Low cost healthy food ideas?

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I know how to make brown rice and beans with veggies and Sriracha tossed in.

That is the full extent of my somewhat healthy cooking experience.

The thing is, I have become far too used to eating McDonald's for breakfast, chicken teriyaki for lunch and pizza for dinner. It's expensive and unhealthy, and it makes me feel like s**t after all is said and done.

So, let's get creative and get me cooking some meals that are low in cost and high in health benefits.

I already quit the drinking for a while. Now it's time to tackle the rest of my diet.

I'm so glad that you're looking to improve your habits. ^-^ I'm actually a huge health nut junkie (Thanks, Mom...) I've love to point you toward some places that have some super delicious meals without all the added junk. One of my favorite websites is Nom Nom Paleo. She has tons of great, super-easy recipes to do for people who want to try eating healthy again. It's paleo, obviously, so no wheat or bready grains are in any of the dishes, and sugar is substituted for things like honey and dates, but imo it tastes way better that way. If you eat paleo for an extended period of time you can get what people call "carb flu," which makes you feel sick for a couple days because you haven't had any grains, but it goes away and your energy skyrockets. I did the Whole30 once with my wife. I was sleeping like a baby at night, and my wife actually lost almost 30 pounds in three weeks. (I only lost four. O.o) But it's definitely a very healthy way to go.

Also something I personally do... I am actually addicted to sugar. Like hardcore. If I don't have my sugar in the day, I go ballistic. So I'm slowly weaning myself off sugary drinks by substituting them for teas. Especially teas that are naturally sweet, like orange tea and raspberry tea.

I'd recommend getting some cheap veggies and a few fruits from the grocery. If you like teriyaki, try making your own Asian stir fry every now and then. ^-^ Stir fry is sooooo easy.

Fruit is good for breakfast especially bananas as they are quite cheap and filling. You could make fruit smoothies if you have any sort of blender. Porridge (oatmeal?) is a good healthy breakfast or egg on wholemeal toast something like that.

How about baked/jacket potatoes for lunch with baked beans (tomato beans in the US I think?) or hummus on top. Or hummus and wholemeal pita or veggie sticks. Veggie soups are good.

For the evening meal things like lentil daal with brown rice or chapatti, vegetable curry, bean chilli, wholemeal pasta with tomato & veg sauce. You can make nice pizzas using wholemeal pitta as a base or make your own healthy base. Then load up with tomato sauce and veggies and no or little cheese.

I used to be a full time volunteer and had a £5 a week budget (years ago) and I lived on this sort of thing and lost weight too.

Or if you want specific recipes I could give you some.

If you really want to go for it and can spend a bit more (but less than getting takeaways etc) I find there's nothing more energising than the raw food diet.

Nice suggestions.

I probably should work on cutting down my caffeine intake, as well. Black drip coffee is another one of my addictions.

I do love my carbs. The thing is, they love me back, so much that they stick around on my waistline.

Stir fry sounds like a great idea. Especially since I own a wok. Which I have seasoned. But never actually used.

If you think you can handle it, stay completely off sugar, even naturally occurring type as fruits, onions etc and do low carb, for one week. One week it's all it takes to kick it out. It won't be a pleasant week, but after that the cravings stop and you'll feel incredibly well

Whether they are low-cost or not is another question but here are foods/supplements I eat & purposes :

Tomatoes (a healthy sugarless-fruit), Lettuce, Green Bell-Peppers, Alfalfa-Sprouts, Cucumbers, Potatoes, Mushrooms, etc. Ginger (for good digestion), Flax-Seed (for ridding of gingivitus), Iodine (supplement for thyroid-function), etc. Bananas, Oranges (only one or two a day maximum starting out), Apples, Watermelons, Grapes, Blueberries, Strawberries, etc.

I know I eat a lot more than this, and I am not completely vegetarian, but is the majority of what I consume.

