Healthy Foods with long shelf life

Horus · January 2012

Like the subject says, I need to stock up on healthy snacks and meals with long shelf life (if I need to freeze them not an issue). The problem is fresh fruits and veggies only last max 1 week and I am fully stocked up on brown rice and beans. My goal is to have healthy meals and snacks since I have busy schedule and cannot be shopping every 3 days, I already struggle doing once a week due to work schedule.

Open to recipes, food products or health forums is appreciated.

evanismyname · January 2012

dried mushrooms

Kistra · January 2012

Frozen steam in bag veggies - just make sure that you get the ones that are just veggies and not veggies plus a sauce (the sauce is always horribly unhealthy).

Fantasma · January 2012

Milk Powder + Hershey's Cocoa = Morning Chocolate. Smoked Salmon in Olive Oil is very good and ready to be eaten, you may also purchase canned fruit, the ones they give you at hospitals.

smoked cashew nuts is a healthy snack if you control the intake.

Enc · January 2012

Granola is always pretty good.

If you bake it yourself in small, single serving loaves, bread can keep for about a week so long as you don't break the crust.

CelestialBadger · January 2012

Frozen edamame. Microwave for tasty snack!

EggyToast · January 2012

Do you have a korean market nearby? Kimchi will last for weeks in the fridge (and, in my opinion, gets better over time anyway). Frozen veggies will last a long time, and you can make dishes last longer by cooking a larger portion and creating leftovers. Rutabagas, turnips, and other root vegetables tend to last a long time in a fridge. Peppers, especially spicier ones, also last a bit longer, and acidic fruits will stay well too, like limes, kiwis, and some oranges.

Elin · January 2012

You can freeze fruit and eat it frozen. Frozen green grapes are the best snack. If you crave ice cream you can throw a frozen banana in a food processor or blender with a splash of almond milk and have the best banana ice cream ever. Top with toasted walnuts and a small amount of chocolate chunks for better than Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey.

You can make meatloaf mix, and the freeze it uncooked in single serving loaves. Pop them in the oven frozen, they just take twice as long to cook as raw loaves. Make a batch of homemade spaghetti sauce and freeze in single serve portions. Lentil/bean/vegitable soup freezes well, as does Chili. If you cook multiple things at once on the day you shop you can put up 2 or 3 weeks of meals. Just have 3 big pots of soup/stew/sauce going on the stove at once, mix up some meatloaves while those cook, put your fruit in the freezers while you're adding the loaves. When the stove things are done portion let them cool for a bit and portion everything into some sturdy tupperware and freeze. Also some one mentioned in another thread steaming fish in their rice cooker. Pop a fish fillet in when you start a batch of brown rice, serve with steamed veg (frozen is fine) and you're golden.

Enc · January 2012

It might be helpful to plan out a big Sunday (or whatever day you have off/the most time) meal and make a lot of something that keeps well. Chili, Stews, Pasta, Mashed potatoes, casseroles, and breads take a while to make, but you can make dozens of servings for very little money, then freeze all but the next two day's worth. When I worked several jobs back in college, I did this and had whatever I made on Sunday for most dinners over the week, interspersing a quick, light microwave steamer when I got sick of it. I would also keep some vegetables that keep well, like carrots, shredded lettuce, celery, and spinach in the house.

For example:

Sunday: Chili (Eaten as stew with some bread)
Monday: Chili-Dogs (Chili + hot dogs+ some left over celery and carrots as a side dish)
Tuesday: Steamer
Wednesday: Chili Salad (strained chili over shredded lettuce, some salad dressing)
Thursday: Mac & Cheese & Chili (mix the two, side of carrots/celery)
Friday: Steamer
Saturday: Usually eat out.

Outside of the Saturday dinner, I could usually eat for about $30 for a week of dinners.

These days, I don;t often do this because I'm in a better place financially, but it worked great when I was starting out and had very little time. Most of these meals, outside of the first, only took about 10 minutes to cook and had enough vegetables, meats, and starches to keep me full and healthy.

Djeet · January 2012

Buy nuts and dried fruit in bulk and make your own trail mix.

Also, besides freezing, vacuum packing extends the shelf life of basically everything. The food saver system is a bit expensive, but I've seen cheaper analogous systems (put out by glad or ziplock) at the supermarket. If you have such a system you can cook a bunch of stuff on the weekend, portion them out into bags, vacuum seal, and refrigerate (freeze anything you won't eat in the next 3-4 days). Then reheat in the bag when needed. The only downside is some food can get a bit mushy going through the cook -> freeze -> reheat process, so you might want to pair with something fresh (salad, or quick saute veggies), or undercook things a bit before freezing.

Edit: something like soup/chili/stew you can freeze without vacuum packing. Other things that won't freeze into a block will likely get freezerburnt.

Madpanda · January 2012

canned tuna in water lasts quite a while, can be mixed with various mustards also for a quick healthy snack

Oatmeal i think lasts a while? I buy big boxes at costco and it goes for months, I do keep smaller portions in air tight containers.

Quinoa or Cous-Cous is also good and easy.

It's been mentioned already but oh god frozen fruits are great to have around. I either let them sit in a bowl for 30 minutes to thaw a bit, or put them in a blender with some plain yogurt and water.

Nuts are also good, just make sure to know the portion size. I have half a cup of almonds at work, which doesn't look like much but its 320 calories.

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