ISO Healthy Meals for Family of 7

amother

Sun, Oct 23 2022, 6:07 pm

With the prices of food so high and seeing that a pack of three Romaine hearts are 7.99 , I need ideas of how I can serve my family healthy meals , where we feel satiated and stick to spending between $350 and $400 weekly.
My kids are mostly adults , quite a few of us are obese and need to lose weight. I do not want to make anyone ever feel hungry . What meal ideas are there that I can serve that suits our health needs, family size and food budget? Any ideas for breakfast , lunch and dinner?

amother

Oatmeal

Sun, Oct 23 2022, 6:23 pm

amother OP wrote:

Have you tried shopping at aldis if you are in the US? Romaine hearts are usually less than 3.99 for a 3 pack there. The rest of the produce is very reasonably priced too. But yes, it is a challenge to afford healthy food in these crazy times.

tichellady

Sun, Oct 23 2022, 6:41 pm

do you have trader joe’s near you? their product is pretty reasonable. also frozen produce may be reasonable and useful for stir fry’s and soup. some ideas;
breakfast: overnight oats with chia, scrambled eggs and whole wheat tortillas and salsa, smoothie with egg whites or protein powder blended in

for dinner I recommend having soup. soup is affordable, healthy and filling. then can have brown rice lentil casserole, fish and sweet potatoes, tofu stir fry and rice, a big salad with chicken, beef or fish, chickpea stew either vegetarian or with a little meat

amother

Azalea

Sun, Oct 23 2022, 7:24 pm

amother OP wrote:

Time to start shopping at Aldi. Even in Instacart (which can be more) 3 pack of romaine hearts today were $3.50

Chana Miriam S

Sun, Oct 23 2022, 8:53 pm

Here’s a tip. Since we went low carb, our bills have gone way down. Since we eat nutrition dense food, our bodies do not crave food constantly. Buying real, unprocessed food makes a huge difference both cost and quality wise.

We buy our fish from Asian stores and we do eat a lot of eggs, which are definitely cheaper than meat. We also have a grocery store that sells fish scraps for a ridiculously low price.

Frozen vegetables don’t necessarily need a hechsher. Like if you purée broccoli and cauliflower the. Even major hashgacha says you can eat it. Ask your LOR on that one.

We also buy vegetables on the reduced rack.

Anyways, we waste less and we eat better and our bills with three adults around every day are less than they were when we got married thirty years ago.

It’s doable. Especially without the insulin reactions we got making us want to eat more before.

Just buy ingredients, not products.

amother

Watermelon

Wed, Oct 26 2022, 1:09 am

amother DarkPurple wrote:

Costco has a 5lb bag of frozen broccoli, cauliflower, carrot (not too much) mix for $7
It has a hashgacha from Mexico
According to my Rav the hashgacha is good

Empire Chicken at Costco did not go up in price, best price in my OOT town
Also they have good price on CY cheese, for OOT. Double check if you live in Brooklyn or Lakewood Bingo might be better

Who are you and why did you steel my identity!!!
I’m the Costco lady!!!
Just teasing.
Costco is plenty big, there is enough to go around and I am happy to share LOL

amother

Watermelon

Wed, Oct 26 2022, 1:12 am

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

How much are the cutlets where you are?
They used to be 9.99 here and last I checked they were something like 11.49 which is still the cheapest possible but way more than a year or so ago.

Did your rav actually say not only that the hashgacha is good but that you may eat frozen broccoli that wasn't certified as bug free? (Most hechsherim aren't certifying that component.)

Costco empire cutlets are $5.49/lb
Turkey tenders are $4.49/lb
Whole frozen bullet chickens are $2.39/lb they were $2.09.
Recently reduced for quick sale cutlets have been $2.99

seeker

Wed, Oct 26 2022, 9:53 am

andrea levy wrote:

I went low carb and it's killing me. Because we're not filling up on macaroni, cereal, and sandwiches all the time we need real food instead. Real food costs a fortune. You can still get macaroni for $1 a box, which could be a meal for all the kids with some cheese on top, whereas a dozen eggs are now close to $4 and that's enough for a meal for all the kids with a few eggs left over. That particular main course was only a $3 difference but it adds up and eggs alone aren't going to cut it, it also takes a lot of fish and chicken and meat to go carb-free and all forms of all of those are way up - besides tuna fish in a can. Which is supposed to be not the healthiest choice but you can still get it for $1.50 a can. Figure about 1.5 servings per can it's still more than the eggs but an improvement. But again how many meals can you get out of tuna and eggs? We're going through chicken like nobody's business.

I don't have any reduced rack vegetables here, not sure what that is. I try to shop based on sales but it's not nearly enough and even the sale prices are double what they used to be. I used to buy iceberg lettuce when romaine wasn't on sale, now the iceberg costs as much as the romaine!

The nearest Aldi's is more than a half hour from me, I can't do that regularly. It's just plain insanity and an impossible situation.

I'm doing it for our health but the costs are insane.