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How to Eat Healthy on a Budget
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Jan 22, 2025
This week I'm supplying it all! A full meal plan of low calorie low cost meals, plus lots of tips to keep costs low while eating healthy. First I go over a full low cost meal plan, then I supply you with all my best tips and tricks to eat super healthy on a budget! Get the FREE Meal Plan: https://loseweightbyeating.com/weight-loss-meal-plan/#low-cost-meal-plan Music from #Uppbeat License code: VGAZRTWC9AXKP9VB You can find FREE RECIPES here: https://loseweightbyeating.com/ Check out my Best Selling Cookbooks here: https://loseweightbyeating.com/cookbook/
View Video Transcript
0:00
welcome back to the lose weight by
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eating podcast I'm Audrey John's and
0:04
today I wanted to talk to you about
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keeping costs low for food when you're
0:09
trying to eat healthy and I know very
0:12
often people will say it's really
0:14
expensive to eat healthy and it can be
0:18
but it doesn't have to be and so this
0:20
week not only did I want to bring you
0:22
this podcast talking about how you can
0:25
eat
0:25
healthy and save money and also bring
0:29
you a full meal plan that has lots of
0:33
low calorie healthy meals that are
0:36
actually going to be low in cost so if
0:39
you're looking for that you can
0:40
absolutely look in the show notes and
0:43
sorry if you hear some clicking because
0:45
I want to make sure that I can go over
0:47
the meal plan and talk to you about why
0:49
it's going to be lowc
0:51
cost so as we know um first of all I
0:54
want to talk about meat so we're talking
0:58
about chicken
1:00
Beef Pork all of these are going to be
1:04
the biggest ticket items in your grocery
1:07
basket they're going to be the most
1:09
expensive and right now everyone is so
1:12
hyperfocused on more protein more
1:14
protein more protein that it makes it
1:17
seem like eating healthy is even that
1:20
much more expensive and it can be but
1:23
you can still get a lot of protein into
1:25
your diet and it doesn't have to break
1:28
the bank so
1:30
the some of the proteins I want to talk
1:32
about um are going to be very low in
1:36
cost maybe not as low in cost as they
1:38
used to be but significantly lower we're
1:40
going to be talking about things like
1:42
eggs eggs are actually relatively low
1:45
calorie if you think about comparing
1:47
them to say chicken or
1:50
beef same
1:52
with some cheese or beans or even
1:57
sausage if you're okay with eating it
1:59
like a good healthy Italian turkey
2:02
sausage and also some ground Meats such
2:05
as ground chicken so for this meal plan
2:10
I I feel like the easiest way to teach
2:12
you how to eat lowcost and healthy is to
2:16
show you so I'm going to be going
2:18
through this week's meal plan and just
2:21
kind of explaining why it's low cost and
2:25
how to make it low cost so first of all
2:29
if you are familiar with my meal plans I
2:32
always alternate lunches and breakfasts
2:36
so when you get one of my free meal
2:38
plans at loseweight by eating.com you'll
2:41
notice that for the full week you'll
2:43
only have two breakfasts and two lunches
2:46
and that is done very strategically
2:49
because I find
2:51
that we really only need one or two for
2:55
the whole week and we can save money and
2:58
costs keep costs low
3:00
by just choosing two so for this week I
3:02
chose an oatmeal casserole it's a really
3:06
big casserole full of delicious oatmeal
3:09
and berries and you can keep it high
3:12
protein by adding in some protein powder
3:15
now if you don't already have protein
3:17
powder it's sure that may end up adding
3:19
some costs to the bottom line but it's
3:21
something that will last for a long time
3:23
and its Pantry stable so you can bake
3:26
this entire oatmeal casserole and then
3:29
you just pull out a slice every single
3:31
day or every other day I should say for
3:33
your breakfast the next item is going to
3:36
be breakfast burritos and sure you can
3:39
add meat to them I find that there's
3:41
definitely enough protein with all of
3:42
the eggs in there and it's a great way
3:46
to go ahead and meal prep as well so you
3:48
can make all the breakfast burritos
3:50
ahead of time wrap them put them in the
3:53
fridge or freezer and then just heat
3:54
them up on your way out of the house so
3:57
since I mentioned the burritos
4:00
for our very first lunch they're going
4:02
to be wraps so do you see I'm reusing
4:06
the burrito wraps for the lunches may
4:09
not maybe not every lunch and then also
4:12
for one of the dinners so when you do
4:15
buy one of these items that's very
4:17
specific to a recipe I find it's helpful
4:20
to try to find other recipes to use it
4:21
up in now you can also just take the
4:25
burrito wraps toss them in the freezer
