How to Eat Cheaply and Healthily

As some of my friends on Facebook can tell by the links I post, I'm interested in websites that suggest ways to live cheaply and healthily, both in Buenos Aires and elsewhere.

These are two of the best websites I found for cheap, healthy recipes:
cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2004/02/master-recipe-list.html
cookforgood.com/recipes.html

These are some Buenos Aires-specific tips for eating cheaply. Even for people outside of Buenos Aires, they well-written articles and interesting to read:
www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelerbill/argentina/1158592320/tpod.html
blog.besttraveldeals.net/travel/the-6-best-meal-deals-in-buenos-aires

So... after having lived on my own for a month and a half, and having actually cooked for myself (as opposed to living on egg rolls, cereal, and food I got on dates), it is now time for my own edition of:

How to Eat Cheaply and Healthily!

The obvious advice is to look for bargains, either at budget grocery stores (in Buenos Aires, COTO), or the sale items at other stores. Most often, stores have 4 versions of the same product next to each other, one of which is significantly, or at least noticeably, cheaper than the others. Go for the cheaper versions! The money you save adds up, and most often, the different versions taste basically the same (with the exceptions of peanut butter and macaroni and cheese, which are a little harder to do right — personally, I go with name brands for these).

If you live in an area with fruit and vegetable shops (fruterías and verdulerías in Buenos Aires), buying fresh fruits and veggies at these as opposed to in a grocery store will often save you money. In Buenos Aires, I once bought 5 oranges for under a dollar! Fresh salads are a very cheap and healthy meal. The possibilities for fruits and vegetables are endless.

Pasta is another cheap and (relatively) healthy option. I bought two packages of dry pasta and two packages of seasoned tomato sauce at a DISCO grocery store in Buenos Aires for 4 pesos ($1 US dollar) each. That's enough to make about 16 bowls of pasta. 1 peso or 25 cents per meal!

Wheat bread, oatmeal, organic soup powder, and cereal are other cheap, healthy, easy ingredients for meals.

If you are a meat-eater, eggs are cheap and versatile. In Buenos Aires, hot dogs (panchos), empanadas (which come in many flavors) and rotisserie chickens are very cheap.

My favorite meals are salads and stir-fry. In most big cities, Chinatown grocery stores are a great place to shop for deals. I did my grocery shopping in Buenos Aires' Chinatown (located at Juramento and Arribeños) today. For less than 200 pesos (or $50 US dollars), I got:

Miso soup paste (makes about 40 pots of soup)
Black bean / assorted grain soup powder (makes about 24 bowls of soup)
Chili garlic sauce
Sweet Thai chili sauce
Thousand Island dressing
Green onion (8 stalks)
2 packages of fresh portobello mushrooms
Alfalfa sprouts
Tofu
Kimchi
Oolong tea leaves

And...
A cold can of Korean iced coffee to cool me down after all that shopping

I'll use these ingredients (along with wheat rice and fruits and vegetables that I already have stocked) for stir-fries, soups, and salads!

I hope some of you find this helpful! Now, I'm off to make some miso soup (or as I prefer to call it... Korean doenjang jjigae)!

Hasta luego,
Kaeli