from all over the world. Shop in local chinese and arabic stores and fruit shops. Brown rice is cheaper than white but takes longer to prepare. I buy whole chickens. I only buy seasonal vegetables and fruit. I buy spices, flour etc in bulk. Find cheap block cheeses not grated stuff...we have cheddar fetta and occasinally ricotta. Have hardly any asian sauces-soy, sesame, plain vinegar, and oyster. ..use ginger and honey as well for flavour. Make up other sauces from scratch if needed eg worstershire. Fruit is the cheapest snack. Use lentils...google turkish lentil soup. Find a good cookbook. Wordpress also is good search 'frugal'. Find recipes from world war ii era, or earlier, they cooked healthy on a budget. The obesity problem happened later here in australia. Today i ate french toast for breakfast, fish and rice for lunch, pasta with vegies and a little bit of chicken.