Eating Healthy on the Cheap

Karen discovered this cool method of cooking them all day in a slow cooker. They get really well-caramelized and concentrated. Then you can store them in the refrigerator and add them to various things as an onion flavor boost. Great on homemade pizza.

I'm going to try steel cut oats for breakfast this week as a cheap and healthy alternative. My plan is to make a big batch which can be refrigerated and reheated as needed.

I have also acquired pickles. I burned 300 calories just getting the jar open.

Having recently started in a gym where pretty much every machine you use has a calories spent counter, I can only say... that's one heck of a pickles jar.

Also, oats for breakfast is great. I usually make oatmeal porridge and mix it thoroughly 50/50 with skyr, an Icelandic yoghurty thing that's kind of in the middle between yoghurt and cottage cheese in texture and is very low on carbs and fat, but packed full of proteins and all that good stuff. Tasty, very filling, keeps you feeling full for a good while, and best of all, good for you.

I managed to lose and keep off most of my college weight gains by dropping down to about a pound of meat a week (so between me and spouse, that's half a pound each) and insisting on vegetarian meals the rest of the time. This usually means we get one dinner and one leftovers meal with meat. It is by far the easiest way to cut calories and save money. Mr. Alligator also gets about half a pound of deli meat (usually turkey) but I don't partake in that since I'd rather have leftovers.

At my last job, my team's grocery budget was $4.50 per person per day. It's completely doable if you mostly stay away from meat and processed foods. Shop around the borders of your grocery store (minus the baking aisle where you get spices and whatnot, and the pasta aisle if you're lazy like me). We regularly came in under budget, even when we bought organic foods. When I was on my own (not on a team) the hardest part was trying to accumulate spices and seasonings since those are more expensive up front, but if you already have a stocked pantry it's pretty easy to get into the swing of such a small budget.

I used to preach buying in bulk but we simply don't go through things quickly enough to make it worth it. We buy fresh meats now instead of frozen and our grocery bill hasn't gone up much as a result. If you're shopping just for yourself, it's probably not worth it unless it's something like rice or dry beans, since those last for ages.

Someone mentioned lettuce heads earlier as opposed to shredded bags--a great way to get more life out of your lettuce is to stick a couple of paper towels in with it to soak up excess moisture. It gives our lettuce a few more days of life before it begins to wilt or brown. We also wash the leaves individually as we use them instead of washing the whole head at once.

Additionally, when buying fruits or veggies for recipes, don't be afraid to substitute like items. Darker fruits and veggies generally have more nutrients, so consider making purple roasted potatoes instead of red or golden, or use spinach or romaine lettuce in your salads or on sandwiches instead of iceberg.

I know it's a joke but it brings to mind another point about losing weight. Burning calories is hard as fuck. 300 calories, which is your average candy bar, is a three mile run. Exercise should still be part of the equation if you're trying to be healthy/lose weight, but it's VASTLY more important just to not take in the calories in the first place.

Yeah, our bodies are pretty damn efficient with calories. I always find it funny that at this point we consider the people who tend to not put on weight (horribly inefficient metabolisms) to be the "lucky" ones.

I'm a big fan of that except I never add salt, especially with sriracha at hand. I use a healthy crank of pepper, adding some while the rice is cooking.

And sriracha makes everything better. Eggs, popcorn, marinara, ice cream, pho.

Unfortunately it's in damn near everything. I could become a vegetarian easier than I could cut all salt. And I don't ever add salt to anything - most food has plenty of salt already.

I really get confused at people who add salt to stuff after it has been already been seasoned and cooked. My dad's girlfriend adds salt to onion rings, and I had a teammate who would salt individual tortilla chips as she ate them.

I salt oranges.

No kidding. Up until probably 70(?) years ago my body would have been SUPERBLY ADAPTED to storing up the energy for winter! Darn this modern lifestyle!

Well, being blind as a bat w/o glasses would have sucked. And the chicken pox I got through with a little scar might have killed me. And my sister who was born with a club foot might have been exposed at birth instead of given corrective braces that fixed the issue. And....

That's insane.

I've heard that salting watermelon is pretty popular. Never tried it myself.

I used to do this too. Granted, I was eating pretty salty back then and I hadn't figured out yet you can toss tortilla chips in spices if I wanted a flavor boost.

I picked it up from my dad, who always sprinkles a little salt on oranges when he eats them. It sounds weird as fuck, but it actually enhances the flavor.

Well, that's what salt does. Tends to draw moisture to the surface, which concentrates flavor.

Also, I recommend raw almonds for a snack - but only if you don't have portion control issues. If you're the type to snack and keep on snacking through the day, just admit defeat and get celery.

