Quick, easy, cheap, tasty meal idea for your health
Everyone says eating healthy is more expensive than eating processed and junk foods. I’ll say that unless you are truly poor and are living on ramen noodles 7 days a week, that is certainly not true.
Let’s ignore the fact that eating unhealthy foods eventually leads to increased costs for doctors’ visits and medications and days missed from work, etc. You can eat healthy on a tight budget in a meal vs. meal, dollar vs. dollar comparison. You can do that right here in Schuylkill County too. There’s no excuses.
So, how can it be done? Learn to utilize bulk rices and beans. These foods are all very healthy, very cheap, and can be made in large quantities and stored in the refrigerator to grab and heat up on a moment’s notice.
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Healthy Beans and Rice
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Combining rice and beans together forms a meal that contains a complete protein. This is why rice and bean packets are given out to starving people in third world countries. It prevents them from suffering from malnourishment caused by a lack of protein. Rice and beans also contain a large amount of healthy soluble and insoluble fiber. This makes them heart healthy,helps in the prevention of type II diabetes, and promotes healthy cholesterol levels. In addition to all of the above, rice and beans are also very filling.
So, for all of these reasons, I like to incorporate rice and beans into as many meals as I can each week. Since the bulk dried beans and rice can take some time to prepare, it’s best to make up a bunch all at once.
First, you need to soak your beans a day or two. One day is enough, but two or three is ideal. This is done for a few reasons. One, it softens the beans so they cook more quickly and are easier to digest when eaten (reduces the gas factor). Two, it helps to increase the nutritional value of the beans. You can read more about soaking beans and other foods here.
After soaking the beans, most varieties take an hour to an hour an a half to cook. That is a long time, but making them once for the week is not that bad. Once made, they can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator and heated up when needed.
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Adzuki Beans
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Long grain rices take just as long to cook, but don’t have to be soaked as long. Six hours to a day is plenty, or they don’t have to be soaked at all. Just like with the beans, rice can be made in bulk ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator.
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Basmati Rice
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Click here for a detailed chart on how to cook various rices, grains, and beans:
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Grains and Rice Cooking Chart
Beans Cooking Chart
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So, the rice and beans are the base to each meal. To this should be added a healthy steamed vegetable or a fresh salad with a variety of leafy salad greens, peppers, tomatoes, etc. Also, if you wish, a protein can be added such as a small serving of fish, chicken, beef, lamb, etc.
The vegetables and the meats are probably the most expensive part of the meal. However, there are discount grocers such as Bill’s, Chestnut Street Market, and Aldis that offer produce dirt cheap. As for meats, I always suggest meat from local grass-fed, free range, antibiotic and hormone raised animals. It is more expensive, but by including a large side of cheap rice and beans and vegetables, you can afford to have a smaller than usual piece of meat that is much higher quality and better for your health.
Subscribe to this blog and browse the “healthy eating” portions of this blog for specific meal ideas and how to incorporate the rice and beans into a variety of dishes. It takes some time to learn to cook with these items and prepare dishes than you haven’t normally cooked, but pretty soon it’ll become second nature. Cooking with whole foods is much more desirable versus using highly refined and processed foods. It’s also much cheaper. A value meal from a fast food place seems cheap, but with that same $6, you can buy enough rice and beans for yourself for a week. For another couple of dollars, you can buy meats in bulk and divide them into individual servings and freeze. There is a way to make it work.
A wise man (or maybe it was a woman) once said, “Eat like your life depends on it, because it does.” They weren’t kidding!
(Dr. Touchinsky is a chiropractor in Orwigsburg, Schuylkill County, PA. He and his wife own Healthy Habits Natural Market located on route 61 just outside of Orwigsburg and within minutes from Schuylkill Haven, Hamburg, Pottsville, St. Clair, Minersville, Tamaqua, and other areas of southern Schuylkill and northern Berks counties. Related to this post, they carry several varieties of organic dried bulk rices and beans.)
