Mandaue City – As common as it is today, plenty of individuals are as health conscious as ever. This would then lead to a misconception that providing or achieving healthy meal tend to require deep pockets. Choosing healthy meals or providing them doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, they could be the cheapest and easiest meal you could ever prepare for. Here are 5 tips in achieving a healthy yet cheap meal:

• Plan – Like with anything or everything we do; we must take our time to plan. Just like the saying goes, “Planning is key to success." Planning ensures that you don’t impulse buy, which is a compromise when you are on a budget and catering to a healthy meal. Time management is also a key here.
• Choose whole foods – When we do our grocery shopping, we tend to buy processed foods or what they like to call good-to-go items. This tends to be more expensive than buying from-scratch food items. Plus, this ensures you are in control of making your meals, therefore, controlling the nutrients preserved resulting in a cheaper nutritious meal.
• Gather ideas for cheap and healthy recipes – To avoid running out of ideas in formulating healthy cheap meals, it’s best to upgrade it now and then. And, once you have tried or tested the meals, try upping it up a notch by interchanging recipes altogether. Or you can always interchange ingredients.
• Buy from local sellers or farmers – This can’t be stressed enough about how local farmers are the backbone of the nutrition world. Supporting local farmers is a win-win situation. Getting fresh produce ensures quality especially nutrients one can get. Obtaining it straight from the source assures you of fair pricing, and therefore, cheaper nutritious food.
• Water, water, water – Drinking water is close to a free thing unlike sodas and other carbonated drinks that offer more cons to affecting your budget and your health. But you could alter water flavor by adding in a touch of lemon, kalamansi, orange, and the like. // NO I Gab Flores, RND