this wasn't in the plan |but life is still pretty good

When I saw this headline - Stretching Out Food Stamps -  in my Sunday newspaper (It's an associate press article, maybe you've seen it too), I was pretty sure I'd hate the article. When I read about how "hard" it is to eat healthy on a budget I get mad, because I don't really think it is! Sure you can't really go 100% organic or anything, but you definitely don't have to resort to potato chips and mac and cheese. You can find a happy medium that will give you some good nutrients. Imagine my surprise when the article actually agreed with me!

Two chefs and a food magazine editor set out to plan a weeks worth of healthy menus with $68.88, the national average amount of food stamps money that a family of four would get. Two of them were successful (the other went over by just under $20). All three avoided processed foods and two of them said that, although processed foods are cheaper, they are harder to stretch out over more than one meal. One of the chefs suggested using a variety of seasonings to make inexpensive basics taste drastically different each night. Each person spent about a third of their weekly budget on produce.

The consensus seemed to be that healthy foods on a budget is possible - it just requires some planning and actual cooking!