Food ideas while on a budget
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I eat a lot of hard boiled eggs because they are easy and cheap to buy.
Otherwise I will typically meal prep. It can get boring, but I’ll make a big batch of something and eat it all week. It helps save me money since I’m not buying a ton of different things. The downside is that if I don’t really love the food, I get bored and want to stop eating it!0 -
High fiber veggie pasta...not much more expensive than regular pasta but cheap and better for you especially for the carbs. Add some quality protein like some leftover meat or chicken or tilapia.2
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you can buy meat in quantity for less & freeze some -find a meat market- I have 3 turkeys in the freezer - bought them on a sale ate Thanksgiving for 59 cents per lb - I will cook them sometime - buy a pork roast & have the butcher slice it up - put some in the freezer. you get the idea - I also get large bags of frozen veggies at Wal Mart - Eastcoast Jim0
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If you like burritos. Make them yourself. It will take some time, but so worth it. Get some good seasoning. Goya has some flavor packs, but I use cumin & adobo seasoning, plus a little salt. If you don't want to do the dry beans, you can use a can of pinto or black beans and season them by sauteing some onion, jalapeno or serrano pepper, then add the beans and mash them. I also cut up a small amount of carrots and potato and boil them til tender. Use a protein of choice or none and mix the vegetables and beans, add a bit of cheese and wrap them up. Bake covered in the oven til heated. Add some great salsa make your own with a can of tomatoes drained, left over onion, hot pepper and cilantro. This will freeze well and taste so much better than the frozen ones.
I also make a lot of soup. Black bean soup is a favorite, red lentil with coconut milk, Italian wedding soup, butternut squash soup. The beauty of soup is it's great the second day and you can use up all the leftover vegetables in your fridge. Add a can of beans for fiber.
Once you make a big pot of chili or soup, be sure to throw a few containers in the freezer. Every time I do that I thank myself for thinking ahead.
Good luck - cooking is fun! If you're not sure how to prepare something, youtube or allrecipes or foodtv.com are all good resources. Or pick up a basic cookbook at the library.1 -
@RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
I just used a couple of teaspoons of Madras Paste with around 120g zero fat yoghurt, mixed it up marinated the chicken in it overnight. Pop it in a casserole dish to cook.
Cut up and parboil the potatoes, drained them, fluffed them up a bit and then added frylight spray and some turmeric/salt
Pop both in the oven for around 30 minutes on 180 degrees.1 -
I like making up “breakfast bowls” that I then freeze and can grab and go later. I cube potatoes, season, and bake and then scramble some eggs and put a little cheese and salsa on. Into freezer it goes. I got a 10 pound bag of potatoes for 1.39 and eggs are going for 99 cents a dozen around here. Cheese $4 a pound. That makes a lot of breakfasts! Depending on your macro goals that may or may not work for you but for me it’s been a lifesaver.1
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tinkerbellang83 wrote: »@RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
I just used a couple of teaspoons of Madras Paste with around 120g zero fat yoghurt, mixed it up marinated the chicken in it overnight. Pop it in a casserole dish to cook.
Cut up and parboil the potatoes, drained them, fluffed them up a bit and then added frylight spray and some turmeric/salt
Pop both in the oven for around 30 minutes on 180 degrees.
Thanks
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Cooking with dried beans is so inexpensive. They taste much, much better than the canned. They freeze well so you can have frozen beans one cup at a time or whatever quantity you wish. They are used in so many recipes but are also very good just with some olive oil and parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast (for vegans). Black eyed peas and chick peas are in this category as well.0
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Cabbage. Cabbage is glorious. Usually about $.049/lb, right? Chop up about 1 small head of cabbage (1.5lbs is the average in my grocery stores) into some strips. Don't have to be fancy, hack away into what you consider semi-large bite sized pieces. You can ask stores to cut them in half if you don't want this much but I say get a whole one and experiment by adding different sauces. Add a single large sliced carrot (~$0.79/lb)... Heat it in a large pan (preferably covered) with some salt & pepper to taste, and maybe 2 tablespoons of water at the most. When carrots are to your liking in firmness (depends on how thick you sliced them for cooking time), add sauce.
