Fat Thurs: You CAN eat cheap and healthy

[marie427]

Anecdote Alert - Our household grocery budget each month has dropped considerably since I became a vegetarian because beans, whole grains, etc. are cheap as hell. And I hate cooking but making a whole pot of beans for the week does not make me hate my life at all.

However, I buy my beans and other staples at a large supermarket for decent prices. If all I was nearest to was a bodega, I'd imagine they'd be more expensive; maybe not prohibitively so, but it wouldn't shock me if they were more expensive. Plus, who knows about what appliances people have access to at home or how many hours they're working or whatever. And some foods can be intimidating to prepare (let's all recall the Great Butternut Squash Debate of the Century, shall we?). So while there definitely is an element of "personal responsibility" at play, I still won't concede that it's just that easy peasy for everyone.

[emilyj]

Also, buying produce in season. We just signed up to be part of a CSA-type fruit/veggie delivery (it's not a true CSA) about a month ago, and we get a weekly delivery of local, in-season fruits and veggies. For $25 each week, my husband and I can barely get through what gets delivered to us weekly. If it were me going to the store, no way would I a) be buying what we are getting or b) be buying as much as we are getting.

[meshaliuknits]

I've found that veggies are stupid cheap in season, fruit less so. But more than once I've gotten something in my box that I have no idea WTF it is much less what to do with it.

[meshaliuknits]

May 17, 2012 10:34:03 GMT -5 @littlemoxie said:

What was the great butternut squash debate?

Also, re: CSAs.... I'm embarrassed at how many times I've had to google something because I wasn't sure what the hell it was. Or just been in awe at how things look in their natural state.

Wasn't that about if butternut was up there with arugula or on par with potatoes?

Dude, the farmers market I go to there's a whole stand on which I have no fucking clue as to what's on the table. Any of it. If anything had names I would google. One of these days I'm gonna take pics and make ESF tell me what everything is.

[ringstrue]

Just be smarter, poor people! It's so simple!

[ttt]

Kale is disgusting.

That's all I've got for now.

[basilosaurus]

May 17, 2012 13:43:18 GMT -5 ttt said:

Kale is disgusting.

That's all I've got for now.

have you tried making kale chips? They're delicious and healthy. H begs me to make them.

[meshaliuknits]

May 17, 2012 13:43:18 GMT -5 ttt said:

Kale is disgusting.

That's all I've got for now.

It's ok if you cook it with balsamic, better if you cook it with bacon or maple syrup.

[wrathofkuus]

Wasn't the food desert thing partially about good-quality produce, not just the availability of produce at all? I think someone posted that as an article here (well, on the Nest version, but still).

[wawa]

duh?
I think HAB and I have both been saying this every damn time this debate comes up. We can still talk about issues of access and cooking skill, but it's not actually that expensive to eat healthy.

And I'll go ahead and pimp a blog I love along those lines just for fun:
www.poorgirleatswell.com/

[basilosaurus]

Effort to make kale chips? I spray with olive oil, salt it, and throw it in the oven for 20 minutes while I make the rest of the meal. It's about the easiest thing I do. It takes more time than a salad, but not more active time.

Now I really want to eat a lot of kale. I just finished breakfast, and I'm hungry again.

[ttt]

Sure, you can eat cheap and healthy. But it's much harder to eat cheap, healthy AND delicious.

It takes a lot less effort and skill to make potato chips taste delicious than it does to make, well, kale taste delicious.

Personally, I love salad and I've been trying to eat more of it, but it definitely does not keep me full very long. An hour later and I'm starving again.

[y4m]

I find the study from a month or two ago that showed willpower is finite (so if you're forced to constantly control every single penny, you'll have run out of willpower when it comes to controlling calories) much more convincing than the argument that poor folks can't afford healthy food

[Deleted]

I think it's not that you can't eat cheap and healty, it's that it is very difficult to eat cheap, convenient and healthy. Yeah, I can go fill a big cart with raw kale, lettuce, other veggies and fruit and not spend much money, but I'm not going to eat a plate full of raw veggies for dinner. I love me some veggies, but they also take time to prepare in a way that tastes yummy. However, there are tons of easy and cheap fattening foods.

