Working Poor

There are also tons of websites for crock pot dishes you can make ahead and freeze. For instance, you can buy and make up these packets which would allow you to use veggies with a little in this packet or another packet. Say you make up one for roast/potato/carrot/onion/celery main meal/beef stew, beef/noodles, one for veggie soup. You have all the veggies you need. Dried beans (navy) are inexpensive and filling. You can throw in a ham bone for flavor, potatoes/onion/ carrots for soup. Make up meatloaf for individual loaves, take out of freezer and wrap in foil to bake (spray or oil foil first), make large batch mac/cheese and divide in foil packets as side dish. Same with goulash or pasta dishes. If you are heavy on the carbs, adding a large salad will help. Also, you say you are very active, so that also helps.

It isn't cheap to eat a lot of fresh fruits/veggies, but necessary. Watch for specials by season and fix recipes to freeze. Right now, tomatoes, cauliflower and broccoli are cheaper and there are tons of recipes for casseroles or use heavily in salads. You could buy tomatoes and make your own spaghetti sauces or just cook up and bag the tomatoes for later addition to soups. Egg dishes also make for a satisfying main dish like scrambled, souffles, overnight casseroles w/sausage, etc., and warm up individual servings, when desired. Eating breakfast type dishes at night is a nice change and can be cheap/satisfying.

When I was first married, a butcher told me that you could take cheap cuts of beef and add a couple tablespoons of vinegar to make it tender while cooking. I've used that for over 50 years and it works. I also use that for barbecued ribs by pre-boiling with vinegar/water until the meat starts to pull away from the ends of the bones, then bake (covered) until tender. That gets rid of a lot of the fat and the meat practically falls off the bones. Pork is a whole lot cheaper than beef and usually on sale at this time of year due to farmers "unloading" their hogs before winter. I just bought a "rack" of pork ribs cut into pork chops for $30. The shop cut/wrapped for free and I was amazed at how many packages I got (2 huge bundles). I'm set up in pork for winter. They can be used in many dishes, like skillet dinners. Brown chops in heavy skillet, add new potatoes, green beans, carrots on top of meat, cover with heavy lid and cook in oven until done. Try not to lift lid in process. Many varieties can be made by changing veggies.