Cooking on Budget Tricks

I am tired of hearing chefs and cooks, on TV shows, talking about using quality ingredients we should use when cooking to make the dish taste more delicious!

Are you kidding me?

People are getting layed off (or their hours decreased dramatically) … more people are taking advantage of local food banks, people not taking their medications to pay for their groceries, and etc.

I even came across a news article where a father dumpster dives at night (sometimes with his young son), at local grocery store, to get food for his family.

Did you also know that 1 in 5 children are at risk of hunger, and YES … it is in America*!

Moreover, Patrick Martin wrote, in US hunger rate triple that in China, “American workers are now three times more likely than Chinese workers to lack the means of feeding their families … The polling group found that 19 percent of Americans worried … compared to only 6 percent of Chinese.**”

How heartbreaking is that?  I remember my parents saying “Do you know how many children are hungry in China?  Finish your food!”  Ironic?

It is partially my fault to watch these shows, but it is a great way to get new and fresh ideas to cook for my family.

With that said … it is not their fault for saying that because they are classically train to use the “finest” ingredients when cooking; HOWEVER, I don’t think they should repeat it so often.

So here my tricks when cooking for my family without spending an arm and a leg on “ingredients.”

Tuna … buy tuna in oil because you can further flavor your dish with flavored tuna oil in the can.  This is my trick when cooking tuna pastas … use 2 tuna cans in oil (can pick them up for $0.60 or less), and use 1 white tuna can in water.

Use spices to your advantage … pepper flakes, oregano, dried basil leaves, garlic and onion powder, and etc.  No shame on using dried spices!

Buy “tougher” cuts of meat, but cook it longer so you can further enhance the base sauce and make the meat more tender.

Buy in bulks … almost always cheaper and make sure to divide it up into different portion (per meal) when getting home from the grocery store.

Bread, potatoes, and pastas are your FRIEND when you are cooking on a budget! You can even purchase specialty pastas (e.g. for diabetics) if you can’t process starch well … you can always find coupons and stock up when stores have sales on them!

You can substitute more expensive ingredients with cheaper  ingredients: i.e. no aspargus then use broccoli or frozen peas, substitute Halibut with Cod, and etc.

I remember going to the grocery store everyday to purchase required ingredients for a recipe, but everytime I went I would spend more than $20 to make dinner for my family!

Cooking shouldn’t make you go crazy, and make sure to be creative when cooking for your family!

Get the general idea, from recipes, and see what you have and don’t have, and go from there!  Create your own masterpiece!