Some recommendations are teriyaki, sesame ginger (ily, King Soopers/Kroger), tomato, plain ol' hot sauce, peanut sauce (pad thai), bbq, just some of your favorite herbs, whateeevveerrrr. o: Any sauce that is good warm. Remember to count your calories on how much sauce you add, and stir well. Since it'll still be a bit wet from the water in the pan and the cabbage releasing some liquid, the sauce will spread really well.
That. Is a huge af side dish for relatively little calories. The quantity above makes a RIDICULOUS amount of food. You can use it for every meal, adding your sauce directly into your tupperware for the day, to have a /different/ meal every day. Just vary your protein + sauce, bam. Entirely new dish.
This is my main bulk for my lunches this week. My coworkers keep smelling my food (cabbage, carrot, chicken breast, Kroger store-brand sesame ginger sauce/marinade) and keep commenting on how delicious my lunch smells.
And damn...
Does it smell good.2 -
oatmeal0
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Thick_Chickk wrote: »What are some good foods to buy while on a budget? (Besides fruits and veggies) for breakfast and lunch?
I never know what to buy so I end up buying a lot of frozen crap.
There's a health-food/grocery type store where I buy bulk steel cut oats for 50¢/lb. Less than 5¢ per serving. Lots of fresh produce including organic and bulk items available for less than the big chain grocery stores
There's a Mediterranean Grocery that sells lots of stuff that's expensive in regular grocery stores at very reasonable prices. For instance, I recently bought Buckwheat groats and Millet very cheap. Millet was $1.49/kg or about 67¢/lb. That's less than 4¢ per serving. Millet, by the way, is a grain-like seed you can make into a breakfast porridge like oatmeal or a savory side dish like wild rice or quinoa. The buckwheat was inexpensive but don't remember exactly how much. Quinoa is cheap also. European sardines, herring, and sprat are bargains there. too. You can find a similar store in your area by googling:- Mediterranean Grocery
- European Grocery
- Middle Eastern Grocery
- Arabic Grocery
If you live in the US there are stores near you that cater to Mexican, Carribean, and South American immigrants. There are tons of bargains there, I guarantee it. Ask your gardener or your neighbor's gardener where their abuelita (Grandma) shops. If there are no gardeners working in your neighborhood, chances are you can ask a neighbor or co-worker. If all else fails google:- Mercado (market),
- Tienda (store),
- or Carniceria (butcher counter).
Same deal applies to Asian groceries, maybe more so. You get the idea.
By the way, I recommend all of the above whether you're on a budget or not.
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Cabbage. Cabbage is glorious. Usually about $.049/lb, right? Chop up about 1 small head of cabbage (1.5lbs is the average in my grocery stores) into some strips. Don't have to be fancy, hack away into what you consider semi-large bite sized pieces. You can ask stores to cut them in half if you don't want this much but I say get a whole one and experiment by adding different sauces. Add a single large sliced carrot (~$0.79/lb)... Heat it in a large pan (preferably covered) with some salt & pepper to taste, and maybe 2 tablespoons of water at the most. When carrots are to your liking in firmness (depends on how thick you sliced them for cooking time), add sauce.
Some recommendations are teriyaki, sesame ginger (ily, King Soopers/Kroger), tomato, plain ol' hot sauce, peanut sauce (pad thai), bbq, just some of your favorite herbs, whateeevveerrrr. o: Any sauce that is good warm. Remember to count your calories on how much sauce you add, and stir well. Since it'll still be a bit wet from the water in the pan and the cabbage releasing some liquid, the sauce will spread really well.
That. Is a huge af side dish for relatively little calories. The quantity above makes a RIDICULOUS amount of food. You can use it for every meal, adding your sauce directly into your tupperware for the day, to have a /different/ meal every day. Just vary your protein + sauce, bam. Entirely new dish.
This is my main bulk for my lunches this week. My coworkers keep smelling my food (cabbage, carrot, chicken breast, Kroger store-brand sesame ginger sauce/marinade) and keep commenting on how delicious my lunch smells.
And damn...
Does it smell good.
I LOVE cabbage. I usually roast it or sautee with olive oil and S&P and nom away, but I never considered adding a sauce. Awesome.0
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