How to Eat Well for Cheap, Lose Weight, and Do it All at Home!

Spring is upon us, soon to be followed by swimsuit season. It's time to think about eating well and (in my case) losing the baby fat. Quick snacks are usually the culprit for weight gain and unsightly flab. Freeze some healthy foods ahead of time to be prepared.

I love my freezer. I love Once A Month Cooking. But it's not always complete entrees you'll find in my freezer.

Sometimes I don't have time to peel and chop an onion. Or maybe I just don't want to cry and have potent onion-smelling hands. So I gather up my courage, buy the big bag of onions (3 or 5 or 10 pounds), and then peel and chop for about an hour. I freeze them in one cup baggies that are all placed in a big freezer bag. One cup of chopped onion is approximately one medium onion-and that's usually the amount recipes call for. I peel and chop all but one onion in the bag. Sometimes you want sliced onion on a burger or in a salad or omelet. Chopped frozen onions wouldn't work for that. I got this great tip for freezing onions from my mom. She also taught me to chop and freeze bell peppers when they are on sale-usually in ¾ cup baggies.

When I cook brown rice, I make a full rice pot-about five cups. I reserve the amount I need for my current recipe and freeze the rest. Since brown rice is heartier than white, it doesn't get too mushy. We use it with legumes like pintos or black beans and eat it with cheese. Or we put it in soups.

I soak, rinse, and cook a couple of crock-pots worth of beans at a time and then freeze them in quart containers. We use them with rice and cheese, or in soups, chili, tacos, burritos or salads. Beans and rice are very, very inexpensive and very versatile.

Fruit, in season, can be very inexpensive and versatile as well.

When overripe bananas are on sale for 25¢ a pound, I buy up as many bags as are decent looking-not bruised beyond recognition. I peel them and put them in baggies to freeze for milkshakes, banana nut bread, or banana muffins. You can also freeze banana nut bread and many varieties of muffins for a quick healthy snack.

When strawberries are on sale in the summertime for 99¢ a quart, I buy as many as my hubby will let me. I wash, core, and then flash freeze them. They're great in smoothies and milkshakes and other desserts, or even just plain.

Grapes freeze well too. Rinse, remove stems and flash freeze. They make yummy little frozen treats in the summertime. NOTE: They are a choking hazard for young children.

Orange sections freeze good too. I would only freeze them though if they were in season and on sale. Then I would grind up the orange peel in the garbage disposal.

When your freezer is stocked with healthy options it is a lot easier to eat well.