How to Feed Your Family Healthy Meals on a Tight Budget

Healthy Food Blog

How to Feed Your Family Healthy Meals on a Tight Budget. Sure, junk food offers lots
of calories for not much money. But you can create your own "happy" meals that are tasty,
nutritious, and inexpensive. You will need Oatmeal Evaporated or powdered milk Frozen
and canned vegetables Seasonal fruits Bananas Apples Air popper and corn kernels Nuts Inexpensive
cuts of meat Peanut butter Eggs Chunk light tuna Beans Brown rice Baking skills and a
crock-pot.

Step 1. Start the day with a hot cereal; they’re much cheaper than cold cereals. Oatmeal is a nutritional winner and very inexpensive if you buy a container of plain, old-fashioned
oatmeal.

Step 2. Stretch your milk dollars by diluting a can of evaporated milk or some powdered milk with water to create whole milk.

Step 3. Stock up on frozen vegetables when they go on sale. Unless your produce was just picked, it’s just as healthy — or even more so — to eat the frozen stuff, which locks in the nutrients. Canned vegetables are another cheap alternative to fresh, but rinse them before eating because many are
loaded with salt.

Step 4. Limit your fruit purchases to whatever is in season, the exception
being bananas and apples. The former are relatively inexpensive year-round, and the latter are
low in calories, high in fiber, and may reduce your risk of heart disease and cancer.

Step 5. Enjoy healthy snacks without spending a fortune by air popping corn kernels and buying
nutritious nuts like almonds, walnuts, pecans, and peanuts. Buy in bulk.

Step 6. Only eat meat two or three times a week, and make cheap meats as tender and tasty as pricier cuts by marinating them overnight or slow-cooking them in a Crock-Pot.

Step 7. Make the most of alternative sources of protein, like peanut butter, eggs, chunk light tuna (which is not only the cheapest kind of tuna, but also contains the least mercury), and beans. Buy bagged beans in bulk -- the kind you soak overnight. They’re cheaper and healthier than canned
beans, which are high in sodium.

Step 8. Eat brown rice. It’s a bit pricier than white, but much better for you and still a nutritional bargain.

Step 9. Indulge in desserts by making them from scratch using nutritious ingredients that you have on hand. Bake your own oatmeal and peanut butter cookies; mash and freeze overripe bananas for "ice cream"; bake bruised apples with a little honey. Did you know As of 2007, 8.5% of the American household budget went to food eaten at home, down from 19% in 1960.