Are you tired of spending your entire paycheck on food?

10 ways to eat, cheap and healthy.

If you’re like me, and most of the country right now, you are sick and tired of the high food prices. It’s not just the food prices as price increases everywhere! It can be extremely frustrating when you have to choose between getting food for your family or putting gas in your car. Not to mention cost for utilities and basic living. Going out to eat is slowly becoming a thing of the past. People everywhere are struggling to survive asking is getting harder and harder.

How are we supposed to be happy and healthy if we are worrying what to feed our family? A lot of the fast and easy meals out there are good for us at all. And if you only focus on fast and easy meals, it is very easy to get sucked into lots of salt and saturated fat. A diet like this can cause tons of health problems. Not to mention a diet like this can make you feel sluggish, depressed, and moody. Weight gain, and severe bloat Will also far follow a diet that is consumed with salts and saturated fats. This intern will affect your sleep, and your ability to stabilize your moods. It can also severely affect your ability to fight off infections and deal with every day stressors.

So what is the alternative? Of course a diet with fresh fruits and vegetables and organic meats is the way to go. But who can afford all of that now? Who can afford to eat fresh every single day? Who has the time to prep meals for their family every single day to? With the vast majority of the population, having a home with two incomes, that leaves barely any time to cook or prepare foods.

You may think that you have no choice in the matter and just deal with packaged, frozen or drive-through meals just to get through the day to the next day. Even if you’ve tried to get your family on healthy meals, they may have pushed back and giving you grief. You may have slowly gone back to the unhealthy eating just out of convenience and the price. I mean who can blame you? All of us are so busy all of the time. We have 1 million different places to go in 1 million different Things to do. So many people don’t sit still and when they do sit still, they stare blankly at their phone because they are so maxed out on stress. Everyone is trying so hard to survive these days and it feels like none of us can catch a break. We are exhausted, worn out, depressed, and just about to give up. We barely have money to stay afloat, and the Food budget tends to get pushed to the end of our thoughts.

Spending so much on groceries can also be aggravating when you see the fruits and vegetables rotting in your fridge. You go out of your way to buy healthy things once in a while, and it just gets wasted. This aggravation doesn’t help anything. In fact, it adds to the stress and mental exhaustion.

So what is the solution? How can you take care of your family and keep your mental sanity?

How can you feed your family, healthy, quickly, and cheaply?

The answer is actually easier than you think.

It isn’t completely changing your entire diet.

It isn’t switching over your entire fridge to vegan.

It isn’t even going on a huge grocery hall and buying nothing but vegetables.

The key to eating, healthy and cheaply is actually making minor adjustments.  If you make a dramatic change with your in yourself, or within your entire family, that is a recipe for disaster and failure. It is much harder for your brain and body to adapt to a sudden dramatic change than it is to adapt to small improvements.

What do you want to do is start but slowly adjusting the way you prepare your quick meals by adding healthier options to them. Once your pallet starts to be able to change, you can slowly add more and more healthy versions to your diet. It will take a lot of time to adjust, so try not to be too hard on yourself by forcing a sudden change.

Here are 10 ways you can start eating healthier and cheaper fast.

1. Rotisserie chickens

Rotisserie chickens are an excellent way to eat healthier and fast. There is no need to rush home and cook chicken because it’s already hot when you pick it up! Plus some stores sell their rotisserie chickens cheaper in the evening they should have them chilled and ready to use.

You can use a rotisserie chicken for so many meals. Not having to cook the meat is a massive timesaver. You can use it for so many meals like:

Chicken and bacon wraps

Taco wraps

Chicken and potato and vegetable

A quick soup

Chicken and butter noodles with broccoli

Cheesy chicken and rice

Chicken tacos

Chicken nachos

Chicken and vegetable omelettes

Chicken salads

Chicken salad sandwiches

Chicken subs

And after you’re done with your rotisserie chicken, do not throw the carcass away! Make sure you put the carcass in a big pot of water and simmer for 3 to 4 hours. I always add an onion and some garlic to the water as well. This is excellent bone broth!

