CockneyRebel wrote:
I'm comparing prices of brands of canned cat food, so that I can save even more money on my groceries by eating it. I'm thinking of trying a can of Fancy Feast before I make the bold decision whether to purchase it or not.
That isn't really cheap. Here are some unconventional food ideas.
Pancakes. Buy the store brand mix, add an egg to the batter for protein and nutrition. Add sugar or artificial sweetener to the batter so you don't have to use syrup. Or, crappy corn syrup syrup is cheap, but for variety you can melt grape jelly in the microwave, maybe thin it a tiny bit with water. Or honey is good, too. I've also put pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices in the batter. Pumpkin and brown sugar make them taste like pumpkin pie, even better with the spices. I also add a spoonful of whey protein powder to pancake mix. Cook them a bunch at a time and eat them right out of the fridge.
Eggs. Search for info about eggs and cholesterol if you are concerned. TL;DR don't worry about it. Eggs are cheap and contain lots of important nutrients IN THE YOLK. Don't discard the yolk. I cook them in the microwave without butter. Scramble, cook on low power, stir after 2 minutes, 1.5 minutes, 1 minute, then every 30 seconds, smashing up the bits that are getting hard. Stop cooking while they are still a bit runny and they'll finish cooking in the bowl. Only the one bowl to clean up.
Oatmeal. The stovetop cooking kind, not the instant kind. Needs sugar or other flavorings. Very cheap. But I do something unconventional with it. I don't cook it. I grind it into a flour in a food processor. I put 30g (about 2 spoonfuls) of it in a bowl, with 10g oat bran (a spoonful), a spoonful of ground flax seed (I grind small amounts of it myself and store it in the fridge), a spoonful of coconut chopped very fine (you can buy it this way, "desiccated", or chop unsweetened coconut yourself). I also put in a spoonful or two of unflavored whey protein powder. For variety of grains I also put in a spoonful of wheat bran and a spoonful of rye flour. For b-vitamins I put in a teaspoon of nutritional yeast. And for flavoring I put in a spoonful of peanut flour. I shovel this into my mouth with a spoon and wash it down with iced coffee flavored with cocoa, artificial sweetener and cream, but I've also just used water. In that case, put the cocoa and sweetener in the grains mix. I use my teeth rather than my lips on the spoon so the dry mix doesn't stick to it. Weird, but eating it this way is super simple and easy to clean up. No cooking required. You can prepare multiple servings in glass jars.
Olive oil. Eating cheap tends to be carb-heavy and you won't get enough fats or protein. If you're eating for sustenance and not for flavor and joy, add some fat to your diet in the form of olive oil. Don't cheap out here. Some oils are very bad for you, and olive oil in the amounts you're going to eat is cheap enough. Just eat a couple spoonfuls of it every now and then. Good for taking with your multivitamin, as some vitamins are fat soluble. Olive oil kinda burns the throat, so plan on washing it down immediately with water. I also do coconut oil once in a while.
The cheapest forms of protein are cottage cheese and chicken. There's also peanut butter right off the spoon or as a sandwich, but watch the sugar. Yogurt, if you like it, is good for you, and greek yogurt has less sugar. I get the plain stuff and add vanilla and artificial sweetener. I usually also add frozen fruit or peanut butter. Milk is also a source of protein and calcium, if you like it by itself or on your oatmeal. Whey protein powder has gotten expensive, but I also put a spoonful of it in things and it isn't expensive a spoonful at a time. I also eat pecans and pistachios, but they aren't cheap.
When you eat dairy, use the whole fat variety to get calories and fat in your diet, or if you are eating other sources of fat for health (coconut and coconut oil, flax seed, nuts, olive oil), you can eat the low- or non-fat variety for the protein.
I don't much like rice, nutritionally or otherwise, but I've made rice pilaf (recipe online) and put frozen broccoli in it.
For my main meal I will put frozen broccoli, spinach, leeks, garlic, olive oil, soy sauce and chicken or pork (chopped into tiny pieces and frozen in plastic containers from the restaurant supply store, thaw in the fridge a day in advance) in a big bowl and cook it in the microwave on medium heat, stirring fairly often. Make sure you cook long enough the meat is HOT. You can also cook the meat in advance and store it in individual servings in the freezer.
Some of my diet comes from the high protein needs of weightlifting, but increasing fats and protein and decreasing carbs is also good for avoiding insulin insensitivity and diabetes. I don't eat pancakes anymore, I list them since you are concerned about costs. All of the carbs I eat are incidental (e.g. in the yogurt) or in high-fiber grains or fruits and vegetables.
12 Aug 2022, 10:33 pm
