I have a theory that there is a impossible trinity (like in economics), where a food cannot be delicious, cheap and healthy at the same time. At maximum 2 of the 3 can be achieved.
Is there any food that breaks this theory?
Edit: I was thinking more about dishes (or something you put in your mouth) than the raw substances
Some popular suggestions include
- fruits (in season) and vegetables
- lentils, beans, rice
- mushrooms
- chicken
- just eat in moderation
Edit 2: Thanks for the various answers. Now there are a lot of (mostly bean-based) recipes for everyone to try out!
Also someone made a community for cheap healthy food after seeing this topic!
Onion. It’s cheap, nutritious, acts as a low-key anti bacterial solution, can be served in a multitude of ways, or eaten raw.
Subscribe for more onion facts. 🧅
eaten raw
You, sir, are a monster.
Hmm time for a snack
Takes a bite from a raw onion like an apple
Listen for some of us that’s a delicacy.
Tony abbott is that you?
Followed. Don’t let me down!
Great fashion accessory too
I thought your facts would lean more towards the lemon lifestyle.
the three sisters are very nutritious. corn, beans, squash. add any spices you like, and a good oil (my faves are la tourangelle olive oil and their toasted seasame oil, sold on amazon and not expensive). salt and spices make all the difference.
Ah yes, a food that you can eat for three days without pooping while you stay in a tent?
You already mentioned them, but I’m a huge fan of lentils. They go with so much stuff and you can combine them with a variety of spices. Give me any leftover ingredients and some lentils, and I’ll cook up something delicious. I can and will eat lentil soup for days.
They are also a pretty solid crop, they can grow in a variety of climates, require little water and are good for the soil.
🥑
I think a ripe avocado can be a good meal by itself, it has healthy fat, vitamins & fiber.
One avocado as a meal is cheaper than alot of other options.It’s so awesome with a bit of kala namak on it. Mjam!
humus
Only truly cheap if you make it yourself. That’s why I commented below on the missing item of “effort”.
granted
It depends where you live (I’m in Bangkok, so grocery choices are quite limited).
I love Oats. I got massively back into them again this year… now I buy around 3kg every month (instant oats).
It’s only this year, really, that I discovered that oats are still really good and creamy when not made with milk… and it’s really easy to boil a single cup of water to dump on a cup of oats for a perfect breakfast (left standing for a minute - done… no need to ‘microwave’ oats).
Also, cheap staples include: carrots, potato, broccoli, spinach…
Frozen strawberries are dirt cheap here too.
Breakfast 1:
- Instant Oats (1 cup, 1/4 tsp salt, 3tsp sugar, 3 tsp creamer)
- pulsed to powder in the blender with a cup of boiling water poured over.
- Blend 100ml milk with 3 strawberries and mix that in. The beauty of this is (as my son does NOT like stodgy/thick porridge) I can add an extra 100ml of milk to his breakfast, and it becomes a liquid smoothie.
Breakfast 2:
- Weetbix are not too cheap, but ONE biscuit mixed with ONE cup of oats is a massive breakfast - and tastes of Weetbix… and is ridiculously cheap in comparison.
Breakfast 3
- Oats work great with eggs…
- 1 cup oats, some salt, some cumin (maybe a teaspoon)
- 2/3 cup boiling water (soak a minute)
- 2 duck eggs mixed in
- butter up the frying pan and dump it in there, cover and cook gently for 3 minutes, flip and give them another 3 minutes.
DIsgusting poopy one
- 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder mixed with 4 teaspoons of non-dairy creamer + 1 cup oats
- pulse to powder, add a cup of hot water.
That’s choccie heaven right there.
So… Are you just unaware of fruits, vegetables, and legumes, haha? In my opinion there’s a huge amount of food that fits all three categories. One of the best example of cheap, delicious, healthy, and easy is beans and rice, spiced up however you like.
Yup. Mexican, Indian, a lot of cuisine from poorer countries figured this out long ago. Beans or lentils over rice with the right spices, incredible. The restaurant version will add a lot of fat and heavy cream but if you make it yourself you can adjust that so it’s not unhealthy.
Buy raw material and cook yourself.
Most premade food is expensive because:
- labor on cooking
- restaurant profit
- rent of the restaurant/owner of the place sell you food
- service
Mac n cheese.
Ratatouille.
A lot of cuisine that is lauded all around the world embraces all three of those, or at least the original dishes they came from did. A lot of really fancy food today and in the last 50 years is just “peasant food”. Sometimes just with fresher ingredients and more butter
mac n cheese is not healthy
Tacos and burritos could absolutely meet this criteria If you’re doing them well at home, with the most unhealthy thing being the tortilla itself (You could argue that those are empty calories). Of course that means no sour cream or cheap cheese abuse among other things
< deleted. pls find info on fb/yt > …
Sorry for my ignorance but what’s an “empty calorie”?
Im not an expert but people argue that bread and esentially most products whose base is just flour aren’t good. The reasoning is that those are carbohydrates that just add calories and nothing else (protein, vitamins etc…). So eating 200kcal of tuna is healthier than 200kcal of bread since those calories come with Proteins, phosphorus, omega 3 a bunch of vitamins etc. Whereas bread/tortillas are (basically) just carbohydrates which arent bad by themselves, but also arent good in excess
That’s true for white bread, not the other kinds. Whole-grain bread is both delicious and healthy. I remember visiting the UK for the first time and being amazed that all the natives were eating white bread for breakfast and lunch. Here in Northern Europe, white bread is more on par with a dessert item.
Well, something being delicious is subjective, but if we assume a “general acceptance” of most delicious foods, potatoes could fit easily. They can be cooked in all kinds of ways, are very nutritious and, again, pretty much everyone says they’re delicious.
Lentils.
Popcorn is very low calorie per volume, especially the types without a lot of fat.
My very Italian answer is “pizza bianca” . I guess “healthy” depends, but it’s generally OK carbs, it’s delicious and with few Euros you can buy quite a lot (enough for a lunch).
