Low-cost healthy recipes with common ingredients for less money

I can say with absolute certainty that if ordinary people want to eat healthy and cheap meals, the daily cost of ingredients can be controlled within the range of 10-15 yuan. All the ingredients are common categories that can be bought in wet markets and community supermarkets. There is no need to touch any premium "Internet celebrity healthy ingredients", and you don't even need complicated kitchen utensils.

To be honest, my monthly salary in the first year of Beidiao was only 5,000 yuan. After deducting 3,000 yuan in rent, my monthly food budget was only 800 yuan. I ate this way for more than half a year. Last year, my physical examination showed that my triglyceride, albumin, and vitamin levels were all within the standard range. The doctor also asked me if I had specially adjusted my daily diet. I once read about fitness bloggers saying that healthy meals cost at least 30 yuan per person, and eating organic vegetables and imported grains is considered healthy. I laughed at the time - I also followed the trend and bought quinoa for 40 to 50 yuan per catty and chia seeds for more than 100 yuan.

Don’t think that cheap means there are no good products. You must have some of the ingredients I often buy downstairs at home: eggs are now generally 5 yuan per pound, about 8 pieces, and only about 6 cents each. High-quality protein is easy to digest, and it is delicious no matter how it is fried or steamed.； Frozen chicken breast costs 8 yuan per pound in regular supermarkets, and a meal of 2 taels only costs 1.6 yuan. If you really care about frozen products, it is more cost-effective to switch to northern tofu. A large piece costs 2 yuan, and half a piece can cover the protein content of a meal. ； When it comes to vegetables, buy them in season. Spring bok choy, summer cucumbers and bean sprouts, autumn radishes, and winter cabbages all cost 2-3 yuan per pound. Buying one pound is enough to eat two meals. Don’t listen to people who say broccoli is the “king of vegetables.” The dietary fiber and vitamin C content of seasonal green leafy vegetables is not lower than it, and the price is only one-third of it. It is more delicious when fried.

Oh, by the way, you can stock up on shelf-stable staple foods. Sweet potatoes and potatoes cost 1 yuan per pound, and 5 corns cost 10 yuan. They can be stored on the balcony for less than half a month. They can replace some of the polished rice and white noodles. They are low in sugar but still filling. My favorite thing is before going to bed in winter. Grab a handful of rice and millet, mix it with some diced sweet potatoes, throw it into the rice cooker and make a reservation. When you wake up in the morning, you will have hot multi-grain porridge, with a boiled egg and a small plate of pickled radish. The total cost is less than 2 yuan, and you can carry it until noon without being hungry.

When the weather is hot, I am too lazy to turn on the fire, so I steam half a chicken breast and tear it into shreds, blanch 5 cents bean sprouts, cut into half 5 cents cucumbers, mix with some light soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil, and add half a stick of steamed corn. The total cost of this meal is only 3.6 yuan, which is much more delicious than the light takeout food that costs more than 20 yuan, and there are no messy pre-made sauces. If you are too lazy to cook one day, you can buy a tea egg, two vegetable buns and a cup of hot soy milk from the convenience store downstairs for 5 yuan. It is much healthier than eating a pre-made rice bowl worth more than ten yuan.

Some people also say that frozen meat and discounted vegetables are unhealthy. I won’t argue with this: if you have a sufficient budget, of course you can buy fresh products and organic vegetables, but for most ordinary people with limited budgets, as long as frozen meat from regular channels is completely thawed and then cooked, the protein content will not be different from fresh products by 3%. , the leafy vegetables that are discounted by 50% in the supermarket after 8 pm, as long as you eat them on the same day or the next day, the loss of nutrients is completely negligible. I like to go to the vegetable market when the stalls are about to close. The vegetables grown by my uncle and aunt can be carried in a bag for a few yuan, and they are fresh and have not been sprayed with too many pesticides.

Of course, you don’t have to copy other people’s eating habits. For those who have weak stomachs, don’t listen to people saying that whole grains are healthy. Just eat corn and sweet potatoes. When cooking ordinary rice, grab a handful of red beans and mung beans that have been soaked in advance and mix them together. They are soft and can lower the glycemic index, and they are only a few cents more expensive.； If you want to build muscle during fitness, just boil two more eggs and cut half a piece of tofu. It only costs 2 yuan more in total, which is much more cost-effective than buying a protein bar worth 30 or 40 yuan.

Anyway, what I have learned from eating in the past few years is that healthy eating has never been the exclusive preserve of the rich. There is no need to pay premium taxes for the gimmick of "health". Just focus on the seasonal ingredients at your doorstep, mix meat and vegetables, and coarse grains, and eat less semi-finished products and less heavy-tasting takeaways. It doesn't cost much, and physical comfort is better than anything else.