5 minute healthy meals

Bean Burrito

Ingredients: 1 medium yellow onion (60 cents), 1 tbsp oil of your choice (five cents), 1 can beans of your choice (black/pinto/kidney) $1.50,  a splash of hot sauce or to taste (1 bottle is $2-3, so we’ll say that’s 50 cents); several collard green leaves (75 cents) .  Optional additions: cumin, cilantro, green pepper, serrano pepper, tomatoes, corn, etc.  Total cost of meal before optional additions: $3.45, and it serves 2, thus ~$1.75/serving.

Directions: Chop onion (2 min). On medium heat, saute onion and oil together in  until onion is fragrant and translucent (about 5 minutes).  Pour in can of beans and hot sauce to taste, warm to serving temperature (about 2 min).  Then, use collard greens as you would a tortilla shell and wrap the filling in the collards (1 min).  Total 10 min.  Double the recipe, freeze what you are not eating this time, and prep time will include sauteing or nuking what you have already made.

Collard greens are perfect for wrapping up fillings like this, as they are a green that is firm enough for the job, and their bitterness is mitigated by salt in the canned food.  Also, instead of getting empty calories from tortilla shells, you get fiber, Vitamins A, C, and B6, and addition of cruciferous vegetables into your diet which is correlated to improved immunity and  decreased cancer risk with increased consumption.

Another example of this fast, easy meal: Black Bean Tacos and Vegan Lentil Tacos from Delish.  Lentils are one of the cheapest, but also most nutritious sources of protein!

Beans are one of the best things you can put in your body, they fill you up with good stuff (fiber and complex carbs) so you won’t have the urge to eat the bad stuff (refined sweets and fats). AND they are barely $1/can.  Cost of any bean-containing recipe can be further reduced by using dry beans instead of canned beans.

Riced Cauliflower Salads

Ingredients: 1 bag of frozen cauliflower florets ($1.50), 1 cucumber ($1), 1 can colored beans (black, pinto, kidney) $1, 1 lemon (50 cents), 1 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tbsp honey, salt and pepper to taste. Even though all this adds up to $4, it serves 2, so $2/serving. Other things you could add for increased flavor if you have them lying around: greens like chopped kale or spinach, tomato, walnuts or other chopped nuts, blue cheese crumbles.
Directions: You can use fresh or frozen cauliflower… I just used frozen in this example because it’s cheaper. Either way, take thawed or fresh florets and “rice” them in a food processor by pulsing them until they are grain-like. This may take 3 minutes. Place into a medium bowl. Then, chop cucumber and add to the bowl. Rinse beans and add to the bowl. Another 3 minutes. Make dressing by mixing juice from one lemon, olive oil, honey, salt and pepper, then combining with salad ingredients. Another 3 minutes, for a total of 9 minutes.

Smashed Bean Sandwiches

The possibilities for this are endless- Mediterranean, Asian, whatever depending on the condiments and spices you use. Also, beans are cheap and amazing for you. The five societies in the world with the highest rate of recorded centenarians living among them all consume beans copiously (see “The Blue Zones” by Dan Buettner). The possibility of using the filling within a collard green instead of whole-grain bread also exists.

Example #1: Spread hummus on sandwich bread, add tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, etc.
Example #2: Smash or puree a can of black beans with minced garlic or garlic powder (1-3 tsp), minced onion or onion powder, something spicy like chipotle seasoning or hot sauce to taste, some cumin, and 1 tsp coconut or olive oil. Spread on sandwich bread, add whatever veggies you have and some salsa.
Example #3: Puree a can of white beans with 1 T sesame oil, 3 tsp soy sauce, 3 tsp teriyaki sauce, and 1 tsp minced ginger and 2 tsp wasabi or horseradish mustard.  Another filling sandwich spread, add grated carrots, thinly sliced celery, and broccoli to taste.

Rainbow Stir-fries

Stir fries can be completely gorgeous depending on the vegetables chosen. Orange carrots against red cabbage, green pepper, white or red onion, bok choy- the colors and nutritional capacity is endless. I will often use up whatever veggies are getting old in my fridge by sauteeing all of them up with an appropriate sauce. There are even varieties of frozen vegetables with specific purposes you can buy- I often get them on sale for $1/bag and saute or roast as needed. For this section, I will give a list of possible sauces based on common kitchen ingredients, which can be added to whatever fresh or frozen veggies you have on hand.

Peanut Sauce: mix 1/2 c peanut butter without hydrogenated oil, 1 tsp cayenne or to taste, 1/2 tsp minced fresh ginger, and 1 T honey.

Balsamic and Soy: 1/4 soy sauce, 1/4 c balsamic vinegar, 1/4 c sesame oil

Creamy tofu: 6 oz soft silken tofu, 2-3 teaspoons dried dill, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1-2 teaspoon lemon juice, blend or food process until smooth.

ADDITIONALLY, there is an entire food blog dedicated to eating healthy, plant-based food and having it cost $30/week or less. Toni Okamoto has a food blog and recipe book based on this concept: