Eat Better, Spend Less – The Benefits Magazine

85% of French people believe thishaving quality food is too expensive. Nearly 7 out of 10 French people regularly deprive themselves of fresh fruit and vegetables, and 46% of French people have reduced their consumption of meat and fish due to rising prices¹. Is it still possible to eat healthy and well when it is purchasing power sulking? Yes! We sniff out good deals and abuse coupons. But you can also dig into our file full of tips from the pros protect your health and your wallet.

Marina Sba, author of “1 meal 1 euro” (Solar edits) gives us her gourmet cooking tips and affordable recipes. “Instead of shopping for inspiration, it’s better menu planning to buy only the essentials and not waste anything. You can also rely on legumes (lentils, chickpeas, beans), which are a good source of protein at a low cost and allow you to make many recipes. As much as possible, avoid supermarkets and buy in bulk or in bulk, at oriental food stores, for example.”. For save in the kitchenwe also invest in a freezer, not in a mini oven. “We can store both leftovers and ready meals there in advance for lazy days (avoids fast food deliveries)recommends Marina Sba. Raw frozen foods (especially vegetables) cost less and save us time. And why not, we invest in a vacuum packaging deviceconvenient for extending the shelf life of food’. The expert savings in the kitchen also have their favorite food:there are potatoes! “It’s nutritious, inexpensive, can be eaten in any form, keeps for a long time, and is gluten-free for easy digestion”.

Good associated reflexes for better consumption

Avoid middlemen, prefer short circuits, buy “broken faces”… Here are 3 websites to discover (and accept) to fill your basket at a lower price.

• lafourche.fr: this online organic grocery store offers its members (€69/year, no obligation) thousands of products with up to 50% discount cheaper.
• nousantigaspi.com: the grocery store committed to combating food waste sells products considered by distributors to be non-compliant (fruit “ugly” or the deadline…) And soon! from 20 to 25%savings upon receiving it.
• ledrivetoutnu.com: 1,500 local products and “zero waste”, this is the promise of the brand from Toulouse to conquer France. What to shop as close as possible your needs with a few clicks and have them picked up or delivered to your home.

3 tricks for diluting with water without diluting the taste

What’s available year-round, requires no shopping or packaging, and costs next to nothing? Tap water, of course, is little likened to an ingredient except as a cooking liquid. However, H2O is a magic formula in the kitchen that also lowers the calorie bill. 3 tips to adopt urgently in the kitchen:

1. In my fried aubergines: after initial coloring with a drizzle of olive oil, add water a little at a time so that they don’t stick until they are soft – but not drowned.
2. In a vinaigrette: three mustard-vinegar-olive oil in the usual amount, which you dilute with two tablespoons of water as soon as you need to extend the sauce, for grated carrots, large salads, artichokes…
3. In chocolate fondant: 15 cl (yes, yes) are added to the main mixture (3 beaten eggs, 125 g of sugar, 100 g of flour, 200 g of dark chocolate, 125 g of semi-salted butter), A liquid and not very greasy cake is obtained. Attention: only in a cake pan, otherwise the center cake is guaranteed!

3 cheap recipes with pulses

We should eat pulses twice a week, according to the National Healthy Eating Programme². But we are still behind by 2 kg/capita/year against the world average of 7. However, the large family of lentils, chickpeas, dried beans, broad beans, etc. concentrate all assets. Nutritional in the first place (source of proteins, fiber, complex carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins), also ecological (their culture captures nitrogen and reduces fertilizers) and above all economic: of budget, this is not the end of the bean, but the beginning of a long and promising story. Fresh, dried, canned or frozen, we offer it everywhere!

• Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Drain 200g of white beans (canned or jarred). Mix them with 100 g of T80 flour, 60 g of peanut butter, 50 g of agave syrup (or whole sugar), 2 tbsp. ° C. baking powder and 1 pinch of salt. Stir in 50g dark chocolate chips. Shape and flatten into balls. Bake them for 15 minutes at 180°C.

• Chickpea Fries:

Mix in 800g drained chickpeas. Mix them with 80 g of flour and salt. Knead until a compact dough is obtained, roll it out to 1 cm thick and cut into sticks with a knife. Heat a bath with oil and fry them for about 2 minutes. by working in several batches. Drain the fries on a paper towel, serve with spicy garlic mayonnaise.

• Green croque monsieur with beans :

Boil 150g of frozen beans for 5 minutes in a pot of salted boiling water. Drain them, run them under cold water, peel them if necessary. Mix them with 30 g of fresh cheese and black pepper. Spread 4 slices of whole wheat bread with this preparation, cover with another 4 slices. Fry them in a pan for 3 minutes on each side, with a drizzle of olive oil. Cut the croquettes into four diagonally, eat immediately warm, with a salad.

Sneak in a reduced amount, a modified recipe… Some manufacturers compete on ingenuity to reduce the cost of their products without changing prices individually. The goal? They maintain their profitability despite inflation (according to them, the consumer would be more sensitive to the visual than to the actual content of what they buy…). And this fraud – also called “reduflation” or “shrinking inflation” – remains legal. Don’t want to become the turkey of the farce? We go to sites that protect our rights and warn us about questionable marketing practices : ruralfamilies.org; clcv.org; quechoisir.org.

1. E.Leclerc observatory of the new consumption.

2. National Program for Healthy Nutrition (PNNS) at solidarites-sante.gouv.fr.