Tightening the belt before dinner
- November 4, 2008 7:32 AM |
- By Jessica Wong
by Jessica Wong, CBCNews.ca
With the daily onslaught of negative news about global economies, it's understandable that the average Canadian has belt-tightening on the brain. And as we take stock of where in our daily lives we can cut back, be more prudent financially and find savings, we inevitably come around to the dinner table.
A re-occurring theme in blogs and columns of late is making more economical food choices. Most aren't proposing anything radical and new. Actually, what many propose is a return to tried and true habits from leaner times of yore. For instance:
- Eating in more and brown bagging your lunch (an obvious move).
- Buying bulk, no name goods and avoiding expensive goods like soda.
- Freezing, preserving and generally making meals from scratch.
- Shopping less frequently but planning out meals ahead of time.
- Cutting back on meat.
Personally, I've been paying more attention to using up everything in my fridge and pantry: from dinner remains and those pesky lone veggies pushed to the back of the crisper to the cans, bottles and jars littering my shelves.
Four slices of steak from one meal added to day-old rice and chopped up Chinese greens turn into a different take on fried rice. Cornmeal, bacon bits and the last dregs of a carton of whole milk become savory muffins. Macaroons emerge from some egg whites I had kicking around, mixed with an "I didn't know I still had this" bag of coconut.
Are you changing your food habits, or returning to more thrifty ones, in the midst of the current economic climate? What are your best tips for saving cash in the kitchen?
About the Authors
- Elizabeth Bridge is a producer with CBC's Digital Archives project. She got her start in the kitchen baking brownies and making fudge but is still trying to get pastry right.
- Andrea Chiu
is an associate producer at CBC Radio Digital. Though she loves to eat, cook and discuss food,
don't ask her to bake. It never turns out well. She tweets as @TOfoodie on Twitter and organizes food and wine events in Toronto called FoodieMeet.
- Amber Hildebrandt
works for CBCNews.ca in Toronto. Growing up on a farm in Manitoba, she acquired an insatiable appetite, but it was during a stint in Japan that she developed her discerning tastebuds and foodie ways.
- Tara Kimura
is a multimedia producer for CBCNews.ca.
- Andree Lau
is a CBC web reporter in Calgary. Her journalism career includes seven years as a CBC-TV reporter. Her own blog called "are you gonna eat that?" chronicles her eating adventures (including sampling snake and camel hoof tendon).
- Jessica Wong
is a CBCNews.ca writer who loves to eat and cook, as well as discuss, read and watch programming about food, sometimes all at once.
- Kevin Yarr
, CBCNews.ca's writer in Prince Edward Island, wrote about food and beer for national and regional magazines before joining the CBC. He acquired a desire for new tastes on his first trip to Europe, and an appreciation of eating locally and in season when he finally settled down on P.E.I.
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Comments (5)
I've been doing the same thing at home. We take lunches with us when we leave in the morning, I've cut back on meat, nearly eliminated convenience food (like frozen meals, pizzas), and cooking everything from scratch.
A few things I've learned doing this for the past month and a half:
* cooking dry beans rather than using canned is cheaper, lower in salt, and much tastier. Especially chickpeas! They always taste so salty and waterlogged from the can I dreaded using them in recipes. They take a couple hours to cook but the difference in taste is well worth it.
* root vegetables taste better than they look. Peel and cut in chunks butternut squash, beets, sweet potatoes, and parsnips, toss in olive oil (or any other vegetable oil), minced garlic, salt and pepper and roast in oven at 450 f for 30 minutes. The veggies are sweet, tender and absolutely delicious. They also go well with any kind of meat dish, or bean dishes.
* you can freeze bags of milk. I always buy at least 2 1 litre cartons of organic skim milk each week that cost $3.50 each carton. I found 4 litres of organic skim milk for $7.80. That's a huge savings!
But my cutbacks don't mean my family is eating only lentils, garlic and milk. We buy plenty of fresh fruit, I bake treats, and I make home made pizza each week. I'm looking forward to Christmas so I can try new recipes!
If you're going to eat it right away, buy the close-to-date yogurt/sour cream for 50% off- and a little secret, yogurt and sour cream can usually be fine past their printed best before date, they have already gone bad to a certain extent. Buy not as nice apples to make an apple crumble or pie, it always smells great and makes everyone feel special, and another secret, it's cheap to do.
Try shopping in the discount area at McGavin's Bread BAsket (I shouldn't share that one, I've noticed it's slimmer pickins lately), you will pay 89 cents a loaf! Or City Bread has a price per garbage bag of day old bread. If you have a freezer, throw it in there, you won't have to spend anything on bread for a while! And if you do end up with stale bread, make bread pudding or stuff a chicken- both are so decadent and delicious, they make a regular meal extra special, even RICH.
Buy fruit in season if you can.
If you're getting tired of sandwiches in your brown bag lunch, make enough dinner for leftovers and freeze in lunch-sized containers. You can grab one for a heat-up lunch the next day, or some other day later on.
My husband and I do a lot of preserving in the fall. We spend a whole week making sauces, pickles, and relishes. It’s actually a lot of fun. We have also been buying large cuts of meat at Costco and cutting them up into stewing chunks or steaks ourselves, and freezing them in dinner portions. You can also get meat reduced as last day of sale, and then just freeze it.
The best kitchen gadget and time saver I have is my pressure cooker. I can turn the toughest cut of meat into a tender stew in no time. And there is no comparison to how it cooks carrots and beets. They are tender and still so sweet!
It’s not only about saving money on your food bill. Cutting back on convenience foods is just plain healthier. Read a few ingredients labels, and you’ll wonder what you’ve been eating.
The slow-cooker is the frugal cook's best friend! Stews, soups, and even "drier" meals that can be cooked more slowly in this device end up rich in taste even with cheaper cuts of meat.
Many grocery stores sell small boxes of frozen bacon ends and pieces at a price that is considerably less than buying strips fresh. One small box combined with dried beans, lentils, chickpeas etc, can result in many pots of tasty bean-and-bacon soup!
Or try cooking a stew or soup without meat. Throw in beans or lentils for the protein.
Leftover cooked meat that is just too small a portion for even one can be saved in the freezer till enough is gathered to flavor a soup or stew.
Or those same scraps can be tossed on a couple slices of pita bread that has been "buttered" with a little leftover spaghetti sauce scavanged off your kids "finished" dinner plate. A few spices, a little grated cheese and a couple slices of mushrooms etc, and 10-15 minutes in the oven gives you pita pizzas that can be eaten right away or tossed in the freezer for take-to-work lunches your co-workers will envy. I also regulary cruise the "meat-ends" section at Superstore for cooked ham, chicken, or sausage that are sold marked down. I dice them and freeze them for pita pizzas or to toss onto salads at work.
Monitor what you throw away. Probably the biggest way you can save money on food (besides never eating out again) is to cook only enough to eat, and to avoid throwing away leftovers. Getting used to eating the same thing a few meals in a row can save you money as well as prep time.
The best deals are on the lowest shelves in the store, followed by the highest ones. The best specials are usually on the 1st and last pages of the flyers. Old cook books have some great recipes for mixes for scones, pancakes, muffins etc. Store them in plastic containers. All you need to add is the liquid and egg to make them.