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I try to eat healthy even though I'm frugal. I want to go vegan but its not "filling" enough, for any of you possible vegan frugalers...give me an example of 2 days worth of meals, breakfast and dinner...and snacks in between!
B - Tea latte with non-dairy milk
Late B - Oatmeal with raisins and half a banana, splash of non-dairy milk
L- spinach salad with cut up veggies, homemade vinaigrette dressing, cooked lentils and rice
snack - sliced apple and peanut butter
D - pasta fagioli soup
Day 2
B - peanut butter and banana toasted sandwich; tea latte
snack - handful of nuts; orange
L - homemade bean, rice, tomato, cabbage burrito
snack - celery and homemade hummus
D - stir fried tofu and veggies over quinoa
herbal tea with Splenda (I recently quit caffeine)
3 tacos made with small corn tortillas and a bean/rice/veggie/spices mix that I make up in large batches and freeze in baggies in the freezer. The mix varies depending on what I have, but always has some type of legumes and whole grain rice and veggies. I add flax seeds to my big pot of taco mix, too. Then, when I make my tacos, I usually also add some fresh chopped tomatoes and greens (usually spinach leaves) I add some nutritional yeast and hot sauce on them. This is my go-to breakfast. I'm not an oatmeal eater, except in cookies :-)
Microwaved red potatoes eaten as finger food dipped in ketchup
Toast with guacamole and fresh tomato slices on it - open faced
A glass or two of wine
Sometimes some cereal with raisins or banana for dessert
Day 2:
breakfast tacos same as day before
homemade black bean soup or homemade split pea soup
microwaved potatoes with green beans and gravy (made with almond milk, nutritional yeast, Bragg soy aminos sauce, liquid smoke and corn starch)
or homemade hummus without oil and Wasa whole grain crackers, if I feel like munching while watching a video
or pasta with spaghetti sauce made without oil
or pasta with Asian sauce without oil and stir fry veggies (frozen) or sometimes with just a can of mushrooms on it
or fried rice (fried without oil) and mixed veggies (frozen) and soy sauce
or, last week I made an "unstuffed" bell pepper mix, where I mixed rice and spaghetti sauce and chopped green bell peppers with other veggies like mushrooms and olives and it turned out really good.
wine or a vodka cocktail
Sometimes I'll snack with toast with peanut butter and jam
Basically, if you cook big batches of beans (sprout them if you have problems with gas, before cooking them) and rice, you can make those your staples, if you like Mexican food, which I love. I learned how to make my own tortillas, so I can make a ton of them with a bag of masa flour for less than $3. And I buy a lot of potatoes which are cheap, tasty and filling.
You can buy frozen veggies or canned veggies if fresh is too expensive. I don't buy a lot of fresh produce, except potatoes. But, for greens, spinach lasts much longer than lettuce and is really good for you. It will stay fresh in the fridge a long time, and when it starts to wilt, you can cook it and freeze it to put in taco mix or soup, etc.
The cheapest veggies are often the frozen mixed veggies like grandma used to cook for you lol. like with cubed carrots and peas. But, they are good in fried rice with soy sauce or in soups. Also canned or frozen corn is good for soups or taco mix.
Make soup - it's cheap.
I also go to a local food bank to help with the grocery bill. When they give me meat, I can feed it to my dog.
If you do the McDougall starch-based whole food plant based diet, you won't be hungry. Plant based starches are good for you and really fill you up - like potatoes, rice and beans and tortillas, whole grain bread, pasta, etc.
I keep it simple. Don't vary my diet much because I'm happy with the main things I eat and it's cheap.
B - Tea latte with non-dairy milk
Late B - Oatmeal with raisins and half a banana, splash of non-dairy milk
L- spinach salad with cut up veggies, homemade vinaigrette dressing, cooked lentils and rice
snack - sliced apple and peanut butter
D - pasta fagioli soup
Day 2
B - peanut butter and banana toasted sandwich; tea latte
snack - handful of nuts; orange
L - homemade bean, rice, tomato, cabbage burrito
snack - celery and homemade hummus
D - stir fried tofu and veggies over quinoa
herbal tea with Splenda (I recently quit caffeine)
3 tacos made with small corn tortillas and a bean/rice/veggie/spices mix that I make up in large batches and freeze in baggies in the freezer. The mix varies depending on what I have, but always has some type of legumes and whole grain rice and veggies. I add flax seeds to my big pot of taco mix, too. Then, when I make my tacos, I usually also add some fresh chopped tomatoes and greens (usually spinach leaves) I add some nutritional yeast and hot sauce on them. This is my go-to breakfast. I'm not an oatmeal eater, except in cookies :-)
Microwaved red potatoes eaten as finger food dipped in ketchup
Toast with guacamole and fresh tomato slices on it - open faced
A glass or two of wine
Sometimes some cereal with raisins or banana for dessert
Day 2:
breakfast tacos same as day before
homemade black bean soup or homemade split pea soup
microwaved potatoes with green beans and gravy (made with almond milk, nutritional yeast, Bragg soy aminos sauce, liquid smoke and corn starch)
or homemade hummus without oil and Wasa whole grain crackers, if I feel like munching while watching a video
or pasta with spaghetti sauce made without oil
or pasta with Asian sauce without oil and stir fry veggies (frozen) or sometimes with just a can of mushrooms on it
or fried rice (fried without oil) and mixed veggies (frozen) and soy sauce
or, last week I made an "unstuffed" bell pepper mix, where I mixed rice and spaghetti sauce and chopped green bell peppers with other veggies like mushrooms and olives and it turned out really good.
wine or a vodka cocktail
Sometimes I'll snack with toast with peanut butter and jam
Basically, if you cook big batches of beans (sprout them if you have problems with gas, before cooking them) and rice, you can make those your staples, if you like Mexican food, which I love. I learned how to make my own tortillas, so I can make a ton of them with a bag of masa flour for less than $3. And I buy a lot of potatoes which are cheap, tasty and filling.