I wish that consumers would demand more healthy convenience foods that aren't really expensive. We do the hot bar at Whole Foods a lot because we both work, and it is very healthy with tons of veggies and lean meats, but it is also expensive. I think that's a problem. The average person can't afford to buy prepared foods and snacks at Whole Foods or similar stores, but doesn't want to take the time (or simply doesn't have the time) to make kale chips and other yummy but healthy foods. So they grab the hamburger helper, the packaged scalloped potatoes, the bag of potato chips, etc.

[marie427]

Kale chips taste like feet and and give me stinky feet breath. So gross.

[Deleted]

May 17, 2012 14:03:48 GMT -5 marie427 said:

Kale chips taste like feet and and give me stinky feet breath. So gross.

I have a recipe somewhere that is freaking delicious. It uses tahini sauce and you make it in a food dehydrator.

[wawa]

I agree that it's incredibly hard to have a diet that is constantly cheap and healthy and delicious and requireing no more than 5 minutes in the kitchen.

It's also incredibly hard to catch unicorns and teach pigs to fly.

Sadly food is also subject to the eternal truth: Fast. Good. Cheap. Pick two.

Of course...as I say that I'm coming up with lots of dishes in my head that are simple to make, healthy, cheap and tasty - but I am not a picky eater so my definition of tasty is broad, and I'm a good cook, so my definition of simple is likely not the standard either. *shrug* I dunno.

[heyjude]

Eating healthy for cheap is not really revolutionary information here. You can get a block of tofu for under $2 and when cooked properly tofu is quite tasty. The problem is cooking it properly. It takes some time and skill. And it also takes adding the right flavors otherwise it has no flavor.

And I think that's what most of these eating healthy for cheap stories miss out on. How to eat healthy on a buget is only part of the issue to get more people to eat well.

[basilosaurus]

May 17, 2012 13:57:25 GMT -5 ttt said:

Personally, I love salad and I've been trying to eat more of it, but it definitely does not keep me full very long. An hour later and I'm starving again.

I will grant you this. I'll eat lettuce until my jaw hurts, and I'm still not sated. I think part of the problem is I don't put meat on my salads. That seems to fill people.

But, if you do have salad, might I recommend this amazing dressing? I totally halfass it b/c I don't want to buy all the specialty ingredients (another conversation on how healthy cooking can add up quickly), but it's still fantastic. I top it with roasted red peppers and sometimes sauteed shrimp.

www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pacific-Rim-Caesar-Salad-105973

[ringstrue]

May 17, 2012 14:20:31 GMT -5 heyjude said:

Eating healthy for cheap is not really revolutionary information here. You can get a block of tofu for under $2 and when cooked properly tofu is quite tasty. The problem is cooking it properly. It takes some time and skill. And it also takes adding the right flavors otherwise it has no flavor.

And I think that's what most of these eating healthy for cheap stories miss out on. How to eat healthy on a buget is only part of the issue to get more people to eat well.

Whatevs, you know people love preparing food for the few hours they have between their day job, their night job, and all their other chores.

[statlerwaldorf]

CSAs aren't a very good option for poor people where I used to live. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, you don't have the money to pay the fee for the season ahead of time. There is a financial risk involved if the crops don't turn out. They don't accept food stamps. The pick up times are usually on evenings and weekends when a lot of the working poor are working. The pick up locations are all in more affluent areas where the majority of the poor do not live.

[emmybean]

May 17, 2012 14:32:55 GMT -5 ringstrue said:

May 17, 2012 14:20:31 GMT -5 heyjude said:

Eating healthy for cheap is not really revolutionary information here. You can get a block of tofu for under $2 and when cooked properly tofu is quite tasty. The problem is cooking it properly. It takes some time and skill. And it also takes adding the right flavors otherwise it has no flavor.

And I think that's what most of these eating healthy for cheap stories miss out on. How to eat healthy on a buget is only part of the issue to get more people to eat well.

Whatevs, you know people love preparing food for the few hours they have between their day job, their night job, and all their other chores.

I really hope this is TIC.

Because I can throw together some brown rice, browned ground turkey and garlic broccoli as fast and easily as I can make some ramen.

Cooking healthfully doesn't have to be complicated.

