26 Favorite Cheap-and-Easy Meals

If you ask a roomful of people what their biggest budget busters are, many of them will say their food spending is an issue. In fact, many Americans literally eat through their income, knowingly spending more than they should on dining out.

Fortunately, there are a ton of tasty, cheap meals you can make at home with very few ingredients and not much time.

A while back, I asked The Simple Dollar’s Facebook fans what their favorite dirt-cheap meal was. Here are some of the best recipes people shared, along with a few more ideas to help you and your family eat well for next to nothing. Swapping a lunch or dinner out with one of these cheap meals just once or twice per week is an easy way to lower your food expenses

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26 Favorite Dirt-Cheap Meals

1. Sticky rice, vegetables, and soy sauce

This meal, shared by Leslie, is pretty simple and similar to something I used to cook up during my college years with an unhealthy amount of soy sauce. Using the ingredients below, you can whip up a delicious dish in minutes.

All you have to do is steam some rice, dump a can of vegetables (or a bag of frozen veggies) in a microwave-safe bowl and heat them up, then mix the vegetables and rice together with just the right amount of soy sauce. These three ingredients may not make a flashy meal, but the concoction is fairly healthy, cheap, and easy. (Next time you order take-out, save any extra soy sauce packets to make this dish even cheaper.)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of uncooked rice: $1
• Canned or frozen vegetables: $1.19
• Soy sauce: $1.99

Total: $4.17 (makes six servings)
Price per serving: 70 cents

2. Black beans and rice

Black beans and rice, suggested by Angela and others, is one of those cheap, easy meals almost everyone loves. This recipe from AllRecipes.com only requires a handful of inexpensive ingredients, yet is full of flavor.

Start by heating your oil in a stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute for 4 minutes, then add the rice and saute for another 2 minutes. Next, add in the vegetable broth, bring to a boil, lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes. The spices and black beans should be added right before you’re ready to serve.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp. of olive oil: 25 cents
• 1 large onion, chopped: 99 cents
• 2 cloves garlic, minced: 50 cents
• 3/4 cup uncooked rice: 50 cents
• 1-1/2 cups vegetable broth: 50 cents
• 1 tsp. ground cumin and 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper: 25 cents
• 3-1/2 cups canned black beans, drained: $1.98

Total: $4.79 (makes 6 servings)
Cost per serving: 80 cents

3. Egg and black bean burritos

If you’re looking for a cheap, nutritious breakfast you can eat on the go, look no further than this recipe for egg and black bean burritos.

The idea is simple: Start by heating some tortillas on the griddle. While they heat, scramble a dozen eggs and heat a can of black beans on the stovetop.

Once your eggs are scrambled, assemble your breakfast burritos and add any extras you might want. Toppings like shredded cheese, sour cream, and hot sauce all work rather well. (You can also make these in bulk and freeze them so they’re ready to heat up on a hectic weekday morning.)Ingredients:

• Can of black beans: 99 cents
• 8 pack of tortillas: $1.88
• Carton of eggs: $1.99

Total: $4.86 plus toppings (makes eight servings)
Price per serving: 61 cents

Source:http://www.thesimpledollar.com/20-favorite-dirt-cheap-meals/

BASICS OF MEAL CONSTRUCTION

There’s a fundamental blueprint for constructing your meals and snacks, and the reason for this is simple. Your body’s building blocks are protein, fat and carbohydrates. Of course we also need vitamins and minerals and other nutrients to survive and thrive, too. If you choose the right foods, you will be getting all of your protein, fat, carbs, AND nutrients all on one plate (or bowl) – no supplements necessary. Here’s how you do it:

1. Start with your source of protein. Depending on your individual needs, this may range from 3-9 ounces of some type of animal product (meat or eggs). Adjust your portions of the recipes up or down as needed. As a very simple rule of thumb, each meal should have a protein item the size of your palm or slightly larger.

2. Next, add the vegetables. You will want to shoot for 1/2 to 1 pound of vegetables at most meals. Yes, this is a lot! You will receive abundant nutrients this way, and you’ll remain full longer. When you first modify your diet, take a few weeks to ease into this quantity of vegetables to allow your body to adapt. Occasionally, you may eat fruit or root vegetables, as well.

3. Finally, you’ll add some healthy fat. This will depend on your individual calorie needs, and on how much fat was in your protein source. With leaner meats, you will need to add more fat. This is your primary energy source, so don’t neglect this part! Your energy levels will be much more stable once your system gets used to running on fat for fuel. You will burn body fat more easily this way, as well.

