I want to help you with the inspiration, the perspiration, and the celebration of food in your family. So often we only talk about the middle one of these, the perspiration. That’s all the practical stuff – for instance, we need to plan meals, do the shopping, cook the food, and serve meals to our family, but I think there’s so much more that’s significant about food in our families. The inspiration, all the ways we can be inspired in our food making, and the celebration, all the ways that we can enjoy mealtime together, and celebrate our togetherness and closeness – these things are so important as well. In this podcast, we talk about all three.
Today, I want to talk about ways to save money in the kitchen. It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed these days, and a bit discouraged. I want to feed my family healthy meals and delicious meals, but everything is so expensive. We’re just going to talk about a few ways to save on money, save on time and keep the health and the yumminess there. I know it’s not easy, but we can do hard things, right? The more we practice hard things, the better we get at doing them.
So, my first point is to do with how much food you make. I’m sure you’ve heard the advice to double up your meal. If that works for you, that’s great. If it’s not too much extra work, doing a second meal is effective because it usually uses less than double the ingredients. And then, because you’ve got two meals, it takes less time the next time, and you’ve saved some money by making what you have into two meals.
The other slant of this is that, I don’t know about you, but I often overestimate how much food we need. We’re a family of seven, and we have two hungry teenage boys. The girls don’t eat as much, but the boys are kind of like bottomless pits. I find that I always make sure there’s enough food for a meal, but often there are some leftovers, but not enough for another meal. Sometimes I just put all the bits into the fridge as leftovers, and then later in the week we grab all the leftover containers and everybody has a bit of it.
What I find is even more effective, though, is making up freezer meals for individuals. I have a hubby and son who work from home a lot, but then sometimes go out to clients, and then they take a lunch meal. I have some small individual glass containers with lids, and I’ll immediately grab one of those when there’s some leftovers from dinner, and we’ll make up an individual meal. Maybe there’ll be a bit of rice, a bit of beef stroganoff or meatballs, and some butternut. It makes a little meal ready to go that can be warmed up and eaten. Then I don’t have to worry; “What am I going to send for an individual meal? What am I going to send for dinner? Am I going to buy this extra that they can eat when they need that lunch?” It’s there in the freezer.
Every day, I can usually make up at least one of those, sometimes more. Sometimes there’s only meat left over. Then I’ll put that in a small container in the freezer, and when I have extra veg on another occasion, I’ll add it to that.
I find putting it in the freezer is better than the fridge, because then it’ll last longer. It’s good to go whenever you want to take it out of the freezer, but you can keep it for a couple of weeks, or however long you need to. So, making those freezer lunches is a great option!
This also works for a mom at home, like me, who never knows what to eat. Maybe the children will be having sourdough bread and cold meat for lunch and I don’t want to have bread. Some people are gluten free, and can’t have it. Then a freezer meal would work great for me. I’ll make some that are smaller than the ones for the men – just a little bit of meat that’s ready with some veg, and I can pull it out the night before. This makes me eat better, and helps me to have a high protein meal that is going to satisfy me, give me the energy that I need, and stop me from eating junk.
As a mom, what happens very often is you don’t eat enough. For lunch, a problem is not eating enough protein, not eating enough fiber, not eating enough calories overall, and not getting the nutrition that I need, because I’m too busy helping everybody else. Slipping those bits of food into the freezer after dinner is so helpful.
I often have to stop myself from jumping up during the meal to go and do it, because I’m always thinking about it. I was going to put what’s left in the freezer, but it’s quite fine to do it at the end of the meal, as long as the kids know that’s what you’re going to do with it. In terms of seconds, sometimes they do want seconds, but often I’ll take out a full meal before they have seconds and then there’ll still be little bits of things to satisfy them so that we don’t waste it. Sometimes they’ll eat the leftovers just because they’re there, but they don’t really want them or need them.
Here’s the next idea – these are just in random order. Let’s jump to desserts. If you decide to make a dessert once or twice for your family – or even if you buy one, instead of just using what is there – dessert is optional, right? And, it’s not where we get our main nutrition. It’s just something nice at the end of a meal. So, you get a dessert or you make a dessert. Immediately before you serve it, cut it in half and put the other half away in the freezer, or in the fridge if it can’t be frozen, because then everybody has a tiny bit of dessert. It’s satisfying, and they still enjoy it, but then you’ve got some for next time and you’ve only used half. That saves on the money when you want to buy one next time.
