Recently I was reading an article from our fellow Daily Savings that explained that the crisis is causing malnutrition in Spanish children. I was worried and I have been reflecting on this issue.
There are certainly families right now in a serious situation of lack of income, and in these cases, some even who must resort to dining rooms organized by assistance associations, we might fear.
However, we should reflect a little on our eating habits and try, whatever our situation, to recover healthier and cheaper nutrition.
General advice
The shopping cart has risen a lot. It is no longer that it is expensive meat, but that vegetables and fruits are too. We can, however, with some general advice, adapt our shopping habits to seasonal products, fresh and healthy, in stores or markets, which may have more adjusted prices and make the need an opportunity to prevent the crisis from damaging the nutrition of our children.
The food at home
When both members of the couple work outside the home there is hardly any time to make the purchase, let alone healthy cooking. If either or both are at home now, they can start recover the habit of making the purchase on a daily basis and preparing food for the Mediterranean diet.
We can also, if possible, avoid the school canteen and let the children enjoy a homemade family meal.
Let's buy with a head
We do not buy much. We must avoid throwing food, buying in excess and spoiling it, not buying whims or pre-cooked industrial products. A good habit is to go to the store with a list and not leave it.
Do not fill the pantry (unless they are essential products such as legumes, rice or flour). We do not buy pre-cooked products, pastries, caprices, prepared packaging, sausages. Let's drink water, no soda. Milk, not shakes.
Nor do we buy fruits or vegetables for the whole week in plastic containers, but ask seasonal pieces and of less beautiful size or appearance, which have better prices and in bulk.
The market or the markets with guarantee, the purchase to the weight, the seasonal products, the local suppliers and the shops that make offers are an interesting option.
Recover the pleasure of the party
Recovering the pleasure of reserving the most expensive foods for special occasions and focusing daily food on healthy homemade dishes is a good idea. Lamb, steaks and roasts, for the holidays. Cakes, too. Drinks such as soda or smoothies, reserve them for those occasions.
In addition, both valid for birthdays and dinners with friends, it is worth recovering the custom of making them at home, reserving for those days the purchase of something expensive and delicious that perhaps, before, we had in the fridge.
Let's make our food
We can make our yogurts and our biscuits, our jam and our ice cream with milk and sugar. Even if we have room, we can Grow some products on our terrace or our garden.
Eat Healthy
Breakfast bread with oil or homemade jam, an orange and a glass of milk. Eat a good plate of legumes and vegetables, or a complete stew like those made by our grandmothers. Buy less expensive pieces of meat or fish that need more preparation, but equally nutritious. Snacking an apple and a homemade cake is a lot healthier and nutritious than a juice in individual portions, a smoothie or a bun.
Make a weekly menu
Good customs that help to make a purchase planning is to prepare a weekly or biweekly menu in advance and buy what we need.
At weekly menu, we can include chickpeas (in cooked or with some chard or spinach, with fish or meat of cheap pieces, in hummus or sauteed with a garlic), lentils (with potato, onion and carrot, plus a piece of sausage) and beans (with potatoes, onions and carrots, or with cabbage and black pudding), at least one day a week and vary the preparations. Rice with seasonal vegetables and a little lean or ribs, and pasta such as macaroni or spaghetti can not be missing either.
Take advantage of leftovers
Take advantage of leftovers It is another way to save without sacrificing nutritional quality. Purees with the vegetables that are left over and a potato. Let's make tortillas with seasonal vegetables, buy the whole chicken and take it out for cooking, soup, steaks, roasted thighs and even croquettes. Take advantage of leftovers for dumplings, scrambled eggs, sausages and homemade croquettes.
Some ideas of leftover use are grating the hard cheese to sprinkle it in the pasta or make a fondue, use the bones, scrapes and cuts of meat to make good homemade broths for stew bases or soups, or recover those delicious cannelloni and empanadas in which you can put almost everything.
Spend on what matters
Let's concentrate on the fact that salads are not lacking (they don't have to be those so beautiful that they come in a bag, just lettuce, some cucumbers and some carrots), fresh fruits (now apples and pears are usually cheap and very rich) and proteins of quality although the piece is not the softest (blessed Russian steaks and meatballs in sauce). It is better to invest in nuts than in chips and snacks if we want to have something to chop that increases the quality of our diet.
What if there is a baby at home?
Feeding a baby is essential, and you have to take care of it a lot, but that doesn't mean we have to spend. If we are waiting for a child, the best savings and health advice is to consider the importance of breastfeeding and go to a support group or read a lot to be able to breastfeed for at least two years. We will be giving you the best and also, spending the minimum with the greatest guarantee.
If the baby is already born, my advice is, again, to breastfeed as long as possible, at least two years, so we will not need to buy any adapted or other milk, as we will have the best milk in the world free and available for him. If there are problems with breastfeeding, let's look for solutions that surely, trust us, we can find them. And if we give formula milk, let's look for a suitable price.
On the complementary food the healthiest and cheapest is the natural. It is not necessary to use pots or industrial porridge. Making our own food and giving them vegetables, meat or fish and regular cereal soups guarantees proper nutrition.
It is true that there is crisis, but cooking and buying non-industrial products we can get good nutrition that avoids obesity and bad habits, in addition to offering a complete diet to children. And, as a last general advice, do not forget to visit our sister blog, Ahorro Diario, which offers many ideas to control our expenses.