4. Drink water – not beverages containing calories. Try to make it the purest water you can find, not from a plastic bottle that leaches toxins, and not full of chlorine from your tap. Avoid even diet or sugar free varieties, as research shows that many of these drinks still cause problems with blood sugar levels, keeping your body in a fat storing state rather than a fat burning mode.

Good luck! Remember that preparation and planning ahead is the key to success on this plan.

Source:http://www.paleoplan.com/resources/basics-of-meal-construction/

The Paleo Diet Beginner’s Guide

Is eating like a caveman for you? Here’s the rationale behind the Paleo plan—and the seven basic rules you need to get started. 

Paleo. The caveman diet. Primal eating. From athletic trainers to holistic health professionals to diet book authors, it seems like everyone has something to say about why we should (or shouldn’t) take a lesson from ancient hunter-gatherers and get back to our dietary roots—which, Paleo enthusiasts will tell you, is the way humans were really designed to eat. And for every nutritionist or worst-diets list that slams the plan, there’s a research scientist, endurance athlete or weight loss winner who swears by it. What’s behind the hype?

The Paleo craze has its roots in a 1985 study by S. Boyd Eaton, MD, entitled “Paleolithic Nutrition,” published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and was further popularized by evolutionary medicine expert Loren Cordain, PhD, whose book The Paleo Diet, first published in 2002, is considered the seminal guide on the subject. Since then, guides to eating Paleo have proliferated, and while they may differ slightly from one another, they’re all based around a few common principles.

To give you a bit of an introduction to this prehistorically-minded nutrition plan, we broke the diet down into seven preliminary rules. Read on to learn the basics—and see if eating like a caveman could be right for you.

Source:

http://www.mensfitness.com/nutrition/what-to-eat/the-paleo-diet-beginner%E2%80%99s-guide

WHAT TO EAT ON THE PALEO DIET

While our books on The Paleo Diet provide much more detail on the foods you should and shouldn’t eat, here is a basic scheme of what to eat on The Paleo Diet:

EAT:

• Grass-produced meats
• Fish/seafood
• Fresh fruits and veggies
• Eggs
• Nuts and seeds
• Healthful oils (Olive, walnut, flaxseed, macadamia, avocado, coconut)

DON’T EAT:

• Cereal grains
• Legumes (including peanuts)
• Dairy
• Refined sugar
• Potatoes
• Processed foods
• Salt
• Refined vegetable oils

TIPS TO MAKE THE PALEO DIET A ROUTINE PART OF YOUR LIFESTYLE:

• For breakfast, make an easy omelet. Sauté onion, peppers, mushrooms, and broccoli in olive oil; add omega-3-enriched or free-range eggs and diced turkey or chicken breast.

• Paleo lunches are easy. At the beginning of the week, make a huge salad with anything you like. A good starting point can be mixed greens, spinach, radishes, bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots, avocadoes, walnuts, almonds and sliced apples or pears. Store the salad in a large sealable container. Each morning prepare a single serving from the large batch and then mix in meat (ground beef, beef slices, chicken, turkey, ground bison, pork chunks, etc.) or seafood of choice (salmon, shrimp, tuna, or any fresh fish or seafood). Toss with olive oil and lemon juice and you are set.

• For dinner, try spaghetti squash as a substitute for any pasta recipe. Top with pesto, marinara and meatballs. Roasted beets and their greens make a great side dish for pork. Asparagus, broccoli, and spinach can be steamed quickly. Salmon, halibut, or other fresh fish filets grill well with accompanying foil packs full of cut veggies with olive oil and garlic.

• Berries and other succulent fruits make a great dessert. Pre-cut carrot and celery sticks, sliced fruit, and pre-portioned raw nut/dried fruit mixes are easy snacks.

Daily Sample Straight from Dr. Cordain’s The Paleo Answer:

• Breakfast: Omega-3 or free ranging eggs scrambled in olive oil with chopped parsley. Grapefruit, or any fresh fruit in season, herbal tea

• Snack: Sliced lean beef, fresh apricots or seasonal fruit

• Lunch: Caesar salad with chicken (olive oil and lemon dressing), herbal tea

• Snack: Apple slices, raw walnuts

• Dinner: Tomato and avocado slices; grilled skinless turkey breast; steamed broccoli, carrots, and artichoke; bowl of fresh blueberries, raisins, and almonds; one glass white wine or mineral water. (Clearly, wine would never have been available to our ancestors, but the 85:15 rule allows you to consume three non-Paleo meals per week.)

