Grocery shopping that’s cheap and healthy

Simple Green Frugal Co-op has an article full of tips for saving money on groceries (and actually eating healthier at the same time). It’s easy to cut your bill by eating cheap foods, but eating like that for long is really not good for your health. And when I say “health” I don’t just mean weight, the one aspect of health most people focus on way too much. Cheap processed foods don’t contain the nutrients we need, and without the right fuel, your engine doesn’t run properly – no matter how good the car may look on the outside.

Perhaps not every tip in the above article will work for every person, but there’s something in it for everybody. For example, Week One’s rule 3 doesn’t quite work for me: veggies, fruits and cheeses are insanely expensive where I live, and lately I’m having a really tough time finding produce of good quality. But I limit my pre-packaged snacks to a few well-researched choices from Trader Joe’s and an organic microwave popcorn I like (ingredients: popcorn, salt)  and intersperse them with snacks of apples, cheese, olives, pickles, etc. So I don’t practice exactly what the article recommends, but the moderated version I use helps me keep down costs and still keep my snacking reasonably healthy (at the very least, it’s much better than it was a few years ago).

And it got me thinking of a discovery I’ve made recently: relatively healthy TV dinners/pre-cooked meals. When you work full-time, it’s really challenging to cook a healthy meal every single day. Especially when things happen: sick kids have to be picked up from school and run to doctors and pharmacies and then taken care of at home, cars break down, work runs late, there’s an accident on the road that doubles your commute. When these things happen, it’s nice to have a better alternative than ordering pizza or picking up McDonald’s. Please note: these meals tend to be high on sodium. Salt isn’t really unhealthy for most of us (I actually need more salt than I get, because I have low blood pressure!), but if you pig out on salt for a while you’ll definitely start to feel sluggish and bloated.

Do your own homework

Unfortunately, you can’t just go to a health food store and assume that any TV dinner/pre-prepared meal they offer is low on weird additives and high on good, balanced nutrition. “Healthy” is sometimes a marketing ploy. Plus, there is no perfect diet. Some people thrive on carbs and low fat, while others do better with low carbs and higher fat content. You really have to read labels if you want to eat what’s healthy for your body.

And TV dinners by health food companies are not cheap. But if you’re willing to spend a few bucks to give yourself a healthy, convenient alternative to cooking now and then, they don’t make that big a dent in your grocery budget. Plus, there are ways you can make these meals go further: add rice, bread or corn chips and salsa, add some leftover veggies, add a bowl of soup from a can.

Some good brands

• Amy’s Kitchen. Amy’s Kitchen promises organic stuff, and it’s all vegetarian. The selection is wide, and the taste of it is very fresh and good. You can find Amy’s at many grocery stores as well as health food stores. If you have allergies or special dietary needs of any sort (no soy for me, please!), Amy’s has a super-handy page telling you which products you can enjoy.  Amy’s also makes a great line of canned soups you can add to any meal to make it go further.
• Ethnic Gourmet. These are not all-organic, but they’re very low on preservatives – in fact, most dinners don’t have anything resembling a preservative, and those that do have it way down on the list (meaning we’re talking very small quantities). These meals are very complete and rather well-balanced. At their website, you can read the full nutritional information for every meal.

And just because a frozen dinner isn’t marketed as “organic” or “healthy” doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat it. Marie Callendar’s makes some rather well-balanced meals – they’re not organic and they’re full of preservatives, but the nutritional balance is pretty good, and the food tastes surprisingly fresh.

What are some of your frozen dinner finds?

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Posted in Frugal on January 12, 2009