Poohblah

Hi guys,

I'm a very active person (my other hobby is rock climbing). The problem is that I don't think I'm getting enough calories on my current diet. Although I love to cook, I don't often have the time, and I can't afford to eat out more than once or twice a month. My current food budget is $150/month. I was just wondering how I can pack some more energy into my diet on a budget, since I need to eat for two people on days when I climb hard and/or ride hard. My first thought is rice and beans, which is cheap and a complete protein as well. Rice and lentils sounds good too. I would need to spice either of those up a bit to make them palatable for cramming down my throat after exercising, but they could work.

Any other thoughts? Any and all input is appreciated

hamster

Raw grains are hard to beat in terms of calories per buck. Rice is one example that is cheap (over 2000 calories/dollar if you buy it cheap and in bulk) and easy to cook.

Also check out rolled oats. Here's a simple recipe: https://www.food.com/recipe/swiss-muesli-66251 You can skip honey, use 2 cups milk instead of 1+1 milk+yogurt, and use any combination of fruit, nuts and berries. I usually use chopped apples, bananas, raisins, and whatever else is handy. Oats are cheap, I usually get them for $1/lb, one pound is 4.5 cups, there are 350-400 calories in a cup. Fruit will make it more expensive but still generally affordable.

Poohblah

Thanks hamster. I already buy both rice and oats in bulk. Safeway sells 20lb bags of jasmine rice for $18 which is a good deal. Jasmine rice is about 50% more expensive than regular long grain white rice, but since it's so cheap anyway, I get jasmine rice since I think it tastes much better. Rice was a lot more convenient for me when one of my roommates owned a rice cooker, but now I live on my own. I cook rice a lot and I think I should simply start cooking and eating more in one meal to up my calorie intake. I eat a lot of oatmeal too, but I tire of it quickly. Here are some ways I make oatmeal to change things up: plain with cinnamon and cardamom, with cranberries and brown sugar, with peanut butter and raisins, with peanut butter and jelly, and with maple syrup.

I really like other grains too, for instance quinoa, but most of them are too expensive to warrant purchasing as a staple of my diet. Quinoa is $3.50/lb at my grocery store, for instance. Couscous is $2.50/lb. I know there are other choices like amaranth and some other lesser known or heirloom grains, but it's hard to beat < $1/lb rice.

Another concern I have - and I'm sorry for not stating this explicitly - but is loading up on carbs a good way to refuel after a workout? I know that watch ing what you eat is more important for losing weight than gaining weight, but what about for simply providing me with energy for workouts? What kind of calories are best to consume to fuel strenuous activity?

hamster

Between rice and oats (and pasta, if you get it cheap enough) you should have grains mostly covered. The only other source of cheap not-totally-junk carbs would be potatoes. If you get them for 30c/lb or less, they come out close to rice in calories per dollar.

Complex carbs of the kind you get from grains and potatoes are the way to go. You just want to make sure that you get some protein after the workout. I usually try to get an ounce of protein powder after a hard workout. That would be 50c using bulk soy protein powder, or closer to 75c using whey (there are many different sources of whey but they usually don't go below $10/lb). There are other alternatives, e.g. chicken breast or tofu, but they also typically don't go cheaper than 50-75c per ounce of protein. Some people say that soy is inferior to animal protein, but it's certainly better than nothing.

chrismorg

those big cans of chocolate icing have lots of calories .....

Poohblah

Awesome. Thanks a lot. I can get potatoes for $.13/lb when they're on sale at the grocery store. Usually they're $.25-$.30/lb. I tire of potatoes easily too, despite the fact that you can cook them a million ways. I think there are only a couple ways to make potatoes that I consistently enjoy: Scalloped (which requires a ton of milk & cheese & butter) and baked fries with rosemary, though it's difficult to beat the convenience of a microwave-baked potato. My store sells soy protein powder in bulk too, so I can check that out. Though I live in a very liberal area and I might get funny looks for buying soy protein powder, since it's almost guaranteed to come from GMO soybeans

human powered

Butter, oil, or avocados on everything if you need more calories. Eggs are cheap and go well with any meal and will get you through the crux on your next proj :-)

late

After you find a good cookpot, the rest is easy.

I'd buy 1-2 pounds of meat. Some weeks it was turkey legs,
some it was hamburger. Whatever you like that's cheap. Chicken
thighs are good.

Buy a pound of beans and soak them overnite. I like lentils,
and they don't need soaking.

Get some veggies for soup, celery, carrots, etc.

