Presignify

Short on cash? Are you a starving student? Or maybe you’re saving up for that next tank of gas!

Whatever the case, sometimes we all need to cut corners until the next paycheck rolls in.

These meals will fill you up without emptying your wallet. They should feed four hungry mouths.

While prices vary widely depending on your part of the country and your grocery store, you’ll still find these dinners will stretch your food dollar to the max.

1. Lentil stew. One package of lentils, a couple of carrots, a couple of potatoes, water. Place the package of lentils in a large soup pot and add the appropriate amount of water (1-1/2 cups water to one cup of lentils works best). Peel the potatoes and carrots, and slice to bite size. Add to soup pot. Season to taste. If you have it: Add a ham bone, a bit of leftover beef, bacon bits, bay leaf, or favorite herbs.
2. Baked potatoes. Nothing complicated here. Buy large baking potatoes or just get a bag of potatoes on sale. If small, bake more of them per serving. Choose your favorite toppings: Simply butter, salt and pepper, cheese, broccoli, sour cream, bacon bits, or whatever is on hand.
3. Cheese quesadillas. Make these with flour tortillas. Heat two tortillas in a skillet and remove one to a plate. Top the remaining tortilla with shredded cheese. When melted, about 1-2 minutes, place the other tortilla on top. Allow to cook for a minute or so, flip the whole thing over and cook the other side for another minute. Dump onto a plate, slice with a pizza cutter. If you have it: Add shredded cooked chicken to the cheese. Serve with salsa.
4. Scrambled eggs. Get a dozen for less than one dollar. Crack eggs into a bowl and whisk. Add milk, salt, and pepper. Cook eggs in a skillet. If you have it: Add your choice of mushrooms, cheese, green pepper, or onion.
5. Spaghetti and sauce. Here again, not too creative, but you can pick up a package of spaghetti and a can of sauce for less than two dollars. Add parmesan cheese on top.
6. Tuna sandwiches. Frequently on sale, tuna provides a meaty dinner this week. For four filling sandwiches, use four of the smaller cans. Dump all of the cans into a bowl, add mayonnaise or salad dressing, along with some relish if you’ve got it. Stir, spread onto bread. I like to use ranch dressing.
7. Grilled cheese sandwiches. Butter bread on both sides and place on a medium-heat grill. Add a slice of cheese. Splurge on an extra slice of cheese per sandwich!

Accompaniments:

• Watch for sales on frozen vegetables. You can frequently pick up a one-pound bag for less than a dollar.


• Slice a fresh tomato into wedges or a cucumber into slices to go with a sandwich. Any fresh vegetable will do.


• Slice a piece of fruit for a healthy dessert.


• Stop by Walgreen’s and see what’s on sale in their food aisle. They frequently have good deals on canned mandarin oranges which make a tasty dessert. Add a bit of coconut or a few marshmallows if you have them.


• Walgreen’s frequently carries canned mushrooms on sale, too.


• How about lunch for a quarter? Check Walgreen’s for ramen noodles.


• Cake mixes and canned frosting are often priced under a dollar, especially the store brands. Your only additions will be a bit of oil (or applesauce if you’re counting calories) and a couple of eggs (save from the meal above). For a couple dollars, you can have dessert for a couple of nights or snacks for a few days.

Even if you’re on a tight budget, you can still create a tasty meal. Not gourmet dining, but you won’t be hungry!

Looking for diet and weight loss tips? Kathy Ferneau has created an excellent resource for information on diets, healthy eating, and exercise. Click here: http://www.lose-weight-diets.com

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Making healthy, colorful foods a lifestyle for nutrition and
good eating.

Why Choose Foods by Color?

Nature’s healing colors abound in fruits, vegetables, whole
grains, legumes, and healthy oils. The colors are actually
pigments that come from a special class of chemicals known as
phytonutrients. When you eat foods of a particular color, you
access their particular healing powers. Scientists are just now
beginning to un- derstand the medicinal impacts of
phytonutrients and why eating fruits and vegetables may be our
greatest preventive tool against conditions such as cancer,
diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. For many centuries
traditional healers have taught color-coded eating as essential
for maintaining health, vitality, and long life. From this
foundation in traditional medicine and modern scientific
investigation, 7-Color Cuisine has emerged.