4:27
for next time they will hold very well
4:30
or you can do as I've done like I said
4:32
and make some chicken
4:34
wraps so chicken is expensive so I've
4:38
tried to push it all into our lunches
4:41
make it something really high protein
4:42
and high flavor so that you will want to
4:44
eat it every single day and you won't be
4:47
you know tempted to go out to lunch with
4:49
your friends or to eat the pizza that
4:51
somebody is ordering into the office so
4:55
for our first lunches you'll be doing
4:57
the low calorie high protein chicken
5:00
wraps and those have a very few amount
5:03
of ingredients we're just looking at the
5:05
burrito wraps we've already purchased
5:06
for our breakfast burritos we're going
5:09
to do some chicken sure that's a little
5:11
high price but don't worry we're going
5:12
to use it for our other lunches and then
5:15
we've got some bell peppers and onions
5:17
all very low cost and then we've got our
5:21
low calorie Green Goddess salad which
5:24
will incorporate some of that leftover
5:26
chicken but will also incorporate some
5:29
of the eggs we bought do you see how
5:32
we're working this in we're kind of
5:33
trying to spread out the money or spread
5:36
out the proteins so that they last
5:38
longer so we feel full and satiated and
5:42
good and full of energy throughout the
5:44
day without breaking the bank now what I
5:47
do really want to note first is that I
5:50
make sure to
5:52
alternate if I have a breakfast burrito
5:55
I don't want to do a chicken wrap for
5:57
lunch right after it that's you know too
5:59
much
6:00
much many people will find that to be
6:02
too many carbs back to back I'm okay
6:04
with it you might not be so for instance
6:07
Monday you would have the low calorie
6:08
oatmeal casserole for breakfast the low
6:11
calorie chicken wraps for lunch and then
6:14
our first dinner would be a plantbased
6:18
or nearly plant-based meal now again I
6:23
know everyone is so hyperfocused on
6:26
proteins right now and though I do not
6:30
find that they are necessary for healthy
6:33
eating or for weight loss just because
6:35
that hasn't worked for me does not mean
6:37
it doesn't work for you right so I've
6:41
made sure to add protein to all of the
6:43
dinners as well even the dinners that
6:46
include pasta so the first one is
6:49
actually going to be a zucchini pasta so
6:51
that's really easy we don't have to
6:52
worry about carbs it is that Viral
6:55
tomato and feta baked together tossed
6:59
with pasta meal I try to do a meatless
7:02
Monday on Mondays and so this was just a
7:05
natural way to add that in feta is very
7:09
low cost I get a block of feta every
7:11
single week at the grocery store it
7:12
costs me about $44.50 on sale somehow
7:15
the same block is always on sale um I
7:19
find that if it's in block form it is
7:21
less expensive so always look when
7:23
you're buying cheese if it's shredded or
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if it's crumbled like Feta look at the
7:29
ounces
7:30
don't look at how big the package is but
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look at the ounces and then compare that
7:35
in price so you're getting more for your
7:38
money so for our second dinner we're
7:40
going to do bean and cheese burritos we
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are
7:43
reusing those
7:45
wraps that we used in our breakfast
7:47
burritos that we use in our chicken
7:49
wraps so that we can use them all up and
7:51
get the most for our money now because
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this is the last recipe that I will be
7:57
noting that does have a burrito wrap you
8:00
can absolutely get the carb balance
8:03
wraps if you're looking to save the most
8:05
money obviously you're going to go for
8:07
what's on sale but the carb balance
8:09
wraps are really great options if you
8:12
are carb sensitive what I also love
8:15
about these bean and cheese burritos is
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how low cost they are a can of beans is
8:22
a dollar so you've got a whole meal
8:26
here you probably already have the
8:28
cheese
8:30
the beans are only going to be a dollar
8:32
and you already bought the burrito wrap
8:34
so we're looking at A1 to $2 dinner for
8:38
the whole family talk about a amazing
8:41
amazing deal now if you want to boost
8:44
the protein more you can add in some of
8:46
that leftover chicken that you made for
8:48
your lunches you can add in some
8:51
unflavored collagen powder in with the
8:53
beans and mix it in there just before
8:55
you serve that will boost the protein as
8:58
well the next next one is going to be
9:00
the low calorie chicken lettuce wraps
9:03
this is where I'm using the ground
9:05
chicken so ground meats are going to be
9:07
a lot lower in price but they have just
9:10
as much protein right these low calorie
9:13
chicken lettuce wraps actually went
