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in an effort to provide more meat to the potatoes of this blog, i was thinking i would share some tips on how to eat healthy, and still be able to live on a budget. listen, it’s no secret that it costs more to eat healthy, even more if you a loony like me and prefer organic/fair trade/local foods. nevertheless, it is possible to have a semi-quick, healthy, and cheap dinner.

i don’t claim to be an expert. what will follow in this post and furthers posts, are really just what i’ve found to work for us. i would imagine they’d work for you too, but i don’t presume to know what’s best for you.

first, something about my life you must understand. my wife and i have a strict seventy-five dollar a week food budget. so everything we do must fit under that. that even includes dog and cat food, cleaning supplies, and bathroom items. so we are starting to get really good at fitting things in our budget and making the most of what we have. most of my friends and family are pretty astonished when i tell them how little we spend on groceries, and even more so when i tell them we don’t even shop at aldi’s.

so lets get this five part series started.

one - buy in bulk, use your freezer
this can apply to many different household items, but i’m focusing mainly here on meats. ryanne and i look for great deals on meats that have gone on clearance (this generally means it’s been sitting on their shelf too long). we both prefer poultry and pork to beef, and when possible we buy all-natural or even organic grade. we’ll usually buy a couple large “family” packs of chicken or boneless pork chops once every four-six weeks or so. the last time we purchased meat, we bought a bag of huge chicken breasts (each cut is big enough for a serving of meat for each of us), and a pack of i think 12 pork chops, and spent roughly fourteen - eighteen dollars combined for the both of them.

the next trick, is to prepare as soon as you get home. we individually wrap and season for a meal. meaning, we’ll take a chicken breast (or two pork loins), put them in a freezer bag with some marinade (we’re experimenting now with mrs. dash, which is a sodium free variety of marinade… the first one we tried we didn’t like), seal it, and place them in the freezer as soon as we get home from the grocery store. now, all you need to do for a meal is take what you need out of the freezer, get a vegetable (we generally go with frozen corn, broccoli, or green beans), and it’s pretty much a meal for the two of us. we also either grill everything, or cook it on our george foreman grill to further reduce fat content.

generally speaking, and i’m not kidding here, these dinners are not only filling but almost always come in at well under 500 calories, even if we add some sort of bread to the meal. this really helps at the end of the day, when you are just forced to eat some ice cream to get your full calorie intake for the day. those days REALLY suck (note: sarcasm).