What makes a recipe cheap and healthy?
A recipe can be considered cheap and healthy if it provides a sufficient dose of nutritional benefits, such as fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals, and if its ingredients are not wildly expensive. Generally, adding vegetables and unprocessed, fresh ingredients to a recipe can increase its nutritional values. Healthy recipes will avoid too many pre-packaged, processed ingredients and anything with high saturated fat content. What’s considered cheap is, of course, subjective, but generally a "cheap" recipe made at home will cost less than $5 per head — less expensive than what you might pay to eat out at a restaurant. Cheap recipes will also avoid pricey ingredients that, while nutritious, are exotic or harder to find, such as saffron, arugula or imported meats like prosciutto.
Nutrition-wise, we concentrate mainly on recipes with lower calories and fat, and often find those dishes naturally contain more fiber, vitamins, and minerals than most others. (We do a LOT of fruits and vegetables around here.) The cost aspect is somewhat subjective, but with few exceptions, most dishes fall between $1 and $6.
