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Melanie Cole (Host): Healthy food can be expensive, and as a result, it can be difficult to eat well when you're on a tight budget. However, there are so many ways to save money and still eat whole healthy foods, and here to tell us how to do that is Tracey Burg. She's a Registered Dietician and the Culinary Nutrition Manager at Boston Medical Center's Nutrition Resource Center, Food Demonstration Kitchen, and Preventive Food Pantry. Tracey, I want to start with informing the listeners, what does eating healthy even really look like?

Tracey Burg, RD, LDN (Guest): Well eating healthy is kind of different for everybody, but in general, we want to have a healthy meal, you want to be talking about eating fruits and vegetables, we want to be talking about eating whole grains, and proteins. Not just meat, and chicken, and fish, but you can also have protein sources from nuts, and seeds, and soy, and eggs, and things like that.

Melanie: So we're going to jump right into this segment because we want to get through as many tips as we can. Sometimes eating healthy, when you talk about things like nuts, and seeds, they could be $12 a bag for almonds. It's very expensive. If you go to Whole Foods, you see all this healthy food, what are we supposed to do? How do we look for those healthy foods and save money at the same time?

Tracey: Well when you're talking about like nuts and seeds, they can be a little bit on the expensive side. But if you can buy in bulk in places like you just mentioned, Whole Foods often has bulk bins for food, you can usually get a better buy on that. But- and sometimes if you buy larger bags of nuts and seeds, they can be less expensive per pound as the size of the bag gets bigger. But one of the things you want to make sure, is what we were talking about, is planning, and planning is really the key to budget friendly meals.

Melanie: So then let's talk about planning, because you want to get the biggest bang for your buck, and so certain foods have more health benefits than others, or certain proteins are more packed than others, or fruits and vegetables have more vitamins than others. So tell us about how we start with that planning.

Tracey: Okay so what you want to do is you want to really start thinking about- before you go grocery shopping, you want to start thinking about what you're going to have for the week. Plan your week. So some of these things that you want to think about is maybe taking a look at what the sale items are, if they have like the flyers that they might send home with the list of foods that are on sale, and then plan your meals around those items. And you can also use your store saving card, because you usually get discounted off the entire amount of the food that you're buying.

Other things you can think about is buying in bulk is not always the cheapest way to go. A lot of people think you go to those big giant stores, you buy in bulk, but sometimes you've got to check the price and compare the pound per price that you're paying. And if you're buying things in large quantity, say you're buying a whole bunch of cucumbers because they were buy five, get two free, or something like that, you might end up with a couple mushy cucumbers at the bottom of your refrigerator bin. So buying too much is not always a good deal.

There's an exception to that rule that I use, is if I see frozen vegetables that are on sale, and say you might be able to get them for like ten for $10, frozen vegetables are going to stay frozen. And when they're picked in the farm, they're flash frozen right there, so they're going to be a healthy choice for a vegetable and can make a quick easy supper without having to do too much work.

Melanie: Frozen vegetables are just as healthy for us though, right? As fresh?

Tracey: Yes, frozen vegetables is just as healthy as fresh vegetables. So there's a couple things to consider. Frozen vegetables are flash frozen right after they're picked from the farm. They're steamed first and then frozen, so you're getting them at their peak of freshness. Sometimes when you're buying fresh vegetables, they could be coming- they could have taken two weeks to get to you. They could be traveling 2,000 miles to get from California to Massachusetts, so you're not definitely getting the most fresh.

And the thing about frozen vegetables too is they are handy. You know? If you have like frozen corn, frozen peas, or frozen broccoli, and you otherwise have no other vegetable in the house, at least you know you have something that's ready to go when you need it. It makes meal preparation nice and quick.

Melanie: I'm a fan of beans and canned food. Are they as healthy as the frozen versions of various things? Because the canned beans you don't have to soak them, they're ready to go, you can cook them up in two seconds.

