Tiny Tweaks to Your Eats: Healthy, Cheap & Easy Fast Food (That Won’t Kill You)

Bethanne Weiss
Oct 16
7 min read

Updated: Oct 19

People are always amazed by the quick, cheap, nutrient-dense meals I throw together. Even my mayo-less tuna and egg salad (because let’s be real, unlike mayo haha, which is not even a food) — loaded with chopped onion & carrots, mashed in avocado, mustard, a dollop of hummus, and spices to taste — blows people’s minds. I never realized this was a gift! But apparently, it is.

So today, I’m sharing my best Tiny Tweaks to Your Eats — proof that you can eat healthy, cheap, and easy without fancy recipes, pricey protein bars and powders that taste like the inside of a sneaker, and you won’t have to spend a gazillion hours in the kitchen.

Confession: I Don’t Like to Cook

See? Teal backsplash, state of the art kitchen...matching teal shirt of course :)

I’d honestly rather watch paint dry. AND I have a state-of-the-art kitchen with a sub-zero fridge and a teal backsplash, of course. But that hasn’t stopped me from throwing together and eating delicious, nutrient-packed meals every day. People constantly ask me for my recipes. Truth? I don’t really have any. I literally take stuff from my freezer, pantry, and fridge and blend it together.

I call it “healthy fast food."

A bag of frozen grains and veggies
A quick sauté of onions and garlic
A can of beans, chicken, fish, or a handful of shelled edamame, chickpeas, or other legumes

Minutes later — boom — a meal that costs WAY less than Chick-fil-A (and tastes better, too), less than two Whopper dinners at Mickey D’s, feeds a family of six, and probably won’t clog your arteries either. (Did I get that fast-food thing right?... I wouldn’t know!)

Why Everyone Freaks Out About My Salad

People rave about my salads. Honestly, I don’t get why they’re so blown away (figuratively as well as literally LOL) — but I think it’s because most folks are afraid to throw things together and call it a meal… I’m (obviously) not! What’s the worst that can happen? One of my favorite Tiny Tweak questions to ask myself about any choice in life.

Here’s my very top-secret formula (SHH):

Grab a few bags of pre-shredded salad mixes — cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, kale. (No wimpy iceberg!) Mix varieties — Mediterranean, Asian, whatever you love.
Toss the dressing packet (aka creamy artery clogging paste) in the trash where it belongs. Instead use infused Balsamic vinegar (coconut is my fav but you can make your own choice) that you can purchase at your local Olive Oil Specialty store—$30 for a wine-sized bottle, lasts months, totally worth it.
Add shredded carrots, onions, small tomatoes, chickpeas or edamame, olives, beets, nuts, and seeds (dry-roasted sliced almonds are everyone’s favorite).
Mix it all in a giant bowl that lives in your fridge and can survive for days.

The result? 20+ plants in one salad — boom, ready to roll anytime.

Top it with chicken, salmon, feta, or avocado. (BTW, I do either avocado OR cheese — one fat per meal = a powerful Tiny Tweak.)

20+ plant BIG salad always waits in the fridge

And yeah… no bacon cheeseburgers allowed with that tweak — which you’ll definitely want to avOYd if you’re aiming for less OY and more JOY

Tiny Tweak: The Real Loaded Potato

How about my cheap and easy version of a loaded baked potato — yes, a white potato!

Calm down, carbophobes. Potatoes are super healthy, especially the skin (it even contains protein.) They are single-ingredient foods — no unrecognizable additives or mystery chemicals like in so many “health” foods that you might be partaking in.

Don’t lump potatoes in with unfrosted cupcakes (aka muffins). Those are caloric rather than nutrient-dense — the latter are not carbs they are crap!

Potatoes get a bad rap because we deep fry them or drown them in sour cream, fake cheese, and bacon. (At least the chives are okay… and so is a dollop of whipped butter.)

My loaded potato? Totally different story. It’s loaded with nutrition, not empty calories.

Here’s the tweak:

Bake at 400°F for 1 hour with a mist of real olive oil spray (no additives or propellants)
Sprinkle the skin with Everything But the Bagel seasoning and mixed peppercorns — OMG yum
When ready, cut it open and top with 1 tablespoon hummus, pico de gallo, avocado, and a handful of arugula

Boom — delish and nutrish!

I substitute bagels for potatoes all the time — a fraction of the calories and no cream cheese necessary! (And if you’re one of those clueless crap consumers who scoops out your bagel just to fill the trough with empty-calorie cream cheese… super no-no!) There’s a reason cream cheese, sour cream, mayo, and ranch dressing are on my “Killer White Creamy Foods to Avoid” list!

