Healthy recipes on a college-kid budget
Eating healthy can be expensive — especially for someone on a student’s budget. Whole Foods charges $5.99 by the pound for health-conscious fare to go. But a pound of food, while big on paper, looks a little smaller in takeout containers. Even if, in addition to eating healthy, you’re also eating small portions, nine dollars a meal adds up to around $30 a day. By the end of the quarter, not only do you have three exams and two papers, you’ve racked up a $2,500 food bill. All in the name of health, of course. Still, at $2,500, you might as well be eating in a dining hall.
But here’s the thing. There’s only so much stir-fry a body can eat. There’s a better way: a healthy, cheap way to eat that also tastes good. It’s possible — even easy — to eat healthy for under a hundred dollars a week.
Most of the tips floating around have merit. The darker the green, the richer the vitamins. Lentils or beans and rice make a complete protein. And a lot of healthy eating comes down to portion control. Just because something is ‘healthy’ does not mean eating four servings is an acceptable approach.
All costs are estimated by prices from the Evanston Jewel-Osco. The costs per recipe are for all servings, so they’re cheaper for just one!
Pantry Basics
One of the ways to make preparing healthy, low-cost meals easy is to stock a simple and effective pantry. With just these few ingredients, you can make flavorful marinades, dressings, and seasonings. Granted, that first shop might be a little steep and, perhaps, shocking, but it’ll be worth it and the ingredients will last about a month.
- Olive Oil
- Balsamic Vinegar
- Soy Sauce
- Honey
- Butter
- Salt
- Pepper
- Dried Oregano, Rosemary, and other spices
- Garlic
Cost: $32.42
The Recipes
Here are some simple recipes that are healthy, satisfying, and cheap! With just basic pantry and cooking staples, it’s easy to stay under the $1,683 per quarter base dining hall meal plan. So by the time it’s finals and you’re really in need of a quick meal, you’ve got cash — and calories — to spare.
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Now that you're in the cooking spirit, make some classy burgers. Or you can return home.
eating for under $100 per week is not cheap…
you might as well eat out every meal if you’re gonna spend $100!
you could literally eat 14 chipotle burritos for $98, which are healthy if you go vegetarian sometimes, and lay off the cheese/sour cream/guac.
this is ridiculous and clearly written by someone who has mommy and daddy’s credit card.
healthy eater
October 26, 2009 at 2:14 pm
@ heathy eater
i think the point of the article is to say that if you’re not on a meal plan you can still buy food on the cheap and make it into well-crafted, healthy fare. when it comes to eating healthy, there are not a ton of truly cheap, truly healthy avenues, so yeah sometimes it pays a bit more to go out to whole foods and buy a salmon steak for $8. eating healthy is a luxury in america. ever notice how many less well-off people shop for doritos and “liter-a-cola.” to be able to shop healthy with an eye towards frugality is something that isn’t apparent until you blow a ton of money one quarter at whole foods. if anything, this article could be seen as a way to still shop and spend money but not get totally SKREWD by Whole Foods Evanston North.
Dope
October 26, 2009 at 6:11 pm
You don’t have to waste a ton of money at whole foods to eat healthy food. Just go to Jewel and buy lots of vegetables and things. And yeah, $100 bucks a week is a TON, even for a guy who eats a lot…
Adam
October 30, 2009 at 12:21 am
i spend ~$30 a week lolz
yeah
November 3, 2009 at 7:29 pm