Today’s episode is all about tips and tricks for eating healthy when you’re on a budget. My guest is Lisa Leake, author of the new book, 100 Days of Real Food on a Budget. (Read on for GIVEAWAY news!) Lisa is a mom, founder of the wildly successful blog, 100 Days of Real Food, and she’s here with all sorts of practical advice for cutting processed foods out of your diet and cooking up tasty recipes without breaking the bank. Wait until you hear Lisa’s story about her family’s diet makeover and her real world secrets for eating well when budgets are tight. Together, we share a few recipes from Lisa’s new book including, My Favorite Summer Salad, Zucchini Egg Scramble, and Oatmeal Cookie Energy Bites, which I’ve been snacking on all week.
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Start small with making changes. Clean up breakfast first, and then, go from there.
– Lisa Leak, 100 Days of Real Food
Cookbook Giveaway: Giveaway has ended
Enter for a chance to win a copy of 100 Days of Real Food on a Budget: Simple Tips and Tasty Recipes to help you CUT OUT PROCESSED FOOD Without Breaking the Bank by Lisa Leake. (This giveaway is U.S. only, please.) To enter, post a comment at the end of this post and tell me about YOUR best tip for eating healthy on a budget. Giveaway ends October 10, 2018 at noon EST. Good luck!
Check out Lisa’s recipe for Oatmeal Cookie Energy Bites.
Don’t let those expiration dates confuse you. And don’t throw food away before you read all about ’em.
Show Highlights:
- 100 Days of Real Food: The backstory!
- The subjectivity of the terms, “clean eating” and “real food,” which Lisa defines as foods with five or fewer whole ingredients.
- Lisa wrote the cookbook, in part, to combat the belief that …“it’s too expensive to eat a healthy diet!” and she stuck with a budget of $125/weekly for a family of four.
- Some of Lisa’s top tips for eating real food on a budget:
- Plan ahead with a menu
- Don’t toss leftovers, but be creative with them
- Understand expiration dates
- Utilize inexpensive foods and staples
- Identify your “nice to haves” vs. your “need to haves”
- A few favorites from the cookbook: Portobello Tartine, Chicken Burrito Bowls, and a terrific tomato/mozzarella salad.
- How she priced out the meals for the new cookbook
- Lisa’s meal plans available on her website. Prepear.
- My interview with Super Healthy Kids. We gave them a shoutout on the show.
- Using affordable eggs as a staple for your family. Don’t toss those yolks! The whole egg is nutritious.
- Lisa’s Oatmeal Cookie Energy Bites: a delicious blend of oats, peanut butter, raisins, maple syrup, and cinnamon.
- An important tip from Lisa: To manage portions, stop eating when you feel full!
- Find out where Lisa gets her recipe inspiration. And get my recipe for Parmesan Fish Sticks.
- Lisa’s biggest aha moment was when she added up meal plan costs and realized the budget could stay around $100/week for a family of four.
- What’s next for Lisa? Being more proactive about redesigning her online programs and school lunch programs.
- How YOU can get started: “Don’t be overwhelmed with big changes in cutting processed foods. Start small so you can stick with it like start and don’t give up.
[Tweet “TUNE IN to the Liz’s Healthy Table #podcast for my interview w/Lisa Leake, author of 100 Days of Real Food on a Budget. Learn how to cook wholesome foods for your family that won’t break the bank + enter for a chance to win Lisa’s book @100daysrealfood]
Links:
My email: [email protected]
- The Parents On Demand Network
Resources:
100 Days of Real Food on Facebook
100 Days of Real Food on Twitter
100 Days of Real Food on Instagram
Have a question about the show or a suggestion for a future show? Ask away by posting a comment below or joining my Podcast Posse.
Planning and preparation are key to my fam sticking on a budget!
I stock up on items when on sale. For instance, wild king salmon (not previously frozen), which has a short market, is on sale this week for $13 per pound. Savings of up to $17 per pound in our area. I will have them cut several 5 oz servings. When I get home I individually wrap and freeze. Dinner on a budget for several weeks 🙂
Wow – that is a HUGE savings! Thanks for sharing.
I loved listening to this episode on my way to work this morning as I have been thinking a lot about how much we spend on groceries and how we could cut back. My tip helps with the grocery and dining out budget. Whenever I’m making a freezer friendly recipe, I’ll double it, eat half then, and freeze the other half. When we’re coming home from work on a Friday and are tired from the week and out of food, we just heat one of our freezer meals instead of going out. I cant wait to make the oatmeal cookie energy bites with my toddler!
I love your tip. Thanks for sharing. Did you listen to my Freezer Cooking show yet? Fro last year 🙂
Choosing organic is my goal so I pick the organic options on sale that week to get variety as well!!
I plan my meals ahead of time, pull out my coupons and make my shopping list before going grocery shopping. If I don’t do this, I just buy what looks good or what I think I may use. A lot of times I end up throwing away food that went bad because I didn’t have a menu. Now I know I must always plan ahead!
