I'm determined to smarten up our "eating plan", which currently means that we plan to eat. Especially in the winter, when we don't get to town very often (3 times since Thanksgiving), we tend to eat the naughty stuff: frozen pizzas, chicken nuggets, french fries, frozen dinners, macaroni & cheese, packaged pasta sides, etc.

Summers are a little easier. We can get fresh veggies and semi-fresh fruit, eat more salads.

There are so many little things I need to overcome: Bob doesn't like fish, ANY fish. I never feel like cooking for real. We're operating on a pretty merciless budget. We don't get to the supermarket very often. A lot of the healthy foods one or both of us can't eat: broccoli, beans, cabbage.

I'm trying to find some simple, inexpensive, healthy menus. Any ideas? Any links?

Some of the Healthy Choice frozen meals are good. I usually get the Cafe' Steamers. It's a one-bowl meal and it's really very satisfying and easy to fix. Plus, it's portion controlled. They usually go on sale frequently at 5 for $10. I might eat these twice a week.

I don't eat alot of meat so I tend to have things like whole grain English Muffins with peanut butter and banana, eggs, yogurt, nuts, brown rice, black beans, pasta, veggies and fruit.

It's so much easier in the summer to eat healthier. I can literally live off of melons, salad and pasta in the summer!

I found this website with some inexpensive ideas. Most of the recipes make 4 servings so there'd be leftovers:

http://busycooks.about.com/od/inexpe...sy_Cooking.htm

I tend to use one day a week as meal prep day. I make alot of things in advance, and then yank them out of the freezer, and pop them in the oven.

My guilty pleasure is Schwans.com they deliver food to your door, but are expensive! YUM! but expensive. its much cheaper to make your own version.

I can take my list of ingredients on hand go to the web and type the first three into most recipe sights and find new dishes. I am a picky eater, so I dont always like what pops up, but there are choices.

I do this all the time and get some great ideas this way.

Plus, since it's just me I'm cooking for most of the time I tend to eat "non traditional" things for my meals. For breakfast I might have brown rice and beans. For dinner I might have oatmeal with berries and walnuts.

I try to drink as much water as I can, too, throughout the day. And I try not to eat anything after 6 PM. That doesn't always happen but for the most part I do okay.

Your library might have some recipe books with budget conscious recipes.

your local library is also a great resource for books. Shelves are filled with cook books that you can borrow for free. Write down some favorites and return the book for a new one. I love free!

Where would I be without my crockpot and my freezer?? I tend to cook more than we need especially if we can freeze it. Plus I can save $$ and buy stuff when it is on sale. And it helps on some days to know there is chili or barbeque in the freezer and all I have to do is heat it up. Came in handy the other day I was starving and found a single serving of pulled pork bbq. It was like winning the lottery!!

A lot of soups and stews freeze well also. We have a never ending supply of various sizes of chili on hand and beef stew for when I am tired.

I googled "best diet for seniors", and the first website that came up was purina.com. *sigh*

LOL!! I can tell you right now that pet food is NOT inexpensive!