budgeteating

Breakfast: Homemade blackberry muffins, juice

Lunch: Scrambled free range eggs with cheese, celery, canned fruit, organic milk

Dinner: Grilled grass fed beef burgers, homemade vegan chili, japanese field green salad

Did you know that adding oatmeal to your diet can singlehandedly lower your cholesterol? With a healthy dose of fiber and an even healthier price, oatmeal is the gold standard of budget-, earth-, and waistline-friendly foods. This chameleon of grains can be added by the handful to everything from cookies to meatloaf, but it really shines as a wholesome, frugal breakfast.

Breakfast Oatmeal, made with standard, non-instant oatmeal.

1. In a pot, boil one cup of water and a pinch of salt.
2. Add one cup of oatmeal and stir well.
3. Bring back to a boil, then cover the pot and turn off heat.
4. Let sit for five minutes, then serve.

This makes one generous serving, but you can multiply as needed for your family.

Oatmeal in itself is not a particularly exciting food, but you can make it more palatable by adding a splash of milk and one of the following mix-ins:

• chopped apples and cinnamon
• blueberries
• sliced bananas
• one spoonful each peanut butter and jelly
• honey
• any jams or fruits

Here are a few healthy foods that are almost always under a dollar a pound.

• Potatoes
• Brown rice
• Pasta
• Oatmeal
• Barley
• Beans
• Lentils
• Onions 
• Garlic
• Carrots
• Celery
• Apples (on sale)
• Bananas
• Sometimes, chicken legs or thighs

How am I going to make a meal out of that? Here’s an easy and healthy recipe for chicken soup that will feed a large crew for just a  few dollars.

Chicken Brown Rice Soup

1. Early in the day, place one pound of chicken (bone-in), plus a few handfuls of chopped onions, garlic, celery, and/or carrots in a pot. Cover with water and simmer. I recommend a crockpot for this.

2. Three to four hours later, strain the soup through a colander or strainer into a large pot. Reserve the broth. Pick out the chicken meat and add to the pot of broth. Allow to cool.

3. As it cools, the fat in the soup will rise to the surface and solidify. R emove the fat with a spoon and return the pot to the stove. Warm on medium heat.

4. Add another handful or two of chopped veggies, plus a handful or two of brown rice. Simmer until the rice is cooked, about 30 minutes.

This feeds my large family for less than a dollar a serving, and it has all the elements of a healthy meal: lean protein, veggies, and whole grains. Take that, dollar menu!

I recently read in a major news magazine that America’s children are overweight because their parents cannot afford healthy, high quality food. Parents all over the country heaved a sigh of relief; it’s not my fault, it’s this darn economy. Junior can keep one hand on the cable remote and the other in a bag of Cheetos, and parents can blame the Congress or Big Oil when they have to special order his clothes.

I don’t believe this magazine did anyone a service by perpetuating the lie that poor=fat. True, there is definitely a correlation, as anyone who has walked or waddled the aisles at Wal-Mart can tell you. But consider: there was a time when being fat was a status symbol, because the poor couldn’t afford enough food to cover their calorie usage. If you can’t afford food, you are bound to lose weight, plain and simple.

Weight is a numbers game. The more calories you eat, the more calories your body can convert to fat. Think of it like money, except you want to be making withdrawals from savings. It doesn’t matter if you get your money from a brokerage or a McDonald’s paycheck, whether you spend it on a Ford or a Maserati. If you spend more than you earn, there will be a deficit. If your income exceeds your spending, you’ll have a surplus. Your body puts that surplus into a little nest egg otherwise known as a bedonkadonk butt.

You can exist solely on Cheetos and be thin. You can munch carrots and salmon all day and still not fit into your pre-baby jeans. It’s all about how many calories you take in versus how many you expend.

Here’s the catch: that thin person who lives on Cheetos still will not be healthy, and they actually will be spending more on groceries than a healthy eater. Most Americans really want a healthy lifestyle, but the media has convinced them that it’s too expensive, too time consuming, or otherwise out of their reach. That’s why I’m here. Like the trek our ancestors made across an untamed continent, this is a journey best taken in a group. I have a map, so let’s get started!

Processed food companies like Kraft and Dow are major advertising sponsors of the magazines that insist Americans can’t afford healthy food. Maybe that’s why the editors want you to believe four dollar a pound snack foods are somehow cheaper than dollar a pound carrots. Whatever their motivation, it’s time to stop listening and start educating ourselves.