I Can & I Will

One Woman’s Quest For Healthy Change

Roadblock?

July 31, 2008 at 5:13 pm · Filed under food, goals and tagged: , ,

No wonder it’s a popular idea (at least here in the South) that healthy food is for the rich.

So last night, I was digging through some cookbooks and Health magazines, scrawling for healthy things to eat so I can prepare a quick-n-dirty, healthy cookbook. I was initially excited by the ideas, and was really getting into it, when I realized that most of these dishes are going to require a lot of ingredients (not to mention that there’s only so many ways to make Italian-dressing-grilled-chicken-pasta-salad before it gets old).

This summer, I really flubbed up. I was supposed to work my butt off to earn enough money to live comfortably, if meagerly, next semester so I wouldn’t have to deal with messy part-time job hunting for 4 months. Unfortunately, that didn’t really work out; now I will be almost entirely dependent on parental support for food, gas, and rent (not that my parentals mind terribly–they are incredibly understanding). This means that my food budget is likely to be incredibly small.

I’m in need of some help. I need to be able to figure out how to make tasty, healthy dishes with a variety of flavors (I will get bored fast if I have to eat variations on the same salads every week) on a limited budget, probably around $20 or $30 per week. Any ideas?

5 Comments »

  Nick wrote @ July 31, 2008 at 7:32 pm

I can see how that myth came about. When you can buy one apple for the price of one dozen hot dogs, something is amiss.

  Domestic Scientist wrote @ August 1, 2008 at 8:03 pm

$20 – $30 a week will be stretching it for healthy food. I agree with Nick that it’s backwards with the apples and hot dogs. I feel like this is also a large part of America’s obesity problem.

Anyway though. You should look for things when shopping that will last for the entire week, or that freeze well so you can buy in bulk. For instance, frozen chicken breasts form wal-mart are usually about $7 for a whole bag. And one of those breasts is enough for two people, meaning that a bag could feed one person for weeks. Cabbage is the cheapest veggie on the market, and one head lasts us a couple of meals. Carrots are also a good buy. And there is more to do with those than just eat them raw. Frozen broccoli and frozen spinach are also good. Lentils and beans are also cheap, but you have to be creative with those to make them tasty. Rice and noodles are also cheap, but make sure they aren’t the bulk of a meal. Nice side items.

I’m currently lamenting the rise in prices on some of my favorite vegetables. One Red Pepper was $1.82 last week down here. That is insane. With gas and the drought, we’re taking a pretty big hit. But local produce is staying reasonable. So I’m having to get less fancy with my own cooking, and trying to find ways to cook with limited veggies and still have healthy meals.

Tip for grocery shopping: always make a meal plan out for the week before you go shopping and don’t deviate from the list. Plan meals that can have leftovers made into something else for the next day.

And tip for healthier eating: Breakfast is very important. A real balanced breakfast gets your system on track for the rest of the day.

Hope this helps!

  Domestic Scientist wrote @ August 1, 2008 at 9:20 pm

Re: commenting

Dude I can’t figure it out either. Does WordPress just not have a reply function?

  smallnotebook wrote @ August 2, 2008 at 2:36 am

I know since you’re living in the dorm that you don’t have room to store a lot of food or buy in bulk. One idea that came to mind is smoothies. I have a Cuisinart stick blender that I use to make them, and it doesn’t take up as much room as a regular blender and it is much easier to clean. You could blend up a banana and milk or yogurt, and add whatever seasonal fruit you could find that week with some protein powder for a quick lunch.

Making popcorn on the stove instead of the microwave is cheap and good for you.

Eggs can be used a variety of ways.

It’s hard to look in magazines, because they rely on the flair of using recipes with a lot of ingredients. Here is a website where you type in the food you have on hand, and it pulls up recipes:
http://www.supercook.com/

  Annette wrote @ August 4, 2008 at 7:02 pm

I wish you the best of luck with this. Definitely eat lots of bananas, they’re cheap and if they start to get brown, make banana bread! But if you have one every morning, they shouldn’t go brown on you too fast.

Oh, if you are going to be doing some baking, one thing that might help is to get whole-wheat flour instead of white all-purpose. It’ll have more nutritional value at least.

Sorry if I keep blabbing on about this but I keep thinking of new things! XD

I would recommend getting tofu as it’s relatively inexpensive, healthy, fun to work with. However…there’s some speculation that the phytoestrogens found in soybeans and soy products might have negative effects, and with you having PCOS, too much soy could be a bad idea. They’re not sure how phytoestrogens affect such things yet, so it might be better to take it easy on the soy just in case.


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