We like to use cute, tiny dishes for dessert, because when it’s a small bowl, it doesn’t feel so much like it’s a tiny dessert, but it’s elegant and fun in the unusual shaped bowls. We’ve got tiny little triangular bowls, we’ve got ramekins, we’ve got little bowls that are shaped like fondue pots; little round ones with a handle, and those are such fun to have a mini dessert in.
Another idea is to take your meal and think about it beforehand, and then possibly cut out one of the vegetables, or divide the vegetables you’re going to use between two meals. The vegetables are important, but if you have say, butternut and broccoli, then you could either just do the broccoli this time and do the butternut next time, or you could do half the butternut and half the broccoli, and put the other part away in the fridge, possibly even cooked, and then it’s quick the next time. Then you use half the amount of vegetables that you were going to.
I know that the protein is usually the most expensive part, but I do find that the vegetables can add quite a lot as well if we’re not careful. If you’re doing some kind of meat, or some kind of casserole, and you’re putting away one; you’re doing two for two dinners, then you can do the same with your vegetables. Just split it; use half now, and half later. Then everybody gets a little bit, but it doesn’t have to be a huge amount, especially when money is tight. Then, next time you’ve got both your freezer meal and your vegetables ready to go. I find things like butternut squash, broccoli, green beans, and carrots can be frozen just as easily as the meals.
You could use a big container, and have your meat, your veg, and your rice or whatever in it, then put that in the fridge or in the freezer. Alternatively, you could freeze the veg separately in its own little container, or you could just put it in the fridge, and have it with whatever meal you have the following day.
I usually cook my vegetables in an electric steamer, which is wonderful, because you can just leave them, and they take about an hour, and then they’re lovely and soft. Then I’ll just add some salt and butter if I want to, but the steamer still makes it so easy. If I was going to use half the vegetables the following day, I would steam everything, but I would take out half to put in the fridge when it’s not quite done, and the following day I would warm up the vegetables in the steamer by simply steaming them for 20 minutes. Then they’ll be just right and not overcooked. And I’ll have left the other half in the steamer for the meal for that day.
Number four: I like to use bone broth in soups and in stews. It’s delicious, it’s very easy, and it’s very healthy. It’s very good for us, because it’s got good gelatine and collagen. We really want to nourish our family with things like that. Now, sometimes I would buy a container of bone broth because I was desperate, but it’s so expensive. I don’t know if you do that, but it’s so much cheaper to make your own bone broth. It goes so much further, and it’s so delicious. I like to use it in chicken noodle soup, butternut squash soup, broccoli soup, lamb stew, beef stew, beef stroganoff, or gravy for roast meat. I’ll put it in whenever I’m cooking those in the crock pot or the instant pot.
So, how do you make your own bone broth? It can be very intimidating, but I think it’s all about timing, and if you can get that right, then it’s so easy. So, whenever you do a roast, whether it’s a roast lamb leg, or a roast chicken, or a roast beef with the bone in it, then you can use those bones immediately to make the bone broth. Some people put bones in the freezer, and build up a collection as they cook, which is also helpful, but I don’t think I’m that organized. I don’t think I could actually remember I have bones in the freezer to use.
Anyways, say we’re having roast chicken. I usually do two at once, because we have a big family. You could use one as a roast dinner, and then shred the other for lunch the next day to go with bread and mayo, or anything like that. So, say you have two chickens, and you cook them in the crockpot. Then, after you’ve got the meat off the bone, you put the bones back into the crockpot. Then you add in bay leaves, some onions, some carrot, some pepper, some herbs like basil, oregano, or parsley, and then apple cider vinegar, which helps to soften the bones. Then you just cover the bones with water, and you leave it on the lowest setting on your crock pot overnight. You can always turn it up again the next day, but I like to leave it as low as possible overnight. You just leave it until it’s ready and it tastes good. When you’ve decided it looks good, probably after about 24 hours, you drain the broth out into a container, you add salt, and then you leave it to settle. The fat will rise to the top, and you can scoop that off. You can keep your bone broth in the fridge in a jar. It’s very delicious, and very useful to use later on.
