23: 7 Ways to Eat Anti-Inflammatory On a Budget

Ready to take charge of your health with anti-inflammatory food on a budget? This week on The Family Fork, we're diving deep into how to eat healthy, delicious, anti-inflammatory foods without breaking the bank. I know, it can feel overwhelming with busy schedules, family needs, and the rising cost of groceries, not to mention the ups and downs of perimenopause. But trust me, it's totally doable!

This episode is your guide to navigating grocery shopping like a pro. We'll cover:

- Warehouse and Grocery Store Strategies: what to buy in bulk, and the truth about canned/frozen options
- Organic vs. Affordable: We'll bust the myth that organic is the only way to go and explore smart choices for every budget
- Amazon Finds and Smart Shopping: Discounts, circulars, and what to buy for pantry staples.
- Meal Planning Magic: The game-changing power of component cooking (less cooking, less waste!) to save you time and money.
- Mindset Matters: Because you deserve to feel good about what you're eating, no matter your budget.

This episode is packed with practical tips and encouragement. You've got this! Let's make healthy eating both delicious and affordable!

Links mentioned and ways to connect:

- Time and money-saving meal plans that are easy, anti-inflammatory, and family-friendly: The Supper Club is exactly what you need!
- Want to get started with anti-inflammatory nutrition but don't know where to start? Grab the FREE Perimenopause Weight Loss Guide for Moms, and get recipes for a week of meals + snacks!

Ashley Malik is a women's health and life coach, helping busy moms lose weight in perimenopause. You can learn more and discover how to work with Ashley, by clicking here.

*** Ready to lose 15 lbs in 10 weeks? The Method gives you all the tools to make it happen! We start April 2nd. To learn more about The Method, click here!

Transcript

Ashley Malik (00:06)

Hello there, my friend, and welcome back to another episode of The Family Fork. You know, I just really appreciate you tuning in each week. You showing up here is this huge testament to the changes that you're making for your life, for better health, for weight loss, taking control of your perimenopause, your family, and really just being able to enjoy life more.

Honestly, I am so proud of you and I just love spending time with you each week. So today we are going to talk about one of my favorite topics, is food. It really is one of my favorite things to talk about. And I want to talk specifically about this notion of eating good, healthy food. I think that there's a belief that eating

healthy, especially when it comes to anti-inflammatory foods, is that it's too expensive. Maybe you're thinking about this and you're like, yeah, my family is just too big. I have so many mouths to feed. Or maybe you're on the other end of the spectrum where you're really just cooking for two people anymore because your kids have grown. They've either left the house or they're not eating at the house all the time, which happens when our bigs get bigger.

Or maybe finances are just tight because you're kind of in a transition phase or really maybe you've just hit the top end of your salary range and this is kind of the budget that you have. So whatever it is, I think that eating healthy is accessible to everyone. Okay, I really want you to hear me when I say that. Eating healthy is accessible to everyone. And I do agree that there are some healthy foods

can be really, really expensive. At the time that I'm recording this, eggs are in a shortage. And so they're like eight, nine, $10 for a dozen, which eggs are usually a cheap thing. But for the most part, it is very easy to find exactly what you need for better health and weight loss without spending an arm and a leg.

This episode, just to be clear, is not just for families who are watching their dollars. I really feel like it's for everyone. I don't believe that good, healthy food needs to cost a lot.

Oftentimes, when I work with students and clients, find that they'll tell me, you know, I'm buying groceries, but it's really expensive and I can't afford to eat healthy. But when I dig in a little bit, I find that they're actually buying things that are healthy, but expensive, like protein bars or prepackaged foods that are labeled healthy. So the trick here is to stick with whole foods in their most basic form.

that is really going to save you money. And it really, doesn't matter if you have a lot of money or you're on a budget. I don't think we need to be spending a lot for the right foods. And we really, we don't need to be wasting our money on foods that aren't going to serve us.

So today I want to take a look at seven of my favorite ways to eat anti-inflammatory foods on a budget. Okay. And you're to want to take some notes. I think there's some good nuggets in this particular episode. So grab a notebook or open the notes app in your phone and take a couple of notes. All right. So number one, this is kind of a no brainer, but when you're eating anti-inflammatory

a warehouse store is a must. And I'll explain why in a minute, but like for example, people think I can't afford that or it's an extra membership. Our Costco membership right now, we get the executive membership because you get money back and it costs $130 a year. But because you get money back, we end up getting about $500 back every year. So that is like,

more than paying for the membership many times over. I'm sure that Sam's Club has a really similar arrangement, but I'm just, I'm less familiar with that.