Tomato vegetable soup. We just made a big pot the other day; all told it couldn't have cost more than $5-6, and there's a good 8 meals (1 large bowl or 2 heaping ladles/meal) in there:

29oz tomato sauce (or tomato puree if you're worried about the sugar and salt) ($1)
6 cups water (negligible price)
...
whatever else you want. We ended up throwing in a couple medium potatoes (diced) ($1), 3 small tomatoes (diced) ($1), some diced onion (negligible price), 2 cups frozen mixed veggies (corn, peas, carrots, green beans) ($2.50/bag, used < 1/3 of the bag, maybe about $.75), and 2 cups of (dry) pasta ($1/bag, so maybe $.25 worth). We also added garlic salt, celery salt and a couple bay leaves; we would have added more (basil, oregano, etc) but we ended up going with an already-spiced tomato sauce (garlic and herb) (negligible price for spices).
Boil the sauce and water, then put it on medium for 15 minutes to heat everything through (if you want to add potato, put the potato in first for 10-15 minutes, then add everything else for an additional 15 minutes). If you add pasta, make sure to stir (I forgot this time, but even the singed pasta tasted good).
We served the hot soup over some mozzarella (maybe $.20-$.30 of cheese, but that was only for 2 bowls) to thicken it up a bit (leftovers are more than thick enough). My husband added some cayenne after the fact, and he said it was a good match.

Other than bacon, we were having trouble coming up with a matching meat for the next time we make it but adding beans, quinoa, barley, etc. would work well.

Pasta and cheese!

Eat less.

It sounds obvious, but is often overlooked.

You'll also save money.

Count your calories. The 'best diet in the world' is pointless if you are eating 5000 calories even of 'good food' each day.

Depends on what someone is trying to do and their activity level. You have to eat to grow and maintain muscle mass.

Rice(Not instant), potatoes, canned tuna, whey protein powder, frozen chicken, ground turkey, eggs. You can buy a 20 pound bag of rice for about $9.

Flax seed lowers testosterone and is almost useless. It's better to take fish oil(for omega 3). Iodine can be obtained by taking kelp pills, or a multi-vitamin with iodine in it. I take Nature Made "Multi For Him 50+". It's the one I've found with the best nutritional value. For supplements, Magnesium(Citrate, or Malate DO NOT TAKE Oxide) 500mg, Vitamin D3 5,000 IU, Zinc(If needed) 40mg(some Zinc should be in the multi-vitamin usually around 15mg), Fish oil, Selenium 200mg(easy to get if you eat a lot of sea food, it's not really needed to supplement. I only take it on days I don't eat fish).

I didn't say 'don't eat'.

I said eat less.



My point: changing your entire diet is close to pointless if you're still consuming too many calories.

Most supermarkets make rotisserie chickens. 5 bucks for a fully cooked roasted chicken which you could eat off of several times. Not fried and judging my the ones I buy they aren't brined either (salt content)

Sounds like your diet is really high on meat, fat and processed carbs, which means you'll need to replace a lot of it with vegetables and some fruit. The challenge is really learning your vegetables and how to prepare them.

As someone mentioned, stir fries are excellent. You can stir fry just about any vegetable, and in my experience, stir frying reduces the need for meat, for some reason. Eating brown rice with it makes a big difference from eating white rice. If you can afford it, quinoa is really excellent for keeping you blood sugar stable.

One thing you might have to keep an eye on is cravings. If you are used to having a lot of fast carbs, and you suddenly cut them out, you can get some serious cravings that can manifest as a wish for alcohol. Since that is something you struggle with, you need to be mentally prepared for it. Once it passes, you'll feel a lot better. Also, eating a varied diet reduces cravings.

Don't be too hard on yourself if it isn't perfect from the start. Some people function better with making dramatic changes in their life, others need to change one habit at a time.

Making my own granola helps me start the day in a good way. This recipe is full of nuts and seeds, which give you lasting energy and minerals. I cut out the dried fruit (too sweet) and use olive oil instead of coconut oil (cheaper and healthier): http://www.cannellevanille.com/gluten-f ... la-recipe/ It of course doesn't need to be gluten free.

This blog has very good and reliable recipes. The blogger used to be a vegetarian, so she's got good recipes with vegetables. She also focuses on using normal equipment and ingredients, so that the recipes are possible to make in a small kitchen. http://smittenkitchen.com/

This blog is a real gem. The blogger posts very seldom. She seems to be a mad perfectionist. However, her recipes are excellent and focus on a lot on vegetables that grow well in the US, so they might be cheaper than imported or California-based vegetables. You can get a lot of food from squashes Also, the roasted cabbage salad is simple and cheap: http://casayellow.com/

Sorry if I go on, as you can see this is a special interest . That said, I know quite a few people who wanted to start cooking, and they all said the same thing; they didn't know where to start.

Bon appetit!

You may want to look at some of the diabetes web sites. They are full of great information on diet and nutrition. I make vegetable curries, lentils and serve over steamed cabbage. Stir fries with tofu and bean sprouts is easy and healthy.

A high carb diet will catch up with you as you age. Try switching to complex carbs and reducing your total intake of carbs. Your body will thank you.