There are lots of ways that you can save money in your kitchen that I choose not to do. I choose not to use generic white flour, or the cheapest kind of white sugar, or the cheapest bread. Any of those things are devoid of nutrition, and not worth my time. I want my family to be healthy and have good food, so I’ll look for ingredients that are full of nutrients, instead of the incredibly refined, processed things. I know that that does cost more in the end, but overall, your family will be healthier, and they will be more nourished, and stronger. This means fewer doctor’s bills, fewer doctor’s visits, just from eating lots of good stuff. That’s my strategy.
Here’s idea number five to save money in the kitchen. This might be a controversial one, but it’s a good one for me. It’s to ditch the fake substitutes. This is something I’m quite passionate about. Fake substitutes are things that are not what they’re called. For instance, milk is milk – it’s not almond milk or rice milk or oat milk. It’s milk. These substitutes can be very expensive. I prefer to use raw milk, and I’ll even sometimes use water in recipes. If I’m topping up something, water often works great. Sometimes it doesn’t, but even then, real milk does often work best, better than anything else. If you’re definitely intolerant of dairy, and you haven’t been able to heal yet, I understand that you need some of these things, but I think that often we just use them because we’re told they’re good for us, and we buy them as an extra thing. All the things in the health store in the middle aisles are usually so expensive, and not worth our time.
Real food works. This also applies to pre-packaged meals at the grocery store. We definitely need them sometimes, I agree – sometimes we just don’t manage to cook, and then I’ll get a frozen lasagna or something like that. But trying to avoid these things, as well as fast food, obviously, is very important. These things will eat up both our money and our health. They’re made with the cheapest, least nutritious ingredients, and they are expensive. Making things yourself at home is often much cheaper.
If you do need a milk substitute, I believe personally that coconut milk and coconut cream are the best options, as they’re still high in protein, and they’ve got lots of good nutrition.
Fake meat, whatever it’s made from; usually some kind of wheat substitute with soy, or fake milk, fake cheese – all these things are not great for our health, and they’re expensive. Again, I totally understand if you have to, if you’re not able to eat the real foods. But if there’s a choice, then I would rather ditch the fake ones.
The last tip I’m going to talk about today, and then we’ll continue with these in a different episode, is whenever you have a meal or make a meal for your family, go for the highest nutrition possible in that meal. Now, this might sound counterintuitive if you are wanting to spend less, but you’ll find that your family’s much more nourished, fulfilled, satisfied, and not as hungry if their meals are very nutrient dense.
So, if we have a good meat; a good protein, and we maybe have sourdough bread instead of ordinary bread, or if we have a stone ground bread made from freshly ground grain, it’s much higher in nutrients and very much more satisfying. Some good vegetables, some healthy rice – all of those things together will mean that your family is nourished, and therefore less hungry, and they’re not going to come into the kitchen every hour wanting a different snack.
Our family has three meals a day, and for a snack in the afternoon we have Greek double thick yogurt, perhaps with a bit of homemade granola. It’s plain yogurt, and it’s very nutritious. Sometimes, we’ll add a bit of meat, like a beef stick, or a homemade muffin, but then the family’s nourished, and they’re not going to be wanting all the little snacks.
So, ditch all the grocery snacks, even the ones that seem healthy, the snack bars, or little packages of crackers or meat – those things are so expensive. Try to ditch those, because if your family is well nourished, they really don’t need them. The other snack our family has is fruit, obviously. We have a big fruit bowl that’s always stocked with apples, citrus, pears, bananas and other fruits. We can grab those whenever we want. But again, it’s going to happen less often because we’re well nourished, we’re satisfied, and we’re not hungry, our bodies are not craving that nutrition.
So, that’s all for this time. I hope these ideas have given you some inspiration. I’m certainly not perfect, and I definitely have used a lot of these things at times. These are tips that I’m trying to apply in our lives, and I find this definitely helps with my budget. For me, it’s all the extras that add up, especially the snacks; we need dried fruit, and then we need this and that – we just need more and more if we’re going to be buying snacks from the grocery store.
Have a blessed week, and I’ll see you next time.