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viral on my Facebook page this week
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because I posted them and I was like hey
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you can have like eight of these for 200
9:21
and some odd calories so what I will
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note on these is if something calls for
9:28
say butter lettuce
9:30
butter lettuce if it's on sale it's
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super low cost if it's not it's like $5
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for a head so a great swap for that
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would be Roma or even cabbage I find
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that the green cabbage is a little bit
9:45
thinner than the red and are great for
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lettuce
9:49
wraps and we're talking about the little
9:52
little lettuce cups that you would get
9:54
like at PF chanks and these are actually
9:56
a copycat recipe the next item I doing
10:00
for this week would be Thursday night
10:01
would be the low calorie pasta casserole
10:04
now keep in mind before all your bells
10:06
and whistles go off and you're like
10:07
pasta no this is a fiber balanced pasta
10:10
that's super low calorie lower in carbs
10:15
however go to the grocery store go down
10:18
the pasta aisle and the next time you
10:20
see that bright orange package of bonsa
10:23
pasta on sale stock up it is the best it
10:27
is my go-to my favorite the only Quirk
10:32
about this pasta is that you want to
10:36
cook it on a low boil or ideally a
10:39
simmer and don't mix it too often just
10:42
often enough so that they don't stick
10:44
because they can kind of fall apart a
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little
10:47
bit however the recipe does come with
10:50
the fiber balance and it's low cost
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we're talking about a really low cost
10:56
dinner here a box of pasta even the more
10:58
expensive pasta is going to be what $3
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top
11:02
level and then we've got our marinara
11:05
sauces and any added in extra veggies
11:09
that you have or any added in protein
11:12
that you choose and that's all there but
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we're looking at maybe a an all-in $5
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dinner for the
11:19
family the next one I cannot stop making
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and eating and it is so low in
11:27
calories but so fil
11:29
I I honestly feel like everyone needs to
11:32
get out there and try this right away
11:34
it's my low calorie portabello mushroom
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pizzas now when I made these for my
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partner he is very health
11:42
conscious but he is a little picky from
11:45
time to time too and so I warned him I
11:46
said listen don't expect these to taste
11:49
like pizza expect these to taste like a
11:53
a stuffed pepper but instead it's a
11:57
stuffed mushroom and he loved them and I
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make them all the time they're so easy
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they're so fast they're low cost and
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they're extremely filling so this dinner
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we're looking at I like to have two and
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then I'm completely stuffed so we're
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looking at maybe $5 per person I know
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it's a little bit on the higher end for
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this whole week but it would be for
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Friday night so maybe a little bit of a
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celebratory dinner then next one is
12:30
another pasta dish surprise surprise
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pasta is a low cost and I'm not afraid
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of any carbs guys I'm sorry this is not
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a keto um podcast this is not a keto
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website however this low calorie spinach
12:45
pasta is so great with the bons of
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protein pasta so feel free to go that
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route it is
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a plantbased or or nearly plant-based
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meal you're going to have spinach and
