Cook more on weekends so you have food ready to eat for lunch and dinner.
Soups make a great meal and almost anything can be put into the pot to make them. If you start with sauteed onions and fresh garlic, you are on your way to a great tasting soup. Use meat sparingly, and when you do, use every bit of it. If you end up with drippings, pour them off into a plastic ziplock bag and freeze for use in your next soup. And if you don’t want to eat the soup or whatever you made, all week long, freeze some of it in serving size portions for another week.
Have grab and go staples always on hand to avoid impulse buying of fast food.
Suggestions: apples (organic, by the bag), bananas, peanut butter (the real stuff that has two ingredients: peanuts and salt) and jam (made with real sugar-try the lower sugar varieties), nuts (almonds, walnuts; raw is best, buy in bulk), canned wild salmon and sardines (great protein source, low in mercury and high in omega-3 oils), whole milk plain yogurt in large tubs (add frozen berries and maple syrup to sweeten if desired), frozen berries (put in yogurt or oatmeal/amaranth-see recipe link), dried fruit (apricots, apples, cranberries), fruit/nut bars (Lara bars are one of the best, Trader Joe’s has better prices), hard cheese (put a couple of slices on toasted bread), hard-boiled egg (boil a few on the weekend to have for a quick breakfast), Rye Crisps (flat hard “bread” good to have around when you are out of fresh bread-also good with cheese), frozen bread (freeze half a sliced loaf and toast a slice as needed).
Buy from bulk bins.
Avoid the packaged pretty stuff as most of what you pay for is that packaging and marketing. Suggestions: flour, popcorn (see recipe), dried fruit, nuts, dried beans, brown rice, whole grain pasta, oatmeal, sugar (try sucanat/rapadura), sunflower seeds and raisins (for salads and oatmeal breakfasts). Check out the bulk bins at health food stores. You may be surprised by the variety of food you can buy.
Stay focused on the perimeter grocery aisles where fresh vegetables and fruits are found.
Vegetables that are easily available in the winter also store easily and can be kept on hand when needed. They include: sweet potatoes, kabocha squash, butternut squash, acorn squash, carrots, garlic and onions. See the recipe for roasted vegetables. Keep bags of frozen vegetables and beans on hand as well. They can be put to many uses, including in soups. Throw a handful of chopped, frozen spinach into a soup or grain dish you are reheating. It’s like an instant serving of vegetables.
Do not get tempted by cheap, inferior food that will only result in health problems and a reduced ability to cope with stress in these trying times. Those bagged dried noodle soups are not a bargain since they have very little nutritional value and a lot of chemical ingredients.
It is true you will have to put more time into this but your health and well-being are worth this effort. We have given over control of what we put in our bodies to all those companies whose main motivation is to make money, not to create a vibrant, healthy body. We need to take back at least some of this control by cooking with real food and maybe even growing some of it. Watch what happens when you start devoting more time to what you put in your body.
