Can we eat healthy on a budget? Is eating healthy too expensive?

I am asked these questions often. People want to eat healthy but they think it’s expensive. It’s a big myth that you have to spend a fortune to put good healthy food on the table.

The biggest concern I have with this kind of thinking is people end up buying inexpensive but unhealthy packaged-foods that actually turns out to be more expensive down the road. In other words – they end up eating on the expense of their own health!

 

Do you know what are the most expensive habits?

 

1. Eating out!

   When you eat out often you end up paying more. Have you ever experience that you feel kind of hungry after some time even if you ate enough at a restaurant? You don’t get the real nourishment out of restaurant food. Your body “starves” because they cut down on “quality” to make their business profitable unless the restaurant is based on health foods but that will be an expensive restaurant. Fortunately there are more and more restaurants are coming up with healthy food options but they are not very common and still on a little more expensive side.

 

 

2. Buying packaged foods.

   Not only you pay more for “convenience”, but also packaged foods are full of chemicals, sugar, MSG and highly processed ingredients to increase shelf life. And if you compare the price with actual ingredients you will know.

 

 

3. Buying prepared food at grocery stores.

   Not only the quality of the ingredients is poor but also full of taste enhancers and additives to make inferior quality ingredients taste better. Again if you purchase prepared food at health food stores you end up paying way more.

 

I know what you are thinking. Who has time to cook?

You don’t need a lot of time in kitchen to prepare a healthy meal.
It’s about knowing what’s good for our body and a little planning.

Start cooking!

   

Here are some time-saving tips:

1. Cook once, eat twice.

2. Cook extra

   food during weekend and freeze in small batches for weekdays.

3. Start soaking ahead

   soak beans, brown rice, nuts and seeds. Soaking beans will make them cook much faster and also will get rid of phytic acid that affects the digestion. Blend nuts and seeds for making nut milk at home. Here is link for making nuts and seeds milk.

4. Wash veggies

   before refrigerating to save time during food preparation.

5. Use slow cooker

   take out your crock pot and start making one pot meals so dinner will be waiting when you come home in the evening. You can also use slow cooker to make overnight oats or quinoa for breakfast.

6. Quick smoothies for the weekdays

   wash & cut fruits, veggies and greens and put in mason jars to blend in the morning, pour it back in the jar to bring to work. This will save time looking for a container when you are time crunched in the morning.

 

             

 

Also check out my blog 7 Tips for Eating Clean on a Budget