Any help from single healthy eaters on a budget?!
My situation: I live alone and cook for just myself most of the time. I have reasonable storage, I'm not a picky eater, I have above avg cooking skills, and a healthy budget to shop with but I like to be frugal. I LIVE 22 miles from the nearest store and I like to stay out of the stores if I can help it so I don't go crazy. I still prefer buying fresh over processed food when I can.
What tends to happen:
A. I buy a bunch of food that ends up spoiling before I can use it. B. I run myself ragged buying more than I need in more trips to the store. C. I give my food away before it spoils. D. I buy a nice variety of food that is versatile and then lose interest in using it between trips because it starts to look wimpy...then it truly spoils.
Any help for me?
Answers: My goals: eat healthier, lose some weight, manage my grocery budget and traffic of perishable food through my home.
My situation: I live alone and cook for just myself most of the time. I have reasonable storage, I'm not a picky eater, I have above avg cooking skills, and a healthy budget to shop with but I like to be frugal. I LIVE 22 miles from the nearest store and I like to stay out of the stores if I can help it so I don't go crazy. I still prefer buying fresh over processed food when I can.
What tends to happen:
A. I buy a bunch of food that ends up spoiling before I can use it. B. I run myself ragged buying more than I need in more trips to the store. C. I give my food away before it spoils. D. I buy a nice variety of food that is versatile and then lose interest in using it between trips because it starts to look wimpy...then it truly spoils.
Any help for me?
I've just think of what to prepare before going to the store, what I need to make these dishes...although i sometimes window shop and buy unnecessary food items. A great thing that you can do is prepare a whole pot of stew or a lot of food and keep it in the fridge, pop it in the microwave the next day. I wouldn't buy those bags of chopped salad and things in that nature, since they seem to perish faster then whole foods. As for health, I would stick to chicken and fish, you can make so many combinations of flavors for each dish so you won't be bored.
Here's a great stew recipe thats not only delicious and healthy but also affordable
Shredded chicken stew with wintry veggies
~You can buy a whole chicken, but I find it cheaper with thighs and drumsticks...so 4 chicken legs (thighs/legs)
~Dried herbs like basil, parsley etc are great when you find things spoiling....so 2 teaspoons of basil/parsley
-Veggies: 1 parsnip
1 can of navy beans
1 bag of carrots
3 stalks of celery
1 whole onion
Prep: Cut up all these veggies into nice 1 in chunks
Strip off the skin of the chicken
Cooking: Firstly in a big 9 qt pot add chicken, cover with water, boil on medium low for 1 hr
Take the chicken out, let it cool and strip the chicken
Next, we would put all those veggies into the chicken broth and let it cook for 30 min
We then add the chicken back in and beans, and reduce until liking for soup like consistency
Hope this helps, enjoy
Have you ever tried preparing all of your meals, and then freezing them? That might solve some problems.
I understand. I cook for just me, too. I have veggies right now that I have to toss because I forgot about them.
There are ways to freeze some fresh veggies at home. I've never done it the proper way, so I'm not too sure. I believe some need to be blanched first. Others can be frozen on a cookie sheet to avoid freezing together then bag them. You'd have to do a search online or find some really good cookbooks that are more like kitchen guides than straight out cookbooks.
If you are that far from a store, are you somewhere where you've got some land? Could you maybe start a little garden?
I've cooked a meal when I'm in the mood to use my fresh stuff, and then frozen the leftovers. Granted, sometimes you do lose a little crispness doing this, but it's usually not so bad that I wouldn't eat it.
Buying frozen veggies isn't all bad. Look at the ingredient list. If it's just the veggies, and no salt or preservatives have been added, then that should be okay. Still not as good as fresh, but it helps. Same for fruit. If you use fruit for cooking or smoothies, frozen without sugar or corn syprup and preservatives works fine. I'll give you not for eating; that you do need fresh for.
Some things can be cooked in large batches and frozen in individual servings for later use. I do that with burritos. Also the large containers of spaghetti sauce can be poured into baggies and frozen in 1/2 c servings, then thawed in the microwave to use as usual. When you get stuff like packages of chicken or hamburger home from the store, wrap it in single servings and freeze. Some veggies freeze well, too, like chopped up onions or green peppers.
I always tend to have fresh carrots on hand because they keep so well in the crisper and I leave them in their origial bag. Apples do well like that too.
Getting into canned, I like the Dole fruit in a plastic jar, the tropical fruit is very good.
I get tired of going to the store too and tend to buy way more than I need.
One day I went through my freezer and wrote down the majority of what was in there and decided I didn't need as much as I thought I did.
My favorite (big) grocery stores are 18 miles away so I don't go there just to get groceries, I like to plan my day to make several stops when I do go.
Salad is my big problem, it gets old so fast and there are 3 of us here eating it.
I guess the best thing is to go out to eat more often.