Food costs

Hey, why are you all picking on me? I was just comparing an average “healthy” meal in my house to an average “unhealthy” meal.

I’m the only “fat” person in my house, my husband and 2 kids are average, even on the small side (those of you who met my husband can vouch for me). One 4 lb chicken equals one meal. Period. Maybe my husband and I can take chicken sandwiches to work the next day, that’s it.

Also about meal cooking times. I’m not talking about work, I’m talking time. How long do you let a 4 lb chicken roast? How long does it take to wash spinach, peel and crush garlic and chop onions? This does not include cooking time. It takes 30 to 40 minutes to cook a cup of plain old white rice. I’m Puerto Rican and we don’t know what plain old white rice is. If you want good beans, then you must cook them at least 2 hours. Of course you can always buy them already cooked in a can but (1) they taste awful --too much salt and (2) they are not as “healthy”.

After reading this thread I find that, according to most here, I do cook healthy. If the above posts are any indication, then cooking healthy is easy. All you have to do is cook.

This is what I meant by define healthy. If a nutritionist told me I had to cook “healthier” than I already do, my first thought would be organic foods. This stuff is expensive and is what I was thinking of when the words “eat healthier” were mentioned on that other thread.

Now that I think about that other thread and the advice given by many that all it took was a healthier diet, I see that I, for one, misunderstood and probably should have asked for a definition. I can’t believe anyone thought that fat people eat Spam everyday. Some people cook and some people don’t and you cannot tell which do by how fat they are.

I know, I know, I said I’d stop, but I can’t let that one go by.

Yes, WillGolf, you can spend more on healthy food, but only if you buy whatever you want, rather than what is in season and on sale. You can spend the earth on healthy food, same as anything else.

And for the record, I don’t think $4.00 worth of oranges a day every day is necessarily healthy. It’s better to eat a variety of things. (OTOH, if eating those oranges is preventing you from eating those Doritos, then of course you’re coming out ahead.)

Food co-ops rule. Usually cool people, great deals on healthy stuff. I’ll second a lot of people who have said they don’t buy in bulk and resort to convenience foods due to space limitations. Somehow, however, I make it work in a one-bedroom apartment with a railway kitchen (all on one axix, stuff on either wall). The secret? Buy what you’ll use the most when it’s cheap. Costco has insane deals on stuff like cooking oil and bulk meat. I regularly buy a sirloin tip there-about ten pounds of meat for thirteen dollars. That goes into stir-frys, gets steaked out into sirloin tips, ground for meatballs, etc. Chicken’s the same-a flat of bonless thighs goes for about nine bucks, and has twenty thighs in it. Three dozen eggs for three bucks.
Yes, rice and beans are a big staple in our house, but I’m Mexican and they’re GOOD, dammit! They also can be put in a crockpot overnight. We eat healthy, buy smart, and have fun with our diets.

WillGolf, $4.00 of oranges a DAY? Now, I’m doing the math here, & even in summer (which is off-season for citrus) when they’re more expensive, I’m coming up with EIGHT ORANGES PER DAY!!

Do you live near Tisiphone or someplace else where the cost of food is real high? Or are you an adolescent boy? Because otherwise I’m going to suggest that you’re snacking too much, even if you are eating healthy foods…

Biggirl said:

Holy heck, where do you live? Mt. Everest? I’m at altitude, where water boils at a lower temperature (thus taking longer to cook things), and it only takes me 18 minutes to cook rice.

I don’t mean to pick on you. But also, you can definitely be healthy without going organic. Organic foods are great if you care about pesticides. But their nutritional content is the same as a non-organic. So, if you’re trying to eat healthy in the normal, low-calorie, low-fat way, as opposed to the ephemeral environmentally-conscious way, skip the organics.

I’m coming up with EIGHT ORANGES PER DAY

I like oranges. And responding to another comment, yes, they often act as a healthy alternative to Doritos. :slight_smile:

**Or are you an adolescent boy? **

Nope, just a 53-year-old geezer with a terminal case of the munchies.

The question is what is meant by “eating healthy.” I agreed with those who said that eating healthy is more expensive than eating unhealthy in the other thread mentioned in the OP of this thread. But I see that I did not understand what cher meant by “eating healthy.”

What cher obviously meant was just cooking for your family. For dinner I always make rice or some other starch, vegitables and meat. I cook it. This is the cheapest way to feed my family. Since this is how everyone I know who is fat goes about making meals, I thought of the next step --organic.

My family and I do not eat Spam and eggs every night. Not even most nights. I can’t think of anyone, except maybe single people, who eat like that. So now I’m wondering what people mean when they tell this fat person she needs to eat healthier.

Necros you like your rice hard? How much rice are you cooking? A cup of rice takes at least 1/2 an hour. I mean a cup pre-cooked.

I’ll jump back in and in my usual opinionated way say that anyone who is on a budget and still buying “organic” foods is out of their skull.

