Healthy and Cheap Dinners

A complaint arises often at many of the forums I frequent: healthy food is too expensive. This, according to too many people, is why they are obese.

I know this is mean, but it needs to be said: you get obese from eating too much and exercising too little. Period. You could be a thin (and very unhealthy) person who lives on Cheetos, as long as you are eating less than 1500 calories a day of the orange poison and going for regular walks.

I always argue that it is far cheaper to eat healthy, but no one will engage. Perhaps because they know I'm right?

Here are a few super cheap, super healthy main dishes that cost less than 25 cents a serving to make:

Homemade vegetarian chili with homemade cornbread
Homemade falafel on homemade pita bread
Cajun red beans and rice
Black bean tacos
Omelets
Chinese fried rice (with egg in it for protein)
Homemade minestrone
Lentil and rice casserole

This is just offhand--I'm sure I can think of more if you need more. You would need a veggie with these, but I hope the family in question is eating vegetables with their meals already. Produce is generally cheap because there's always something on sale. Plus, you can grow your own, which is more than I can say for Cheetos.