Eating Healthy on a Budget
Hello hello and welcome back! This week we ar egoing to be diving into one of the biggest concerns when eating healthy! MONEY! This blog is going to talk about more ways to saving money while eating healthy AND what options are actually beneficial to buy organically and which are not. The controversy of whether organic foods are a noticeable difference has been discussed for centuries. We will touch on some of these areas and what products are and aren’t beneficial in buying organically.
When it comes to saving money and eating healthy, these two almost two can very much go hand and hand believe it or not. What was that? How? Everything I buy is so much more expensive when I buy healthy food items at the grocery store! These might be the thoughts going through your head right now... however I am going to tell you a few ways you can save money while knowing exactly what goes into your good. Can you take one of the first guesses yet?!
MAKE YOUR OWN FOOD. Simple. Whether that is cooking your own meals or making your own sauces. There is no genuine way to know what ingredients are in your meals if you are not making it yourself. This does not mean slaving away in the kitchen every night to make fresh made bread and your own almond milk, this simply means high caloric and foods of concern can easily be made in your kitchen with simple ingredients that will ensure you that you’re getting the right ingredients.Â
For starters, it is so simple to make your own dips, sauces, salad dressings, condiments, etc. When making these at home there is going to be a serious decrease in sodium and fat intake from these preprocessed alternatives that are sitting on shelves at stores. These items are inexpensive and allow you to be creative with your own style. Likewise, consider making your own soups and spreads for wraps for similar reasons. One of my favorite ways to get started with these easy steps is to make dressings in my “dressing jar” (similar to below) which gives you a few healthy vinaigrettes to steer you in the right direction of trying some new flavors!
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Look for creative ways to add veggies, fruits and alternative grains into your normal food.
Examples:
spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes in your omelet
lettuce wraps instead of tortillas
quinoa with peppers and onions instead of rice with soy sauce and olive oil
Simple things to incorporate more vegetables are so cost savvy! Most vegetables are inexpensive and are great at filling you up!
Try alternative grains
Mentioned above to try quinoa as an alternative, quinoa is one of the many “super grains” because it has such high protein yet low caloric intake! PLUS, if bought uncooked quinoa has a very long shelf life, is inexpensive, and you can use it in so many different dishes- a savory breakfast, as a pasta dish, or with a light vinagrette mixed with veggies of your choosing. This alternative from traditional white flous products is booming into a HUGE industry because of the immense amount of benefits.Â
Grow your own food!
There are so many areas or produce that you can make yourself at home with simple steps! After purchasing foods at the grocery store next time and save your scraps to re grow yourself.Â
Produce is often one of the most expensive products that you are purchasing at your grocery visits. Cutting down just a little bit every week can add up and create a nice hobby along the way.
The following foods can regrow after cutting the ends or bottom base off with just water and sunlight. After a few days and noticeable growth these foods can be transported into soil to grow the rest of their potential in just a few short weeks!
Lettuce- romaine, bock choy, cabbage
Celery
Lemongrass
Bean Sprouts
Other examples of easy kitchen scraps to grow are:
Avocado- use toothpicks to suspend over a glass or bowl in direct sunlight, after a root appears plant in soil with about half of the pit above ground
Potatoes- plant the “eyes” facing up in soil for a few weeks
likewise, sweet potatoes
Pineapple- cut tip off and insert in container of water. After a week or so roots will form and you can transplant to potting soil.
Onions- cut the root off and cover lightly in potting soil and keep in sunny area.
These are just a few of the simple and easy ways to make your food from scraps at home!
As heard very often, plan.
Planning is the number one way to be able to stick to a healthy routine and schedule. It is essential to plan ahead considering your schedule and time available to make sure you have healthy options to keep you satisfied throughout the day. Before doing so, scan the fridge before making your meal plan list. See what options were thrown in the back and forgotten about to potentially use from your upcoming meals this week. Using food before it goes bad will be less wasteful and give you a unique set of meals weekly. Bottom line is to plan out your meals and snacks for the week and make a grocery list. Only buy what you know you’re going to buy! If you know you hate kale and actually won’t eat it, don’t buy it! This plan and prep will help you stick to your schedule and feel good about yourself when you do.Â
Going along with how to eat healthy while on a budget, I am going to move into what foods to actually spend the money on with organic produce. Knowing what organic fruits and vegetables you can buy while still on your budget can be good to know for your next grocery store visit.Â
Overall, I am going to cover what to spend your money on and what to skip. First, I will define what organic is so we are all on the same page. Organic is defined as growing a product without the use of any chemicals, pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, genetically modified organisms, radiation, etc. Specifically, I will be talking about produce today because meat and other areas of organic is a whole other story!
Foods to buy organic
Leafy greens- romaine, spinach, collard greens
Have a lot of surface area for toxins to stick to
Heavily sprayed with toxins and pests
Berries- blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries
Eat the whole fruit- skin susceptible to a lot of pesticides
Apples- if peeled, okay to not buy organic
White potatoes- if peeled, okay to not buy organicÂ
Red, Yellow, and Green peppers
Celery
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Peaches
Pears
Cherries
Foods not needed to buy organicÂ
Asparagus, onions, and cabbage- don’t require much spraying of pesticides to growÂ
Broccoli and Cauliflower
Melons- honey dew, cantaloupe, and watermolon- thick skin= harder to get affectedÂ
Avocadoes, bannanas, pineapple, eggplant- thick skin which are most often removed before consuming
Kiwi, grapefruit, mangoes
Carrots
Mushrooms
Oranges
Papaya
Brussel sprouts
Sweet potatoes
Most often when you’re peeling something or it has a hard and thick surface there is a high chance that you will be fine with consuming it conventionally and not organically. The foods listed above are safe to go with conventionally purchased over organically.
How to eat ORGANIC on a budget
Now that we have covered a few ways of how to eat healthy on a budget and which organic foods are worth buying we can look at combining the two. Combining the two, we will look at how to eat organically on a budget!
There are a few staple rules to go by when wanting the organic lifestyle but not wanting to break the bank. Including:
Find organic coupons
Join social media pages
follow coupon sites-- Mambo Sprouts, All Natural Savings, and Organic Dates
Simply Organic, Kroger, Whole Foods, Earth Fare are stores that always have various products with coupons throughout the store
DIY and Plan
Stay organized- plan meals for the week
Budget- weekly/montly
Do it yourself- granola bars, juices, smoothies, etc.
potion and prioritize
Use your freezer
Most often your produce is going to go bad before you can eat it all, especially when you’re living on your own it is hard to shop for one.
Freeze leftoversÂ
Freeze homemade cookie dough or almond butter for a treat when having a sweet tooth
Buy local and freeze for when in season
Double recipes and make leftovers
Great with soups and stews
Freeze core kitchen staples- breads, cheese, butter, croutons, spinach, fruit
Buy in bulk
Take advantage of BOGO sales
Best foods to buy in bulk- oats, flour, grains, nuts, lentils
Bring measuring cups when buying in bulk to know how much you’re getting for a specific recipe or week and not over spend
Find out what foods in season and buy in bulk- so much cheaper
Buy local
Cheaper most often that food from miles awayÂ
Utilize farmer’s markets
Be the last to leave- throughout the time of the market, farmers will continually reduce their price as it gets closer to closing time
Ask farmers about their practices- pesticides or not?
Listed above are a few of the ways we can combine the ways of eating on a budget while still being able to eat organically and healthy.
Thanks for reading (:
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