Tracey: Oh yeah, canned beans are great. Canned beans- just what I do with the canned beans though, is you just want to rinse them first under water so you get rid of some of the brine that it's in, can have extra sodium there, so you can rinse them. But you can get canned beans really inexpensively. Dried beans are really inexpensive, too. Usually dried beans, you'll get more beans from a dry bean package than you would with the canned. And as you mentioned, dry beans do take a little bit of time to cook, but there are some new- a lot of the Instant Pots, the pressure cookers, they're much safer now than they ever were, and you could cook up a bag- a one pound bag of black beans in about twenty minutes, you can have these freshly cooked black beans. So either one. Either one are great sources of protein and fiber so it's healthy for you.

Melanie: So as we're talking about planning, and we're looking at the flyers, and our coupons, and we're making our plan, a lot of people don't know what to do with some of this healthy food, and you're a chef. Tell us about the cooking part of it all, and give us some tips. Now you just mentioned about the beans, and how we can use some of these new pressure cookers. Give us some more tips about cooking some of these healthy foods.

Tracey: Okay, so let's talk about meats first. So when you're talking about meat, try to buy less expensive cuts of meat. Now if you buy a cut of meat like say if you're buying a prime rib steak or something, it's got a lot of fat in it, and that makes it nice and tender. So you can cook it quickly, and it has a delicious flavor to it, however it's really expensive. But if you buy like bone-in meats, or roasts, or lean cuts of meat like top ground and chuck, they're a fraction of the cost of those other cuts, you just have to cook them differently. So some cooking methods for that would be like, as I mentioned before, Instant Pots for doing like a large- like a pork roast, or something like that. Or slow cookers, the old Crock Pots. Or marinating your meats first, that helps to make them less tough, more tender, and juicy.

Another thing with meats and things, if you buy larger cuts of meat, they usually cost less per pound. So you can break down large pieces of meat, like you get a whole long pork tenderloin for usually about half the price of pork chops that have been cut up, and what you do is you just cut it up into separate pieces, wrap them in plastic wrap, stick them in- all these individual pieces into a Ziplock bag, and throw it in the freezer. And then you've got individual pieces if you're cooking for two, four, or six, you just take out what you need, you can defrost it quickly in the bag in a big bowl of water with running water, and you've got some meat to cook with, and you've saved a lot of money, and you know you've got some back-up in the freezer so you don't have to buy as much when you go out shopping the next time.

Other things to do as far as meat goes too is like rotisserie chickens, they're awesome. They can be really inexpensive, like $4.50. I bought one the other day for work. We made a meal- we have a class called Four For Ten where I make a meal- a three course meal for a family of four. And from that rotisserie chicken, we had a meal with just like this chicken, and then we made two side dishes of pasta salad and I think it was a cole slaw. But then we saved the bones, and from the bones we made a broth, and from the broth with the other vegetables that we used in our salads, we made a soup. So these rotisserie chickens can be very inexpensive, also takes the time out of having to roast chicken when you come home from work.

Melanie: What about farmer's markets, Tracey? They seem to be when I go to them- because everybody wants to shop at their farmer's market. It's sustainable, it's local, but it seems like the meat guy there, or the fresh eggs, or even some of the vegetables seem to be sometimes more expensive.

Tracey: Well farmer's markets can be a little bit more expensive because we are getting them from a farm that's local. But you also have to consider too that you're sustaining farmers in your local area. So you're getting fresh food, and also keeping people in business. 

Melanie: So now we're looking at things like rice, and we hear you're not supposed to be eating really white rice, but that you're supposed to try with brown rice, and lentils, and quinoa, and all of these kinds of things. Are they healthy and budget friendly?

Tracey: Yes, I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, whole grains are the way to go. Whole grains are the intact grain so it includes the bran, it includes the germ, and includes what's called the endosperm which is the protein center- the protein starch center of the grain. White rice has the bran and the germ stripped away, so we lose all the fiber and all the wonderful nutrients that are in the germ, and we're just left with the center, which is that protein starch center. That's what white rice is. And what we lost with that bran is lots of fiber, and that really helps you to stay fuller longer. And it also helps to lower your risk of colon cancer, and it feeds your gut, and all of these other wonderful things.

