Cooking Tips to Save Time and Money!
By Noel Chapman
Cook batches
If you have time over the weekend, make large quantities of your favorite dinners. Set aside enough to serve the next night, and freeze additional batches for days when dinner’s a rush. (Freeze promptly so teenagers don’t polish off the extras…) Lasagna and chili are easy to make and freeze.
Go meatless a few days a week
You won’t miss meat in tasty vegetarian meals: plus, you’ll save money and reap health benefits, too.
If you do buy meat…
Buy the tougher cuts, which are less expensive, and stew, roast or marinate to tenderize and add more flavor. Slow cookers make deliciously rich and tender pork-shoulder and beef-chuck dishes. Also, try grilling skirt steak or flank steak this summer–cut the meat against the grain and serve with a zesty sauce or salsa.
Use whole grains
While brown rice and quinoa are delicious and nutritious in their own right, you can also use them as fillers in soups and stews. A handful of brown rice will stretch a pot of Vegetable Sausage Soup. Adding extra cooking broth and some quinoa to Moroccan Slow-Cooked Lamb Stew will make for a hearty dinner with enough leftovers for lunch or dinner the next day.
Buy beans
Dried or canned legumes like white beans, chickpeas, and lentils are an inexpensive way to add protein to your diet. You can use them to make a tasty pot of chili go farther, or you can make a salad topping by combining white beans with some extra-virgin olive oil, chopped garlic, and crushed red pepper.
Make a pot of soup
Easy, nutritious, filling, and inexpensive, soup is the ultimate money-stretcher. Throw in leftover veggies or protein, homemade stock, pasta or rice, and lentils or beans. Heat yourself up in winter with a hearty lentil soup, or chill with an icy gazpacho in the dog days of summer. Add a side of crusty whole-wheat bread, and it’s a meal.
Boost salad
A simple salad dressed up with easy additions such as cold roast chicken, shrimp, ham, or chunks of tuna can be an entrée rather than a side.
Make your own snacks
You can reduce your food bill by reducing your snacking. Packaged snacks are expensive, often loaded with sugar and fat, and full of chemicals you can’t even pronounce. If you’re a compulsive snacker, switch to homemade treats such as homemade party mix. Another good choice? Ginger-Garlic Hummus is a dip-with-a-kick for dunking baby carrots or pepper slices.
Employ leftovers quickly
Don’t push leftovers to the no-man’s-land at the back of the fridge. Make sure you use them promptly, either for lunch or another dinner. Turn leftover roast chicken into chicken enchiladas, a small piece of steak into hearty steak salad sandwiches, and day-old rice and vegetables into a quick and delicious stir-fry.
Make your Meal Planning quick, easy and FUN!
Noel Chapman
Independent Kitchen Consultant
Eating out is expensive… eating with family is priceless! Buy our products and it will change your cooking! Try our Business and it could change your life!
“Self employed is unemployed unless you do something!”
“Being a business owner means your hours are flexible, NOT optional!”
For Kitchen Tips, Workshops, Newsletters and More, please visit http://www.noelskitchentips.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Noel_Chapman
http://EzineArticles.com/?Cooking-Tips-to-Save-Time-and-Money!&id=3948401