So if you're listening and you don't have a Costco or a Sam's Club or something like the bigger warehouse stores, that's okay. Look around for restaurant supply stores that allow the public to shop there. I know here in Colorado, we have Restaurant Depot and that's an option for us. But really at the end of the day, what we're looking for with these big box store, the warehouse stores is that you wanna buy in bulk.

And oftentimes you can really do this at local grocery stores too. So don't let that be a deterrent for you. So when we shop in bulk and buy in bulk, we're going to look for a couple of things. Meat is one of the first places that I go to buy in bulk, both meat and then fish as well. The goal here is to be able to buy larger amounts of meat, divide it up, and then freeze what you don't need

right away. So you can definitely do this with different types of beef cuts, pork, chicken, and definitely fish. If you're going to buy beef and you're actually going to cook it down, say in your Instant Pot or a Crock Pot or something like that, you can also save some additional money by buying a a cut of meat that has higher fat in it.

And if you're going to cook that down, can drain out the fat. Your meat's going to be really tasty, and you will have been able to actually spend less.

When it comes to storing all of this extra meat, just think smart. So last year, my husband was at an estate sale and he found this gigantic Frigidaire deep freeze. It's like a standup variety. It's not even one of the like that you lift the lid, but it's a standup version. And it was a hundred dollars. It was a hundred dollars. It has been the best thing. We just popped it into our garage and

If you have space, you can put it in your garage, put it in your basement. But having an extra freezer is going to be really helpful for you so that you can store a lot of the meats and some of the other things that we're going to talk about. It's really, you don't have to buy new. Go check Facebook Marketplace or an estate sale or garage sales and look for a deep freeze. That's really going to help you out here.

All right, another thing that we buy in bulk when we're at the warehouse stores is our fruits and our veggies. If you are eating to support your perimenopause, to lose weight, to just be overall healthy, every week you should be eating broccoli and carrots and spinach and kale and green beans and squash and berries, apples, pineapple. Like these are a bunch of the things that we buy every week. And it's funny.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend, Lara was over right as I was coming home from Costco and I had six bags of green beans because for me, that's something I love and I eat them all the time. I probably eat them twice a day. And she just looked at me she's like, what are you gonna do with all of those green beans? So if you are eating in this anti-inflammatory way, veggies and fruits,

fresh fruits, berries should really be one of your top priorities at the warehouse stores. But I want to caution you, just buy what you need for the week because it's easy for all of this to go bad and we don't want to waste money. Again, we're trying to look at how can we do this type of eating on a budget so you don't want to waste anything. So just buy what you need for the week. But again, you really should be prioritizing your fruits and your veggies if you're eating anti-inflammatory.

All right, some other things that we buy in bulk at the warehouse stores, plain Greek yogurt. So we never buy the flavored yogurt because we can really, we can make our own. You can put in fresh fruit or almond butter, canned pumpkin and maple syrup. Like there's a lot of ways to flavor it. And you're going to save yourself money if you can buy the bigger containers of Greek yogurt, but then you'll also save money because you're not spending on

the extras like sugar and flavors and that kind of thing. Almost every week we're buying pecans, almonds, brown rice, quinoa, potatoes, canned tuna and salmon are great to buy, low sodium broth, low sugar pasta. And then you need to shop around and you need to be a little bit careful here, but shop around.

for some packaged snacks for your kids and for you if you want. currently, some of our favorites are Simple Mills has poppums, are these little like, I don't know, it's like a puffed square, but it's actually made with butternut squash. They're so good, but it tastes like a goldfish. Also, Simple Mills has sweet thins and partake.

is a company that has started getting into the warehouse stores too. They have birthday cookies in little individual servings. So the reason I caution with this is because it can be really easy to get into the warehouse store and everything looks good. Everything looks good,

You don't want to get stuck buying the snacks that are going to be high in sugar, high in inflammatory ingredients. You really want to look for the brands that are going to be better for you. So Simple Mills, Partake, those are just a couple that you might want to check for. All right. So once you've done your warehouse shopping, I want you to think about transitioning to the grocery store.

So when you're at the grocery store, it's really helpful to shop for produce that is in season because it is going to be less expensive. That said, it's also fine and absolutely encouraged to buy frozen and or canned fruit and vegetables. And so let's talk about that a little bit. When they are going to flash freeze or can fruits and vegetables, they are picking those items when they are most

ripe. When they are traveling into a grocery store to be sold fresh in the produce section, they actually buy them before they're ripe so they can ripen during their transit time. So you're actually going to get some really quality fruit and veg if you're buying it in a can. But what I want you to look for is that you are not buying fruit or veg that's been packed in an oil or a syrup or anything like that. It should be packed in water.

