Month: January 2023

4 Tips to Save Money With Healthy Meals and Budgeting

Fall is an active time; we’re often busy running, communicating on social networks, and attending parties, cookouts, or our kid’s many different activities… all sorts of fun stuff. Do you often find yourself asking your spouse, “What are we going to have for dinner tonight?” I know I do, often the night before. I believe that 8 out of 10 couples have this conversation every day. Food plays a huge role in our lives: we spend 15-25% of our income on food, if not more. Yet, I wonder how many families have meal plans that fit their budgets.

My husband and I are conscious about leading healthy lifestyles, and purchase only organic products and food for us (and our cat) to make sure we don’t consume any toxic chemicals. Yet, often, organic food and products can cost almost double than conventional products. However, what’s more important than our health? Nothing! I would like to share some of my tips for building healthy meal plans AND saving money.

How often do you go grocery shopping? Every day? Once a week? Twice a week? Do you usually know what to purchase ahead of time? Or do you simply shop by intuition? Logically, when you visit the grocery store frequently, you will spend more money. Why? Because the more you shop, the more money you spend. Isn’t that a simple concept?

Here are 4 Tips to help you build a Healthy Meal Plan & Save $$

1. Check the pantry and fridge: When we’re super busy taking care of our kids, career, relationships, and exercise, who can remember exactly what’s in the fridge or panty? Not me. So, the night before you plan to go grocery shopping, make sure to check what you already have, and what you need. Taking this action will not only save you money, but give you more time for shopping.

2. Plan a breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu: Create your weekly meal plan before you go grocery shopping. Taking this action can help you and your family be healthier, save money, and spend more time together.

3. Don’t hide the Plan: Pin the weekly plan on the fridge or somewhere in the kitchen. Taking this action will not only help you be clearer about what you need to cook every day, but help your family look forward to their meals.

4. After shopping, store your food properly: Meats and seafood won’t stay fresh after 2-3 days in refrigerator. You should always have your weekly meal plan in front of you when you store your groceries. Taking this action can avoid wasting food and money.

I love cooking and creating my own recipes. My husband and I go grocery shopping twice a month because Whole Foods (our favorite shop) is quite a distance from our home. I always bring my shopping list with me, along with a set shopping budget.

If you use the four shopping tips I’ve listed here, you will better enjoy grocery shopping and cooking for you and your family, knowing that you are saving money, and being healthy, too! Enjoy!

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Time-Saving Tips for Whole Foods

Let’s face it. Most people are busy. They work at least eight hours per day and sleep another eight hours. That leaves at most eight hours of free time per day during the work week. When you think about it that isn’t a lot of time. Unfortunately one of the things that discourages people from following a whole foods diet is the fear that preparing food from scratch will take too much time. While it does take time to prepare food from scratch, you can minimize the preparation time with a few simple tricks.

The most important time saving tip when you are using whole foods is to plan ahead. Before you go grocery shopping make a meal plan. If you are really pressed for time then plan for meals that go together quickly. Some people find that they have success with creating a 14 or 28 day meal plan and simply rotating through it. For other people this is not enough variety or creativity. Whether or not that works for you, you should have at least one week of meals in mind when you go grocery shopping. Try to base your meal plan on produce that is in season and on sale as this will help to keep your costs down and provide natural variety. Choosing meals that have similar ingredients also will mean less preparation time when you get home.

After you have planned your meals and gone grocery shopping, do as much of your preparation as possible at one time. Chop carrots, onions, and other vegetables and store them in containers or plastic bags. Wash fruit and chop or wash lettuce. Hard boil and peel a few eggs. If you are planning several meals with beans soak and cook a batch of beans during the weekend and use them during the week. You can even freeze cooked beans in plastic bags and defrost them again when you are ready to use them. Using just a few of these tips will help to minimize your preparation time while still allowing you to maintain a whole foods diet.

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Save Money on Groceries – Shopping For Healthy Food

For several months now, I’ve been consistently saving quite a bit of money each week in my grocery shopping adventures. When I mentioned this to a friend, she asked me “What has changed? Have you given up on this ‘healthy food’ thing?” No, of course not! Shopping for healthy food does not automatically mean you need to take out a second mortgage on your home!

Her question caused me to think. I was able to put my finger on the major things that have changed in my grocery shopping routine that have resulted in this savings.

I spend a lot more time planning than I ever used to. Many months ago, we had a “round table” discussion as a family where each family member let me know what some of their favorite meals are. I wrote them all down.

After that, I wrote down the most common types of meat/protein staple foods that are served in our family meals, along with a list of meal ideas from my family under each type of meat. For example, under “ground bison” I have their favorite meals like Southwest bison lettuce wraps, tacos, chili, soup, burgers, cabbage rolls, stuffed peppers, etc. I do the same for chicken breast, venison, sausage, eggs and so on.

