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| Mm... pancakes! (These are my new favorite kind of pancakes— recipe here.) |
Today's challenge, should you choose to accept it: Figure out some cheap "junk food" meals and snacks to stock in your freezer and pantry.
Something I've noticed about most people, including me, is that when we are making food from scratch at home, we try to make it as "healthy" and unprocessed as possible… but when we grab a bag of chips from the store, order drive-through, or hit up a vending machine, we give ourselves a pass because we don't see the ingredients in it. As a result, a lot of people psyche themselves out of cooking at home because they are constrained by the idea that everything cooked from scratch must be whole-grain-organic-low-carb-clean-eating-whole-30-approved-blessed-by-angels healthy. Then we get overwhelmed, and order Chinese takeout.
Sometimes you're not going to feel like cooking. Sometimes you don't have time to make food for work and have to rush out the door. Sometimes you just want comfort food and Netflix and not have to worry about anything for a while. Life happens. And because you know that life happens, you can avoid expensive fast-food runs by assembling some junk food yourself.
Fast food may not seem expensive at the time, but compared to home-prepared food, it's not a good deal. A burger off the dollar menu barely counts as a meal, whereas a 34¢ box of mac n' cheese will fill you up. A personal pizza on the go is convenient, but leftover pizza slices from a frozen pizza you made last night will save you several bucks. (And don't even get me started on take-out food that you pay a delivery fee for!) Is it healthy? No, but neither is the food you were going to eat anyway, so if something's unhealthy, it might as well be cheap!
What does this look like in practice? It really depends on what your comfort foods are. For instance, for me, chocolate-flavored oatmeal (old-fashioned oats with cocoa powder, nuts, maple syrup, and kefir), peanut butter toast, and refried bean burritos pretty much always sound good— so I always keep oatmeal mix, tortillas, and bread in the pantry, and peanut butter, refried beans, and cheese in the fridge. If I don't know what to eat, one of those will always sound good.
Everyone likes different things, but if you know your comfort food habits, you'll be on the right track of keeping your food bills down— while still indulging in junk food.
Here's list of ideas, which are quick, simple, and can be easily stored until you feel like breaking them out.
Freezer:
• Freezer meals that you buy at a store
• Ready-to-eat frozen food of any kind: tater tots, fish sticks, chicken nuggets, etc.
• Burritos: Wrap up some refried beans and cheese in a tortilla, with veggies if you like.
• Egg McMuffin: Scrambled eggs (and sausage, if you like that) and cheese on an English muffin
• Any sort of egg or meat or cheese sandwich: on bread, on a bagel, etc.
• Pizza. Freezer pizza is much cheaper than ordering it! (If you wanna go DIY, I keep our sourdough discard on hand for making a crust: just add shredded cheese and sauce. Faster than going to pick up a pizza, and a lot cheaper!)
• Homemade hot pockets. Crescent roll dough can be wrapped around any sort of filling and baked in the oven until it's bubbling. Then pop in a freezer bag for later.
• Waffles or pancakes
• Cake, cookies, or other baked goods
Refrigerator:
• Peanut butter or nutella (spread on crackers or bread, or dip apple slices into it)
• Salsa or guacamole
• Eggs
• String cheese (or cheese that you've cut into bite-sized portions)
• Yogurt with chocolate sauce
• Sauces that taste good on everything (I've made many a meal of plain ingredients seem special with a dose of homemade Kung Pao sauce!)
• Cheese, olives, salami, etc.
Pantry:
• Pasta sauce and quick-cooking pasta
• Ramen
• Mac n' cheese
• Tortilla chips
• Instant meals (as long as you actually like them)
• Good bread
• Crackers
• Flour or corn tortillas
• Refried beans
• Cans of tuna
• Croutons (am I the only one who loves eating croutons plain?)
• Popcorn
What are some of your favorite cheap junk foods? Leave a comment below!
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