Upper Valley Healthy Eating Active Living Partnership
Co-op Corner: Shopping Smart and Eating Well
Information presented here provided as a community service from the Hanover Coop.. Author: Mary Saucier Choate, M.S., R.D., L.D, Co-op Dietitian and Food and Nutrition Educator
Eating healthier does not have to cost more—really! This may fly in the face of what lots of people seem to think, but those eating a plant-rich diet know differently.
Omnivores with plant-rich diets, vegetarians, and vegans realize—and USDA research confirms—that you can eat a nutritious diet “on the cheap.” A family of four can eat well on $168 per week according to the latest USDA estimates (www.bls.gov/cex/csxreport.htm#annual).
In 2007, the average four-person household spent $189.00 per week on food, so why the concern that healthful foods are budget breakers?
The answer might be found by looking at the differences between the average grocery list and the USDA’s Low-Cost Food Plan. (www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/FoodPlans/MiscPubs/FoodPlansRecipeBook.pdf). The healthful low-cost plan contains fewer sweets and less sugar, along with more fruits, vegetables, and milk products than the average household consumes.
Compare your buying habits with the tips below to see how you might make a difference in your food budget.
Snack Swap
Swap processed snacks for fruits, veggies, whole grains and dairy. Consider these tradeoffs:
Instead of spending about $2.25 for chips and a soda, a salty, sugary, and fatty snack choice…
Have one or two of these:
• A 1-cup size crisp local apple (64 cents) or a sweet 8-inch banana (45 cents) either of these fulfills half of your daily recommended fruit servings.
• Choosing a container of yogurt (80 cents) provides important calcium.
• Sugar snap peas (85 cents for a one-cup serving) provides nearly half of your recommended 2½ cups of vegetables for the day.
• Five whole grain crackers and 2 tablespoons of hummus will cost you only 90 cents, fill you up with fiber protein and important nutrients and get some of those all-important legumes into your diet.
Dump Your Drink
Switch soda, bottled tea, or bottled water to tap water or tea made with your own teabag:
If you make the minimal investment in an easy-to-clean travel mug for water, you can save a dollar or more each time you fill it up rather than purchasing bottled water in a plastic bottle. Tap water is virtually free; a 20-ounce bottled water costs 99-cents to $1.39 or more.
If you prefer a flavored beverage- making your own cup of tea is the smartest way to save from 80 to 99 percent over buying a bottled tea, since a tea bag costs only 6 cents to 26 cents a bag while a 16-ounce bottled tea costs $1.29- $1.99 or more.
Are you trying to wean yourself off of soda? That’s a money-saver. A 20-ounce soda costs $1.39 and provides you with 240 calories and 16 teaspoons of sugar. Instead, try a homemade juice sparkler. Mix one half cup 100% juice (orange or grape works well) with 12-ounces of plain or flavored seltzer. This refreshing mix costs less than 50 cents, contains fewer than 80 calories and provides one–half cup of fruit towards the two cups recommended each day.
Eat in
You don’t have to make bread from scratch or culture your own yogurt to save money on food (although those are excellent ways to save), but making your meal from “semi-scratch” can save you a bundle.
A restaurant burrito will set you back five to seven dollars, while you can make eight homemade burritos (tortilla, canned beans, cheese, spices) for under seven dollars.
You can go out for an oily, cheese-heavy pizza at $12-14 or you can just as quickly make one with a pre-made shell, jarred sauce, lots of veggies and the right amount of shredded cheese for fewer than five dollars.
Move Meat to the Sidelines
Think of meat—one of the most expensive items in your grocery basket—as an ingredient, not the main feature of the meal, and “beef up” these dishes with healthy vegetables!
These proteins will require additional items to complete the meal and a modest portion size.
Consider the savings when you move the animal protein to a “contributing” instead of “starring” role: (from the USDA Recipe Finder database)
A six serving pot of Beef Stew costs $8.91 ($1.49 per serving). To serve six people a modest four–ounce portion of an inexpensive cut of steak ($6.59/lb.) would cost nearly $10 before you even add in the rest of the meal items.
Two pounds of boneless chicken breast costs eight dollars and will yield 8 four-ounce portions (before cooking). Add in the costs of a side vegetable and starch and you can see why a recipe such as Chicken and Broccoli Bake casserole is a better choice. The casserole contains the rice and vegetable for a complete meal for eight for $8.09 ($1.01 per serving).
The stew and casserole provide protein along with some of the vegetable servings needed for good health, at a cost that is hard to beat.
Do You Want to Find Money-Saving Recipes Easily?
Try the USDA Recipe Finder database: http://recipefinder.nal.usda.gov.
Search by the main ingredient you have on hand or by cost, menu item (soup, side dish, main dish, etc.), audience (older adults, parents of young children, Hispanic, etc.), cooking equipment needed, and cooking/preparation time. You can electronically print out a shopping list for the recipes you select. Nutrition information is included for each recipe and, my favorite part, the price for the entire recipe and per serving! To update the 2001 cost information, use this inflation calculator: http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm.
