Looking for healthier foods to eat - while on a tight budget

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I am currently about 50 lbs overweight. So I figure an overhaul of my diet was long overdue.

I have not consumed anything containing HFCS since last year, which is a good start.

I have been eating healthy stuff like oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and beans & rice (with some beef or chicken tossed in, and covered with Sriracha) for dinner. I have been consuming a lot of fresh fruit throughout the day, as well, and I have been introducing salads as a regular part of my diet (without dressing, of course). While this is an improvement over eating at Taco Bell several times a week, I am looking to diversify past this.

So, what are some good, cheap meals that will improve my diet while making my dollar last longer? I am quite financially poor these days, thanks to recent medical expenses.

Well, you're off to a good start. One thing to watch out for with bread is lots of bread contains high fructose corn syrup.

I can tell you to do this and that, but basically, foreign food. Look at the traditional diet of...anyone besides America (America's diet is apparently cheeseburgers, pizza, and frozen dinners) and there you go really. Like if you like Asian food, go look up Asian recipes. Mexican food, Mexican recipes, Russian food, Russian recipes. Pretty much all food you eat besides meat is just simple staples combined together somehow with some spices. Like rice and beans, you know, you can get it in a restaurant tasting absolutely fantastic, worth paying like $5 for a bowl of it, or go to someone's house and be like "yay.........." at theirs. So the secret is learning to season your food appropriately. That's pretty much all good food comes down to, besides fresh/good quality ingredients.

So when learning to cook, the best investments are spices. The spices at discount grocery stores are just as good if not better than at more expensive grocery stores (I usually buy Badia.) Another place for cheap spices is Indian and Asian (Chinese, Vietnamese/etc) markets. Online, too, isn't bad, but I'd say 99% of the time at an ethnic market, you'll do better than pricing online for stuff. Definitely check out your local ethnic market for food ideas. For example, I can make imitation crab sushi rolls for basically no money whenever I want. I go to my Asian market, pay like a dollar for some nori or something. Or miso soup or whatever. Sky's the limit. But, if you didn't get the hint, everything has to be cooked yourself if you want it to be cheap and healthy. Cooking yourself is cheaper than buying frozen crap, though.

Rice and beans, I'd say to cut costs even more, use dried beans. You can put them in a crockpot overnight and you don't need to presoak them that way. Pound of dried beans cost like a dollar and change (or a dollar depending on locale) and then you end up with the equivalent of like 5 cans of beans or so from it. Definitely makes things cheaper.

For meat, buy whole chickens. Cook up like one chicken a week or so depending on how hungry you are. Pick the meat off and throw it in whatever. Save the stock/gravy from the bottom of the pan. When you reheat your chicken, put it in a pan on the stove, and put some of the stock on it. Then your chicken will reabsorb the juices and not be dry. You can also get the bones from the chicken and make bone broth, to make really good chicken soup or just general soup stock for whatever.

Also instead of cold cuts, just buy, say, a corned beef roast, or a chicken, or whatever, and cut it yourself into a sandwich. Saves money, ever see what coldcuts run per pound? Expensive. When you're at the grocery store or whatever, look at things from unit price perspective, not just what the item "costs." You'll be surprised. Of course, read ingredients too obviously and see if something is better quality or not. For example, I was with my mom buying parmesan and saw some that was significantly cheaper per pound and bought it. Read the label, turns out it's fake cheese. It had partially hydrogenated soybean oil in it. Yay.

Hope that's helpful, I can't really give you too many specifics as in "do all these recipes" as I don't know your food tastes, but yeah.

My new favorite recipe: acorn squash stuffed with apples and berries, served with a side of couscous. Basically just take an acorn squash and split it down the middle, scoop out the seeds and whatnot, and fill it with chopped apples and an assortment of berries of your choosing (the berries/apples are optional, I like blueberries sprinkled with cinnamon), then bake it for 50min at 350. Super-healthy, easy, and tastes really good!

Another one if you have easy access to salmon (any other standard fish fillet will work but salmon tastes the best...catfish is probably cheaper): take a fillet and place 2 sprigs of rosemary underneath it and 2 on top. Cut a lemon in half; squeeze the juice from one half all over the fillet, and cut the other half into thin slices to place both on top of and underneath the fillet. Bake at 350 for 20-25min until fully cooked. This is my staple recipe because it's essentially 0 prep time, cooks quickly, and tastes as good as a lot of the more time-consuming recipes. And fish is one of the most healthy foods you can eat (just don't overdo it due to mercury content...and try to get wild-caught over farm raised)

Oh and be careful with the fruit; it's good to eat but don't overdo it. Most fruit has pretty high sugar content so it can often be deceptive in terms of health benefit, you can end up consuming more calories than you think you are because of that. And it's good that you cut out high fructose corn syrup! It's pretty nasty stuff but unfortunately it's in pretty much every product nowadays lol.

I've been eating the $1 side salad at McDonalds--perhaps the best value on the entire menu!

Try taking out grain products. Not only will you be saving $ but you will likely lose the water retention associated with grains.

It depends on the grain. Wheat for example, while not catastrophic for me to eat, doesn't agree with me too well. To test I had almost exclusively pasta for a week. But rice, oats, and rye I do well with. Potatoes aren't as good, I think it's cuz they're nightshades perhaps. You won't save money taking out grain products out of your diet by a longshot, either. I know of no vegetable that's as cheap as rice or wheat. If you wanted to be super duper cheap and economical, you could buy animal feed grade wheat by the ton (I think under $100,) grind it yourself and make your own bread. I think people especially in the paleo/low carb community tend to give carbs a bad rep because their body doesn't agree with a specific type.

But you will not save money taking grains out of your diet, there's a reason they're grown and prevalent, it's because they're the cheapest thing possible to grow per food volume.

eggs

I am wriiting with the assumption that the OP is already buying fruits, vegetables and meats. Take away the grain products and spend that money on more fruits, veg and meat. If you buy seasonal items or certain types of meat cuts, it doesn't become as expensive.

Sesame seeds

Sesame seeds are very rich in minerals - see link below - and they taste really good, especially lightly roasted (roasting doesn't harm the minerals). There are so many uses for them: sprinkled on a salad, topping on bread, and in the form of tahin paste, which can be used as an ingredient for salad dressing, dip or in hummus http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina- ... index.html. When I was on my lowest economically I ate a lot of hummus, it's cheap, easy to make if you have a blender, and it's good in sandwiches.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... ce&dbid=84

Not a meal but canned sardines are a great addition, and they are easy to find in the US for less than a dollar. WHfoods Sardine Health Information

Even cheaper is canned mackerel.

Really, it costs $1.50-$2.50 where I shop. What brands?

I paid about 1.50 for Polar. But canned mackerel gives you almost a pound and canned sardines only like 3-4oz, sardines are a dollar, sure, but unit price.

Lentils are cheap, easy and quick to prepare. Throw them in with chicken broth, canned diced tomatoes and frozen mixed veggies and you've got tasty, nearly instant soup.

Whole onions and garlic are cheap, healthy, and flavorful additions to a lot of meals.

If possible, buy produce in-season and dry goods in bulk. And, try cooking from scratch. Sometimes you can get great organic ingredients that much are less expensive than pre-made and processed convenience foods. You just have to be willing to put the time and work in.