The Carolinas are a pair, in more ways than one. They are right next to each other in the annual rankings of the most obese states in the country: North Carolina is tied for 10th and South Carolina is ninth. Soon after the rankings were released last month, a familiar explanation was offered: Unhealthful food is cheaper.
If you are comparing a McDouble cheeseburger, fries and a Coke off the dollar menu at McDonald's with organic vegetables and grass-fed beef, that is true. But there's a whole range of healthful food that isn't expensive; it just requires more effort. You have to be willing to plan, shop and cook.
"People don't cook enough," says Jessie Price, deputy food editor at Eating Well magazine and author of the new cookbook "Eating Well on a Budget." Price says good-for-you food, from vegetables to whole grains and lean proteins to beans, isn't expensive. And cooking at home saves money in the long run.
When Price and her staff compared the cost of a sausage, pepper and mushroom pizza from Domino's with a recipe for the same in their cookbook, the cost difference was dramatic: $17.41 vs. $7.58. If a family ordered a pizza every week, it could save $511 in a year by making it at home.
To prove that healthful food can be made for little money, we challenged ourselves to come up with three dinners that cost less than $12, which is what it would cost a family of four to order off the dollar-menu at a fast-food restaurant. We found three entrees - chicken tostadas, a Spanish potato omelet and pasta with roasted red pepper sauce - and sides whose ingredients cost less than $12.
For the purposes of the limited budget, we assumed you would have salt, pepper, oil and vinegar in your pantry. But we did hold ourselves to getting you in and out of the store with all the ingredients for $12, even though you will buy more than what you need to make the meal. That means you not only will have leftovers but also will have ingredients to make other meals.
We also wanted to prove that you can do this regardless of where you shop - so we went to a grocery store, a farmers market and an ethnic food store.
We chose recipes that don't require much activity in the kitchen. Two of the three - the roasted red-pepper pasta and the chicken tostadas - can be made in about 30 minutes. The potatoes and onions for the omelet take an hour to roast in the oven, but then they can be turned into dinner in 20 minutes.