Add rice or barley. Barley digest slowly, making the meal last longer.

Sunday, start the beans, then throw in the starch, then the meat, then the veggies.
If you have a bay leaf, that's always good.

Just let it simmer a good long time on low heat.

Then all you do is throw it in the fridge, and you have dinner for most of the week.

Take out a portion, and warm it up in a pot. While you are doing that, give it some flavor.
You might stir in tomato paste one day, a can of Cambells soup the next. Finely chopped bacon is
a nice touch. (If you split a package of bacon several ways, throw that in several plastic bags and
freeze it, you can make one package last a long time.) Then there are all the sauces, soy, shoyu, worcestershire,
whipped chipotle in adobo. Sky's the limit.

There was a bakery down the street, and I'd have my soup with a hearty Russian pumpernickle, and real butter.
That's important. The soup may have been mostly the same, but real bread and butter turned it into a real meal.
And it didn't cost much.

You can buy a half pound of hamburger, and a can of no fat refried beans, and make meatloaf with a 50/50 mix of that.
Split it into 5 or 6 slices. You can have a meatloaf sandwich one day, crumble it into some sphagetti and marinara
the next. Toss some meatloaf crumbles into the soup to make it seem beefier.

Athens80

Extra carbs after the workout won't improve your next workout unless you're doing two-a-days, eight hours or less apart. If your workouts are less frequent than that, your normal diet and remaining stores in the body are enough.

DataJunkie

Donuts. 60 cents for 500 calories.
J/k

Diddii

My main hoppy is rock climbing, mostly bouldering. But i love riding. I also have to eat on a budget, and i make chili con carne maybe 2-3times a week and that's about 8-12 servings for me. You can buy cheap beef, add beans, onions, rice, bellpeppers and alot of other veggies you like to it. Eat up and store the rest in the fridge because it just gets better the day after

charbucks

A pressure cooker helps a lot time-wise with dried beans, and dried beans are much cheaper and tastier than the canned variety. Both pressure cookers and rice cookers can usually be found for less than $5 at a thrift store... just don't blow yourself up . As far as spicing it up goes, check to see if your store sells bulk spices - much cheaper (and often fresher) than the tiny jars.

I'm a fan of peanut butter and honey sandwiches for quick and easy to digest energy. If you learn how to make bread you can throw together some good whole-wheat loaves for much cheaper and healthier than store-bought. Something like the no-knead bread recipe takes about 30 minutes of actually interacting with the ingredients, though considerably longer waiting time. Also, automatic breadmakers can often be scored at thrift stores or on craigslist, and they're pretty awesome.

Cans of tuna and eggs are both good for cheap protein, and then there's good old pasta for pure filling satisfaction. Don't neglect your fruits and veggies though... they may provide seemingly insignificant calories, but they'll help a lot to both keep you "regular" and to give you satisfying tastiness, vitamins, and minerals. Bags of carrots and apples tend to be inexpensive, and somehow bananas are always dirt cheap despite their ridiculous shipping distance.

melvinator

I am going to have to go with this one ...you can make 8-12 servings of about 500-600 cals with tons of protien from chilli.

1lb of ground beef 3.25
2 cans of beans 1.50
large can stewed tomatoes 1.59
tomato sauce. 1.09
onion .65

add to that some some chilli powder about 1tbsp 1/4 of paprika 1/4 cup of brown sugar add add garlic powder salt pepper and some tomato paste and bam you have food for about 4 days at .97 cents a serving. And just let sit after browning the meat first in the pot for about 30 minutes and stir once in a while. Also add spices to taste this is for a safe chilli. (i was a chef on sale boat for 6 months so i this will work)

then on that you add rice and man you are looking at 800 calories a sitting from a bowl of chilli and rice.

o and i buy all my spices at costco so its like 5 bucks for a 2lb bottle of each spice last me about a year for 20 dollars worth of spices.

wphamilton

I'll do chili similar to melvinator, but keeping the beans separate for chili purist purposes.

You can also make red beans and rice by seasoning the beans just like chili minus the tomato base and brown sugar (if you use that). I use ground sausage for its flavor instead of ground hamburger, and go heavy on the cajun spices. Mix the cooked rice in last and you can live on that stuff.

Supposedly after an intense workout it's more important to have some protein than just carbohydrates.

rumrunn6

chicken thighs are cheap

Jfitalia

This just isn't true. Consuming around 25-30 grams of carbs and 6 grams of sugar is critical following any workout. Wether that is weight training or cycling. That is basic personal training 101.