Add up the savings and join the ranks of savvy, healthy, penny–pinching food shoppers!
Tags:
Eating healthier does not have to cost more—really! This may fly in the face of what lots of people seem to think, but those eating a plant-rich diet know differently.
Omnivores with plant-rich diets, vegetarians, and vegans realize—and USDA research confirms—that you can eat a nutritious diet “on the cheap.” A family of four can eat well on $168 per week according to the latest USDA estimates (www.bls.gov/cex/csxreport.htm#annual).
In 2007, the average four-person household spent $189.00 per week on food, so why the concern that healthful foods are budget breakers?
The answer might be found by looking at the differences between the average grocery list and the USDA’s Low-Cost Food Plan. (www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/FoodPlans/MiscPubs/FoodPlansRecipeBook.pdf). The healthful low-cost plan contains fewer sweets and less sugar, along with more fruits, vegetables, and milk products than the average household consumes.
Compare your buying habits with the tips below to see how you might make a difference in your food budget.
Snack Swap
Swap processed snacks for fruits, veggies, whole grains and dairy. Consider these tradeoffs:
Instead of spending about $2.25 for chips and a soda, a salty, sugary, and fatty snack choice…
Have one or two of these:
• A 1-cup size crisp local apple (64 cents) or a sweet 8-inch banana (45 cents) either of these fulfills half of your daily recommended fruit servings.
• Choosing a container of yogurt (80 cents) provides important calcium.
• Sugar snap peas (85 cents for a one-cup serving) provides nearly half of your recommended 2½ cups of vegetables for the day.
• Five whole grain crackers and 2 tablespoons of hummus will cost you only 90 cents, fill you up with fiber protein and important nutrients and get some of those all-important legumes into your diet.
Dump Your Drink
Switch soda, bottled tea, or bottled water to tap water or tea made with your own teabag:
If you make the minimal investment in an easy-to-clean travel mug for water, you can save a dollar or more each time you fill it up rather than purchasing bottled water in a plastic bottle. Tap water is virtually free; a 20-ounce bottled water costs 99-cents to $1.39 or more.
If you prefer a flavored beverage- making your own cup of tea is the smartest way to save from 80 to 99 percent over buying a bottled tea, since a tea bag costs only 6 cents to 26 cents a bag while a 16-ounce bottled tea costs $1.29- $1.99 or more.
Are you trying to wean yourself off of soda? That’s a money-saver. A 20-ounce soda costs $1.39 and provides you with 240 calories and 16 teaspoons of sugar. Instead, try a homemade juice sparkler. Mix one half cup 100% juice (orange or grape works well) with 12-ounces of plain or flavored seltzer. This refreshing mix costs less than 50 cents, contains fewer than 80 calories and provides one–half cup of fruit towards the two cups recommended each day.
Eat in
You don’t have to make bread from scratch or culture your own yogurt to save money on food (although those are excellent ways to save), but making your meal from “semi-scratch” can save you a bundle.
A restaurant burrito will set you back five to seven dollars, while you can make eight homemade burritos (tortilla, canned beans, cheese, spices) for under seven dollars.
You can go out for an oily, cheese-heavy pizza at $12-14 or you can just as quickly make one with a pre-made shell, jarred sauce, lots of veggies and the right amount of shredded cheese for fewer than five dollars.
Move Meat to the Sidelines
Think of meat—one of the most expensive items in your grocery basket—as an ingredient, not the main feature of the meal, and “beef up” these dishes with healthy vegetables!
These proteins will require additional items to complete the meal and a modest portion size.
Consider the savings when you move the animal protein to a “contributing” instead of “starring” role: (from the USDA Recipe Finder database)
A six serving pot of Beef Stew costs $8.91 ($1.49 per serving). To serve six people a modest four–ounce portion of an inexpensive cut of steak ($6.59/lb.) would cost nearly $10 before you even add in the rest of the meal items.
Two pounds of boneless chicken breast costs eight dollars and will yield 8 four-ounce portions (before cooking). Add in the costs of a side vegetable and starch and you can see why a recipe such as Chicken and Broccoli Bake casserole is a better choice. The casserole contains the rice and vegetable for a complete meal for eight for $8.09 ($1.01 per serving).
The stew and casserole provide protein along with some of the vegetable servings needed for good health, at a cost that is hard to beat.
Do You Want to Find Money-Saving Recipes Easily?
Try the USDA Recipe Finder database: http://recipefinder.nal.usda.gov.
Search by the main ingredient you have on hand or by cost, menu item (soup, side dish, main dish, etc.), audience (older adults, parents of young children, Hispanic, etc.), cooking equipment needed, and cooking/preparation time. You can electronically print out a shopping list for the recipes you select. Nutrition information is included for each recipe and, my favorite part, the price for the entire recipe and per serving! To update the 2001 cost information, use this inflation calculator: http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm.
Add up the savings and join the ranks of savvy, healthy, penny–pinching food shoppers!
Tags:
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