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walnuts are going to be your protein
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Source in this if you have a Trader
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Joe's bu you that's where you want to
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buy your walnuts they have the best
13:08
walnuts they have the best prices I know
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that walnuts are a little bit expensive
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so if you're looking to save money you
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want to kind of keep them as an
13:17
ingredient and not as a snack to keep
13:21
them holding longer put them in the
13:23
fridge they will hold a lot longer for
13:25
you and then finally it's Sunday night
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and it's going to be Mother's day as
13:30
well so you know feel free to take Mom
13:32
out but my one pan baked sausage meal is
13:37
really great really low cost we are
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using all natural turkey Italian
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sausages you don't even have to add any
13:44
herbs or spices because the sausages are
13:47
so flavorful that they end up flavoring
13:49
all of the vegetables in this one pan
13:52
dish so some tips to cut even more costs
13:58
from your weekly shopping
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haul do you remember how we talked about
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alternating the breakfasts and lunches
14:06
so you just choose two and you alternate
14:08
them and that really keeps cost low why
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not do that for dinner now I get that
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dinner is more of a it's the end of the
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day some people really love to cook some
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people don't and so I get that it's also
14:24
very communal feel free to choose more
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than just two of these items feel free
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to choose three or to choose four feel
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free to make the low calorie bean and
14:35
cheese burritos for the whole week if
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you're really looking to keep costs low
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so you can really kind of customize your
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meals and find the meals that are going
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to be lowest in price for you when I
14:50
figured this out I was figuring it for a
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three people household because that's
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what I live in sometimes sometimes we
14:58
have a couple extras
14:59
um I was trying to figure out just kind
15:02
of going off of a good average between
15:05
sale price and you know normal not on
15:09
sale price this is going to be about $60
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Allin to feed three people for breakfast
15:16
lunch and
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dinner amazing right and it's healthy
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and it's low calorie and it's absolutely
15:25
crave worthy so let's talk a little bit
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more
15:29
about saving money at the grocery
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store you guys if you've listened to my
15:36
podcast before you've probably heard me
15:38
talk about shopping the perimeter so the
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perimeter of the store is where you're
15:43
going to find just think about your your
15:47
store kind of like you're just going to
15:48
follow along the walls of the grocery
15:50
store so I always park by the produce
15:54
section I walk into the produce and I
15:57
fill my cart with lots and lots of
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produce these are lowcost items I can
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get two cucumbers for $3 I can get two
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bell peppers sometimes for two sometimes
16:09
for $3 these are lowcost
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items so start there and fill up your
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cart with these lowcost healthy items
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now really quickly before we go from the
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produce section to the meat section
