Well, I’m trying to add in some cheap healthy eating (oh, college).  I decided to make this bean soup today, and you know what?  Dried beans are SO much cheaper than canned.  All you have to do is soak them overnight before you cook them, so it’s really not that much work to use them either.  And I save a couple of dollars.  Herman knows that means more toys.

More cheap, healthy food: 
Oatmeal!  I love oatmeal, and it’s so easy to dress it up with nuts and brown sugar.  Mmm.
Pasta.  Try whole wheat---it’s so much better for you and it barely tastes different at all.  I love pasta and peas with some butter and parmesan cheese.
Potatoes.  Sweet potatoes especially---they’re good for you and you don’t have to put much of anything on them to make them delicious.

Ahhh… to be young and broke again… I remember those days all too well. Living on cheap groceries and food smuggled out of the dining halls… Just put up the sign now: Will Sell Plasma For Food! (Been There - Done That)

I agree with our last poster: pasta and potatoes are great ways to stretch the food budget. Pop a potato in the microwave, sprinkle on a little cheese and a little light ranch dressing and there’s dinner! Even better if you have some broccoli or some chili fixin’s around! Mmmmm…

Thankfully grocery stores have a much better variety of low-cost healthy food now. Back in the day everyone just lived on nasty ramen noodles. AACK! The salt!! Actually, I managed to live off them just fine… you just can’t use the nasty salty flavoring packets. Skip the ones in the cup and go straight for the ramen packed in bricks. Cook the noodles in water and drain, and if you have no other source of flavourings, sprinkle a little bit of the packet on them when you’re done. Better yet, avoid nasty packet-o-death like the plague and add some beans or veggies to your noodles. Add to any way-to-thin soup or broth and make an actual meal out of it!

Other good cheap food: Popcorn. PLAIN popcorn, not the super-mega-ultra butter flavoured ones. It’s cheap, filling, and can conquer any in-between-meal munchies.

Peanut Butter. Invest in the good stuff, it will last you for a while, so you can afford the splurge. It’s always tasty, it’s a good source of cheap protein, and it can liven up the cheapest loaf of bread or box of crackers you can afford in desperate times.

Rice. Now that the dorms have better cooking tools, you can go all out! After all, what goes better with beans?? Get brown rice for better nutrition, but don’t skimp on the quality or you’ll be hating every last bite. I’m finding time is more precious to me now, so I usually go with Uncle Ben’s Instant brown rice (cooks in 10 minutes). I’ve tried other cheaper “instants” and they bite the big one. It’s about 2 bucks a box at WalMart at the moment, and that makes a ton of rice for one person, but if you want to save the big bucks, go with the non-instant variety. Just be prepared to rinse it a few times first and cook it for about an hour or so. Make sure you find a variety that tastes good, and once you do, buy it in as much bulk as you can afford.

I’m sure there’s more, but that’s all I can think of at this hour. I’m currently having a flashback to when I got 4 bags of groceries from $10 of plasma money. I can even remember what is was: 2 cheap loaves of bread, a jar of Jif, a few boxes of cheapo generic macaroni and cheese, cheapo generic chicken noodle soup, a pack of cheap hotdogs (more protein...sortof...) and a whole lot of ramen noodles. *shudders* Thankfully I got my produce from the dining halls… as well as the occasional smuggled chicken cosmo…

Wow, you just listed my basic diet . . . haha.
We do go through some popcorn here in the apt.  I always buy it in a bag and just pop it on the stove myself.  It’s cheaper and it tastes better and you can put whatever you want on it.
I also buy a lot of frozen foods.  Frozen veggies are a lot better for you than canned veggies and they are cheaper than fresh produce. 

Bananas are great!  And they are always pretty cheap.

I think that’s the staple of diet of all broke college students…

I watch out for frozen food now because of the really high salt content. You’re generally ok with plain veggies, but the moment you start adding a butter sauce or any flavourings and BANG! you’re up to 35-40% sodium!  And the microwave meals… *shudders* I try to keep that to a minimum, but they’re sometimes unavoidable when you’re trying to pack lunches when you’re already running late. I really like that they have individual size steam in the bag frozen veggies now. They’re a much better choice for last-minute lunch packing!