But the canned and the frozen often are going to be less expensive than the fresh. But if you're shopping in season produce, that's going to be also an affordable option for you.

All right. Number three, I want you to prioritize fresh food over packaged food. Anytime you buy something in a box or a bag or a carton, it's going to be more expensive. And remember, I mentioned earlier that I often find my students that I work with, my clients, that they're buying these healthy foods, but they keep saying that they're expensive. And I'm like, yes, they are because they're prepackaged.

And just the packaging alone, you're paying for all of that extra expense. So I really, want you to stick to fresh food as much as humanly possible. So when we think about fresh food, especially like produce, some other things, I know the question always comes up, well, I can't afford organic or grass fed or whatever the term might be.

I want you to know that you can lose weight, feel better with your perimenopause symptoms, feed your family healthy food, and never buy a single organic item. I know that's probably a very controversial thing to say, but I believe that Whole Foods are going to be better for you than something from a box or a package. So if you cannot afford organic or grass-fed,

buy just the regular food, buy the regular apple, buy the regular strawberry. It's fine. I was in Costco the other day and a carton, pound of organic strawberries was 13.99. I can't afford that. That does not live within my budget, but I bought the regular strawberries. I'm gonna wash them really well and I'm just gonna do the best that I can.

So don't let this be a deterrent. And yes, there are lists out there of produce items that are sort of on the clean 15 or the dirty, I think it's the dirty dozen right now. So you can look for those online if that is a concern for you. But I find more often than not, as we are getting into starting with an anti-inflammatory approach, just buy the whole food. Shop from the perimeter of your grocery store,

Don't let the fact that organic is more expensive be a deterrent for not eating really good, wholesome, healthy food.

Okay, number four, shop on Amazon. So raise your hand if you already have a Prime membership. I do. And I had looked at other, there's other companies out there, I think it's called like Thrive Market, there are other options where you can buy a lot of healthy groceries. I already have a Prime membership. And so I decided to search for as many of the packaged foods that I do buy.

I look for them on Amazon. One of the favorites, if you've been around me a while, you will know I eat Hue kitchen chocolates every single day. Every single day I eat the salty dark, just a couple pieces of that. Well, typically in the store, they're 4.99, 5.99 for a bar. But when I buy them on Amazon, I can get a dozen and it brings it down to 3.70 a bar.

So that is going to be far more affordable. And because I have Prime, it comes without any extra shipping. So a couple of the brands that I look for, I definitely look for Simple Mills items, which are like crackers, cookies, chips, any of the things that are from Simple Mills that I cannot find at Costco. And then Seven Sundays is another brand. My daughter, Suraya loves their cereals and their granolas.

And if you can buy those in on Amazon, it's going to be more affordable for you than buying in the store.

All right, so once you have all of your ingredients together, I want you to think about utilizing recipes that are going to maximize those ingredients. I don't know about your family. My family is actually pretty good with leftovers, but over the years, I found that I like leftovers a lot less. And think about your family. If you're making food and

there are leftovers, how likely is it that your family is gonna go in and like reheat those leftovers for another meal? Not very often, right? And so when we have too many leftovers, I know that there's a lot of food wastage that goes on, which means we're not really adhering to our budget because we're actually wasting a lot of money at that point.

So one of the things that I want to point you to is the Supper Club, which is a monthly membership with meal plans and bonus recipes and all sorts of cool stuff. But one of the cool features there is that all of the meal plans are written in my signature method of cooking, which is called component cooking. So the ingredients from one meal or the components in one meal are actually used in a different meal.

another night throughout the week. So like if you have tacos one night, you're going to take that extra or the leftover ground beef that's already cooked and you're going to put it in a soup later in the week. So nothing gets wasted. And it's really great because this way you can absolutely maximize your protein, your veggies, your carbs. Literally nothing is going to go to waste because with these meal plans,

you're getting to make a different meal. So it's not like you're having tacos two nights in a week. You're getting to have some variety, which will help everyone to feel like, we're not having leftovers. The other thing about component cooking is that it totally saves you time. So I know we're talking about a financial budget here, but there's also a time budget, right? You only have so much time in a week to cook. So with component cooking, you're only cooking three nights a week for real.

