Wholesome foods, wholesome prices!

Ever want to have gourmet healthful foods that won’t burn a hole through your wallet?

Like I said before, while I am pretty much without needs or wants in most aspects of my material life; I NEVER skimp on two items: food and learning opportunities for my daughter 🙂

After many people asked, I’m finally getting the chance to write about eating healthy and enjoying delicious food on a budget. If I can feed 3 people on an intern’s income great food and still manage to meet my ambitious financial goals (retirement savings, equity building, debt reduction,) then anyone else can succeed as such too. Yes I’m especially speaking to the single people supporting themselves on their intern/resident income, or those double income families with or without kids.

Here are some easy to follow principles to eating in a manner healthy for your mind, body, and wallet,

• Minimize eating out. If you ask my daughter, what is the #1 ingredient of mommy’s dishes, she’d say love. If you ask me what is the #1 goal of restaurant business, I’d say profit. So go figure. When you eat out, you are nearly 100% NOT eating Organic, Non-GMO, fresh, seasonal ingredients. If you are, you are probably paying 10-20 times for the costs of the actual ingredients.

• If you have to eat out, be smart when you order. i.e. Get the biggest bang of your buck. Many eat out for convenience or ambiance, not the actual quality of the food, not for their physical health or financial fitness. So get the dish that’s from your heart’s deepest desire and indulge. Get the dish that requires culinary skills or is labor intensive. Don’t just get a burrito that you can easily make 10x better, healthier, yummier from home!

• If you need the convenience, get the pre-made foods for home and set up candles at your own dinner table. This will cut your bills by 1/4 most of the time. You get the same delicious NON-home-made-for-profit foods, only you pay less and get more quantity of food with left over for lunch the next day.

• Further more, dilution is the solution to pollution. This applies to food prep too. If you absolutely love the flavors of non-home-made-for-profit foods, try this. For instance, get a box of pre-made salad, with nuts, fruits, beets, fancy hydrogenated soybean oil (unhealthy but in most non-home-made food products) dressing. Also, buy a bunch of organic kale for $1.98. Sprinkle the pre-made salads on YOUR freshly washed/cut organic kale. So instead of purchasing 3 boxes of pre-made fancy salads for a total of $15. You spent about $7 for the healthier salads! Similarly, you can split a serving of high sugar, high salt, and oh-so-tasty orange chicken frozen tray over two plates of organic Quinoa cooked in your rice cooker. This way you are diluting the strong flavors (which usually are products of high fructose corn syrup, lots sodium, MSG, and hydrogenated soybean oil) with your 3 minute prep of organic non-gmo wholesome quinoa. This simple little trick only dilute the detriment to your health but also to your financial fitness!

• This is where it gets serious. This is for the over-achievers, which all of you are. Make your own food (from scratch!) Do not fall in the trap of believing eating out is either more convenient, cheaper, or your only choice! That’s what the for-profit food business wants you to believe. Cooking is easy. Eating out is quite a hassle! Get this into your mindset instead of “I’m too busy, too tired to cook.”

Making your own food is fun, can be romantic and relaxing for couples, bonding for parents and children, healthy for the mind, body, and wallet. From hunting and gathering, to prepping, to savoring and sharing food over dinner table with family and friends, the art and science of cooking will be elaborated in the next post! Stay tuned 🙂