By Sally Squires
The Washington Post

New to the Everyday Challenge? If you're just joining the Everyday Challenge, log on to www.washingtonpost.com and click on Health for more information. The challenge is not devoted to dieting, but to eating more healthfully and getting daily physical activity. If you happen to lose those extra pounds, that's good, too. If you decide to take up the Everyday Challenge, be sure to add just one change per week. Introducing multiple changes increases risk of lapses and failure. For details, see www.washingtonpost.com/ leanplateclub

With lean veal going for $18 a pound, raspberries at $5 a pint and crusty whole-grain bread fetching nearly $5 a loaf, is it possible to eat healthfully without breaking the family budget?

To answer that question, we went shopping in search of affordable - and, yes, tasty - foods that fit with the Everyday Challenge's goals of healthful eating. If you shop carefully, you can find foods that deliver a lot of nutritional value for your dollar. Following are examples we found in each of the categories of food recommended by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines and the Everyday Challenge.

· Grains. Sure, freshly baked bread and exotic grains - wild rice or quinoa, for example - can take a big bite out of your food budget. But you can find really good whole-grain bargains that pack plenty of fiber and essential vitamins and minerals. Less-expensive options include tabbouleh (bulgar wheat) for about 30 cents a serving; mixed wild and long grain rice for about 80 cents a serving and polenta for about 30 cents per serving. Flatbreads made from whole grains run about 40 to 50 cents per serving, and if you shop carefully, you can find some freshly baked whole-grain baguettes for about $1 to $1.50 each.

Save even more money by cooking your cereal in the microwave or on the stove top: A serving of regular oatmeal costs as little as 10 cents, while instant can cost three to four times more. Compare that to boxed cereals, which cost about 40 cents per serving and higher.

Another option: pasta, particularly the whole-grain varieties. Choose dried pasta, which can run as little six cents per serving, over fresh pasta, which runs 22 cents and up.

· Vegetables. A small bunch of broccolini (baby broccoli) often goes for about $3. Reach instead for a large bunch of broccoli and save at least a dollar while getting the same amount of essential vitamins and minerals. At about $3 a head, cauliflower is another cost-effective choice and cabbage is an even-better bargain.

When choosing lettuce, Romaine costs about a third as much as butterhead - and packs as much folate and vitamin C. (Iceberg is as cheap as Romaine, but has fewer nutrients.) Baby carrots are convenient, but they're about three times as expensive as larger carrots. It's a no-brainer that seasonal choices - green beans, eggplant, peas, spinach, radishes, celery, onions, potatoes, squash and root vegetables - cost less now.

· Fruit. Rainier and Bing cherries run $6 to $8 per pound - that's 10 cents to 13 cents per cherry. Blackberries can cost up to $5 a pint. But the frozen varieties pack nearly the same nutritional punch and are just a fraction of the cost.

· Dairy. At about 30 cents a serving, skim milk is a best buy. Expect to pay about a third more for soy milk fortified with calcium. Yogurt and cottage cheese also pack a calcium punch for very little money per serving. Large sizes of plain, nonfat yogurt (which can be flavored at home with vanilla or fruit) run about 34 cents per serving, while eight-ounce individual packages of fruit yogurt costs about 99 cents.

· Protein. A veggie omelet with two eggs can cost just 50 cents and has 12 grams of protein. Compare that with $6 a pound - about $1.50 to $2 per serving - for boneless chicken breast, with about 27 grams of protein per serving.

· Good fats. Prices for heart-healthy fish can easily soar into the double digits ($18 and up per pound for crab; $14 per pound for fresh tuna; as much as $16 per pound for shrimp). Catfish runs $6.99 per pound, farm-raised salmon is $6.99 per pound and trout is about $8.99. Canned fish - anchovies, tuna, sardines, clams - have the same fatty acids and cost from 50 cents to $4 per can. Another option: pickled herring, just a few dollars per jar.

More information on low-cost alternatives and recipes is available at www.usda.gov/cnpp/Pubs/Cookbook/thriftym.pdf