Cooking a healthy meal isn’t just a matter of finding the lowest calorie foods in your fridge. It starts at the kitchen counter, planning your week’s worth of meals. That’s right—the time you spend planning and then picking items in the store will make or break your meal prep. Make sure you select and purchase the healthiest kinds of foods. Then, when you get home, you can prepare some delicious and nutrient rich meals.
Oh, what’s that? Your budget is super small? That’s no problem! Preparing a nutritious meal while keeping the cost relatively low is a surprisingly easy feat if you know what to look for. Buying a package of ramen noodles may be the cheapest way to go, but it’s definitely not the healthiest. The key here is to balance cost and nutrition.
At Home: Plan Well-Balanced Meals Before Going Shopping
Planning a weekly meal schedule should take a wide array of factors into account. This includes cost and nutritional value. Most stores update their websites to include sale items and coupons on a weekly basis (or you can search out individual coupons). By checking your local branch out and planning meals around what is on sale (but still nutritious), you can take advantage of lower prices. If you need inspiration, there are tons of websites to check out for healthy recipe ideas.
At The Store: Shop The Perimeter Of The Grocery For MOST Items
The most health-conscious thing you can do in the grocery store is to avoid the middle aisles as much as possible. By shopping the perimeter you will be getting better overall nutrition (and it’s cheaper in the long run). On first glance, shopping the perimeter of the store seems more expensive than picking up canned and pre-packaged non-perishable foods, however, that isn’t the case.
For example, one of the common things people do nowadays to lower carbs and increase vitamin and healthy fat intake is to substitute spaghetti squash for boxed spaghetti noodles. A low-cost spaghetti noodle you will find averages about $0.11 an oz. This appears cheaper than squash at first (they run $3-6), but in reality, the cost of an average squash, on the smaller side, breaks down to $0.05 per oz.
While you are getting less protein this way, you are upping a wide variety of vitamins and healthy fats you don’t find in boxed items. To boot, 2 oz (the standard serving size) of cooked spaghetti is 200 calories, while a serving of the squash is 42. In addition, the seeds can be baked and used as a secondary meal/snack.
At The Store: Look For Low-Cost Alternatives To Fresh Meat
The major expenses while shopping health-consciously will smack you in the face at the meat section. You can avoid extra expense by focusing on buying meat that comes in can form. You’re walking a fine line here, though—you need to check out sodium levels on nutrition labels. The FDA suggests sticking to canned goods that have sodium levels of around 120 mg per serving.
If you are adamant about getting fresh meat, then you should focus on larger helpings of meat that can be separated in smaller servings. This can mean buying ground turkey, chicken, and pork; or it can mean buying, for example, a whole chicken, and having the butcher chop it into individual cuts of meat for you (employees say this can save you 30% on average).
Whatever route you choose, you need to do your homework before hitting the grocery by checking out local sales on meat. This will dictate your most cost-effective choice of action. Most stores will have a section with coupons and current sales going on.
If you want to avoid meat altogether, eggs are a great source of protein as well, and a dozen averages $1.66 per carton. Depending on your individual health needs, different types of canned beans can be a good alternative as well.
At The Store: Only Buy Non-Perishable Produce In Bulk
Grabbing a pre-bagged net-thing of avocados or a shrink-wrapped flat of mushrooms may seem like a great plan, but if you check out the prices you might be shocked. Much of the time, those prepackaged items are higher in price than going for individual units, according to grocery saving expert Teri Gault. Buying individual produce items also give you more control over how much you want and allows you to plan out recipes better without items going bad before you can use them.
However, other highly nutritious grain-based produce items (like oatmeal and quinoa) are actually cheaper to purchase in bulk. Since they don’t go bad for a long time you can bust out that handy coupon book and purchase it when it’s listed for a lower price, then enjoy it for as long as you want.
At Home: Cook In Bulk And Freeze Small Portions
Sometimes cooking can feel endless. After a long day, it’s easier to hit up a drive through than it is to cook. Instead of wasting all of the nutritious food you bought by not eating it and spending money unnecessarily by eating out, simply freeze your meals and reheat them later. It’ll have the convenience of TV dinners but be way, way better for you.
Make 1 or 2 huge meals a week and then freeze them for consumption later. You won’t have to put any effort into cooking during the week that way. In addition, this creates a built-in portion control system. You leave one frozen item out to thaw for the day and eat it that night. You won’t have more items to re-heat unless you want to go through a second defrosting process. Chances are, the labor involved will make you realize adding the extra calories is a bad idea.
At Home: Blend Your Breakfast
Use all of those amazing grains, fruits, and veggies that you bought to create a great smoothie first thing in the morning. By forgoing breakfast entirely, you will be more likely to make a bad food choice for lunch. Instead you can make a nutrient-rich smoothie for breakfast by adding a fruit, some spinach or kale, and some quinoa. It’s really that simple, and all of those items are going to be relatively cheap to purchase.