2. Bone broth

Bone broth is packed with protein along with a lot of essential vitamins and minerals. Bone broth is one of the easiest ways to add extra nutrients to your food without anyone noticing. The bone broth also adds a lot of flavor to the food as well. Use bone broth when making fast dishes like:

Spaghetti-Boil noodles in bone broth instead of water

Rice-Swap water for bone broth when making

Vegetables-Cook vegetables in bone broth instead of water or oil

Chicken-Cook Chicken in bone broth instead of oil or water

1. Smoothies

Smoothies are an excellent way to hide vegetables and protein. If you are in a hurry, and just want to make something quick like grilled cheese, you can add a smoothie for extra nutrients! You don’t have to feel guilty for quickly making grilled cheeses when you have a vitamin packed smoothie to go along with it.

Smoothies are also amazing for on the go meals. You can pre-make your smoothies and freeze them into ice cubes as well! This makes for an easy meal in the morning. Just blend with milk or juice.

I recommend a base of bananas or strawberries. You can use any fruit but I have found that bananas and strawberries are usually a great base.

Simply add a protein, like a few chickpeas, almond powder, peanut butter, or cashews.

Throw in some vegetables, like cauliflower, squash, carrots, or spinach. You don’t have to add many just a few pieces.

Finish it off with some yogurt and milk or juice. Blend until smooth and you can also add a few sprinkles, Cool Whip, or chocolate chips!

1. Spaghetti

Spaghetti is actually really cheap and can be very beneficial to your family. It is really fast to make and the sauce has tons of nutrients in it. You can cook the noodles with bone broth for extra flavor and protein. Start off with half bone broth and half water until your family gets used to the different flavor.

If your family is sick or you want even more nutrients, add a half of an onion and a few garlic cloves to the sauce while boiling. Once the onions and garlic are soft, blend it all in a blender. You’ll have an excellent source of vitamin C, and a lot of other essential nutrients.

1. Nachos

My family always loves nachos. They are a super quick meal and very easy to make. You can ground beef ahead of time and freeze it. Or you can use a rotisserie chicken for this. I find it easy to chop up a bunch of vegetables and lettuce and let the kids make their own.

You can add sour cream and cheddar, cheese, or salsa as a topping as well. This meal is really cheap to make, fast and you don’t have to sacrifice nutrients.

1. Soups

Soups are great because you can put them in the crockpot and leave and they will be done when you get home. Soups also slow cook vegetables and ingredients so that all of the nutrients are incorporated together. There are so many soups out there, and so many delicious options! Don’t forget to use bone broth.

1. Quesadillas

Quesadillas are a staple in my household. All it takes is a tortilla and any leftovers you have in the fridge mix with cheese. We make ours in the toaster oven, on the George Foreman grill, or on the stove. My kids have even made a quick quesadilla in the microwave on the way out the door.

Any leftover meat with a few vegetables and cheese works great!

If the kids are picky about vegetables, you can make some pizza quesadillas. Just spread some leftover or canned pizza sauce on a folded tortilla and add in cheese and pepperoni, or any toppings you’d like. Grill and serve!

Quesadillas are great for a quick meal, snack, or main dish. You can dip and sour cream, salsa and guacamole as well.

1. Breakfast for dinner

Breakfast for dinner is a really fun way to make dinner without sacrificing healthy food and time. You can make a batch of scrambled eggs and bacon and you’re good to go add a few pieces of spinach or any other vegetable to your eggs before serving. You can even make French toast very quickly.

If the kids are squeamish about adding vegetables to the eggs, Just add them to a smoothie instead.

1. Pre-make food

When you pre-make food, you have a lot of options at your fingertips to heat up quickly. But please don’t spend an entire weekend pre-making meals for the week. This will drive you crazy! Instead make more than what you need when you cook and then freeze the rest. Freeze your leftovers instead of leaving them in the fridge to go bad this ensures that you have meals ready to go very quickly.

1. Make a menu

Make a menu for the week or the entire month. This ensures that you were only buying the food that you need. You would be so surprised at how much you’re spending on extra things that you don’t even need.

Make it easy for yourself by assigning days to a certain theme. For example, Mondays can be sandwich days, Tuesdays can be Mexican, Wednesdays can be soups, Thursdays can be Italian, Fridays can be chicken, and the Weeknd can be leftovers and take out.

I hope that I helped you with your food budget in this blog. Nobody should feel like they have to choose between feeding their family and paying their bills!

And no one should have to sacrifice healthy foods for their family.

It’s time to start thriving instead of just surviving!