I need to get more protein in my diet. I'm really on a tight budget, so I can't afford a lot of meat. I live semi-vegetarian, I guess, though not by choice as I LOVE a good prime rib when I can afford it!

Anyway, I'm wondering, what are some good ways to get protein without having to buy a lot of meat? Cause even chicken boobs get expensive sometimes. I'd guess nuts would be good, but I don't like peanuts or peanut butter, and that's the most common suggestion I've seen. Are there other foods that are high protein that I could try?

Thanks for your help!

Cottage cheese, egg whites, tuna, soy, textured vegetable protein ...

How about almonds, they are my fav and I don't peanuts or peanut butter either. Also since you are semi-veg ever think of beans, lentils, or peas. They have alot of fiber, but beware they have alot of carbs as well. Think dairy too...milk, yogurt, or cottage cheese. Last but not least my DH drinks this protein powder and I tried it b/c he got the chocolate kind and it was just like thick rich chocolate milk. It was a cup of fat free milk and one scoop of the powder with 200 calories and 28grams of protein. I drink this sometimes as a snack.

If you like low-fat cottage cheese, it is great for protein. I think a 1/2 cup has about 14 g of protein.

My food budget is $20/week. I buy chicken drumsticks for protein and eat two each day for dinner. I can eat these daily for less than $6 per week. Two medium drumsticks have only 150 calories and 5 grams of fat, so they are a low cal and low fat source of protein, too.

Have you considered drumsticks?
They're much cheaper than chicken breasts! I wish I'd found them earlier than I did!

I've been completely veggie before, and would not feel bad about going long periods of time without meat, but I've found the chicken drumsticks are a nutritious way to get lean protein, and on my current budget plus personal dietary preferences, I would probably get much less protein if I was completely veggie again. Eggs were a good suggestion, too -- I just don't like them much.

Egg whites/egg beaters! These make amazing protein-packed omelettes - half a cup of egg beaters, 1/3 cup of chopped protein (lunch meats work, leftover chicken, even a small portion of cooked up ground turkey!), a handful of spinach, and a few sliced olives - its my favorite! if you use 1/3 cup of leftover chicken breast, you have 26 grams of protein for only 170 cals or so. Perfect for after the gym, for me.

Thank you all for your replies! I hadn't realized dairy had so much protein. Unfortunately, if I eat eggs, I get horrible stomachaches. But I do enjoy cottage cheese and yogurt.

Tara, are drumsticks really not that bad for you? I grew up hearing that dark meat was terrible for you, hence why I got so stuck on chicken breasts for white meat. But if dark meat isn't really the devil incarnate (I suppose I ought to reserve that title for HFCS, no? )

Hmmm...I wonder how soybeans are for protein? Because I adore edamame, and buy bags of it frozen to make for snacks. I'll have to go check the bag. I know I can get lentils around here, but I don't know how to make them into anything. I'll go check the recipes thread for that.

Oh, and Susan, what's "textured vegetable protein"?

How about canned tuna? I eat that a lot as a source of protein and I know it's cheap cause I practically lived on it in college when I was on a really tight food budget. To get away from the high mayo tuna salad, I mix it with hummus and eat it in pitas. If you can get mangos on sale, it's also really good with mangos, cilantro, onion, and little bit of ground cumin.

I've also been eating canned chicken and/or turkey to add a little protein to my lunch. I was skeptical of chicken in a can but it actually tastes pretty good (I get the 98% fat free version). One easy cheap lunch I've had lately is brown rice, 1/2 can 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup, and half a can of chicken. I buy Trader Joe's frozen rice, but to make this a little cheaper, you could cook up a whole batch of brown rice on the weekend and freeze it in single servings.

Also beans, beans, beans. Beans are super cheap if you buy them dried (and even in the cans you can usually get a good deal) and almost all are high in protein. The soy beans you mention have 33 grams of protein per cup, about as much as 4 oz of chicken breast (although note that a cup of soy beans has about 400 calories, a lot more than the chicken).

Also, dark meat chicken isn't as lean as white meat but I still think it's considered a lean meat. I think it's a perfectly acceptable protein source. It only has about 11 more calories per ounce than chicken breast.

I also eat a fair amount of lean ground beef (95% lean, if I can find it) and ground turkey.

Drumsticks are a source of lean protein. Compared to chicken thighs, they are a little bit leaner; so I choose drumsticks over thighs. I fell into the chicken breast thought trap as well. I think a lot of people do. Then, one day I had to enter grilled drumsticks that I ate at a barbecue into fitday, and I realized they were low cal and low fat. The chicken breasts were getting expensive, and once I found out about the nutritional info on drumsticks I switched. They're sooo much easier on the budget. Of course, you want to make sure you take the skin off them...if you don't those numbers go up a bit.

Right now I either make jerk chicken drumsticks with a jerk marinade or just plop them in a store bought curry simmer sauce (from Trader Joe's) with frozen veggies (added in the last 5-10 minutes) and served over rice = DINNER IN 30 MINUTES!

Yay! Just entered my dinner - edamame and lowfat cream of mushroom soup with a glass of 2% milk - into fitday. That little yellow sliver for protein is actually VISIBLE. That's so cool.

I had totally forgotten about canned chicken and tuna. I don't have any tuna right now but I have a couple cans of chicken I'd totally forgotten about.

I obviously need to go look up some bean and lentil recipes.

Amen to the tuna! I almost always have 6 or 8 cans of it around. Once in a while it goes on sale for about 50 or 60 cents.

Textured vegetable protein is a crumbly stuff I buy in a bulk food store. You can use it in anything you would normally use ground beef for. It soaks up the liquids and tastes like what ever you put it in. According to fitday 1/4 cup has 8 gms of protein.
The last time I made chili for my men, I soaked mine in a few stewed tomatos. It was nice even cold.

Can you name the brand or is that not allowed?

Robyn

i love this stuff it's this stuff made from soy that you can use to replace meat (like in chili or soups and things) it's pretty much flavorless and will pick up the flavors of whatever you use it in.... it's really cool, i make my chili with 50% extra lean beef and 50% TVP, and have yet for anyone to notice a difference

it's super easy on the diet too... looked it up......1/4 cup is 80 cals, no fat and 12g protein on avg

Hummus is a good source of protein. You can buy it ready-made or make it yourself from dried garbanzo beans (chickpeas).

I'm sorry...just had time chime in that I LOL when you said "chicken boobs" !