You can buy frozen veggies or canned veggies if fresh is too expensive. I don't buy a lot of fresh produce, except potatoes. But, for greens, spinach lasts much longer than lettuce and is really good for you. It will stay fresh in the fridge a long time, and when it starts to wilt, you can cook it and freeze it to put in taco mix or soup, etc.
The cheapest veggies are often the frozen mixed veggies like grandma used to cook for you lol. like with cubed carrots and peas. But, they are good in fried rice with soy sauce or in soups. Also canned or frozen corn is good for soups or taco mix.
Make soup - it's cheap.
I also go to a local food bank to help with the grocery bill. When they give me meat, I can feed it to my dog.
If you do the McDougall starch-based whole food plant based diet, you won't be hungry. Plant based starches are good for you and really fill you up - like potatoes, rice and beans and tortillas, whole grain bread, pasta, etc.
I keep it simple. Don't vary my diet much because I'm happy with the main things I eat and it's cheap.
I don't work now, but I used to do this kind of cooking when I did work. You just make a large pot of everything when you cook it, and then freeze portions. The meals I mentioned are made from huge batches of what I always have on hand. I have time to can food now, but I always used to freeze portions.
The thing is, if you really want to be frugal, you can't go buy a bunch of ready to eat food. So, you can't have it both ways.
But, you can always just buy canned beans and store bought tortillas and salsa. Heck, at Trader Joe's you can even buy frozen cooked rice.
But, for instance, I have a pot of beans soaking right now. Open 2 pound bag of dried pinto beans, throw in pot, put in water, soak over night. Next morning, rinse beans, put in crock pot. Add water, turn on. Go to work.
Come home, (which smells really good from cooked beans in the crock pot), get out rice cooker. Throw in 1 cup rice, 3 - 4 cups of water (depending on the rice), turn on rice cooker.
Pour glass of wine. Change clothes. Turn on TV.
Ding. Rice cooker is done.
Grab tortillas out of fridge. Heat up skillet. Throw a few tortillas on skillet, quickly turn.
Fill tortillas with beans, rice and salsa from the fridge. Maybe throw on some spinach out of a bag you bought at Walmart that's pre-washed.
Get out mini cups of avocado or guacamole ( I am frugal but I buy these because they don't go bad or turn brown like an avocado does, and stay good for a long time in the fridge), and you can even freeze them. https://www.eatwholly.com/products/w...classic-minis/
Grab tomato out of the fridge, rinse. Slice.
Ding, the toast is done.
Spread avocado/guacamole on toast. Put tomato slices on toast. Add salt, if desired.
Okay, I know I'm possibly getting annoying, but maybe it's helpful to read them as separate options. This is the last one for now, I promise.
Grab jar of vegan spaghetti sauce out of the cupboard.
Pour into pan, or just pour some into a large pasta bowl that you can microwave.
Put water into a pot. Boil it. Cook pasta.
Eat pasta with spaghetti sauce on it.
Sometimes I just heat the sauce in my big pasta bowl in the microwave, so I don't have to clean another pan. Then, put the noodles into the bowl and mix it up in the bowl.
And for breakfast, if you are an oatmeal eater, you can always just buy instant oatmeal. I used to keep packages of instant grits at work when I lived in TN. I actually like grits. And the Quaker Oats brand doesn't have any fat in it. Just add water either way. I'd use a coffee cup at work, throw in package of instant grits and add hot water at the water dispenser, and eat it at my desk.
I"m a frugal vegan - I find it pretty inexpensive to eat this way
I made this the other day
Sauteed some mushrooms. Add 1 can of crushed tomatoes, 2 cups of veggie stock (was left over else I would've used water) 1 cup of quinoa. Add a bunch of curry powder and chili powder. Let the whole thing cook together with a lid on. Once cooked, wilt a bag of baby spinach in the mixture. Added one can of white beans. This made enough to eat for about 5 dinners! It was a little bland - if I make it again, I'll saute onion and garlic at the beginning also. Took me 20 minutes to make. I'm a huge fan of one pot cooking!
Other things I eat are baked potatoes (8 minutes in the microwave) topped with vegan baked beans, or salsa. Or vegan chili (also really cheap and easy to make - google recipes).
Rice & Beans
Soup
Muesli each morning for breakfast with Almond milk ($4.29 from Food Lion and lasts me a week)
Avocado toast with cucumber
I'll often make an israeli couscous/quinoa salad and add whatever veggies I have (fresh or frozen).
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