Lifestyles of the Cheap and Lazy

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 Popcorn is an awesome, easy snack. Anything I can throw in the microwave and eat 2 minutes later is a win in my book. The American Heart Association even calls it a healthy snack (well, if it’s air-popped and lightly seasoned). My problem with the store-bought popcorn is it’s often too oily, salty, and expensive! However, last week a classmate shared a piece of information that blew my mind:

You can buy popcorn kernels, put a half cup in a brown paper lunch bag, fold it over, and microwave it – and it pops exactly like the storebought microwave popcorn! WHAT? WHERE HAS THIS INFORMATION BEEN MY ENTIRE ADULT LIFE?

So not only can I control the amount of salt or oil I add, it’s also much cheaper. It also adds almost no extra time to the process.

I was buying Orville Redenbacher’s Simply Salted Naturals. 6 bags for $5.99. If we do some difficult math, that comes to $1 per bag.

Now for $6.14 I can buy almost 3 pounds of Orville Redenbacher’s Whole Grain Popping Corn. It contains about twelve half-cup servings (half a cup gives the same amount of popped corn as the pre-bagged). That comes to $0.51 per bag. Brown paper lunch bags are $1.96 for a hundred. That’s about $0.02 per bag. $0.53 per bag of ‘homemade’ microwave popcorn!

That’s roughly half the price! (Excited about my popcorn savings… I guess I’m officially an adult.)

This got me thinking about all the other ways I’m overpaying for an inferior product. So in the spirit of sharing knowledge, allow me to impart my own cheap and lazy food knowledge:

-Frozen Birds Eye Power Blends: These $2.50 steam-in-the-bag plant-based meals contain vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and a rich sauce. There are  4 flavors to choose from: Quinoa & Spinach, Southwest Style, Italian Style, and California Style (my favorite). The sodium content (about 550mg) could be a lot worse. With 350 calories each, they provide a lot of plant protein at around 17g. For price, nutrition, and sheer convenience I feel these cannot be beaten.

-Frozen Vegetables: Many are aware of this one, but a surprising number of people are not. Frozen vegetables are great because they’re cheap, fresh, and already chopped up. I like to try different frozen vegetable blends or mix and match. My favorite way to prepare frozen vegetables is in a steam basket and they serve as the basis for many meals.

-Microwaved Potatoes: Potatoes with the skin are one of the highest potassium foods (which can lower blood pressure) and I’ve found they’re best cooked in the microwave. After washing them, I wrap them in a wet paper towel and microwave them until soft. I then mash them, add oil or buttery spread, and season them with herbs and spices. This could not be much easier.

-Bonus: Microwaved sweet potatoes, plain, eaten from the hand (like a heathen). Cheap, nutritious, and peak-levels of lazy.

What other obvious cheap, lazy, healthy-eating lifehacks am I missing? I’d love to hear what you’ve discovered so I can incorporate them into my own life.

-TM 

https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/06/18/popcorn-as-a-snack-healthy-hit-or-dietary-horror-show

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