Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
But you still have to know how to cut up that chicken, and many people at all socio-economic levels are one to two generations removed from the knowledge. When is the last time you saw a high schooler taking home ec? When is the last time you saw a high school even OFFER home ec?
My brother took home ec last year in high school, so I know our school district offers it.
My brother took home ec last year in high school, so I know our school district offers it.
I'm glad to know it's still available. Our high school also offers a semester food & nutrition course, which fulfills 1/2 health credit. The course description is as follows...
Quote:
The purpose of the culinary nutrition course is to develop lifelong, healthy individuals with an understanding of healthy and nutritious cooking techniques. Emphasis is placed on implementing healthy nutritional choices, preparing nutrient dense foods, exploring careers related to culinary nutrition, and practicing wise consumer decisions.
I wish it was a required course for all students, because many, many people today have absolutely no idea how to create healthy meals of any size budget, much less a small one.
And kudos to your brother for enrolling in the course!
Last edited by randomparent; 07-10-2014 at 01:23 PM..
It is about $7 for the organic chicken breasts at most stores around here. $4-5 for non-organic. The Mexican market has chicken breasts for $2-2.50 sometimes. Thighs are typically $3-4.
Most people that are on a tight budget aren't going to be buying $7 organic chicken.
Walmart and Sams Club has chicken for $1.97.
Grocery ads this week:
local produce
Corn 3/$1
Tomatoes 1.48 lb
Cabbage 2 lb for $1
red potatoes 5 lb for $2.99
Cucumber 50 cents
eggplant 99 cents lb
Then Aldi is always a cheap option
grapes 84 cents lb
avocados 49 cents each
bone in chicken thighs 84 cents lb
Not in the ad but prices from when I was at Aldi the other day:
Blueberries 98 cents
strawberries 98 cents
Pineapple $1.99
Broccoli 1.49 lb
They often have bananas at 29 cents a lb
Then there is rice, beans, and pasta that you can always get for a cheap price.
My boyfriend and I spent $400.00 a month on food (about $100.00 a week for both of us). We shop at multiple stores during the week to get the best deal and stock up on anything we use often and freeze it.
It is possible to eat healthy on an extremely limited budget. It's just really difficult and sometimes disheartening. It's just important to shop based on what's on sale and to utilize bulk foods as much as possible.
I wish I still did this, but every week I would spend an hour looking through ads and creating a food plan on what I would have for a week. Not only did it help me with saving when I was shopping, but I knew exactly how much I needed to get (no waste, yay). I know that seems time consuming but when you live on a limited income, a dollar matters.
I think I should also mention that eating healthy is a lot like an investment. You're investing in your health, and that is worth more than anything in this world to me. I don't just want to live, I want to thrive and part of that is taking the time to make sure I'm eating well. I do not want to pay for my poor health down the road. Sorry if someone has already mentioned this.
I don't think people consider it too much effort, rather they're intimidated by they're lack of knowledge and hamstrung by time constraints. When I read your post, I assumed that you had a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) -- please correct me if I'm wrong -- and it was in no small part her efforts that allowed you to get through the rough patch with full tummies. That just doesn't happen any longer.
I didn't learn how to cook until I was well into adulthood. When I left my career ten years later after falling pregnant with our first child, I threw myself into learning the domestic arts. (Yes, I was that woman. ) I took cooking classes, visited farmers markets and ethnic groceries, read both modern and historic cookbooks, raised gardens, foraged for neighborhood fruit, and experimented endlessly in the kitchen. That takes the luxury of time, lots of it, and it's in short supply for today's multiple-income families, particularly those of limited means.
Actually my mother helped run a business and worked part time in a truck stop that was across the road from us as a waitress from 3pm-10pm every night for several years and on the odd day she got off she helped out with my grandmother who had had a stroke. She got up incredibly early to make my dad breakfast as he worked in a quarry and was eventually disabled for a period of time (no benefits back then) except child allowance..so every penny counted and there was no waste. She was organized and cooked and did everything she could. I remember her sitting with my older sister going through the food cupboard trying to come up with a plan to feed all 6 of us for the next month and only buying what was really needed. She only shopped once per month as she only had access to our one car when my dad wasn't using that-the only other option was the school bus that ran once into town and once out..everyone caught that bus.
I'm not saying her food was exotic but it certainly wasn't full of all the salt and rubbish you typically find into todays fast food. It was simple-when we were young we were handed a book her mother had given to her and thats how we learnt how to cook…
Actually my mother helped run a business and worked part time in a truck stop that was across the road from us as a waitress from 3pm-10pm every night for several years and on the odd day she got off she helped out with my grandmother who had had a stroke. She got up incredibly early to make my dad breakfast as he worked in a quarry and was eventually disabled for a period of time (no benefits back then) except child allowance..so every penny counted and there was no waste. She was organized and cooked and did everything she could. I remember her sitting with my older sister going through the food cupboard trying to come up with a plan to feed all 6 of us for the next month and only buying what was really needed. She only shopped once per month as she only had access to our one car when my dad wasn't using that-the only other option was the school bus that ran once into town and once out..everyone caught that bus.