:::shoves another bite of salad into mouth:::

[heyjude]

May 17, 2012 14:35:17 GMT -5 statlerwaldorf said:

CSAs aren't a very good option for poor people where I used to live. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, you don't have the money to pay the fee for the season ahead of time. There is a financial risk involved if the crops don't turn out. They don't accept food stamps. The pick up times are usually on evenings and weekends when a lot of the working poor are working. The pick up locations are all in more affluent areas where the majority of the poor do not live.

All CSAs run differently. The one we are in delivers to our door and we pay by the month.

[ringstrue]

May 17, 2012 14:41:08 GMT -5 emmybean said:

May 17, 2012 14:32:55 GMT -5 ringstrue said:

Whatevs, you know people love preparing food for the few hours they have between their day job, their night job, and all their other chores.

I really hope this is TIC.

Because I can throw together some brown rice, browned ground turkey and garlic broccoli as fast and easily as I can make some ramen.

Cooking healthfully doesn't have to be complicated.

:::shoves another bite of salad into mouth:::

And you never have a day when you say "eff it I'm too tired to cook - let's order out?" Ever?

Do you work 2 jobs? 7 days a week? i mean actual employment not housework as work

[heliocentric]

I heard this on NPR this morning and I'm glad someone posted it.

I disagree that cooking healthy foods that taste good is difficult. I don't disagree that even though it's not difficult doesn't mean people necessarily know how to do it. There is some skill involved, but it's not rocket science. If you can figure out the DVR you can certainly google a recipe or find a video demo on youtube.

Sure, there are days when you are too freaking tired or unmotivated to cook. That's not everyday and if it is, you have larger issues than just eating healthfully.

[emmybean]

May 17, 2012 14:54:37 GMT -5 ringstrue said:

May 17, 2012 14:41:08 GMT -5 emmybean said:

I really hope this is TIC.

Because I can throw together some brown rice, browned ground turkey and garlic broccoli as fast and easily as I can make some ramen.

Cooking healthfully doesn't have to be complicated.

:::shoves another bite of salad into mouth:::

And you never have a day when you say "eff it I'm too tired to cook - let's order out?" Ever?

Do you work 2 jobs? 7 days a week? i mean actual employment not housework as work

No. But I am a single parent.

And yes, once in a great while (once a month?) I do get pizza or something else. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

[Deleted]

i'm also not a big kale fan, and I've tried a few different ways of cooking it. However, my sister recently made a chicken and kale soup that she swears is delicious, so when she's on holidays next week (and cooking for me and the baby!) she is going to make it for us.

I don't think that healthy food is more expensive, and it doesn't have to be time consuming for those who know what they are doing. I think a huge problem is people lack basic cooking skills, partially because home-ec and all that stuff has been eliminated from most schools.

[karinothing]

I do think people make a lot of excuses for eaten unhealthy (lack of time/money being two of them). We grew up poor (as in get food from the food pantry poor). We never ate out and ate healthy meals cooked by my parents (my mom worked one job and my dad two). Today I work full time (and DH works full time plus). We have a baby. We still manage to cook every night (and healthy meals at that

I think for us it just came down to the fact that eating out was never an option. We had to cook each night because that was the only way we were going to eat.

[SuzanBAnthony]

Re: kale. I use it 2 ways. I throw it raw into smoothies, and I chop it up and toss it into soup (pretty much any soup recipe- I will add kale).

re, poor people eating well, totally agree about picking 2 out of 3 (tasty, fast, cheap).

We garden extensively, go to the farmers market, and got a CSA in the past. So we have an extensive supply of cheap organic produce. But it takes a looooooooooong time to sort through all that damn kale and pick off every juicy green caterpillar, rinse off the bug eggs, cut out the stems, etc. That is before you even start cooking it.

The only reason it happens is that I am a SAHM so I have some decent food prep time since I have the luxuy of either prepping dinner while the kids rest, or starting dinner prep at 3 or 4 pm, if needed. And on the days that we are out and about in the afternoon, we usually have something like peanut butter sandwiches and frozen peas for dinner

[Deleted]

CSAs in my area are not cheap.

That being said, if pete can slap together a healthy, delicious dinner in 30 minutes or so, so can everyone else. Yes, I taught him to cook but he's 10. It wasn't hard.

That boy can saute up some pork cutlets that would make baby jeebus cry.

Don't you wish your kid was awesome like mine, doncha!