Everyone wants to learn how to get delicious budget-friendly meals on the table especially now when prices are going up consistently. If you are interested in being able to cook delicious food while keeping a tight lid on your budget, here are 10 tips you can do so without burning a hole in your pockets.
1. Make a menu and a shopping list. When you make your menu, try to build it with recipes that call for similar ingredients so that you don’t waste anything. For example, both chicken stock and onion soups uses onions.
2. Most of the time people tend to super size food even at home. Stick to cooking and serving the right portions. Research shows an adult only needs 84 grams for a healthy serving of meat. This is 112 grams when raw – roughly the size of a deck of cards or palm of your hand. A good and healthy dinner plate should have only 1/4 of it covered with meat, half of it with vegetables and the remaining quarter should be comprised of whole grain. This healthy composition will be good for both your health and your wallet.
3. The tougher cuts of meat are usually cheaper than tenderloin and steak cuts. Buy them and learn to soften them by cooking them slowly with low fire. You can make many tasty recipes for stew without breaking your budget. Take advantage of the many ways you can cook cheaper cuts of meat such as pot roast or slow-cooked casseroles.
4. Stretch your food budget by learning ways to all pasta or rice. Here’s one of those great cooking tips to save money: sautéing rice quickly with leftover meat, some green peas, some diced carrot, and soy sauce will give you fried rice that will make a perfect accompaniment to stir fried vegetables. You can do the same thing with noodles as well and complete your oriental meal with a dish like mushroom and tofu stir-fried with bok choy (小白菜).
5. Learn to cook for two meals at once by doubling your recipe then freeze half for dinner in a couple of days or so. If you don’t like to eat the same thing twice in such a short time, you can do creative things with the second batch by adding a new ingredient such as green and red peppers. On the other hand, you can treat it differently if it is meat by shredding it and using it as fillings.
6. Invest in good vacuum-sealing tools so you can preserve food safely in the freezer. Good vacuum-sealing means stored food won’t get unsightly freezer burns. This makes sense when you buy in bulk to save. While you are at it, pack the food in one-dish quantities so that you can thaw per pack as you cook.
7. Invest in transparent containers so that you will see what leftovers you still have and you will be reminded to eat them.
8. Keep an orderly refrigerator and freezer. Store foods in sensibly sized packages.
9. Develop a system for storing and retrieving foods from your freezer so that you can use foods efficiently. A lot of frozen food is left in the freezer unused until people become uncertain of how good they still are.
10. Restraint and discipline. Train yourself to buy foods on sale then either store them properly or schedule their use in a menu. The lure of bulk buying food on sale is irresistible and it is a good chance to save money but this only holds true when nothing goes to waste.
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