So eating processed grains, you're going to miss out on all that nutrition. Having said that, sometimes these whole grains can be a little bit more expensive. So a bag of brown rice- brown rice meaning it still has the bran on the outside, that's why it's the color brown, it might be like a dollar more for a two-pound bag of brown rice, but you're getting a whole lot more bang for your buck when you're changing over from say a white rice to a brown rice. Or even when you're talking breads. White bread is always less expensive than whole grain bread, but for an extra $0.80 a loaf or something, you're getting a bigger bang for your buck nutritionally, and much better for your family than using the white bread.

So there's lots of different types of grains to use. Barley can be very inexpensive. I can get a bag of barley- a one-pound bag of barley for about $1.19 in the grocery store. And you can cook these whole grains, because whole grains do take a little bit longer to cook. They'll take about anywhere from twenty-five to forty minutes to cook brown rice or whole grains. But you can cook them in batches, and you can freeze it, and then you can just Ziplock bag, bring it out when you want to have it later.

Other things you could do with these whole grains is I make like a big batch of say farro salad or something. We just made that in the Teaching Kitchen today, actually. And I'll make a big batch, like on a Sunday afternoon, and that'll last throughout the week. If I come home and I don't have time to cook a full meal, I know I've got a healthy side dish for starches all ready to go. So these whole grains can stay for at least five days in your refrigerator and still taste delicious.

Melanie: Tracey, as we wrap up- and what a great topic for us to discuss because it's helpful for people to hear from someone such as yourself and explaining how we can stick to our plan, and make our lists, and cook healthy. When people are perusing the shelves, they see generic brands. So they'll see pasta by a famous company or they'll see pasta by the store brand. So tell us a little bit about buying generic. Are we getting the same quality? And then wrap it up for us with your best advice, and what you teach every day in the Demonstration Kitchen about eating healthy on a budget.

Tracey: Oh yeah, so I would say buying generic is a perfect way to go. Often buying generic, you're buying the same food that is boxed from the big name brands, only they're selling it on a generic level. So go generic. If you like the taste of it, then maybe you want to switch around, but I say go generic. A couple- the last thing I want to say is one thing is when you're planning these meals, budgeting for new meals, make sure that you keep everything organized, your fridge and your pantry. That way you can see what you have in your refrigerator, and when you go out shopping you're not going to be buying something that you already have. Like you might have ten boxes of pasta in your basement, and every time you go shopping, you buy a new box of pasta. Well you might not need it, and it's just adding up on cost.

And the last thing I want to say is watch out for impulse buying when you're grocery shopping. You should eat before you go to the grocery store, so that way you're not hungry. And if you're hungry, then you're going to be impulse buying. Try to stick to your list. An extra $30 a week is another $1,600 at the end of the year that you've paid for this off of your budget, for example. Basically when you're planning your meals, you want to think before you go shopping, think about what you're making, try to batch cook as much as you can to make your life easier during the week, and try to purchase the food that when you're cooking your meals, just think about making food from home. Here's a simple thing. If you're making food from home, you're going to be saving money. If you're eating out, you're going to be spending a lot of money on food. It doesn't matter if you're going to McDonald’s or if you're going to the best steakhouse in town. Eating out is going to cost more money than it is eating in.

So if you can just make some simple meals, just roast some chicken and have a brown rice pilaf and a nice broccoli and corn salad, you'll save a lot of money and also you're going to be much healthier than eating out in restaurants.

Melanie: That's great advice, Tracey. Really great advice for people to hear how important it is to try and choose healthy. But if you're on a budget, the real great ways that you can save time and money by cooking yourself, and making your list, and planning out your meals. Thank you again for joining us. This is Boston MedTalks with Boston Medical Center. For more information, you can go to www.BMC.org. That's wwwBMC.org. This is Melanie Cole, thanks so much for listening.