I'm not saying her food was exotic but it certainly wasn't full of all the salt and rubbish you typically find into todays fast food. It was simple-when we were young we were handed a book her mother had given to her and thats how we learnt how to cook…
She sounds extraordinary! You and your siblings were clearly very fortunate to have her in your lives. My youth was different. Both of my parents worked in medicine. We always had a very large garden, and a quite a bit of it made its way to the table, but we ate our fair share of fast food, too. Arby's was a favorite. My mom did not teach me how to cook, and her mother did not teach her either. The reasons are complicated, but the result was that I had to learn myself, which took many years. My husband choked down a lot of unpalatable meals in the early years!
As for our children, they eat very well. The old adage, "Champagne taste on a beer budget," is applicable. I worry about them as they prepare to launch out on their own. I'm not sure if I have imparted the right kinds of knowledge to help them navigate the world they're entering. I do, however, know this: they have learned how to cook. I always felt very unprepared to manage my own kitchen. I won't say I was spoiled exactly, but I think my mother could have done a more thorough job ensuring that I could cook more than pasta. I guess we'll have to see whether or not I've done better for my own children. Time will tell.
Last edited by randomparent; 07-10-2014 at 02:42 PM..
Blasphemy, I know, but I think Americans place too much emphasis on diet. I think the whole organic movement is BS, and so is veganism and a lot of the other nonsense. A large part of it is now pure mysticism, taken on faith in the same way that religion is. I think you can eat frozen foods, processed chicken, good old fashioned hamburger meat, minute rice, Cheerios, Spaghettios, Campbell's soup and the like until the cows come home, and you will do just fine. You will live to a normal life expectancy, and you do not have to pay big money for Whole Foods overpriced garbage.
The real key is moderating portions, not getting fat, and doing lots of exercise.
I think the major problem in this country is that lazy Americans substitute attention to diet for what should actually be attention to exercise.
Any old basic varied multi-food group diet is fine. "Processed" foods are not a problem. But you have to stop watching TV and get off your azz and move around. Anyone been to a shopping mall lately? All you see is blubber. It is really gross. The problem is physical laziness. Diet is not important compared to exercise. It really isn't. But it is easier to waste attention on diet because there is no cost in terms of time or energy. Just waste some money or stake a phony moral claim to the nutritional high ground with veganism and it's all good.
I am fairly tall and skinny and cannot eat 3 pounds of produce a day. I don't think most people can or do -and certainly not the dollar menu crowd either.
That's why people have weight problems. If they ate the recommended amount of produce instead of calorie dense meat, fat and sugar they'd be healthier and thinner. Three bananas is a pound, a traditional meat and three veg meal has about a pound of veg. It's only 450g, not that huge an amount.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesse44
Those foods cannot be only marginally worse than the diet I suggested. Stuff from McDonalds and that is barely even food. This would at least provide you with three reasonably balanced single serving meals as the equivalent alternative to the drive thru every night.
Plus, and I know this throws the premise of the OP's topic out the window, but even investing a little bit extra in to the food budget will vastly improve the quality of diet further.
Edit: Actually, if you are buying a cheap fast food meal at $4/meal, that's still about $12/day. That's about $80 in a week still. But assume you skip breakfasts a few times or only eat twice a day, probably you're still spending around $50 a week which really certainly is enough to eat well at home.
They are not much worse, really. A McDonald's burger is made with cheap beef from a feedlot, just like the cheap beef or chicken you're recommending. It has barely any veg, like you're recommending. A cheap loaf of bread from the supermarket is no better than a McDonald's bun (making bread is not feasible for working people). You need to pay $4-5 to get a loaf without all the added junk. And really, while I prefer the taste of white flour, it's really not great for your blood sugar when it's the bulk of the meal.
Do people really skip breakfast entirely or only eat twice a day, especially children? I "skip breakfast", but really I have a big morning tea instead.
Chicken Breast are the only thing in that list I get from costco the rest come for the local grocery. If you don't have a car how to you get any food? Seems like where there is a will there's a way. Buying in bulk ie 16 chicken breast at a time doesn't take up that much room assuming you do have a freezer. If you can buy in bulk buy a whole chicken and break it down you or self and save more money
There are plenty of people in the US who don't have cars, some for financial reasons, some medical, some environmental. They walk, cycle or take public transit, which makes it difficult/impossible to buy in bulk.
I don't have a car. The closest grocery store 1.5 miles way. I walk most of the time because the only direct bus is unreliable, and the other transit options require a transfer. Sometimes I will walk there (downhill) and take the bus home. I make it work well enough because I have a very flexible schedule (hooray for grad school!), I have the skills needed to cook from scratch, and I enjoy cooking. I also only have to take care of myself. If I had less free time, less knowledge or any dependents, it would be much more difficult. Still, the transit barriers do limit my options. I can only buy what I can carry home, which more or less works out to a week's worth of food. If I buy something in bulk, then I have to go without something else just to get it all home.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
) I took cooking classes, visited farmers markets and ethnic groceries, read both modern and historic cookbooks, raised gardens, foraged for neighborhood fruit, and experimented endlessly in the kitchen. That takes the luxury of time, lots of it, and it's in short supply for today's multiple-income families, particularly those of limited means.