Parents Cheap meals for gymnasts

[HopefulGymnast]

Hi, sorry if this has been covered a lot.

Any cheap nutritious meal ideas? I'm particularly strugging with how to afford enough proteine. Meat is expensive, but most meat replacements don't have that much proteine in it. Beans and hummus are not an option, unfortunately.

So far I can get very far budget wise for carbs (oat meal, pasta, potatoes are my faves), but veggies, fruit, and proteines are so quickly expensive!

I'm not a parent, but a gymnast paying and cooking my own meals, but I thought the gym parents would be the best place to ask something like this.
Sorry if there's been a lot of threads like this before, I can't find a lot that are focussed on affordable meals. If there are, I'm sorry, and feel free to point me there

 

[Boymomx3]

for my family we like protein noodles, Greek yogurt, chicken and lean hamburger. My gymnasts also loves cowboy caviar -a delicious bean dip. If you are close to Aldi groceries store this has a a lot of great options that are affordable. For actual meal plans spaghetti is a family favorite.

 

[NutterButter]

Check out budgetbytes.com

I make several recipes here that are in my rotation.

 

[HopefulGymnast]

Check out budgetbytes.com

I make several recipes here that are in my rotation.

Thanks, I'll have a look

 

[HopefulGymnast]

for my family we like protein noodles, Greek yogurt, chicken and lean hamburger. My gymnasts also loves cowboy caviar -a delicious bean dip. If you are close to Aldi groceries store this has a a lot of great options that are affordable. For actual meal plans spaghetti is a family favorite.

Protein anything here is expensive except for just whey powder.

Unfortunately no Aldi in my town anymore (I'm also not american btw)

Cowboy Caviar sounds hilarious, I will google it hahaha.

Thanks for the ideas, I'll look into them .

 

[Carly]

Do you get the grocery store sales circulars or can you check your local stores' websites for their weekly sales? Plan your meals around the sale items for the week. I find near me I can usually get good prices on boneless skinless chicken breast. You can buy a larger package and freeze the extra for later.

 

[HopefulGymnast]

Do you get the grocery store sales circulars or can you check your local stores' websites for their weekly sales? Plan your meals around the sale items for the week. I find near me I can usually get good prices on boneless skinless chicken breast. You can buy a larger package and freeze the extra for later.

Yeah, I always shop sales and put stuff in the freezer. I'm also not always able to do grocery shopping so I freeze a lot of food so I've always got a backup if I can't go to the stores. But healthy cheap meats are rarely on sale here unfortunately.

Unfortunately, most sales here are all the very processed foods. I could do with adding those in my meal plan a bit more though, really.

Thanks for all the ideas

 

[Gymgirl84]

In my country pork and some beef cuts (the ones used for stews) are usually cheap (compared to the rest of meat). Also a full chicken that you can roast and eat for several days is a good option (for one person probably is enough protein for at least 5 meals )
Cottage cheese if you have that there, or any kind of cheese really, skyr might be good options too.
Canned fishes another good source. It's not cheap, but cheaper than other sources.

 

[HopefulGymnast]

In my country pork and some beef cuts (the ones used for stews) are usually cheap (compared to the rest of meat). Also a full chicken that you can roast and eat for several days is a good option (for one person probably is enough protein for at least 5 meals )

Oooh, thanks! Will definitely look into that whole chicken, though I don't have an oven so I'll need to look at how to prepare it. (Maybe soup?) I've been wanting to eat something like that for a while now, but I haven't had proper access to a kitchen for a few years. So thanks for reminding me of that fun plan! And that I should save up to one day get an oven haha. I have an aifryer but a chicken won't fit in that, it's tiny.

 

[Gymgirl84]

Oh, that's a shame. Maybe you can cut it by parts (you can look it up in YouTube) and make either a soup or freeze some and cook it individual portions in the air fryer.
In my country we also have some "soup mix" where you have different cuts of meat (some beef, chicken, pork+bones+some veggies like celery, carrots and the like) and it's usually not very expensive and you can have several soup portions.

 

[HopefulGymnast]

Oh, that's a shame. Maybe you can cut it by parts (you can look it up in YouTube) and make either a soup or freeze some and cook it individual portions in the air fryer.

I'll work it out, but yeah thanks for the idea!
I do intend to get an oven one day. I kind of moved in here with literally nothing, the cost of everything is oof. I find that gymnastics in my country is affordable, but proper nutrition is the bigger challenge haha. Especially if I sport more, I also gotta eat more, you know. But I might still save up for a cheap oven, I'd also like to be able to bake stuff one day.