Please, write your recommendations of low glycemic index and nutritious foods
Buy a bag of frozen vegetables - whatever you like. Chuck them in a wok if you’ve got it (if not, a pan is fine). Add oil, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and chilli to taste. Add some MSG if you’re comfortable with it. If you’re feeling real fancy you can chuck in some wholemeal noodles.
Stir fry until it’s done.
Works out at around a buck a serve.
Edit: canned chickpeas or other beans/legumes (or dried/re-hydrated ones), are good to add for some protein.
Canned vegetables r .50 in grocery stores & Dollar General, the latter should have carton of eggs,loaf whole wheat bread @ 1.25. Dollar Tree has eggs, bread, big bags of beans, massive bags of brown rice, 20oz oats
Eggs, lamb liver, milk. Goes without saying.
Whole chicken over buying breast, turn the leftover carcass into a broth for soups (full of b vitamins and collagen).
Vegetables. Fruit. Basic ones are all cheap.
Oats even high quality is still cheap.
Potatoes kind of cheap but it’s also not the best ratio of money to calorie.
Buy whole chickens to roast with veggies underneath. Eat some chicken and the veggies then pull the rest of the chicken or otherwise save the leftover meat. Then make stock from the carcass. You’ll be able to get multiple meals from the chicken including soup.
Frozen mixed vegetables, potatoes, dried lentils/legumes (beans), and rice.
For protein - Eggs, minced beef full fat (you can drain the fat if you don’t like it), and as mentioned above legumes/lentils.
I live in the UK so the prices maybe different elsewhere, but if you eat those foods it’s possible to eat under £3 a day.
Beans and tofu are my go-to cheap nutritious foods.
High in protein and fiber, pretty filling, and extremely cost effective… especially when compared to buying raw/cooked meats.
If you can get raw beans, and then cook them yourself (I just toss them into a pressure cooker), you can save exponentially more. 😁
Frozen/canned things are your friends here. They last much longer, and there are negligible differences in nutritional quality between them and fresh.
For me, this looks like buying cans of beans/lentils, frozen mixed veg, rice, and making sure I have my fav spices on hand. With these staples, you can make soups, stir-fries, rice bowls, etc, and just play around with the spices to make them taste different.
It’s been a rough month this month, so my breakfast was oatmeal (sometimes with fruit i bought on sale then threw in the freezer). Most of my lunches were lentils, rice, frozen broccoli, and sriracha I found in the back of my press. Dinner was tofu/frozen veg stirfry sometimes with noodles if I could get them, sometimes on its own.
I am lucky I had protein powder from before, so that was my “snack” meal. If you like it and can swing the cost, protein powders are sooo helpful for times like these and they last ages.
I don’t eat meat/dairy, so I can’t give advice on that side, but I’m sure other commentators have some good tips there.
Get a crockpot.
Large pack of chicken breast ($15), brown rice ($2), loaf of bread ($3), bone broth ($5)
-Cook until chicken pulls apart.
-Remove 75% of chicken & store in fridge.
-Add brown rice to remaining chicken & broth.
-Cook until rice is fluffed.
*Make chicken sandwiches & have the chicken/rice for dinner with a veggie.
This is a $25 option for the week if you need it to be.
Also? Eggs are pretty cheap. I get a week out of two dozen.
All in? If you factor a portion of veggies with every dinner (brussel or asparagus). You’re looking at as little as $50 a week.
For comparison, if you have fast food 3 meals a day? That’s about $150 a week for their “value meals”.
Obviously you are still looking at adding some energy costs for the crockpot, some small cost for salt & pepper. But? If you’re doing fast food? You’re using your gas to go pick it up.
Could get boring for some people. So find your medium. Just suggesting an easy, cheap, & fairly healthy option.