During National Nutrition Month, the LSU AgCenter has been focusing on ways to live and eat healthier. The AgCenter will be providing tips and tricks that can benefit anyone, regardless of their budget.
Sometimes these suggestions seem unattainable, however, because of the amount of time healthy meals may take or the costs that might come from buying specialty ingredients.
But Sandra May, Ag-Center curriculum coordinator for nutrition and community health programs, said there are still easy and efficient ways to eat healthfully on a budget.
“The No. 1 thing is to plan ahead,” May said. “If you plan even a day ahead, you know what you’re going to eat for the meals that you’re going to prepare at home or bring to work. You want to make sure that you’re prepared.”
May suggested planning what will be on the dinner table, even if it’s takeout or eating at a restaurant. Ideally, plans should be made for a few days or a week at a time, but May acknowledged this may be hard to do sometimes.
Once those meals are planned, May said, create a list of ingredients that will be needed for each meal and make sure not to deviate from that list. She recommended using MyPlate and planning meals that fulfill every food group.
To save money, check the sales at your local grocery store. You can plan your meals around what is on sale.
While it’s easy to get distracted or tempted by enticing snacks or meals at the grocery store, May emphasized that the best way to avoid unhealthy eating is to stick to a list and avoid spontaneous decisions.
“When you go to the grocery store, when you have your list, be careful not to be caught by those items at the end of the aisle,” she said. “It’s just a matter of planning and organizing your time and your grocery list.”
Through the AgCenter and in partnership with Louisiana Healthcare Connections, shoppers also can find healthy, simple recipes from the Build A Healthy Meal video series. These videos show how to prepare budget-friendly, nutritious meals that satisfy a Louisiana palette. They can be made quickly with easily accessible ingredients and are good for cooking with kids.
“We want to make sure that people can use these recipes at home. Ingredients in the recipes are cost friendly,” May said. “We use ingredients that are readily available and can be used in other recipes to avoid waste.”