Of course I have a sweet potato hack too:

Spray with olive oil, sprinkle allspice, bake the same way, cut in half and sprinkle with cinnamon and almond butter (no added sugar, no fake sweeteners in your nut butters…skip the Skippy…it has sugar added and so do most brands, even that powder you rave about has sugar added!)

These meals cost less than 50 cents, are packed with nutrition and flavor, and even kids love them!

Stock up Tiny Tweak: Bake a bunch at once, keep the cooked (uncut) potatoes in the fridge, and when hunger hits, pop one in the air fryer for crispy skin or the microwave if you’re in a hurry.

Cheap, Healthy Staples I Swear By

People love to tell me healthy eating is expensive. Nope. Here are a few of my go-tos:

Veggies: Broccoli ($2/head), sweet potatoes ($1/pound), spinach ($2/bag)

Grains/Legumes: Brown rice ($2/pound), beans ($1/can), quinoa ($3/pound)

Fruit: Bananas ($0.60/pound), apples ($1.50/pound), frozen berries ($3.50/pound)

Protein: Eggs ($2/dozen), canned fish ($2–3), Greek yogurt ($1/cup)

Cheaper than your fancy protein bar — and honestly, have you ever heard anyone say, “A protein bar a day keeps the doctor away?" Yeah, me neither.

And speaking of apples, one of my fav cheap, easy high-protein, high-fiber, nutrient-dense breakfasts or snacks…

and it costs less than a crumpled-up vending machine protein bar...

Delish, nutrish, less than 50 cents, and loaded with nutrition including ALL the protein you need! I got these super seeds at Super Walmart for less than $10....seriously!

Slice an apple.
Add a tablespoon of your favorite almond butter (or peanut butter if you’re old school.) The kind with no sugar added…the nut is the only ingredient
Sprinkle on a mix of ground seeds — flax, chia, hemp. (which I purchase for less than $10 for a huge bag at Super Walmart.)

Together they give you all the essential amino acids your body needs. Translation: complete protein. For less than 50 cents. And it actually tastes really good. (Unlike that pricey protein bar that doubles as drywall.) EEWW!

🧂 Tiny Tweaks for JOYful Eating

Swap sauces for spices — your arteries will thank you
Swap caloric dense killer white creamies for plain Greek yogurt, smashed avocado, mustard, pico de gallo (aka chunky salsa,) and humus (not too much of the latter.)
When you think you’re hungry, drink water first
Don’t chase “weight loss.” Choose a mealthy goal instead like. “I want to be able to walk to the mailbox without getting exhausted.” Health comes first; jiggling less is simply a side effect of moving more and eating less
Remember: the diet industry gets richer when you get sicker. Don’t feed the machine

🥗 Tiny Tweak Takeaway: Eating Healthy Made Simple

Eating healthy doesn’t have to be complicated, expensive, or time-sucking. It’s all about Tiny Tweaks, a little creativity, and ditching the junk.

Your meals don’t need to be Pinterest-perfect — they just need to fuel you with More JOY and Less OY.

Tiny Tweak your creativity! Don’t be afraid to throw things together. What’s the worst that can happen? A little culinary chaos… or a new favorite combo you never imagined!

So grab some veggies, spice it up, and throw together your own healthy “fast food.” You’ll be amazed at how good (and inexpensive) eating well can be.

Next time you’re hungry, skip the drive-thru. Grab an apple, nut butter, and some seeds — your new Happy Meal. Simple. Delicious. JOY-filled. 😄

Still convinced you eat healthy and don’t need a reality check? Then you definitely need to listen to my podcast episode OY verfed and Undermoved. You will get that loving little slap upside your (fine young) assets that your doctor, your BFF and your mirror are afraid to give you, but I'm not. You're Welcome!

As Bethanne Wellness, the Queen of More Joy and Less OY, I enJOY teaching Tiny Tweaks to your eats, your moves, and your life to help you move, feel, and look (even more) amazing as well as help you age safely, healthfully and JOYfully in your own home or place of your choosing. Not only am I certified in helping you prevent falls and helping you dramatically improve your balance, brain, and booty (of course) but I also walk the walk because I’ve had struggles with dizziness and balance issues for most of my life. I have prevented thousands of others, including myself, from being on the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up commercial” and scooting at 2 miles per hour. My Tiny Tweaks can prevent you as well!

Bethanne Weiss B.S., is an American Posture Institute® posture ergonomist and balance expert, Age Safe® America Certified Senior Home Safety specialist®, motivational speaker, author, More Joy Less OY Podcast host, FUNIQ® Fitness Founder, ACE-Certified fitness and nutrition professional, ACE-approved CEU provider, and ACE-Certified behavior-change specialist with 35 years of moving assets, changing brains, bodies, booties and preventing falls. Bethanne teaches Tiny Tweaks to your eats, your body, your brain, & your life that will have YOU moving, feeling, and looking amazing in less than 30 minutes…really!