I also made index cards for each of the 3 stores I most commonly shop at and the items I typically purchase at those stores. I keep these lists handy as I’m planning so I know where I’ll be purchasing the groceries I need, and where I’m likely to get the best price.

Before heading out for my ‘major’ shopping trip of the week. I sit down with our family’s schedule for the week – I see which nights we’re going to be out later for work, teaching a seminar, playing sports or attending various events, and I pick either a quick dinner option for that night (big salad, soup, quesadillas, etc.) or I choose a slow cooker option that I can start much earlier in the day. The nights that I’ll be home earlier, I plan on the meals that require a bit more prep time.

Occasionally, there’s a special type of lunch being served at the kids’ school. I make sure I have healthier ingredients on hand so that we can make a healthier version of this meal ahead of time to take to school. For example, this week is the monthly pizza day at school. At school the ‘conventional’ pizza is served along with carrots & ranch dip, a brownie and a juice box.

Instead, we start with a pre-made organic, whole grain or gluten free crust, add organic sauce and whole, raw cheese, and our own toppings. They get carrots, but no (conventional) ranch – usually I’ll pack some hummus, or we’ll make our own ranch, or I’ll purchase a brand with no high fructose corn syrup and artificial ingredients. We don’t do the conventional juice or juice drinks. Once in awhile I’ll pack diluted organic juice, or maybe a container of an organic, low-sugar brand that I trust. No brownie. I’ll usually just pack some fresh fruit instead or some homemade sweet.

So, if there are special events, this is all taken into account before shopping.

I like the idea of cooking food once and getting several different ‘servings’ out of it. So, for example, I’ll cook some ground bison, use some for lettuce wraps one night, some for tacos or quesadillas a couple days later or for cheesy bison eggs for the kids breakfast, and then some for soup. I keep this type of “multi-use” cooking in mind when deciding on the schedule of meals for the week.

I also consider what leftovers can be re-purposed for the kids’ (or our) lunch, and possibly even breakfast, the next day.

I usually only plan through the weekdays, leaving the majority of our weekend meals open. We either whip up some surprising assortment from all the left overs or yet-to-be consumed foods, or we’ll end up going out for a meal on the weekend.

So, the steps that seem to be making a big difference in the bottom line of our grocery expenses are:

1) I take the time to plan the meals for the week.

2) I make the shopping list based upon the ingredients for these planned meals. I do a “big” shopping trip once where I load up with the biggies, then I plan on a second (sometimes a third) and MUCH smaller trip later in the week to replenish produce.

3) I have a mental list of ‘staple’ items that I’m always on the look out for sale prices on – if it’s on sale, and it’s something we use/eat regularly AND …

Basics of Grocery Shopping For Your Diet – Part 3, The Frozen Foods and Refrigerated Departments

Refrigerated Section

In this department, my highest recommendation goes to eggs.

Eggs provide a great source of protein, and should be one of the most important staples of your No Count Diet.

If you’ve been concerned about the cholesterol content of eggs, some simple studying will show you that eating cholesterol is not the cause of cholesterol in your blood stream, and even cholesterol in your bloodstream is not of the concern that has been pushed on the public for many years.

I would suggest reading Gary Taubes’ book Good Calories, Bad Calories, and check out the sections on cholesterol.

Supermarkets now offer eggs that are Omega-3 enriched. They come from chickens which are fed Omega-3 rich flax meal or fish meal.

Eating Omega-3 enriched eggs is a simple way to increase your consuming Omega-3 fats. Omega-3 fats reduce the inflammation in your body that causes all kinds of problems. It also improves your insulin sensitivity, that process which causes fat storage when you eat certain carbohydrates.

There are many brands of Omega-3 enriched eggs. One of the most popular is Egg-Land’s Best. I also recommend you pick up plenty of butter, cottage cheese, yogurt without sugar, and good cheeses like mozzarella and feta.

It’s best to buy organic dairy foods which have no hormones or additives, but this will not significantly matter as far as weight loss.

Frozen Food Section

Be careful in the frozen food section, because it’s filled with many grain-based processed foods.

Skip the frozen pizza, waffles, TV dinners, and pies. Go to the most healthy group of foods in the freezer — the frozen vegetables. It’s best to pick those vegetables that have no added sauce or seasoning.

Fresh vegetables are the best, usually tasting better and being more nutritious. But frozen vegetables can be more convenient because they last longer and you can cook them at the drop of a hat. Also, frozen vegetables come in amazing combinations that you won’t see in fresh vegetables.

So, get a good selection of frozen vegetables and keep them in your freezer. This helps keep away the temptation to go for the grains when you run out of fresh vegetables, or are just too busy to cut them up.

Quick-frozen shrimp, fish, meats and even unsweetened fruit are other healthy grain-free sugar-free items. As always, make sure and read the ingredients list to make sure they’re not processed and filled with unhealthy additives.

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