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again I know people are so hyper focused
16:29
on protein but I do want to remind you
16:33
that when you eat the foods that the
16:36
hunger receptors in your brain are
16:39
craving you're less hungry and what your
16:43
hunger receptors
16:45
need are fruits and
16:48
vegetables so I get that people don't
16:51
like carbs I understand if they don't
16:54
work well for your body however carbs
16:57
from fruits and vegetables are not the
17:00
same carbs you would get from a loaf of
17:02
bread these are the kind of carbs that
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are going to feed your brain they're
17:06
going to give you fuel these are what
17:09
you need almost everything in the
17:11
produce section almost everything will
17:14
naturally boost your metabolism and
17:16
speed up fat loss so I get it they're
17:19
carbs but these are the carbs that help
17:21
you lose weight next we're going to walk
17:24
on over to the meat section I'm just
17:26
kind of following along how my grocery
17:28
store goes I get that yours might be set
17:30
up differently but on to the
17:33
butcher we want to look for what's on
17:36
sale let's start at what's on sale so I
17:39
have found that most often ground meats
17:44
are the way to
17:45
go and ground turkey when it's on sale
17:49
is a steal ground chicken is a great
17:54
bargain as
17:55
well ground beef can be hit and miss on
17:58
on price as can ground buffalo which is
18:02
one of my all-time favorites it's tastes
18:05
just like beef but also all of these
18:08
items can easily be tossed in the
18:10
freezer and stored for later so when you
18:13
find these items on
18:15
sale double
18:17
up I know your budget might not call for
18:20
it this week but you'll save money next
18:23
week and then if you're getting if you
18:25
want to do fish look at the lower price
18:29
fish obviously salmon is going to be a
18:31
little high up there what about shrimp
18:33
if you like shrimp it's very low in cost
18:35
when you compare
18:37
it we've got the
18:39
sausages again you know you want to be
18:41
careful with what kind of sausage you
18:43
get you want to make sure that you're
18:44
getting something all natural and
18:46
healthy so turkey sausages are a really
18:49
great way to go and they're so packed
18:51
full of flavor especially the Italian
18:54
turkey sausages that you don't really
18:56
have to add that much more into your
18:58
meal because it's going to flavor
18:59
everything for you so you're kind of
19:01
getting a double
19:03
whammy the next thing I do is I head on
19:05
over to the eggs I pick up my eggs for
19:08
the week and lately I have been eating a
19:10
lot of eggs because yes eggs have gone
19:13
up in price but I can get a whole 12pack
19:19
of eggs for $3 and we're talking about
19:23
organic pasture raised so the best you
19:27
can get at an average grocery grocery
19:29
store that will feed me if there's 12
19:32
and I have two eggs for breakfast that
19:35
$3 will feed me for six days see this is
19:40
a smart lowcost
19:44
protein next I hit the if I need any
19:47
yogurt if I need any of my coffee
19:49
creamer any of that and then typically
19:53
what I really love
19:55
is as I'm shopping my perimeter it's
19:58
almost like the grocery stores are like
20:00
clued in that people are doing this now
20:02
because things like the wraps the
20:05
burrito wraps are actually on a an end
20:08
cap facing the perimeter now so you can
20:12
kind of stay away from all of these
20:14
snack aisles the cereal aisle these
20:17
aisles that will sell you convenience
20:20
foods but you're going to pay a premium
20:23
for the convenience does that make sense
20:26
you're going to spend a little bit more
20:28
on these convenience Foods now obviously
20:30
we're going to need to go down a couple
20:32
of the aisles you know we need to get
20:33
some
20:34
beans definitely look for when they're
20:37
on sale I almost always buy beans every
20:40
single week it's whatever is on sale and
20:42
then I just work with them they're full
20:44
of fiber they're low cost I mean like a
20:47
dollar a can for organic beans and
20:51
they've got a ton of protein and they're
20:53
Pantry stable so I can stock up on them
20:56
and I don't have to worry about them
20:57
going bad
20:59
and then I often end up hitting the
21:01
frozen fruit section so because I
21:05
mentioned the oatmeal casserole I want
21:08
to talk about Frozen fruits and then
21:10
we'll also get to frozen veggies as well
21:13
so Frozen fruits are actually washed and
21:18
flash frozen almost immediately after
21:20
being picked so you're going to get all
21:25
of the flavor you're going to get all of
21:28
the nutrition because they're flash
21:30
frozen and often you're going to save a
21:33
ton of money so what I recommend doing
21:36
is is when you're doing things like an
21:40
oatmeal casserole use frozen fruits they