As for snacking… we don’t do popcorn as much anymore. I still love it, but I can’t handle the shells getting stuck in my teeth!! Drives me bonkers!! I’m always attacking myself with floss afterwards. We still always keep some around for fast healthier snacking, but I keep other options too. I love pretzels YUM!! I try to keep to lightly salted, ‘cuz the no-salt ones are usually flavourless. I’m a big fan of sourdough nibblets at the moment (Snyders? I forget) We get a big bag and immediately break them up into smaller baggies. I like to leave a few at work for the can’t-quite-make-it-till-lunch munchies. I’m really into the baked lays and ruffles now too.  It took me a while to adapt to the styrofoam texture, but pathetically now I prefer them to regular potato chips. Kinda like what happened when I switched to diet drinks. They’re too pricey though, so I only get them when I’ve got a hankering. As a pure indulgence, I LOVE terra chips!!! They’re all kinds of different root vegetables made into snack chips: taro, parsnip, sweet potato, mmmmm… I like the plain ones the best so your can taste the individual veggies! But a bag is ~$4-5, so I do go there often. And when I do, it’s all mine!!!

Dagnabbit!!! Now I’m hungry!! *moseys off to rustle up some grub*

Here’s a subject: bottled water.  I’m kind of spoiled when it comes to my water.  It’s not that I’m even crazy about how clean it is, I’m just really picky about how it tastes.  I grew up with a well and a really good water softener, so my water always tasted so fresh and delicious.  Now, I’m stuck with grosso city water and I have a hard time drinking it.  I really like my Brita filter because I can filter the water and just use a reuseable bottle.  I’m trying to give up plastic bottles completely.  It’s a little more work to filter (and I might get a little obsessed and filter it more than once when the Brita gets a little old . . . ah!), but it’s cheaper than buying a bunch of bottles, and it’s better for the environment.  I know some people who buy water in the gallon jugs too, I guess that’s a better option.
Last night on the food network I saw a bottled water company that makes the bottles out of corn!  So, they are completely biodegradable and even compost in about 80 days.  Crazy!  That’s an awesome idea.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen that brand before here (I think they were based in CO?), but I’m going to look.

I saw that show too!!! The name of the company is Biota (supposed to stand for Blame It On The Altitude) They’re based in Colorado and the water is supposed to come from a high-altitude underground spring of snowmelt filtered thru the mountains for a over a hundred years. I haven’t seen that product before, but I’ll be looking!

Ok, did some quick surfing. The official site is: http://www.biotaspringwater.com

It looks like it’s only available at “select” natural food and gourmet markets right now. It says “nationwide”, and it shows Whole Foods and Wild Oats markets on it’s links page, so who knows? There might be some down here! I’ll have to check it out!

Awesome!  Thanks for the link.  It’s such a cool idea.  Just think of all the things they could make with biodegradable corn materials instead of plastic!

I know!! I think that’s so kool! I hope it becomes more widespread. Corn = good to eat, fuel up your car, and hold your soda in the cupholder - who knew?

Still haven’t gone shopping yet, so I haven’t been able to look for it. Hopefully I’ll have a little time on Sunday…

Did anyone else see the segment on the Today show this morning about plastic bottles possibly being bad for you? I was half asleep when it came on… no idea what time it was… Even though I wanted to watch it, I just couldn’t keep my eyes open. I know they talked about different types of plastics and recycled plastics, and I think the problem was more with bacteria/etc collecting in crevices when people were re-using the bottles. *shudders* I’ll have to look it up online. Not tonite though, I’m supposed to be finishing some online resarch and going to bed!

Add on one more reasons for corn bottles!

Oh, yeah, I didn’t see that but reusing water bottles is supposed to be bad after a while.  The plastic isn’t very sturdy so after a bit it ends up with tiny cracks that can collect bacteria.  I’ve been trying to cut down on my bottle usage completely anyway.  I have a nice Nalgene bottle (sturdier material, so you don’t have to worry about the cracks), but I’d like to work my way up to a couple of SIGG bottles.  They’re . . . something . . . aluminum, maybe?  But anyway, they’re sturdy and reusable.  I’m attached to my Brita filter because tap water here is NASTY.  So, I filter, fill, and take my water with me I like the Nalgene bottle because it holds a liter without being bulky or hard to hold.