Time and money are the most common obstacles that stand in the way of people eating healthy. What you eat is so important to your health. It can be the difference between living a happy vibrant life and dealing with imbalance after imbalance. It is important to avoid processed foods and eat the highest quality food you can find. Your well being is so important to your quality of life, and by choosing to spend money now on organic, nutrient-dense foods, you may end up saving tens of thousands of dollars down the line in what you won’t be spending on medical costs.
Organic foods and ingredients are now more affordable than ever, since so many more stores are carrying them. You may end up money ahead because you won’t be spending money on processed foods and drinks, and other unhealthy items. Once you’ve gotten used to this way of shopping, cooking, and eating, you’ll find more of your own money and time saving strategies. Here are some ideas to get you quickly and easily eating healthy.
Make a List and Try to Do Your Grocery Shopping All at Once
You’ll save time by minimizing your trips to the store. Make a list of what you need according to how the foods are organized at your store. During the summer months, you may want to buy non-perishables at the grocery store or some place like Target or Costco. Get some vitamin D and make a trip to your local farmers market for perishables. While you’re there, ask the vendors about their favorite way to eat their produce. They may even have recipe recommendations! You’ll feel great about supporting local farmers and eating healthy.
If you are using dairy, often the best source is raw unpasteurized milk and the butter made with it. In most markets, the vendors aren’t allowed to even have it on-sight for distribution. If you’re interested, consider asking another shopper who just bought locally raised meat if they also know a source for raw milk. It’s often the same farm that does both.
Double Your Recipes and Use Multi-Purpose Ingredients
Especially if there was a sale on an item, cook twice the amount of a food that you need for one recipe and use the rest later for another recipe. Or freeze some and use it for another day. This could work well for meats and roasted vegetables. For example, you could top a salad with chicken and later make a chicken soup. Or have roasted vegetables with a dip and later as a side. Spinach can be used in a smoothie or as the base for a healthy salad.
Consider a Designated “Prep Day”
Depending on your schedule, you may find it saves time and is easier to do all the prep work at once. You could soak any legumes, nuts, or grains you plan to cook overnight. And then on prep day, you do things like make slow cook a meat, make a stock, roast some vegetables, cook grains/beans, and rinse fruits and other vegetables. This will make eating healthy easy because you will quickly able to put together a cooked at home soup, stir-fry, or sandwich.
Look for Weekly Deals and Buy in Bulk
Most stores have weekly flyers, so save some time and money and plan your buying strategy. Some towns also have co-ops with better pricing for larger quantities and/or pre-orders. If you don’t have a large family, you may need to find a healthy eating buddy to utilize this strategy. Heck – I even like to have a shopping buddy at Costco so that food does not go bad or sit on my shelves for too long.
Another approach available in some communities is a Community-Supported Agriculture subscription. This allows you to buy direct from growers on a subscription basis. Again, depending on the size of your family and the subscriptions available, you may need a healthy eating buddy.
Shop Based on the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen Lists
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has a list of the 12 most pesticide laden foods. https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php If you can’t afford to buy all organic produce, these are the 12 foods that contain the most pesticides that you should definitely try to buy organic or from a local grower who can tell your how their produce was grown. Conversely, the EWG also has a list of the top foods that use minimal chemicals when growing. So you can feel OK about buying or consuming these when they are not organic. https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/clean-fifteen.php
For meats, there is really no way around buying organic because the high production practices used in conventional farming are quite horrid. The antibiotics and hormones used to bring meats to market as quickly as possible have harmed people and the environment.
Minimize Waste
Minimize waste by doing things like using leftovers in new dishes, throwing veggie scraps and chicken bones into a freezer bag to make a stock, and composting even things like tea bags. Wilted vegetables may still be good in a smoothie. If you don’t have a chicken and/or pig, find someone who does who can use your scraps as feed. You can also minimize waste by labeling perishables with dates and rotating pantry items so you use up older food first to prevent spoilage and rancidity. Doing these things will help maximize your investment in eating healthy, plus you will be spreading all that goodness to other creatures that will also benefit.
Contact your local extension office for more ideas on reducing waste in the kitchen. They often have classes and people to talk to about preserving foods, composting, and gardening.
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