Ditto!
Meatless Monday’s!
I use the grocery store app to shop the sales
Have cut up veggies in the fridge so the kids can just grab and eat. Otherwise, the same veggies just spoil in the fridge if mom doesn’t wash and cut them up.
I use to do this when my kids were young. Now as adults they all prefer fruits and vegetables as a snack or main dish; none of them like sweets or junk food! So thankful!
Lots of freezing of leftovers so we don’t waste food
Planning ahead & buying fruits & veggies in season that will taste better & be less likely to end up in the trash. 🙂
We join a CSA every year and try to eat fresh veg/fruit each day; and shred, chop and freeze some veggies that will store well that way. It also has us trying more variety of veg/fruit and foods we might not have otherwise purchased at the grocery store.
I’ve been following Lisa Leake’s blog for years. I have her first book already and would love to add her latest book to my cookbook collection. I’ve been trying to steer my family in the direction of Real Food for a while now, but it’s slow going. For both them and me. They still love their junk food, and I struggle because it’s so much easier to prepare. Real Food tends to take longer to make and I’m always short on time in the kitchen. But I keep trying! We’ll get there someday…
The best way for me to stick to my grocery budget is to Meal Plan. If I know ahead of time what I’m making for the week, I’ll only shop for those ingredients and can stick to my weekly budget. And I always shop from my pantry and freezer first. I try to make meals that use up my stock before I buy new stuff.
I try to plan and prepare and use sales the best that I can. I would love to win a copy of this book!
My tip is to have healthy food stocked and some healthy snacks already prepared so it is easier to make good choices!
Making enough of the core protein to split between multiple meals. Just pull it out of the fridge or freezer and put together the carb and veggie.
Reducing food waste. I have put our freezer to some better use in the last two years and that helps a lot. Also, making the best with the produce from our summer garden. I use the freezer for that too. But I would love to learn about canning. .
When making a meal plan for the coming week I write down all the food in my fridge and cupboards that need to be used. (i.e. a half used jar of tomato sauce). Then I plan meals that will use up those ingredients, ( like zucchini dippers and tomato sauce dip). crossing them off my list as I go. That way I minimize food waste and my grocery list!
Buying produce in season….or even better, getting together with friends to plant different foods in the gardens and share each other!
We shop at Aldi to save on everything–they have a large selection of Organic foods. Plus EVERYTHING in their store is non-GMO.
I’m an Aldi fan too!
Meal plans and re-usable containers for preparing food are the best ways to save money for us (I just wish I was better at following up on my plans!)
I always plan my meals and then make my shopping list. I’m not really brand loyal and shop at Aldi for the best prices!
I save small amounts of leftover meat and freeze until I have enough to make lettuce wraps. Pork or chicken seem to work best with the peanut sauce.
I like to use what I have such as subbing tomato sauce for an open marinara sauce in my refrigerator. Freeze something that might go bad like mozzarella cheese.
I grow many of my own veggies and greens to save money, plus they’re fresh and delicious.
To save money, I try to find ways to use up ingredients or recycle leftovers into something different from the original meal, like adding leftover asparagus to a frittata or using up leftover shredded cheese in a quesadilla.
My Trader Joe’s was flooded due to the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. It was my main grocery for purchasing healthy foods for my family of 5. Timely podcast! – as I had to go to Whole Foods this week instead. Agh! They don’t call it “whole paycheck” for nothing. I need to find a better way to shop and cook healthy on a budget while I wait for my Trader Joe’s to remodel!
I try to have a menu with Meatless mondays, mexican Tuesdays, pork Weds and so forth. I do really well with this
I plan ahead each week and take advantage of fresh produce on sale
And always have a meatless night
Cutting out meat (or using it only as a flavor enhancer) is my best tip for eating healthy on a budget. Beans, tofu & quinoa are good ways to add protein that are also inexpensive.
My best budget tip is to keep it simple. Roasted veggies are delicious. A bit of oil, salt and pepper. Nothing special needed. Grilled fish with simple seasoning.
Seasonal ingredients treated simply will pretty much always taste good and be budget friendly.
Plan your menu in advance
The best way to save money is to plan ahead for what you will be eating in the coming week. It takes time, but it pays off when you don’t have to think about what to cook for dinner or buy pizza or fast food.
I look at all the sales flyers online weekly to compare prices and use coupons on the best deals.
My tip for eating healthy on a budget is limit consumption of higher cost red meats and instead choose more plant proteins like beans, seeds, nuts which are less expensive.
Utilize leftovers! Sometimes I use a tip from my mom and make a different meal out of the previous night’s dinner.