21:43
are freezer stable you can keep them all
21:47
the time in your freezer so stock up
21:50
when the prices are low on those now
21:53
since I talked about
21:55
frozen veggies let's go down that is
22:00
now canned veggies have a bad wrap and
22:04
for good reason they're packed full of
22:05
sodium right if that's all you can get
22:08
if that's all you can afford it's a lot
22:10
better than eating processed food of
22:12
course but frozen vegetables are a
22:16
staple in my home when I first moved
22:19
here to Idaho our very first winter was
22:23
called snow mageddon I'm not kidding
22:25
that's what everybody here called it
22:27
because we had so much snow that the
22:30
kids were out of school for 3
22:33
weeks now given part of that was because
22:36
of the holiday break but three weeks of
22:39
having a kid at home having to feed her
22:41
and not being able to run out to the
22:42
grocery store because we are snowed
22:45
in so it's very important for me to keep
22:50
lots of stuff in the freezer in the
22:52
pantry pantry and freezer are my two
22:54
keys they are always completely packed
22:57
because no matter what happens
22:59
with the weather with my health like I
23:02
sprained my ankle last week so going to
23:04
the grocery store isn't fun and I don't
23:06
have to go so much
23:08
right these items hold for so long so I
23:12
almost always get frozen peas I love the
23:16
bags of Frozen cauliflower rice so great
23:20
I love getting frozen
23:22
kale really great option you can add it
23:24
to smoothies you can add it to pasta
23:27
dishes
23:29
um for the low calorie spinach pasta you
23:31
can absolutely swap it out for frozen
23:33
kale or get frozen spinach these are
23:36
great options they are flash frozen
23:39
they're clean then fles flash frozen do
23:42
this for me say flash frozen five times
23:45
fast holy moly it's hard sorry I keep
23:48
tripping over that word but these are
23:51
great options because they are all
23:54
natural they do not have any added
23:56
sugars or salts and they're going to
23:59
save you so much money and then you
24:02
always have the availability in your
24:05
freezer or in your pantry for these
24:07
healthy items so stocking up on the
24:10
healthy items that are freezer safe or
24:16
Pantry safe are going to be my last key
24:19
note here whenever you see that beans
24:23
are on sale that pasta is on sale
24:26
especially that bons of pasta you guys
24:27
are got to try try it out it's amazing
24:30
anytime frozen vegetables Frozen fruits
24:34
are on sale stock
24:36
up and then you can use them maybe on
24:40
those weeks when they're not so
24:42
inexpensive and or when snow mageddon
24:45
hits you guys or you sprain an ankle so
24:47
it's all about smart shopping so for the
24:51
link to the meal plan I will put it in
24:54
the show notes for you every single week
24:57
I offer a free meal plan it comes with
25:00
all of the
25:02
recipes it's all free and you can print
25:04
it all out it's a PDF you can go through
25:07
all of the recipes and find tips and
25:10
tricks and shopping lists and all of
25:12
that I try to make it as easy for you as
25:14
possible I always keep this meal plan on
25:16
the front of the loseweight by eating
25:19
website you just visit loseweight by
25:21
eating.com and here's the kicker I never
25:24
delete the old meal plans they're all up
25:27
there I have got got meal plans here I'm
25:29
going to scroll really quick and it's a
25:31
lot but I have never deleted a single
25:34
one so we have got meal plans all the
25:37
way
25:38
from August NOP July of
25:45
2023 so we are getting really close to
25:49
we're getting really really close to a
25:51
full year of meal plans so if this one
25:53
does not sound appealing to you there
25:56
are lots of other ones for you to choose
25:59
so thank you for listening to the Losee
26:02
by eating podcast I'm sorry if this one
26:04
was a little bit disjointed again I am a
26:07
little bit disjointed right now with my
26:09
sprained ankle it's kind of thrown a
26:11
monkey wrench in my whole day but I
26:13
wanted to bring to you these tips on how
26:16
to eat healthy without breaking the bank
26:20
make sure to listen to All of the lose
26:22
weight by eating podcast episodes I
26:24
assure you most of them are a lot more
26:26
planned out than this one but I hope
26:28
that it has given you some insight and
26:30
some tips so that you can eat healthy
26:33
without hurting the budget thanks so
26:35
much for tuning in be sure to check out
26:38
loseweight by eating.com and if you have
26:40
any questions visit lose weight by
26:42
eating with Audrey Johns on Facebook and
26:45
ask me a question I'm the only one who
26:47
runs that baby and I answer all
26:50
questions all right take care happy
26:52
eating happy cooking and keep the budget
26:55
low this week thanks so much bye what
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