This stuff can be so marginal in quality and so very overpriced that it’s insane. Current laws do not define “organic” well at all and you can be getting just about anything for twice the price. The key to cheap healthy eating is a balanced diet of foods that can be prepared and reused. When you make the rice, perhaps make Spanish rice. It serves well with your main course and then jumps into some lunchtime burritos just fine.

Instead of serving a whole roast chicken, slow cook it and bone it out completely. Use the meat in a nice curry and rice or gravy on toast. You get the stock from the cook down, you extend the meat with a rich and nutritious sauce, and the leftover meat can be used in a chicken salad sandwich or a Cobb salad.

When you make beans, make more than one meal’s worth. They keep well and can be used with that Spanish rice to make great burritos that freeze up well. Instead of pintos, consider cranberry beans. I find these to be ten times more versatile in the kitchen. Drop some of the cooked cranberry beans into a home made soup, mash some of them for refrieds and save the rest for burritos.

Learning to cook with tofu is another way to stay healthy and cheap. I get a craving for it every month or so. Pan fry the tofu in a little oil and roasted sesame oil, after browning it a little add some soy sauce and a dash of vinegar. Top a nice vegetable stir fry with the seared tofu and dig in. Low-cal, highly nutritious, what do you want?

In general, look for the amount of packaging on an item, this will tell you about the cost effeciency. Lunchables, however convenient are not cheap. You could have steak in that lunch for the same price. Prepared foods are rarely a bargain. Microwave dinners cost like some cuts of meat and any of them that are cheap usually are laden with fat or extenders. Whatever you do, avoid buying pre-shredded cheeses, salad mixes and things like that. The cost of these products is double to triple of their unprocessed brethern.

One of the most difficult things for Americans to get over is the reliance on fatty foods for flavor. Almost all flavors are transported by fats and oils. In addition the “mouth feel” of fatty foods is more satisfying too. Why do you think this nation eats so many French fries? Mc Donalds is single handedly responsible for almost doubling the yearly American intake of potatoes. When you consider that so much of this is in the form of French fries, imagine the dietary damage being done.

It is for this same reason that I am adamantly against all of the special fat free foods that use olean fat substitute or other such garbage. Replacing the fat with a questionable substance does not change your eating habits and only maintains your being accustomed to the flavor and texture of fatty foods. These products are an abomination. The low-fat cheese and the like cost so much more for so much less and their flavors can be so terrible that I question the sanity of whomever produces or buys the stuff. I realize that there are exceptions to the case, but I’m sure that many will agree about the ridiculous pricing and poor flavor of these “foods”.

Learn to cut back on the amount of fats in your foods. I now use less than half the amount of butter I used to when I make hash browns. I add some oil to the pan instead of more butter. I still use butter for its superior flavor, but just in less quantity. The same can be done in many dishes. I have reduced my butter use by over half and my food still tastes better than most I’m served at restaurants. As to junk food like potato chips and the like, do yourself a favor and leave them out of the grocery cart. I have long since gotten over my fascination with chips and salted nuts and so forth.

Learn to buy strategically. The other day I bought three whole chickens, a flat of thighs, eleven pounds of potatoes and a quart of vegetable oil for less than US$20.[sup]00[/sup]. The discounts saved me almost sixteen dollars off what should have been a $34.[sup]00[/sup] dollar total. Knowing how to shop is almost equal in importance to knowing how to cook.

PS: Biggirl, wash your rice while preparing other foods, it will be fluffier and it will cook faster as well. It should only take 20 minutes to cook a cup of rice.

Well, no, not just cooking. Basically I meant cooking according to the food pyramid–lots of whole grains and veggies/fruits, relatively little meat/fat. But the foods involved can themselves be cheap–collard greens instead of asparagus, bulk rice instead of pre-packaged stuff, etc.

As for organic stuff, there’s no question that’s more expensive, unless you grow it yourself.

Kudos to you, Zenster! The following statement you made is SO important to your budget as well as your health:

I know I have little to no will power. In other words, if it’s in the house, I’ll eat it. The only time we buy a bag of chips is if we’re having hotdogs or turkey burgers that night. And then we buy the size that practically guarantees there will be none leftover.

You’ll almost never find Tastykakes, Cheetos, Doritos, Little Debbies, etc. in my house. We do buy ice cream every other month but as a rule I don’t like cold stuff so I don’t eat that often (plus I’m too lazy to scoop it out).

Most prepared snacks are SO expensive and SO fattening. I buy canned mandarin oranges (I know they’re expensive) and rinse them off for my son as a snack. He loves them. I also buy fresh apples and pears for snacking. I feel so much better about not pigging out on salty, fattening snacks while I’m watching TV - it’s bad enough that I’m watching the TV and not doing anything productive!

Great ideas, all! Chicken broth is so easy to make; you don’t have to stand over every second either. Put it on low heat and just clean the house or whatever.

Same with bread. of course, bread is pretty cheap, but boy is homemade worth the effort (which isn’t much, to be honest - again, it’s “do something else while the bread is rising”).

I have a great recipe for homemade “power bar” type things if anyone wants it. It’s great.