Healthy food on a tight budget

[OakLeaf]

Martha Rose Shulman is doing grain-based main dishes this week. Paellas, pilafs, risotti, grain salads.

These days nine times out of ten if I try a new recipe, it's one of hers ... and I have a whole stack of them either bookmarked or saved as .pdfs.

[fallstoclimb]

I've found frozen vegetables and fruit to be much cheaper than fresh. I also eat a LOT of dried beans. If soaking/long cooking times sounds like too much work for you, I highly recommend investing in a pressure cooker. You can find one for around $100, they're very easy to use (and are safe these days) and aid in the switch from canned beans to dried (which is healthier, too!)

[goldfinch]

I've found frozen vegetables and fruit to be much cheaper than fresh. I also eat a LOT of dried beans. If soaking/long cooking times sounds like too much work for you, I highly recommend investing in a pressure cooker. You can find one for around $100, they're very easy to use (and are safe these days) and aid in the switch from canned beans to dried (which is healthier, too!)

I find canned beans disgusting and we always use dried. For the heartier beans like black beans we soak a big batch overnight, cook, and divide into baggies and freeze for later use.