• Source:

  http://thepaleodiet.com/what-to-eat-on-the-paleo-diet/

10 tips to healthy eating

1. Eat a variety of foods
2. Base your diet on plenty of foods rich in carbohydrates
3. Enjoy plenty of fruits and vegetables
4. Maintain a healthy body weight and feel good
5. Eat moderate portions - reduce, don't eliminate foods
6. Eat regularly
7. Drink plenty of fluids
8. Get on the move
9. Start now! - and make changes gradually
10. Remember, it is all about balance

 

1. Eat a Variety of Foods

You need more than 40 different nutrients for good health and no single food can supply them all. Today's food supply makes it easy to eat a wide variety of foods whether or not you are buying fresh foods to cook, taking advantage of ready-prepared dishes and meals or buying "take-away" foods. Balance your choice over time! If you have a high-fat lunch, have a low-fat dinner. If you eat a large serving of meat at dinner one day, perhaps choose fish the next day.

2. Base your diet on plenty of foods rich in carbohydrates

Most people do not eat enough of foods such as bread, pasta, rice, other cereals and potatoes. More than half the calories in your diet should come from these foods. Try wholegrain bread, pasta and other wholegrain cereals, too, to increase your fibre intake.

3. Enjoy plenty of fruits and vegetables

Most of us do not eat enough of these foods either although they provide important protective nutrients. Try to eat at least five servings a day and if you do not enjoy them at first - try some new recipes or see what ready prepared dishes are available in the supermarket.

4. Maintain a healthy body weight and feel good

The weight that is right for you depends on many factors including your sex, height, age and heredity. Being overweight increases your risk of a wide range of diseases including heart disease and cancer. Excess body fat results when you eat more calories than you need. These extra calories can come from any caloric nutrient - protein, fat, carbohydrate or alcohol- but fat is the most concentrated source of calories. Physical activity is a good way of increasing the energy (calories) you expend each day and it can make you feel good. The message is simple: if you are gaining weight, you need to eat less and be more active.

5. Eat moderate portions - reduce, don't eliminate foods

If you keep portion sizes reasonable, it's easier to eat all the foods you enjoy without having to eliminate any. For example, some reasonable serving sizes are: 100g of meat; one medium piece of fruit, half a cup of raw pasta and 50ml of ice-cream. Ready-prepared meals can offer a handy means of portion control and they often have the calorie values on the pack to help those who are counting. If you are eating out, you could share a portion with a friend.

6. Eat regularly

Skipping meals, especially breakfast, can lead to out-of-control hunger, often resulting in helpless overeating. Snacking between meals can help curb hunger, but don't eat so much as to substitute for proper meals. Don't forget to count your snacks as part of your total calorie intake.

7. Drink plenty of fluids

Adults need to drink at least 1.5 litres of fluid a day! Or more if it's very hot or they are physically active. Plain tap water is obviously a good source of liquid but variety can be both pleasant and healthy. Alternative choices are juices, soft drinks, tea, coffee, milk etc.

8. Get on the move

As we have seen, too many calories and not enough activity can result in weight gain. Moderately physical activity helps burn off those extra calories. It is also good for the heart and circulatory system and for general health and well-being. So, make physical activity part of your daily routine. Use the stairs instead of the liftelevator (up and down!). Go for a walk in your lunch break. You don't have to be an athlete to get on the move!

9. Start now! - and make changes gradually

Gradual changes in your lifestyle are much easier to make than major changes all at once. For three days, write down the foods and drinks you consume at meals and as snacks - Do you have too few fruits andor portions of vegetables? To start with, try to eat just one extra piece of fruit and vegetables a day. Are your favourite foods high in fat and making you gain weight? Don't eliminate those foods and feel miserable, but try to choose low fat options or eat smaller portions. And start using the stairs at work!

10. Remember, it is all about balance

There are no 'good' or 'bad' foods, only good or bad diets. Don't feel guilty about the foods you love, rather eat them in moderation and choose other foods to provide the balance and variety that are vital to good health.

7 Days of Super Healthy Dinners

Does mealtime often get taken over by the nutrition villains (tons of calories, loads of saturated fat, and excess sodium)? Take back the dinner hour: We’ve created a week’s worth of great-tasting meals with real nutritional punch. Each one is under 500 calories—wham! High in filling fiber—bam! Low in saturated fat—pow! Not to mention, each recipe puts a premium on antioxidant-rich produce—with two veggies, plus herbs and spices to boost flavor (but not calories). Try one of these supercharged dinners tonight for a leaner, healthier you.







Source : http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20576053,00.html