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Thursday, August 4, 2011

You learn something new every day

Money is pretty tight around here, but I have all I need and I'm going to work hard to keep it that way. One of my strategies is to find cheaper food alternatives so I don't get bored or feel deprived with the same cheap meals day in and day out.

The other night, I had my first bowl of ramen noodles because I had to. It wasn't even bad (albeit not good for you). I was chatting with M and we generated a list of things to add to ramen to keep things interesting and to get other forms of nutrients. We came up with stirring in veggies such as peas or carrots, cut up hot dogs and scrambled eggs. I'm sure I will find many more possibilities.

I went grocery shopping last night with my list of cheap foods and came across a question, are frozen or canned vegetables better for you? They're typically the same price so if I'm going to stir them into Ramen or other meals, I might as well get the healthier option.

So I did some research when I got home and discovered that frozen is much better for you, according to Fit Sugar.  Canned are more convenient because they don't need to thaw, they last longer and don't take up room in our tiny freezer. But frozen don't have tons of preservatives.

Now I will learn the best way to prepare frozen veggies, since fresh will almost always not be an option for a while. And hey, the article even says that frozen is sometimes better than fresh!

2 comments:

  1. Peas in ramen is great because they practically thaw themselves in the hot soup. My friend was giving this to her picky eater son the other day and I thought it was a great idea. I personally love putting California blend frozen veggies (cauliflower, carrots, broccoli) into casseroles of all kinds. My two faves are: Noodles, veggies, meat, cream of mushroom soup OR Veggies & meat with boxed mashed potatoes on top (kind of a shepard's pie)

    Good luck! and yes you're right frozen veggies are way better for you and actually pretty comparable to fresh since they are flash frozen these days to preserve most of the vitamins and such...mmmm but canned taste so good. I LOOOOVE canned green beans.

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  2. Frozen is NOT EVER better than fresh, I don't care what ANYONE says. But, I was going to say frozen and then you answered the question. Yay! I like your food ideas. i also like hard boiled eggs cut up and pieces of beef (like pieces of a roast) with soy sauce in my ramen. My step dad used to make it for us kids all the time. Yum!

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