The rest of the week, you're just repurposing those components into other meals. But because most of it is already cooked, it's maybe taking you 10 to 15 minutes to put that dinner together. Honestly, this approach was the game changer for me in losing 65 pounds. It really, it helped me to make the best use of the food that I had. It helped my budget to go a lot further.

I felt more excited about the things that I was eating, which meant that I was more satiated. And so I didn't feel like I needed to snack and I was just eating healthier overall. So I'll put a link to the supper club in the show notes because honestly, I know that you and your family will love, love, love these recipes.

Now when it comes to grocery shopping, I want you to make a list and stick to it. Now that seems pretty simple, right? But the problem is when you don't make a list, you end up buying a lot of things that you don't need. think about the last time that you went to Target and you went to the checkout counter and you're like, my gosh, how did this add up so quickly? So.

I really, the sequence of events is that you want to plan your grocery list around your meals and you need to have a good meal plan to do that. So that's where the supper club comes in. And then once you have your meals, you've got your grocery list, you write it down and that way you're just not going to buy any extra food. And the one thing I should mention about the supper club is that all of the meal plans come with a grocery list already written out for you. So you can just print it out.

add whatever else you need and you are off to the store. the key is really to stick to your plan. Plan your menu and your snacks. Put them on the list. Don't buy anything else.

All right, and number seven, this kind of, again, a lot of these, they might seem like common sense, but I want them to serve as a reminder that this can apply for just a general food budget, but also for your anti-inflammatory budget. So you are making your dollars go further. So number seven is to check for those store circulars, sign up for the discount cards, know, Sprout and Whole Foods.

have really great options for their discount cards.

One of the things to be aware of here is when you have those circulars that come in the mail, and even for sprouts, there's a lot of things that are featured that are not necessarily healthy, even if it's coming from sprouts or whole foods. There's still things that are going to be high in sugar, high in fat. If you're in a weight loss season, those aren't things that you want. Well, you don't ever want the sugar, but if you're trying to lose weight, you don't want things that are high in fat.

When you look at those circulars, the companies, the grocery companies have actually worked with manufacturers to come up with special deals on certain products. And those are the things that get featured. It's not all that often that you see tomatoes or kale on the circular. So I want you to be aware of that when you're looking through that circular, when you're looking through

you know, the advertisements from the stores or through your discount card, like what, what is on sale? What is on special? Just be aware that often you're not getting shown the healthiest of options. So just continue to stick to your foundations of anti-inflammatory nutrition. You want to prioritize your whole foods. You want to fill your meals with protein and veggies and fruits and healthy carbs. This is what

If you can buy those things, this is what's going to help you to feel better, just have more energy, lose the weight. It's going to help you to reach your goals. So try and steer clear of those things that are on sale that might look healthy, even if they're not.

All right, I wanna add a little bonus tip in here and that's all around mindset

Because here at The Family Fork, I say all the time, if all it took was another meal plan, you would have lost the weight by now, you would have been eating healthy by now. Everything that we do around our food actually comes down to our mindset. And so I wanna talk about the mindset for being on a budget. Even when you are on a budget, you need to prioritize your nutrition. It's imperative.

And know that, you know, cognitively you understand that, but your feelings say, well, you know, I don't, I don't feel like I have the money to eat well. Or if your finances are super tight, your brain is actually going to lead you to believe that eating healthy is not possible, that you can't do it because you can't afford it. You can. It's going to take some effort. It's going to take some creativity depending on what your budget looks like.

And this is where your brain doesn't want to do that work. Your brain is really there to conserve energy, but making a meal plan or getting into the supper club, like that takes effort. Shopping at three different stores to maximize your dollars. Yeah, that also takes effort. But if you can remind your brain that that healthy food is really going to help you to feel better, to think more clearly,

to lose the weight, to reduce your perimenopause symptoms, the extra effort is worth it. So don't feel frustrated by having to stick to a budget. Don't feel shame by sticking to a budget. Recognize that you're just gonna have to get a little bit more creative and you're actually gonna learn a lot by doing that. You're gonna learn where are the best places to shop.

you're going to learn what do I like the most and what can I buy in bulk because we're eating it regularly. It's really actually going to help inform you. So put yourself in the right mindset that whatever your budget, you can still eat healthy food.

Okay, I hope that you were able to take some notes in today's episode and that you are just feeling much more confident about shopping for the right foods on a budget. Healthy eating, it does not have to be expensive. When it's done right and paired with delicious recipes like the ones in the supper club, you are going to feel better and you're going to have a much better chance at reaching your health and your weight loss goals.