Eat 7 Colors a Day

The five bright fruit and vegetable colors of red, orange,
yellow, green, blue-violet-purple, plus the tan earth tones of
grains and legumes, reveal the phytonutrient pedigrees of those
foods. Animal foods, including dairy, eggs, fish, and poultry,
are creamy white in color and contain healing nutrients called
zoonutrients. 7-Color Cuisine: Making Healthy, Colorful Foods a
Lifestyle for Nutrition and Good Eating guides you to select
foods based on their colors and yielding an array of
phytonutrients and zoonutrients that research shows may help
fight disease, help you lose weight, derail the aging process,
and sharpen your wits. The cookbook integrates planning, buying,
storing, and preparing brightly colored foods that heal. And the
7-Color system aims to heighten your awareness of how delicious
and satisfying well-prepared good food really can be.

Most nutrition and diet regimens emphasize the composition of
food, enumerating how many calories a particular food or recipe
contains and its carbohydrate, fat, fiber, and protein content.
Although these numbers are important and are included with every
recipe in this cookbook, the emphasis in the 7-Color system is
on eating the right foods and enjoying them. By unlocking the
keys to the 7-Color plan, you’ll accomplish your dietary goals
without having to play the numbers game.

The plan begins with basics on how phytonutrients protect you
and why brightly colored foods are the best food choices to help
you look and feel your best. Each color has its own category of
protective phytonutrients, and the health benefits of each
category are fully explained. Foods making up the category are
listed as top picks, and you are encouraged to eat as many
different selections as possible. The amount of each color you
should eat is also given in detailed, thirty-day meal plans,
shopping tips, and recipes for both warm and cool weather.
You’ll also find a pantry management section to help you track
staples and eliminate high-calorie and less-nutritious items.
Once you learn the 7-Color plan, you’ll be able to mix and match
recipes for an endless variety of delicious meals.

Eat Less, Maintain Optimal Weight, and Feel Better

7-Color Cuisine features foods that are fresh and seasonal.
They’re also nutrient-dense, meaning that they come packaged as
nature intended, with hundreds of different beneficial
nutrients. Nothing has been removed or processed out of these
foods, so they retain natural digestive enzymes which can help
maintain an optimum body balance of acid and alkaline (pH).
Learning which foods to avoid and why their consumption can
sabotage weight loss and accelerate aging, you’ll also feel more
satisfied and less inclined to snack. With this system,
followers have reported drastic improvements to digestive
problems, bloating, and water retention. Many say they have
great success maintaining optimal weight and that such maladies
as aching joints, skin problems, fatigue, low sex drive, and
reduced cognitive function have improved.

This plan is high in protein, much of it from vegetables and
legumes, and naturally low in processed carbohydrates and
saturated fat, because the emphasis is on vegetables, fruits,
whole grains, legumes, lean protein, and healthy oils. As we
grow older, we need more protein-rich foods to meet the body’s
maintenance and repair needs. We also need to choose friendly
oils over saturated fats to maintain normal cellular and brain
function. The 7-Color plan is so easy to follow that you don’t
have to wonder about how to implement a healthier dietary
regimen. It is a healthier regime, although it doesn’t feel like
one. And yet the plan will be unique to you because you will be
learning a system that you can adjust to meet your personal
goals.

All of the menus and recipes here have been analyzed carefully
to make sure they adhere to the latest nutrition recommendations
and dietary guidelines. My plan is based on and supported by the
latest scientific findings, not the latest food fads. I know the
sound nutritional information contained in 7-Color Cuisine:
Making Healthy, Colorful Foods a Lifestyle for Nutrition and
Good Eating will endure for a lifetime of more enjoyable and
nutritious meals.

Excerpted from 7-Color Cuisine: Making healthy, colorful foods
a lifestyle for nutrition and good
eating(http://www.penmarin.com/proddetail.asp?prod=Zimmerman000&f
rom=4) by Marcia Zimmerman, M.D. (Penmarin Books
http://www.penmarin.com, February 2006).

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