Eating Well

There's a magazine called Clean Eating which focuses on healthy "budget conscious" meals. I first found it a Whole Foods and liked it so much, I ordered it for the year. I liked it better then Light Cooking which I also tried but wasn't in love with.

In a perfect world, I would only make organic and wholesome food and the bank account to afford it plus the free time to spend in the kitchen (or a staff to cook and serve it to me, HA!). I have found shopping at Walmart and Aldi always equals the same thing – cheap food prices, cheap food quality. So 3 things I’ve done. First, I’ve gone back to the basics. I like a lot of protein in my diet so I eat simple grilled meats or broiled fish (tilapia is my favorite) with veggies or a salad on the side. That doesn’t take a lot of time and it’s easy. Aldi now actually sells tilapia. I cook it frozen right from the freezer, rub a little olive oil on both sides and season with criole seasoning and bake at 350 for 30 mins, then squeeze lime on it right before eating. Then I sauté a spinach, which Aldi now sells too, with olive oil, pine nuts and maybe some goat cheese if I have any. We eat this meal almost every single week. It literally take just a couple of mins to make.
The 2nd thing I’ve done is really started using the crock pot. A meal I make all the time is stuffed green peppers made with ground turkey. Mix 1 lb of ground turkey, 1 cup of uncooked brown rice, 2 cloves of crushes garlic, ½ t. of salt, ½ t. of pepper, 1 can of diced tomatoes (do not drain off liquid), 1 minced med. onion. Mix all together and stuff into cleaned green peppers, about 4 peppers. Poke holes in the bottom of the peppers to allow the liquid to flow through. Place peppers into crock pot. Mix 2 cans of condensed tomato soup together per instructions and add 4 cloves of crushed garlic. Pour over the peppers. I’m German so I add sourcrout to the tops of the peppers (I recommend rinsing to get the heavy sour taste out though) but that’s a personal taste thing. Cook on high for 6 hours or low for 8. I eat it just as is but I make instant garlic mashed potatoes for my husband to eat it over. It’s basically a meal all in itself.
My 3rd suggestion is to make as large of quantities of things that you can. I make this chicken salad almost every week too. I eat it constantly, my 2 year-old likes it, it’s good for when you have someone over visiting and want to serve something tasty and my husband likes to take it to work for lunch. It’s a great dish and very easy to make. I usually make a double batch of this recipe and it will last most of the week. BTW, this was a recipe my mother came up with after she at the chicken salad from Whole Foods and loved it but didn’t love the $8/lb price that went along with it!
4 large chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
2 cups of red seedless grapes
1 cup of thinly sliced celery
½ cup of walnuts
½ cup of mayo
½ cup of fresh lemon juice
½ t. salt
1 t. poppy seeds
Rinse and trim 4 large chicken breasts. Season with a little seasoned salt and pepper, add 1 T of butter. Cook in a covered dish in the micro for about 10-15 mins until done. Cut into small cubes and set aside. Mix mayo, lemon juice, salt and poppy seeds together. Add chicken, walnuts, celery and grapes. Mix and that’s it! It’s really delicious too!

Also, large batches of chicken soup is great, pot roast with veggies in the crock pot, roasted chicken with veggies in the crock pot.

Hi C.,

I wonder if you have a Costco Club Card. They have a lot of organic produce as well as other organic products. They have free range chicken breasts, you can marinate a whole package in a little olive oil, herbs, garlic, etc.. , then grill or cook thoroughly and freeze them individually. Take one or two out at a time, microwave, add to a green salad, make chicken snack wraps (think healthy McDonald's wraps), chop up and add to spaghetti with sauteed (in olive oil) zucchini, asparagus sun dried tomatoes, fresh spinach or any vegetables that you would like to and add fresh parmesan cheese. Making chicken fajitas is easy too, just sauteing peppers, onions and other vegetables in a little olive oil/salt and pepper and add the chicken at the end. Or make it into a quick stir fry.

You can do the same with beef too, making fajitas with peppers and onions. Or make a turkey and freeze several bags for meals. Making turkey tetrazzini or adding turkey to a rice/brown rice dish with a few vegetables is easy. Serve with a little salad.

A recipe that we love and usually becomes a breakfast side dish or dinner dessert is a "fruit bowl" with consists of a small vanilla yogurt and any fruit combination, of the following: bananas, cherries, raspberries or any berry, nectarines, peaches, mango, etc.. I don't care for apple, pineapple or any citrus in this. It's easy to make and the kids love it. Mix it together and let it sit in fridge for 30 60 minutes. I even take tortillas, brush a little oil on it, add sugar and cinnamon, cut into little triangles and bake until crisp - then serve the "fruit bowl" and it's called "Fruit Nachos".

These are just a couple quick ideas. My kids have always been great eaters and I attribute that to my husband who has always insisted on serving variety and owning a good grill and saute pan to make cooking easier (We have one large "All-Clad" saute pan and I really hope to change that soon!) Hopefully these suggestions will help you. Once you get going... you'll just expound on them. Enjoy!