I
visited my adult daughter and her roommates bearing a beautiful, plump raw chicken. They were all puzzled how to fix it
since they had never cooked a whole chicken. I quickly explained they could
make it in a cooking bag and they were set. Statistics show that people under
thirty no longer know how to cook. They live on a diet of drive thru and microwavable
foods. This isn’t good for your health
or budget.
1.
First, make a list. Forty percent what we throw
in the cart are impulse items. Grocery chains hire experts to get you to buy
things you don’t need.
2.
Know your prices. Often we pay too much for an
item because it is marked sale.
3.
Know your price per unit. Sometimes the larger
item is a better buy. If you have someone to split it with, all the better.
4.
Buy basic ingredients as opposed to buy packaged
items. The hamburger dinner mix that
cost around two dollars is about a five cents worth of macaroni and spices. You
add the hamburger, butter, and milk. A cookbook might help if you want to make
stroganoff, but it isn’t has hard as you might think. I use www.cooks.com or www.allcooks.com and scroll until I find a
recipe that I actually have the ingredients to make.
5.
Don’t have the needed ingredient. Substitute it.
The best thing about my grandmother’s cook book was the substitution list on
the inside cover. Here are a few from the Internet: spice, herb, and alcohol.
Do not have buttermilk, apples, or eggs, then use the Cook’s
Thesaurus to find a good exchange.
6.
Most recipes that call for ground beef, I use
ground turkey or chicken. It is less fatty and cheaper. Got a freezer, then you
can stock up on basic ingredients like chicken and ground turkey.
7.
As a working mother, I used to cook all the
meals on one day, then freeze them. Some churches even have days where
women cook ahead for an entire month in a few hours. Check and see if any the
local churches have a Fix and Freeze program. Can’t find a program? Gather a
few relatives, friends, or neighbors and start your own. Fix,
Freeze, Feast is a good starting book.
8.
Do you have granny’s cookbook and her recipes
make no sense because she used a pinch of this and a dash of that. Use this heirloom
measurement tool.
9.
My own grandmother lived through the Depression
so food was never wasted, ever. Plan
your meals so you use all food before it goes bad. Left over veggies can go
into a soup or stew. Produce that is getting limp is stew worthy. A beef vegetable
or minestrone soup is a good bet.
10.
Toast stale bread. A damp paper towel wrapped around
a couple of slices and microwave for 30 seconds will revive it. The bread can
become croutons, breadcrumbs and bread pudding. NEVER EVER, USE MOLDY
BREAD. Bread mold goes all the way through bread even though you can’t always
see it. It can have a bad effect on the consumer.
11.
Soft crackers can spend a few minutes in a warm
oven to return to their original crispness.
12.
Stale cookies or overdone cookies can recover
their moistness by wrapping a section of cut apple in paper towel and placing
them all in a plastic bag overnight.
13.
Your slow cooker is best to cook cheap meat cuts.
You can tenderize the meat by hitting it with a meat hammer, or an actual
hammer wrapped in a clean cloth. Use meat tenderizer or pour leftover wine into
the cooking liquid. The alcohol content cooks out while tenderizing the meat.
Onions help too.
14.
Grow your own produce and herbs when possible.
15.
Recycle
leftovers. Mashed potatoes can become potato pancakes.
16.
It is not cheaper to make your own bread.
However, biscuits are much cheaper and taste better than canned ones.
17.
Leave the peeling on the potatoes and apples, it
saves times and nutrients, just make sure you wash them first.
The good thing about cooking like grandma is
you are more in touch with what goes into your body. People who only eat out one night a week via
the drive thru gain more weight than those who do not. The secret ingredient was according to my
grandmother was love. I was always able to taste it.
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