Sunday, March 29, 2009

Healthy Eating for Tough Times

Let's try this again . . .

Well, this is my first post in a while and I have a really good excuse . . . like many folks out there I was layed off . . . wish it were laid vs. layed off. It helps to start with a joke. I was without a puter for a while and I just recently bought a MacBook. I feel all Carrie Bradshaw now.

Like many folks out there, I too am dealing with having less $$$ to spend on food but I still have the desire to eat healthy. So I have some tips:

- Eat more vegetarian meals. These can still be high protein. Mike Mahler is an excellent example of a vegan athlete. Check out mikemahler.com. Mike eats high protein but completely vegan. This can be done with some careful meal planning involved. Lentils are inexpensive and have both protein and fiber. I love white beans and kale. Also, tofu is usually less than $2.00 for a package. Fatfreevegan.com is a gold mine for great vegan recipes.

- Drink green smoothies. My local ethnic mart has cheap produce in the back of the store, such as apples and spinach. Greens don’t have to be expensive, parsley and cilantro are inexpensive nutrient dense greens. Take a handful of parsley, chop up a pear or two and blend it all together. Add water to make shake less thick.

-Organic canned tuna is one of the cheapest protein sources out there. Trader Joe’s offers the best deals on organic canned fish. I like to take canned tuna, some low-fat mayo and a handful of nutritional yeast flakes and process in a food processor and you’ve got yourself a good tuna salad. If you process it a bit longer, it becomes that high protein veggie dip I mentioned in a previous post.

Freeze it up . . .

Freeze whatever fresh produce you don’t use. Or puree leftover carrots and greens for a nice veggie soup or a sauce.

Freeze leftover wine (or wine you tried but weren’t that crazy about). Sure freezing will decrease the alcohol content but it can enhance a tomato sauce into a better tasting marinara.

Don't throw out left-over coffee but freeze it into cubes and add into protein shakes with cocoa powder for a nice mocha-like protein shake. You can also do this with green tea and blend that into a protein shake with a milk of your choice, some agave nectar and a scoop of vanilla protein powder and Argo Tea has nothing on you.

I heart a bargain . . .

Investigate in your neighborhood restaurant deals on off nights. I live in Lincoln Square where several eateries have happy hours offering half priced drinks and food. Some bars even have free buffets with drinks on certain nights.

Restaurants.com has some great deals. I treated my Dad to brunch once for about $5 at the lovely Murphy's Irish Bistro. How did I get so lucky? I paid $2.00 for a $25.00 gift certificate during one of their sales.

Go to a BYOB. A friend and I recently dined at the local Thai favorite, Roseded. We each brought our own bottles of wine. Our bill which included an appetizer and two entrees came to $20.00. Imagine how pricy that would be with the additional cost of a few glasses of wine!

Try Trader Joe's vitamins. My chiropractor let me in on a little secret. TJ purchases high quality vitamin brands but uses their own labels. I believe the food-based women's multi is more than likely Rainbow Light.

Shop Costco. I know I know. I just discovered Costco for the first time and it was a . . . whole new world. Enter cheesy Disney music. I bought a bunch of wine, vodka and yes . . . food too, like fresh fish, organic turkey, and produce. I was really impressed.

One Last Tip

You can save a lot of money by simply eating less. I am not advocating anorexia but even Dr. Oz is behind caloric restriction. Yes, I did catch that Oprah show now that I'm unemployed. How you go about it is up to you. You could eat less daily or fast one day a week. There are a bunch of great sites on the topic such as the IF blog (IF = Intermittent Fasting), leangains.com and eatstopeat.com.

In the next few weeks I will be revamping this blog into more of an exclusive "food allergy coping/advice" blog as I see that there is a real need for that. So I will be cleaning up my language a bit for some of the families out there that might be looking at it. I'm sure I'll find another outlet for my angst. I will keep you all posted.

Cheap Healthy Eats for Touch Times