A Healthier Grocery List

I'm writing this article to prove that eating a little healthier doesn't have to be hard and more importantly doesn't have to be expensive. Being a student the cost is always an important factor! Snack-A-Jacks Caramel 4 pack and Kallo Blueberry and Vanilla Rice Cakes are both available from Pounland. Whenever I see the Kallo ones in stock I always buy at least 3 packs as they are quite hard to find. It's also very hard to find plain rice cakes, often they are salted, chocolate or yoghurt topped and are resultantly not quite as healthy. However what I love about these is that they are deliciously flavoured whilst still being under 1% of my recommended fat, carbs, sugar and salt per rice cake. In fact the only place I have peen able to find completely plain unflavoured rice cake is the 99p store by a brand called Natural Foods. Aldi Everyday Essentials Porridge Oats this huge 1kg bag is only 75p at Aldi and is great for my breakfast porridge  I always prefer to make my own porridge from scratch so that it doesn't have all of the artificial and unnecessary sweeteners and preservatives in it. Plus it lasts for ages, unless of course I make flapjacks! Often I add a teas spoon of Asda Stevia Sweetener Granules to my porridge but it can also be used in baking or drinks. This tub was only £1.89 which is a great price though the same size tube is only £1 at Morrisons. It makes a wonderful alternative to cane sugar as it contains no calories and is 300 times sweeter in it's refined form than sugar, so a lot less can be used. Holland & Barrett Chia Seeds were on offer last week, this 275g bag was only £4.45 however they're on buy one get one half price now which is still great value compared to most supermarkets I've seen. The cheapest place you can find them at the moment is Tesco where they are £1 for 150g. I also try to keep a few packets of plain nuts in the house to snack on such as these Aldi Roasted Pistachio Nuts. Poundland also do great value on nuts and dried fruit, though with the fruit always read the label to make sure there is no added sugar! I really love the yoghurt covered banana chips, though they really aren't very healthy at all! Nak'd Bars are my absolute favourite shop brought healthy snack though I of course love rice cakes, Yoyo bears and ProperCorn/ Metcalfes skinny Topcorn too! As snacks go they are kind of expensive but make a nice treat every now and again when they're on offer. Even buying them wholesale the cheapest you can get them is 50p a bar which isn't bad really, especially when you consider what you would pay for a chocolate bar or packet of crisps. They're all-natural and vegan bars made just from fruits and nuts. Morrisons have the boxes of four on offer atm so it's £3 for 8 bars, which is the cheapest I've ever seen them. I love the cashew cookie and bakewell tart flavour, though I'm not so keen on the chocoate ones. I really don't know how they manage to flavour them so well! I've never actually tried plain green tea but I drink lemon green tea daily, at least one mug and I love the Tetley and Cipper Lemon Green tea. I have tried out the cheaper own band stuff at Tesco but to be honest it really doesn't taste as nice as the branded stuff.Tetley is cheapest at Sainsburies at 2.5p a tea bag for a box of 50. Green Tea has loads of health benefits including speeding up your metabolism, burning fat, regulating blood sugar levels and has caffeine in healthier amounts than coffee. Tetley Green Tea Boost are on offer at the moment at Sainsburies so it's £1 for a box of 20 which isn't the cheapest but I wanted to try them out, I'm really not sure if the health benefits they claim are anywhere near true but they taste great and even if it has a placebo effect of making me less tired I'll be happy. I also enjoy tropical flavoured green teas such as pineapple, peach, passion, lychee and lime so I'm also loving this Aldi Green Tea with Mango. I hope that what you take from today's post is that eating healthily doesn't have to be hard or expensive! All of the prices are correct on the day of posting.