Quick and Inexpensive Meals You Can Cook at Home

Like many people, you probably want to healthy, unprocessed food, but you may think that it is too expensive for you to afford. The truth is, however, that you can definitely afford it.

Vegetables

Most people know that they need to eat raw vegetables to get a lot of vitamins and fiber but think it’s time-consuming and might cost a lot. It is just not true. The following things can be purchased for a dollar in most grocery stores: a cucumber, bag of carrots, a few roma tomatoes, a bell pepper and a head of lettuce. If you think good salads are difficult to assemble, think about this. You can pre-cut a few cucumbers and bell peppers for the week and store them in your refrigerator. Whenever you want a salad, use some of those vegetables, cut up and Roma tomato or two and lightly cover with olive oil, salt, garlic powder and dried basil, or whatever you want to season them with. This is a very healthy and tasty way to eat vegetables without spending a bunch of time on preparation.

Beans and Legumes

Beans are great. They are very inexpensive and when combined with rice, form a complete source of protein. If you want to make a minimal but flavorful batch of beans, it is extremely easy. Buy the bag of beans of your choice: it will cost you 1 or 2 dollars per pound. Throw in a ham shank, but if you cannot afford that, just use bouillon cubes. In the absence of meat and broth, bouillon will flavor your beans very well. You can make a very flavorful batch of beans by simply adding: a chopped onion, chopped garlic, a few bouillon cubes, water, beans, and herbs in a pot and let them cook for 3 hours. Since all you need to do is set it and forget it, this is an affordable dish that requires minimal preparation.

Chicken

Let’s say you want a healthy animal protein that is also cheap and easy to prepare. What you need are chicken breasts. If you are living as a single person without much time to prepare food, you can buy a batch of skinless chicken breasts for less than 7 dollars. After the breasts defrost, rub them down with a little bit of olive oil, salt, herbs and spices and bake them in the oven at 350 degrees until the internal temperature reaches a safe level.