Staying efficient in the kitchen 💰

Tips and tricks that I do to minimise food waste and save a bit of time and money 😁💰

(Originally posed Sep 10 2020 - I've move this from my old site here so everything can be in one place )

Its crazy how much money food can cost us but sometimes we do pay enough attention to it to notice thats where a lot of our money goes. Did you know that Australians throw away about 20% of the food they buy? 😧 Thats so much food!! I have been cooking for myself for a long time now and I've learnt to use everything I buy. Growing up, my Dad taught me not to waste food and always eat everything in my bowl, he even made sure that I ate every single grain of rice in my bowl 🍚... or is that just an asian thing? 🤔

Here I've listed my top 10 tips that helped save a bit of money and minimise food wastage in our kitchen.

1. Plan your meals

I have a weekly shopping routine that I been doing for a long time now and it works for me. Some times the day might change depending on what happening on the weekends but most times it's the same. Every Saturday, I will sit down and plan what meals Jackson and I will be having for; breakfast, lunch and dinner from Monday to Friday. Once I plan all the meals, I write down all the food and things I need to buy on a shopping list.

2. Check your pantry

When I plan my meals I also like to have a little squiz in the pantry, especially when I have a budget to stick to or when I am trying to save some money. There are probably things that you didn't even know you have in there! Get creative and come up with some recipes with those pantry items 😉

3. Stick to the list

Make sure you stick to the shopping list that you wrote, I know it gets tempting to grabs other items when you see that they are on sale but if it is not in your meal plan, do not pick it up! Resist the temptation! 😝

4. Buy things whole

When buying fruit or veggies buy them whole instead the pre-cut ones in plastic or foil containers. I do my best to avoid single use plastic and I try to be as eco as I can at the grocery store 🌱 I always buy fruits whole and as soon as I get home from the store I chop them up and put them in my own containers. Yes, it is a little more work since you have to chop up the fruit yourself but you do save money in the long run and the more you do it the more efficient you get at doing it. The only fruit and veg that I do buy pre-cut are watermelons and pumpkins because we cant finished a whole one in a week so we buy the half cut ones 🍉

Another thing that I like to buy whole are chickens 🐓 It's so cheap to buy a whole chicken, its like $3.90 per kg at Coles, where as 1kg of chicken breast is $9.50 🤔.. unless you only eat chicken breast then ohk, buy the breast 💁‍♀️. For me, I like to have a variety of chicken cuts. I take the chicken apart and cut them in to 7 or 9 pieces; 2x wings, 2x breast, 2x thighs with the drumsticks attached (or seperate them depending on what I'm cooking, 2x drumsticks) and 1x carcass. I make the most out of the whole chicken so nothing goes to waste, with the carcass I usually make a stock for soup, then tear off all the meat on the carcass and add it to the soup or just eat it with some bbq sauce 😜. If you don't use all the cut, for example; the wings.... because who's going to eat 2 wings?? 🤨 I save the wings by popping it into the freezer and since I buy whole chickens every week, it eventually builds up and when there are enough wings, I defrost it, marinate it and then we would have a 'stay at home wings date night' 🤗

5. Buy home brand items.

When I was young I use to always by the brand items at the grocery store, I thought it was better than the cheap brand stuff and buying the cheap stuff would make me look broke or poor. Now days, I don't even care, cheap brands stuff are the best! You get so much more for what you pay for and most things taste the same as the big brand stuff. I don't know why I cared so much about looking poor because its not like I would see the people at the shops again or even if i did I wouldn't have recognised them. Buy the cheaper alternative at the shops, it all adds up and you save so much more money in the long run 😜 💸

6. Eat or use the leftovers

When you first start out cooking, sometimes you tend to make more than you actually eat and there are heaps of leftover food. Easy answer is to eat it! But what if you've eaten it for 3 days now and you are sick of eating the same thing? 🤔 Depending what you cooked, get creative! I feel like thats my answer for everything hahahaha 🤣 But yeah, make something else out of it, the possibilities are endless. Like if you have leftover white rice, you can make; arancini balls, congee, fried rice, onigiri or sushi. Leftover roast veggies, you can make; veggie hash or veggie soup. Leftover meats, try putting in a tortilla wrap with some cheese and sauce, put it on a sandwich press 🥙. You can just make it up as you go, so before you throw leftovers out, think about other ways you can use it or google it, there are so many recipes online now days just look for it 😁

7. Grow your own herbs

Growing herbs is a great way to save some money. I find that most times when a you use herbs in a recipe, you don't really use much but then you have to buy the whole herb pack at the grocery store to find yourself throwing the rest out afterwards. 🤷‍♀️Why not spend a little bit of money to plant herbs that you often use in small pots and then have them around all the time so when you do need it, its fresh out of the garden! It it so satisfying to know that you've grown something and use it in your cooking.

8. Grow your own veggies

This tip takes more time and effort but so worth it in the end, you don't have to start the plant from seed as this will take longer to get the end result, but you can get seedlings from bunnings that are quite large and transplant them into your garden. Give it some love, water and fertiliser and you be eating home grown salad and veggies in no time 🍀

This is one of my raised garden bed that Jackson built for me. Here i have planted some corn, kale, silverbeet, eggplant, kohlrabi, carrots, beetroot and radishes.

9. Shop at the farmers market

There are always great deals the local farmers market, if you have one around your area, go and check it out. Walk around and look at all the stalls available for the best price. 💁‍♀️I find that a lot of the time you would find a variety of fruit and veggies that they wouldn't sell at your normal supermarket. Plus, you will be supporting local farmers and thats always a good thing! 🤗

10. Start composting

You don't need to go all out and get those large bins and put it outside in the garden. It can be a small one that you keep in your kitchen for food scraps and when it is full, you can bury it into your garden bed, where it will breakdown and feed your plants that your have out there 😉

Finally I think this is the most important thing to all of these tips is to be organised and staying on top of everything in the kitchen. Remember to label the food and put dates on them so you know how long you have until food expire so you can use that first before buying more food. Sorting your pantry out in different categories will also help with having the accessibility to using the stuff you buy and throw in there. If you can see it then you would probably end up using rather than the food being kept in the back of the cupboard.

I hope all or some of these tips will help you out in the kitchen and save you a little bit of money, let me know below if you have any other tips that you can share to save a bit of money in the kitchen 😁

See you in the next blog!