Whats cheap and healthy

[happy_momma]

Gotta admit, we are not fans of lentil soup or rice..any other ideas for what we can buy cheap (we REALLY need to cut out grocery bill) but healthy? Thanks

[LisainCalifornia]

ground turkey has tons of protein and is very cheap. Google for recipes.

[BetsyS]

Do you not like any beans or just not lentils?

Beans are a good, cheap food for us. Bonus is that my kids adore them, so we have beans several times a week. For us, most often, beans are used with meat. It just reduces the amount of meat that I use.

For instance, chili with beans means I use 1/2 pound of beef in a huge pot (8+ servings). For red beans and rice, I use 1/2 pound of andouille. I flavor black eyed peas with a bit of ham (maybe 1/4 pound). That sort of thing.

We like cold bean salads in the summer, too. Things like Texas caviar or the old standby, black bean and corn salad. Sometimes I add chicken, sometimes not. But again, because beans are filling, you don't need as much meat.

I try to get the food we eat at the best prices to help with costs. We have a garden, as does my mom,and that really helps with produce (the biggest part of our budget). I also shop at a couple of international markets to fill in the gaps on produce (mine are a local Korean market, a mostly Mexican market, and one that caters to both Africans and Asians). I buy a few things at Whole Foods in the bulk section (steel cut oats, nuts, nutritional yeast), because they have the best prices.

I shop at several different stores. This works best for my lifestyle, because my kids don't seem to mind a stop of ~15 minutes tagged on to a regular day. They seem to prefer that over a big, 1 hour shop once a week. So, it's not a big deal to hit 4 places in a week. YMMV, though.

[Pinoikoi]

oatmeal is pretty cheap..

and healthy.

I think if I could get my family to eat oatmeal every other day we would take a serious amount of $$ out of our grocery bill.. Unfortunately/fortunately my dp LOVES cooking breakfast.. and for him that means sausage and eggs, pancakes, etc.. almost every morning..

I can't even say how much we spend on eggs... if we lived somewhere with a yard, we would have our own chickens in a minute.

[EviesMom]

We do eggs, but for dinner as scrambles or for lunch hard boiled, and they're not so very pricey considering the nutritional impact. Pasta is an inexpensive option too.

[noobmom]

What do you currently eat? That information might help. You might be able to eat the same things, but just be a bit smarter about how to buy stuff. Like stock up on chicken when it's on sale, buy whole chickens instead of boneless skinless breasts, stuff like that. Same with veggies...you should buy what's in season right now and on sale. But probably the biggest thing you can do is cut back the amount of meat you eat (assuming you eat meat) and filling the gap with more side dishes.

[GreenKnitPocket]

you could check out the new Healthy food awards from fitness -- it lists some healthy & tasty items and the new issue has a bunch of coupons for some of the winning items, so you can save money on them.

[ursusarctos]

some things that we do when we don't want lentil soup (which we fortunately like but do get sick of) but still want cheap

- vegetarian tomato sauce (canned crushed tomatoes, fresh seasonal veggies, jarred olives, dried basil and oregano, salt, pepper) with pasta.

- salmon cakes (canned salmon, eggs, breadcrumbs, dill, parsley, lemon, salt) with potatoes.

- pea soup (dried peas, onions, carrots, potatoes) with bread.

- tofu stir fry, try asian store for cheap tofu (tofu, veggies seasonal or frozen, soy sauce, ginger fresh or powdered, onions, garlic) with rice.

- tofu in coconut milk and curry (tofu, can coconut milk, veggies fresh or frozen, thai curry paste (many flavors available cheaply at asian grocery stores, lasts forever)) with rice. this is how i originally got dp to eat tofu at all

also, i know you said that you don't like lentil soup, but i do have one recipe for red lentil soup that even my lentil-disliking dp finds delicious, let me know if you want it.

[ourdayourjourney]

Originally Posted by ursusarctos

also, i know you said that you don't like lentil soup, but i do have one recipe for red lentil soup that even my lentil-disliking dp finds delicious, let me know if you want it.

I would love your lentil recipe.

[beebalmmama]

When I get tired of rice I eat it in pancake form.

I have an Italian rice pancake recipe that is topped with tomato sauce and cheese or pesto.

I also use a Korean pancake recipe that has rice, tofu, grated carrots, and green onions dipped with soy/chile sauce.

The bulk of both is rice and flour.

We also eat a lot of beans, not necessarily lentils. I like red lentils much more than brown lentils and can eat them much more often.