Cheap healthy food

Looking for the ways to locate and cook cheap healthy food?

Wouldn't it be nice to cut your groceries spendings and still enjoy delicious healthy meals every day? Not all tasty recipes require exotic and expensive components, healthy food can still be cooked from the cheap ingredients.

Turn on your imagination, embrace new foods and styles of cooking, and spend more time in the fresh produce section of your supermarket than in the area with packaged foods.

1. Use more beans and legumes

   Beans are loaded with nutrition, and low in the stuff you donÂ’t want. By adding beans to your diet daily, not only are you shopping for the cheapest nutrition on the planet, but youÂ’re effortlessly adding fibre, protein, Vitamin B6, Pantothenic Acid, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Vitamin C, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Folate, Copper and Manganese. They all are much needed for your body and brain to function.

   Four nutrients most of us donÂ’t get enough of are Folic Acid, Copper, Iron, and Magnesium. Legumes guarantee you get lots of them.

   Our family favourite is vegetarian chili. It takes about 30 minutes to make 24 portions- which freeze nicely! And the price is right- about $0.50 a portion!

2. Buy dried beans

   Canned beans are an economical choice, but dried beans are an absolute winner in the category of cheap healthy food.

   For $0.99-$1.49, you can get a can of beans. Or, you can get three times that much if you choose dry beans. Dried beans have no sodium, preservatives or aluminum leaked from the can.

   Worried about the embarrassing problem long associated with beans? DonÂ’t be. Use this secret to cook beans from scratch, and there wonÂ’t be any problem at all!

3. Use a variety of beans

   ThereÂ’s dozens of kinds of beans, and their characters differ. Try a variety of textures, flavours, and nutritional profiles. White beans have more calcium, iron and dietary fibre than kidney beans.

   Garbanzo beans (chickpeas) are a source of copper, folate and manganese.

   Try my delicious bean and apple salad and remember – an apple a day keeps a doctor away,too!

4. Drink water

   This should be a no-brainer- clearly itÂ’s free, and far healthier than commercial juices or soda. The less refined sugar you consume, the better your chances of not getting diabetes.

5. Get in the habit of drinking green tea and yerba mate

   Both are cheap at the Asian and Latino stores. Green tea is well known as weigh-loss and anti-cancer aid due to it's antioxidant qualities. Yerba mate is used for energy, joint health and has many other health benefits.Add lemon and honey, drink it hot or ice cold. Mix with jasmine tea.

6. Use yams, squashes and pumpkin

   These foods are an inexpensive and rich source of dietary fiber and vitamins C, and A, Calcium and Iron. These powerhouse foods are a preferred choice among bodybuilders and athletes as a wise choice of complex carbs. Personally, I find it hard to cut a pumpkin, so I purchase it already cut and frozen. This is a typical example how cheap healthy food becomes more expensive. Frozen pumpkin price is several times higher that the price of a piece of pumpkin. Try Pumpkin muffins.

7. Use potatoes with skin.

   Most Calcium, Iron and Vitamin C are in the skin! I leave it up to you to decide, whether pesticides in the skin make it a deal breaker for you.

8. Greens... think outside of the box

   Greens are superfoods on a budget. But here is a new twist. Throw carrot tops into a smoothie. Use orange peel in the homemade drink. Use beets greens in soups or salads.

   Surprised? I bet you did not know that most Vitamin A and C is in the carrot tops. Orange peel contains more vitamin C than orange itself. People throw away their money, and the most nourishing part of these foods.

9. Learn to cook cabbage

   

   Cabbage is a wonder food that doesnÂ’t get due respect in the North American diet. Too bad! In Europe, it is a staple of the menu for all, not only people pirsuing healthy cooking on a budget. A cup of raw cabbage costs less than twenty cents. This is a true cheap healthy food. Where else would you get your daily intake of Vitamin C, vitamin K and a load of other vitamins and minerals in their natural form for just 20 cents? Phytonutrients in cruciferous vegetables like cabbage are champions in helping the body fight free radicals. Studies show that those eating the most cruciferous vegetables have a much lower risk of lung, prostate and colorectal cancer, even when compared to the vegetable eaters. Cabbage juice is used for treating peptic ulcer, cabbage soup aids weight loss, eating cabbage promotes cleansing/detoxification and womenÂ’s health and provides the most remarkable defense against cancer. Are you persuaded to try? Go to cabbage recipes to find more ways of cooking cabbage.

10. Vegetables

    Did you notice that most of my advice is wrapped around using vegetables? Yes, they are cheaper and far more nutritious than meat and have tons of health benefits. You just have to learn to cook them right!

11. Rice noodles

    If you are on the budget, you will likely eat a lot of pasta. Simple carbs from pasta are not good for you at all, they contribute to weight gain and diabetes. However, if you only can afford cheap healthy food at the moment, why not use pasta with more vegetables and greens. Proportion matters. You can also diversify your menu with rice noodles, the gluten-free alternative to wheat noodles. Rice noodles get cooked very quickly, and go best with vegetables, complimenting their taste. They vary in shape, from stick noodles to thin rice vermicelli and rice flake noodles.

12. Sunflower seeds/pumpkin seeds/almonds

    Healthy source of plant-based protein, fiber, oils and a lot of minerals. Check my recipes and note how I mix them with vegetables, or use to create home-made crackers.

13. Fish

    Use frozen whiting, trout or white fish for the fish balls, fish soup or baked; canned salmon and tuna for the sandwich spreads and salads.

14. Apples and bananas

    Want something sweet? This sugar comes with benefits of the whole foods - with fiber and vitamins. Use apples and bananas for the pancakes, smoothies,pies or...raw :)

15. Buy Calcium fortified products

    Great example is orange juice, soy milk or tofu made based on Calcium sulphate. Calcium absorbs better with the food.

16. Grow your own sprouts!

    From 15-30 cents worth of seeds, you can grow 1 lbs of organic fresh sprouts. Sprouts are truly cheap healthy food.

17. Grow your own herbs

    Hate cutting your grass? Replace it with the herb garden. Easy and beautiful way to eat healthy and have a great relaxation, even in the busy city. Read about starting an urban garden

18. Use herbs - parsley, dill, oregano in your cooking

    You donÂ’t have to eat loads of them, in fact as little as two tablespoons of parsley a day exceed your need in vitamin K, provides vitamins C, A, B (folate) and iron.

19. Explore Asian, Indian, Latino and European stores

    You will find huge variety of food for much less of a price. Chinese and Thai supermarkets are my first choice wherever I need tea, vegetables, fresh cheap fish, seafood, beans, spices and noodles.

20. Get your vitamins B

    Eat more vitamin B-containing foods, or invest in vitamin B supplement complex, even though it is far less efficient than the vitamin from the food. Cheap sources of the Vitamin B are oats, barley, wheat bran. An average American is deficient in vitamins group B, and choices of food on the budget have even less of it. Symptoms of the vitamin B deficiency are: mental problems, paranoia and fears, inability to concentrate, chronic fatigue, chronic exhaustion, thoughts of dying, easy agitation, frustration, rashes, soreness all over , indigestion and many more.

Healthy cooking on a budget is fun! Instead of feeling stressed about it, look at it as a treasure hunt for deals, an opportunity to explore different cheap healthy foods and unleash the inner cook in you. I invented my best new meals when I was restricted in the ingredients. Hope my list of recipes will help you to cook healthy food on a budget and inspires you to create your own. Enjoy!