Eating healthy can be really expensive – I get it! It’s true; only today I spent some time roaming around the health section in a supermarket and purchased just a handful of items (literally just one shopping bag’s worth of food) for around Euro 60.

Ridiculous right? However, you don’t need a bunch of super foods to eat healthy. Do I enjoy trying out different things? Yes. Do I prefer purchasing organic? Yes. Do I always eat/buy organic? NO! Why? Because it’s too expensive and too limiting.

What I do, is buy good ingredients and make whatever I can myself; this tzatziki recipe for example, takes around 5 minutes to make and is so much cheaper than buying it ready made. Now, I know time is an issue for most people, myself included, but having some really simple go-to snack recipes in your arsenal is so helpful in trying to live a healthier lifestyle, especially on a budget! Moreover, when you make something yourself you know exactly what’s going into it and you can make it to your liking and add or remove ingredients – win win!

Ingredients:

300 grams (2 small tubs) Greek yoghurt 
1/2 large cucumber, seeds removed and shredded 
2 cloves (roasted) garlic 
1 tablespoon olive oil 
Juice of 1/2 a lemon 
Salt, pepper and dill (fresh or dried)

Method:

Peel cucumber and cut in half lengthwise; remove seeds using a teaspoon and grate flesh using cheese grater. Place shredded cucumber in a small bowl, add some salt and set aside to allow water from cucumber to drain. In another bowl, add finely chopped garlic, add olive oil and mix well. Add yoghurt, lemon juice, salt, pepper and dill to the garlic and oil and mix well. Finally, just drain cucumber by lightly squeezing with your hands and throw out excess water. Add strained cucumber to yoghurt mix and combine well; dip and enjoy!

Note: you can used both fresh and roasted garlic here. Roasted garlic has a deeper and milder flavor and I prefer it here. Alternatively, you can use 2 teaspoons of garlic powder.

Another option is using full fat Greek Yoghurt – I do sometimes! By now, I’m sure we all know that saturated fat is known as the ‘bad fat’ and that’s true. However, in small amounts, saturated fat is fine. Just don’t overdo it! If you take a look at what you’re eating and realise that your diet contains a good amount of animal foods – like meat and dairy – then going for a 0% fat yoghurt might be better since you’re probably getting more than enough saturated fats. If, on the other hand you are consuming more plant foods which do not contain saturated fats, then go ahead and used the full fat version – a little bit of saturated fat is not actually harmful. Just make sure you’re not getting it from other sources too!

As my grandmother says – a bit of everything and everything in moderation 😉

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and try this out – it really is so super simple and delicious.

If you have any questions or requests, just leave them in the comment section below. Make sure you click the ‘follow’ button below to see all the content I share here. I also share a ton of recipes on my facebook and instagram pages – linked below – Sarah’s Healthy Eats @holisticnutritionninja – Would love to have you there 🙂

Thank you for taking the time to be here and read this!

Until my next post, be well xXx