Eating healthy on a tight budget

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In addition my in-laws live on the water and we will get fish and crab from them all summer.

Is it pretty easy to catch enough fish and crabs for two households?

It is fairly easy. There are only two of them, and the know how much their grandkids love crab and fish, so they always get enough for us.

Are there limits as to size and amount caught? Do you need a fishing license?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In addition my in-laws live on the water and we will get fish and crab from them all summer.

Is it pretty easy to catch enough fish and crabs for two households?

Ewww, is it on The Bay? Are the fish safe to eat?

Are you serious? Do you think grocery store fish is safer to eat? Think again.

Yes, I think the fish I buy at Whole Foods is safer than something pulled out of the largest dead zone in the world... The Chesapeake Bay.

[Anonymous]

I've been buying organic meat on sale and freezing it, and making dried beans several times a week and only eating meat a couple of times a week, and for some reason I'm still spending the same amount as I was before. I'm stumped. The beans are really good, though. I was never tempted by beans before.

[Anonymous]

http://redemptionunlimited.blogspot.com/search/label/cheap%20healthy%20weekend

Thanks to our friend who posted for us originally! We've started the post of Cheap, Healthy Weekend for this weekend, Friday 03/20 - Monday, 03/22. Hope that it helps you!

[Anonymous]

I thought farm-raised fish was the worst-- loads of PCBs. And as I recall, much of the farm-raised fish at Whole Foods comes from China, which does not instill confidence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought farm-raised fish was the worst-- loads of PCBs. And as I recall, much of the farm-raised fish at Whole Foods comes from China, which does not instill confidence.

Depends on what you buy. I do not buy the fish from China. The labels marking the fish will tell you where it is from. Alaskan Wild Salmon? Atlantic Cod? South American Tilapia? These fish have a note stating where they were caught, or farmed. If you look you can avoid the fish from China.

[Anonymous]

In your house we barely throw anything in the trash.

Left over rice becomes pudding for desert or risotto for next day.

We buy the fruit whole so we can use the stem, peel, leaves, nuts, pit.

banana - the inside of the peel is very rich in fibers and tastes good - awesome baby food.
pineapple - the skin makes a delicious sweet bread spread/desert - we cover yellow cake with it.. yum!!!
watermelon - the inside makes a delicious desert/bread spread too, the outside is fun bird/fish food to let the kids have fun with during summer.

I could go on.. we've found several uses for different parts of every food you can think of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In your house we barely throw anything in the trash.

Left over rice becomes pudding for desert or risotto for next day.

We buy the fruit whole so we can use the stem, peel, leaves, nuts, pit.

banana - the inside of the peel is very rich in fibers and tastes good - awesome baby food.
pineapple - the skin makes a delicious sweet bread spread/desert - we cover yellow cake with it.. yum!!!
watermelon - the inside makes a delicious desert/bread spread too, the outside is fun bird/fish food to let the kids have fun with during summer.

I could go on.. we've found several uses for different parts of every food you can think of.

We do this in our house, or you do this in your house? I am confused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In your house we barely throw anything in the trash.

Left over rice becomes pudding for desert or risotto for next day.

We buy the fruit whole so we can use the stem, peel, leaves, nuts, pit.

banana - the inside of the peel is very rich in fibers and tastes good - awesome baby food.
pineapple - the skin makes a delicious sweet bread spread/desert - we cover yellow cake with it.. yum!!!
watermelon - the inside makes a delicious desert/bread spread too, the outside is fun bird/fish food to let the kids have fun with during summer.

I could go on.. we've found several uses for different parts of every food you can think of.

How do you turn the pineapple skin and watermelon skin into a dessert spread? This sounds good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In your house we barely throw anything in the trash.

Left over rice becomes pudding for desert or risotto for next day.

We buy the fruit whole so we can use the stem, peel, leaves, nuts, pit.

banana - the inside of the peel is very rich in fibers and tastes good - awesome baby food.
pineapple - the skin makes a delicious sweet bread spread/desert - we cover yellow cake with it.. yum!!!
watermelon - the inside makes a delicious desert/bread spread too, the outside is fun bird/fish food to let the kids have fun with during summer.

I could go on.. we've found several uses for different parts of every food you can think of.

We do this in our house, or you do this in your house? I am confused.

I'm sorry for the extra Y there.

I meant WE DO IT IN OUR HOUSE.

[Anonymous]

plan meals for the week - make a list and stick to it when food shopping.

try cheaper cuts of meat.

try veggie options as a main course.

many magazines (i.e. this month's family circle) have this as a topic.

crockpot recipes.

buy in bulk. (for some items)

[Anonymous]

Also, go to your grocery store(s) around 9-10am. That's when I've found the most mark downs in the meat dept. I'm guessing they mark them down first thing each morning, according to their sell by dates. They usually mark them down with 1-2 days to go before what's on the sell by date.

If you put them straight in the freezer, or use them that day or the next day, you can save a lot of money.

[Anonymous]

Another thing I do is buy hamburger meat at Wegmans or Costco. I can usually get it for $1.99 lb for a 6 lb pack.

When I get home with it, I divvy it up into 1 lb hunks and pound it flat in a freezer Ziploc back. It's like a meat envelope when I'm done, LOL!! The reason I do that is, it's so quick to defrost when it's pounded thin and flat. I've found that I won't take the time to thaw a hunk of hamburger meat (plus it cooks around the edges of a hunk, and that's gross) but I can thaw 1 lb flat in about 3 mins in the microwave. So I waste less frozen meat to freezer burn this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another thing I do is buy hamburger meat at Wegmans or Costco. I can usually get it for $1.99 lb for a 6 lb pack.

When I get home with it, I divvy it up into 1 lb hunks and pound it flat in a freezer Ziploc back. It's like a meat envelope when I'm done, LOL!! The reason I do that is, it's so quick to defrost when it's pounded thin and flat. I've found that I won't take the time to thaw a hunk of hamburger meat (plus it cooks around the edges of a hunk, and that's gross) but I can thaw 1 lb flat in about 3 mins in the microwave. So I waste less frozen meat to freezer burn this way.

That's a great idea! I buy hamburger on sale and freeze it in its pack, but then forget to thaw it over night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DH is not American, and where he grew up, the meat portion of the meal was always a side instead of the main piece, so we try to do that -- make the veggie the largest portion, then the rice/bread/potato/tortilla/etc complement and then the meat portion a side. Cutting down the size of the meat has been a good thing for our budget.

We do this. It is hard to convince DH that we don't need so much meat. But nutriitionally, I think you can easily get by with a 4-1 ratio of meat/egg/cheese to starch/whole grain. Many people serve more like a 1:1 ratio.

And I serve two veggies as often as possible.