Salt is pretty key to enjoying food. Everything should be properly seasoned, which is to say that it should have just enough salt that the flavors pop without actually tasting salty. While it's true that you probably do not need to add salt to food to get the amount of sodium you need to survive, that's not a good excuse in my mind to purposefully underseason food unless you actually are in a situation where you need to reduce sodium intake due to blood pressure concerns.

Eating healthy and cheap generally means learning to cook for yourself, because raw fresh ingredients are simultaneously both healthier and cheaper than processed or prepared anything. And proper seasoning is one of the most important things to learn when cooking. I'd take a properly seasoned sirloin over an unseasoned filet mignon any day of the week.

That's not entirely how salt works to enhance flavors. Salt suppresses the perception of bitter flavors in food (which tend to be associated with bad things) which brings the sweet and savory flavors (associated with good things) into focus. It also is one of the molecules that your taste buds are specifically designed to detect, so it's presence in food makes you perceive an additional dimension in the taste of whatever you're eating, which compounds to make the food seem richer and more vibrant.

A very simple way to notice this effect is with salted dark caramels. As sugar cooks it caramelized and develops more and more intense flavors, but taken too far and it burns and the sweetness turns into bitterness. A salted dark caramel cooks the sugar right to the point of burning where the flavor is very intense but it just begins to take on bitter notes, but then the salt masks the bitterness. Eat one with and without salt and you can really tell the difference.

You have your theories, I have mine.

Well, this is stuff that's actually based in science rather than just being anecdotal.

A very good reason for the use of seasoning is that a bit of salt can replace a hell of a lot of sugar due to some basic chemistry:

Alton Brown does a good job of explaining and showing this effect in the Good Eats episode The Ballad of Salty and Sweet.

Agree to disagree.

In addition to that, your saliva has a natural salinity level, and if you eat or drink things that have lower salinity than your saliva, they will taste bland. This is why bottled water usually has added a small amount of added sodium--it tastes weird and wrong without it.

A lot of packaged food has too much salt in it, but I think people sometimes overreact in the other direction. There is no need to go crazy cutting salt out of your diet, unless you have a medical condition that is sensitive to sodium intake, like high blood pressure.

I'm with Reldan and Ben on the salt issue. And Nute on the Celery issue. By the way, like everyone is saying, if you eat healthy for a couple weeks, you'll realize that some of this healthy crap tastes pretty good.

I don't worry about salt, but salting tortilla chips? Unless they are unsalted to begin with, that's just like... uh.... putting butter on buttered popcorn. Or something.

Snacks....Ugh, I spend my life looking for good snacks it seems. Now keep in mind that my diet/food lifestyle just sucks. Sucks as in no fun at all but it makes me feel good and helps me lose weight so in a sense it makes me happy.

One thing to think about is that it can take a while to get used to things. I was never much of a salt person but I used it. I eat NO added salt at all. If a product has too much sodium, it doesn't go in my mouth. Remember, this is not a bad thing. Same with added sugar, just stop eating it. You will get used to it...ok well off on a tangent. Sorry.

Snacks- for my sugary needs, I eat Trader Joes Simply Lite Chocolate. Dark or Milk. No added sugar, very low carb content (most are protected) and remember, carbs turn to sugar. And this stuff tastes wonderful.

Apples...apples and more apples. Low sugar, hugely filling and so many good kinds.

Remember, bananas and grapes have lots of sugar so limit those to one banana and not too many grapes a day-

Non-fat plain Yogurt with a squirt of Agave sweetener and some bananas and Strawberries- as good as any fruit-ish ice cream you can find.

Non-fat plain yogurt is a wonderful substitute for sour cream too. Put it on your chili or your tacos - so good.

Carrots and sugar snap peas are nice- you get the joy of crunching and they have lots of good things in them.

Oh Costco has this pistachio/cranberry/raisin trail mix in that huge plastic jar- all unsalted and a nice snack- I will allow myself 2 handfuls a day in between meals- good flavors and pretty filling.

Walk down the aisle for snack bars and read them all. There are some that are low cal (Like 90) with low sugar in them...you won't feel bad having one of those a day.

The real trick is to read labels. If you are buying fruits and veggies, well no worries there BUT I highly recommend finding a farmer's market. The difference between what you get there and what is in your grocery store is like night and day. But yeah read- you will be amazed at the levels of things like sodium and such in things. There is always something better- you just need to take a bit of time to compare. Eg, big brand named canned soups can be just horrible yet they taste good- find an organic brand and compare.

I love a good plate of spaghetti but well that CAN be unhealthy if you aren't careful. Yes, chicken or turkey is great in the sauce and when it comes to the sauce- just make your own. Skip the can or jar of sauce, and use a bunch of fresh tomatoes as the base. A couple of sun dried tomatoes for some hearty flavor, LOTS of onions :) spices (spices are your friend now) and some red wine (because well wine is good)- really just dump it all in the pot and let it simmer for an hour or 2- it will be WAY better than Ragu and so much better for your.

