Healthy and cheap?

[Krissy Cakes]

Do you think its possible to eat healthy and not "break the bank" so to say?

If so do you have any ideas. (In the other thread it was just cheap.) Now I'm looking for both.

 

[Stravinsk]

I have not lived in the US for some time but I do understand that certain products are cheap because they are heavily subsidized. This is why it can be cheaper to purchase a burger than a head of lettuce.

If this is the case where you live - it would definitely benefit you to learn to grow your own produce. In my view - this is an absolute human right, and any law that infringes this right is deeply immoral and unethical.

As for the "health food" section of supermarkets - they often contain a variety of healthy food prepared, or mostly prepared and quite costly to the consumer. If I find something I like - I try to take special note of the ingredients - so I can buy the raw materials (spices and spice combinations) and make similar food myself.

 

[Rens]

I have not lived in the US for some time but I do understand that certain products are cheap because they are heavily subsidized. This is why it can be cheaper to purchase a burger than a head of lettuce.

If this is the case where you live - it would definitely benefit you to learn to grow your own produce. In my view - this is an absolute human right, and any law that infringes this right is deeply immoral and unethical.

As for the "health food" section of supermarkets - they often contain a variety of healthy food prepared, or mostly prepared and quite costly to the consumer. If I find something I like - I try to take special note of the ingredients - so I can buy the raw materials (spices and spice combinations) and make similar food myself.

Oh now I get it. Didn't know that. Potatoes and vegetables are quite cheap here. Bread with cheese is cheap.

 

[Rens]

Unhealthy food is much more expensive here.

 

[Lamb]

Do you think its possible to eat healthy and not "break the bank" so to say?

If so do you have any ideas. (In the other thread it was just cheap.) Now I'm looking for both.

Unhealthy is usually cheaper in the US. There are foods that are healthy that aren't very expensive though such as beans that have a lot of nutrients for the body.

 

[Rens]

You should try the Dutch cuisine.

 

[MoreCoffee]

You should try the Dutch cuisine.

Is that for your bunnies?

 

[Krissy Cakes]

You should try the Dutch cuisine.

View attachment 468

Looks good, whats in it?

 

[Rens]

Looks good, whats in it?

Mashed potatoes mixed with endive and bacon. I throw cheese in it. It doesn't look great but it tastes delicious.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Mashed potatoes mixed with endive and bacon. I throw cheese in it. It doesn't look great but it tastes delicious.

That's my kind of meal - MoreCoffee pushes the bunnies out of the way!

:smirk:

 

[Rens]

If you want it healthy and for free you can get it from a trash can behind a supermarket. They throw some great stuff away.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sLzvepPApBY

 

[Ruth]

I just had some tofu which is pretty cheap and is protein. You cook it with spices and veggies and it picks up the taste of the spices. I stir fried some mushrooms and green peppers and onions and used some lemon pepper spice and salt on it. Then I diced some extra firm tofu into it and mixed it up real good to give the tofu the flavor. By itself tofu doesn't have much flavor so you add it to things like veggies, spices, eggs, sauces. It's pretty cheap, too, cheaper than meat and it's a good source of protein.

 

[Rens]

I just had some tofu which is pretty cheap and is protein. You cook it with spices and veggies and it picks up the taste of the spices. I stir fried some mushrooms and green peppers and onions and used some lemon pepper spice and salt on it. Then I diced some extra firm tofu into it and mixed it up real good to give the tofu the flavor. By itself tofu doesn't have much flavor so you add it to things like veggies, spices, eggs, sauces. It's pretty cheap, too, cheaper than meat and it's a good source of protein.

Oh yes yum, used to eat that a lot. You can also put it in macaroni.

 

[MoreCoffee]

"cookies" and milk is fairly cheap and "healthy"

 

[Rens]

I ate peanuts for dinner.

 

[MoreCoffee]

I ate peanuts for dinner.

Salted?

 

[Ruth]

"cookies" and milk is fairly cheap and "healthy"

Cookies are not healthy imho. Full of sugar mostly.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Cookies are not healthy imho. Full of sugar mostly.

I did put the "healthy" in quotes

 

[tango]

Do you think its possible to eat healthy and not "break the bank" so to say?

If so do you have any ideas. (In the other thread it was just cheap.) Now I'm looking for both.

Healthy can be cheap as long as you're willing to do some of the work yourself.

If you go to your local supermarket looking for "fresh" produce the chances are you'll pay a lot for seriously shoddy quality. If you have a local farmers' market swing by and see what they have on offer. For comparison, the local supermarket in the parts of PA I'm familiar with charges anything up to $2 for a single green pepper. If you go to the local market you can buy several dozen of them for $5. One year I bought a bucket of them from an Amish farmer for $3 - they would normally have been $5 but he volunteered the fact that they were last week's crop so cut the price without even being asked. Then you can chop them up and freeze them, and use them throughout the year.

If you go to a lot of "health food" places you end up paying through the nose for not very much. There was a niche organic produce place in central London but it appeared to be geared more towards the wives of hedge fund managers who didn't need to worry about paying $50 for the ingredients for one course of one meal, than anyone on a normal income. Some of those sorts of places do seem to be little more than a way of relieving people with more money than sense of some of their money.

If you can freeze/can/preserve fresh produce then buy it when it's in season and cheap (e.g. $3 for a bucket of peppers, $5 for a big box of green beans) and preserve it so it lasts you all year. It's got to be better than paying $2 for a pepper that doesn't taste of anything much.

 

[Stravinsk]

Cookies are not healthy imho. Full of sugar mostly.

The problem with sugar (as with most things that start off healthy) is that it is refined and removed from it's natural state. Raw sugar is a little better, but not a whole lot.

In some countries there are sugar cane vendors who will take the complete sugar cane and juice it for customers. I wish one could see more of that in western societies. The drink is full of sugar, of course - but the vitamins and minerals, phytonutrients, chlorophyll, soluble fiber and other goodies are also present - which makes it a whole lot more healthy than the "refined" kind.