Need cheap healthy food advice :)

soups are great and are cheap to buy the ingredients esecially beans I buy black beans and lentils for less than $2 per bag and they are 2lb bags they will last awhile. I also have an aldis in my area where I can buy canned veggies for less than .50 each of course fresh is better but not always possible especially in cooking. Just drain and rinse the can veggies before adding them. The soups I make feed my family of three at least 4 times if not more plus they freeze really well.

I second the slow cooker suggestion. My favorite recipes all use the slow cooker, throw in some healthy stuff, veggies, lean protein, some kind of liquid, spices... then set it and forget it. Endless possibilities and it's really hard to mess it up.

whole wheat pasta and ground beef, you can eat for day with a package of each and provides good carbs and protein. Make sure ground beef is 93/7, lean.

no spaghetti sauce. way I cook it brown the beef, season with garlic, pinch of salt and pepper add water (after you have browned the meet) and tomato sauce (half a can) add some parsley, basil and you have at least 6 meals with it maybe more. I eat 2 cups of pasta at a time so you I'm sure you can eat for almost a week from it. Total cost less than $10 for everything.

I have to agree with everyone you need to freeze your meals. It is soooo easy just to grab and go especially when you are so young. If you set aside time on the weekend to make meals or soups to freeze. What is great is crockpoting and freezing leftovers for another day. there is a site I like called skinnykitchen she shows you how to make the food and gives good healthy recipies.

I'm extremely frugal, so here are my suggestions:

1. Look at the grocery ads for the stores in your area. I have about 13 ads from various grocery stores in the area (and I live in a town with 1 grocery store and WalMart) and I see what's on sale for the week and price match it all at WalMart. That way I'm only making one trip to the store, but still getting the best deals. If you have Mexican grocery stores in your area, price matching their meats and produce (along with bags of beans and rice) will save you TONS of money! When shopping, also use coupons for any of the products you are buying that are on sale...extra savings! If you use a certain brand, email the company and tell them how much you like their product, how often you use it, etc. and most of the time they will mail you coupons to use on their products.

2. As others said, get a slow cooker/crockpot. You can make large quantities of food at a time to freeze for future meals and you'll be able to "cook" meals while still doing homework or in class.

3. Plan plan plan what you are going to eat. If all of your room mates and you are going to be eating together (like family style), make some type of menu based off the food that you purchased so it gets used up and doesn't go bad. This will help you not waste money, but will help with time management and also your planning of your food diary for the day. Win all the way around

4. If you are getting graduation gifts or money, you can always save that towards kitchen items that you may need, such as a digital food scale or a George Foreman type grill for meats.

5. As for recipes, etc. there are some great ones on here and I tend to look up recipes too on allrecipes.com of stuff that we like and then just modify the ingredients (or omit some) to make them healthier. We are a family of 4 and we always have leftovers that I freeze for future nights for dinner or for my DH to take to lunch the next day. You can do this too so that you don't have to worry about cooking every night, especially when you have a big test or project that needs to be worked on.

Hope some of this helps!

I started freezing my yogurt before it went bad in icecube trays. Now I always have yogurt on hand to make smoothies. A fun idea I found on pinterest (my new addiction).

Great idea!!! I freeze milk in ice cube trays so I don't have to use ice in my smoothies but never thought about freezing yogurt. Sorry a little off topic but also saw a post about freezing leftover wine one pinterest for those of you that like to cook with wine.

I've been thinking of investing in a slow cooker, since I'm also a frugal healthy eater. Any tips on a good, inexpensive model to try?

PS -- I thought I was the only one on MFP hitting up the Mexican grocery stores for the deals. :-) It baffles me how they could be so much cheaper than everywhere else, but somehow they are and they're still in business, so they clearly have a good business model.

Make stews, soups, casseroles etc in large batches in weeks where you have extra money and freeze in 1 portion containers for weeks when you don't have as much money or are too busy to cook.
I used to eat heaps of eggs as well, omelettes, frittatas, scrambled on toast.
Buy beans (such as chickpeas) in bulk to add to stews etc above.

I totally agree with the above! I always make a double batch and freeze half! Soups freeze really easily. Eggs are super cheap and you can do so much. Quiches are a great way to use the veggies from the farmer's market she mentioned. Farmer's markets definitely have some good deals.

Eating less meat is also a great way to save money.

I second eatingwell.com It's one of my favorites. I also use brokeandhealthy.com. It's pretty awesome and it's got tips other than just food too. If you're interested you can check out my own site. I post my menus and recipes too. Most are really cheap though I admit to experimentation a lot. It's at rillsmenu.blogspot.com.

I wouldn't worry about buying meats unless they're on sale, then buy in bulk and freeze it. You can get plenty of protein in other ways. Dried beans are cheap and really good for you. Rice is cheap. Old Fashioned oats are cheap. Carrots, celery, salad greens (not bagged/pre chopped) also run on the cheap side. Frozen veggies/fruits are also an excellent bargain. Buy fruits/veggies that are on sale/in season and if they're cheaper than pre-frozen, stock up and freeze them yourself. Hmm....that's all I can think of atm. You just gotta open your brain to the possibilities. Stay away from packaged/processed as much as possible. Plan ahead and schedule so you have time to cook foods for yourself. Good luck!

bump