Quick, Cheap & HEALTHY

I honestly go back and forth on how I want to eat healthy and what that means. Sometimes I want all natural ingredients - only things you can read. But, I think you have to be practical too. Sometimes it's a big struggle to buy affordable food that's quick and easy to eat but ALSO healthy. I'll be honest, I do A LOT of label reading and sometimes my shopping trips take a little longer now, but I end up eating healthier at a good price and I've been able to find food to make quick meals or snacks. I thought I'd share a few tips from my last grocery store run.

Everything I bought:

I bought chopped, frozen onions. Fruits and vegetables like this that don't have any added ingredients are healthy, cheap and last a long time because they'll live in your freezer. The same is true of canned fruits and vegetables - I just happen to prefer the taste of frozen over canned when it comes to my veggies. I love this because it makes the prep faster and I don't ever end up with a partially wasted onion.

A friend gave me a tip that if you freeze spinach, or in this case buy frozen, cut spinach (I prefer when the only ingredient is spinach - no preservatives or anything else), it's easier to add to smoothies if that's something you like. I'm not a salad person so the only reason I really buy spinach is to add it to my smoothies - and when I do that, it seems like the bag always goes bad before I can finish it. This is an easy solution and is again cheap. I think the bag was $1.

I try to find quick, easy, HEALTHY snacks. These are some of my favorite. Nuts - I prefer cashews but whatever you prefer is fine. I try to buy in bulk from the bins so I can get them without additives. I also avoid peanuts because after I did Whole 30 and couldn't eat them (since they're technically a legume), I try to avoid them. But I'm not trying to claim that they're bad for you. Applesauce - No, I'm not a child, but it's a classic treat. Obviously a fresh apple would also be a good choice, but a fresh apple won't stay fresh that long. I also buy unsweetened apple sauce and look again for one that has as few additives as possible. Fruit leather - sometimes you just really need something sweet. Having a snack like fruit leathers around is a good way to satisfy that sweet craving with a healthy choice. Fruits are naturally high in sugar, so look for one without any added sugar, and again with as few preservatives/additives as possible. The one pictured here uses lemon juice as a preservative. 

Happy shopping!