A lot of healthy ingredients are actually budget friendly. Whole bulk grains and legumes for example, you just need to make time to cook them ? . I try to meal plan to make time
We meal plan each weekend around the grocery store sales to stay on a budget and utilize the bulk section of our Coop to save money and reduce food waste. The bulk section will let us buy small amounts of new things we are trying to avoid waste and small amounts of bulk spices and yeast are WAY cheaper than those in the jars and makes sure our spices are always fresh.
Soups are always a healthy way to go. Not only can you use almost any leftover in a soup but they are very economical to prepare. They also don’t require a lot of time and while the soup is simmering on the back burner or in the Instant Pot you can be doing something else. Many are freezer friendly too.
100 Days Of Real Food was a real eye opener for me on how easy it is to make delicious recipes with wholesome ingredients. Her next book sounds fantastic as well!
Our family (just like everyone else’s family) has very busy weeknights. I make a large dinner on Sunday and the kids eat it before their activity each day. I make lasagna, chicken and potatoes and other easy meals that are a breeze to heat up and serve.
I work hard to save money is other areas (paper products, laundry detergent, non-perishables, canned goods etc) so I can use my dollars to buy fresh, local produce. I keep a list of frequently purchased items and the lowest price I’ve seen it sell for at my local store. That’s my stock-up price. Otherwise I only buy the minimum quantities that I need until it hits its low point again when I can truly stock up.
I’m excited to listen to this podcast! Feeding my family of 4 can be pricey since my teen boy eats for 2 adult men! ? I use a lot of beans in things to stretch meals and buy meat in bulk when it’s on sale. Canned fish and chicken are a must have for me too! I also freeze any fruit that is starting to get old, but hasn’t went bad so we can repurpose into smoothies and such.
My tip is to not use a drive-thru. It is costing me BIG with my health! All the added things that they put in to make a person want to eat the fast food place’s “Frankenfood” will start hurting you before you even realize it. It disrupts your hormones, causes cravings, weight gain, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer.
I am loving getting healthy, easy to make at home recipes that my whole family enjoys and hopefully will completely reverse my health problems!
I shop my fridge before meal planning so I can plan my upcoming meals around what I need to use up. I have Lisa’s first two books and would love to win her third! What I find hardest about eating real food is the time it takes to meal plan, food prep and clean. We eat 90% of our meals at home and have dietary issues to work around too.
I take full advantage of the 10% store brand discount day offered once a month for those of us in the over 50 crowd. We also save little bits of vegetables and put them in the freezer. Once a week, I pull them out, put them in the Instant Pot with water, and make vegetable broth. I use the broth for cooking grains, beans, and making soup. The left over vegetables go into the compost pile for next year’s garden.
I cook nearly meatless for all meals, with the exception of wild salmon from an Alaskan share program. I cook beans from the dry form, which saves me money. I also use what I have in my kitchen instead of cooking from recipes, or use recipes for inspiration, but use the ingredients I have instead of buying everything that recipes call for. I also shop at grocery outlets that have bulk foods, which saves me a ton of money. Thanks for this opportunity to possibly win Lisa’s new book! It sounds awesome!
For healthy eating on a budget in our family, meal planning, shopping the sales and batch cooking are key!
What an incredible give away. My tips are to always plan ahead. I make my list and meal plan on saturdays for the week ahead. I also try to never go to the grocery store hungry. Finally, I try to plan my meals from my pantry and freezer first to use up what I have.
My best tip for eating healthy on a budget is to planning meals around the weekly sales and buying seasonal fruits and veggies! Thanks for the chance! Would so love this!
[email protected]
We shop the sales and I’ve been trying to shop more at Aldi. We do low carb dinners and I like some budget friendly recipes from the Diet Doctor. We also try to make sure we eat what we buy and the leftovers. Also I try to shop alone because my family will ask for unnecessary items that really add up.
To save money (and have some fun), we built raised beds to plant our very own garden this year. We had a great first growing season and it was awesome to see my kids pick fresh veg right in our own backyard! Getting to go out and pick what we wanted certainly helped cut down on food waste. I was able to preserve some of our summer bounty for this winter too! My other tips are to shop at farmer’s markets and buy frozen.
Sounds like some great planning tips!
We eat at home and try to use what we have. Not running to the store for an item or two helps, because whenever I go in for that item, I end up buying many more things I hadn’t intended to buy.
The best tip I have found to eat heathy in a budget is to plan and follow through. I often plan my meals with what I dkreafy have first and than implant what’s in sake to come up with delicious and clean meals. It’s amazing what you can do with a little imagination and planning. This was something I used to do out of necessity and now I do it to waste less and be more aware of how I’m using my resources. I also do it to show my three kids that you don’t have to eat fast food to eat fast and that cooking is very essential to life and it’s fun. Love this show it’s bevome my favorite Thanks for making it.
Meal planning!
My best tip, which I rarely follow myself unfortunately, is to shop my own pantry before buying things at the store.
I love that tip and I too “try” to follow it!!