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Hello again, savvy savers! This week’s Battle Of The Bulge Series, Budget-Style will focus on going meatless! As well, here is my weekly health breakdown: Today I am 31 years young, I am 5’6”, and weigh 202 lbs; this week past week I have lost 3 pounds. My lifestyle is beginning to change, as I have ventured into Yoga this week, and now incorporate this ancient-practice once a week into my Battle-Of-The-Bulge lifestyle changes.
1) Limiting Your Cancer Risk. There are numerous medical journals and studies that suggest eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables may reduce cancer risk; noting that both red and processed meat consumption is associated with colon cancer.
2) Potentially Reducing Heart Disease. A 2012 study from Harvard University study found that replacing saturated fats with foods rich in polyunsaturated fat, the lipids found in nuts and vegetable oils, reduces the risk of heart disease by twenty percent.
3) Help Stave Off Diabetes. Research suggests that higher consumption of red and processed meat increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.
4) Help curb Obesity. Cutting meats out of your diet, even for one day a week, can help lower body weights and body mass indices, according to a recent study from Imperial College London.
5) You May Live Longer. Red and processed meat consumption are associated with increases in cancer mortality and cardiovascular disease mortality.
6) You Can Improve Your Diet. Consuming beans, lentils, or peas one day a week can result in higher intakes of fiber, protein, folate, zinc, iron, and magnesium. with lower intakes of saturated
7) You Can Reduce Your Carbon Footprint.The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimates the meat industry generates nearly one-fifth of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions that are accelerating climate change worldwide; which is 3-times the amount emitted by cars.
8) Water Conservation. Going meatless for one day a week can help conserve vastly needed fresh water supplies, as an estimated 1,800 to 2,500 gallons of water go into a single pound of beef production; feeding the cow and the like. Soy, in comparison, uses only 220 gallons of water per pound consumed.
9) You Can Help Lessen Fossil Fuel Dependence. Consider this, according to the FDA, 40 calories of fossil fuel energy are expended, for every one calorie of beef consumed in this country. Eating one day a week without beef, for example, is a great way to cut fossil fuel demand.
10) Cutting Your Food Budget. Cutting meat out of your weekly menu by one day will save you nearly $20.00 a month, and $240.00 annually!
11) Causing You To Think Outside The Box. Going meatless one meal a week will cause you to look for new ways to prepare dishes. Think globally. Try more ethnic dishes. Going meatless can help expand your culinary palette!
Here’s to the Journey!
Hello again, savvy savers! So, for Day 2 I am challenging you all to come up with a list of a list of meals, with all of the staples being comprised of your freezer, deep freeze, stockpile, and pantry items. You will need to come up with:
- 13 Breakfasts
- 13 Lunches
- 13 Snacks
- 13 Dinner Options
- 13 Desserts
Each option will be eaten twice for the remainder of the month, as the entire month will be rotated bi-weekly. Now, this task may seen daunting to you all, but consider the following:
- No-spend months are a great time for 5-can soups, dump cakes, casseroles, and pot pies.
- This is also a great time to consider “Food Swapping,” with family, friends, and neighbors, where you will prep meals and then exchange the meals accordingly.
- This is also the time to consider menu streamlining; eating the proper amount of meals, as well as small snacks throughout the day, as well as cutting your dependency on carbonated beverages, and instead eating healthier options all around, will not only fill you up more, stave off food cravings, which will ultimately end up costing you less the month over.
- Consider using “Meatless Monday,” food options; you can save up to $240.00 annually using this method once a week!
- You can also check out sites like SuperCook, where you can add the ingredients you have on hand to their database, to find recipes to suit your stockpile of goods!
- My best tip for today’s challenge, “Rollable Meals,” or meals that leftovers can be made into different meals using the same ingredients; for example on day 1 you make double the amount of hamburgers and a pan of brownies for dessert. On day two, you can take one patty, broken up and make breakfast tacos, and as a beef topped salad(s) for lunch, and using your additional reserved patties, make crockpot beef patties and gravy for dinner, and using your leftover brownies you can make two additional desserts to last the remainder of the week, brownie parfait cups, brownie flurries, or brownie and berry trifle!
Also, here are a few of my own recipes that can be made inexpensively:
Throwback Thursdays: Homemade Easy Bake Oven Chocolate Cake Mix & Frosting Kits, For Only $0.20!
Completely Couponed Coconut Mango Chicken Crockpot Curry
Blueberry Overnight French Toast Casserole!
1-Hour Freezer Cooking: Chicken and Dumplings!
Throwback Thursdays: Homemade French Dressing!
Making More Out Of Monday Meals: DIY Hot Cocoa Mix!
1-Hour Freezer Cooking: Frittatas!
Couponed Crockpot Chicken Mole!
Making More Out of Monday Meals: Misty’s Merry Maple Bacon Cookies!
Making More Out of Monday Meals: Homemade French Onion Soup Mix!
Easy Moroccan Tagine Chicken Recipe!
Couponed Crockpot Chicken Stew!
So, just get out a tablet, make a boxed grid; 11″x 8″, divide into a calendar, with seven boxes across, and four boxes down, and there you go!
For further ideas, be sure to check out my Weekly Menu Section and Pinterest Menu Idea Boards!
Be sure to check Instagram tonight for today’s review!