Oh and eating out sucks....doesn't really matter where you go - I am constantly amazed at places that list calorie content and I look at the salads- Seriously there are ones out there that sound healthy and have 1400 calories in them. That is often more than I have in an entire day.

So, read labels.
Organic- blah blah yeah but seriously taking chemicals out of your food as much as possible certainly can't hurt.
You will get used to not putting salt on everything...really.
Use lots of spices- pile them on and if you are luck to have a Penzys (http://www.penzeys.com) or the like near by, well lucky you. I love that place.
And yesterday I tried the Trader Joes meatless Mandarin Orange chicken - heh, I liked it. Next up is the meatless (well chickenless actually) chicken strips.

Sorry for the bit of rambling but after one year of a complete food and lifestyle change, I have become a huge proponent of eating right, eating healthy, avoiding as many chemicals as you can- and in the end feeling so much better and becoming so much healthier for it.

Eating out doesn't have to be horrendous experience. A lot of it depends on if you can find a local restaurant with a real chef who is buying and cooking real fresh ingredients every day. I've found that there are a lot of ways that less common vegetables like beets, turnips, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts can be prepared where they're the star of the dish, and finding a place where you can experience that can really be inspirational because it tears down the idea that healthy foods aren't foods you can enjoy too.

And that's why I will (lightly) salt grapefruit.

Or just not eat grapefruit in general, since it's a pain to eat.

I've also had salted watermelon and cantaloupe, but I don't prefer them that way.

Grapefruit is one of the few acceptable fruits, because while it still contains absurd amounts of sugar like almost all fruits do, it's also got so much good stuff in there that it pretty much balances out.

Yes I agree 100%. I fear I was being too general. We have a wonderful vegetarian restaurant down by the beach that we love. And any "good" restaurant will have good choices. I was kind of pointing fingers at more of the chain type places like Islands, CPK and the like. We always think of salads as the healthy choice but they are sneaky I tell you, sneaky.

eg. the Cobb Salad with blue cheese dressing and beets at California Pizza kitchen has 1050 calories, 708 from fat, 417 mg of cholesterol, and 1824 mg of sodium. But hey, it's a salad. Then again, people will argue that CPK and Islands are not "real" restaurants and I would probably agree :)

Unless you're on cholesterol medication or antidepressants, in which case, you can't eat it!

Try a pinch of salt in your next batch of home-made lemonade.

The other breakfast that I like is greek yogurt, and then I add frozen fruit, which you can by in a big bag at your standard grocery store. I also like to add random nuts like almonds or walnuts, which you can get unsalted from the cooking ingredient aisle. It's pretty tasty, and healthy enough.

I'd avoid some of the pre-made trailmixes to add to your yogurt, as they all have sugar / corn syrup as their first ingredient, even the ones that are supposed to be all natural and healthy.

I'd also avoid a lot of the 'green machine' and other supposedly healthy mixed fruit/veggie drinks, as the first ingredient always ends up being apple juice. Apple juice is super sugary and not good for you. It's annoying because I'd be perfectly fine with something not so sugary and sweet tasting, but it's really hard to find something that doesn't have apple juice in it. (And having a juicer and doing it all yourself is a big PITA, I managed it for a couple of weeks before falling off the wagon)

I love Greek Yogurt. You have to make sure to get the real stuff, though--Fage, Chobani, etc. Since it's become more popular, some of the big brands like Dannon have started selling "Greek Yogurt" that really is just regular yogurt with thickeners added. It's not, like, bad for you or anything, but it doesn't taste nearly as good as the real stuff.

Yeah, there are different styles, one brand I bought was super soupy, which they touted was because they aged theirs more or something. I actually like mine more chunky / ice cream like, so went back to my current brand, and I can't remember the name of it.

SSRIs are definitely effected -- Zoloft and Prozac immediately come to mind. It's actually a big deal, because they recently expanded the list because some of the interactions can cause heart and respiratory issues. :/

Luckily most pharmacies put the "no grapefruit" stickers on the affected medications.

odd, never heard that & I take an SSRI. Good thing I don't like grapefruit.

There's a place a few blocks from my apartment here that makes the best Greek yogurt I've ever had - it's about the thickness of sour cream and I think it has roughly the same pH. When you turn the container upside down, nothing comes out. It's unbelievably rich, but the woman claims she makes it with whole milk. I say the nutrition information is a complete lie, but man, it's really, really good. I've been thinking about making a cheesecake with it.

Drawing moisture actually decreases the concentration of the liquid that hits your tongue. For the same given amount of flavor compounds, you'd have a lower concentration because of the increased volume.

Not to mention osmosis affects water, not the actual compounds that induce a sense of taste.