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I want to be able to save money and cook at home more... Every time I go to the grocery store I don't know what to get. I can make some things but all of it gets old fast. Any tips for cooking at home and saving money? Also speed because sometimes I don't have time to prepare everything.
My advice (and I'm a home cook) is to find four or five simple dishes you like and learn how to make them. For instance, if you can learn to sauté thin slices of chicken breast, you can make many dishes using them as a base (chicken piccata, chicken marsala, chicken parmesan...). Learn to braise and you can make great meals using cheap cuts of meat and, it'll go a long way. For instance, if you make a pot roast out of beef chuck, you can shred the leftovers and add some BBQ sauce; make vegetable beef soup; sauce it up with taco seasonings... and also [HYPERLINK@www.jamaicathings.com] is a good source of ingredients.
Many good home cooks have a repertoire of, say, 10 dishes they make in rotation with a few new ones thrown in now and then for variety. That makes it easy to keep basic stuff available in your pantry to have on hand.
Keep it simple and you'll feel comfortable branching out to try new things.
I like ramon's advice. Two books that have helped me are Saving Supper by LeAnn Ely and Once a Month cooking.
Saving Supper has recipes grouped by season and a weeks worth of menus accompanied by a shopping list. SHe suggests sides also and gives nutritional information. I have found that my grocery bill is smaller when I use her book and I have plenty of food. It's also easier and faster to make supper when you know what you're making and have everything you need.
Once a Month Cooking also has recipes grouped and shopping lists. The premise is that you take a weeknd and cook all your main meals for the month and then freeze them. Uses less energy and you have lots of meals ready to go (as long as you remember to thaw them beforehand, lol)
I haven't done the full once a mont hcooking in a while but I often use some of the ideas. For example. When I make meatloaf I make a double batch. Before I cook it I take the extra batch and put it into a gallon freezer bag, smoosh it flat and get all the air out and put it in the freezer. It's about an inch thick and flat. When I want to use it , it thaws pretty fast. I just open the bag dump it into the pan, reshape and cook. quick and easy. There were other casserole recipes that you could do the same way.
I know you have to be gluten free so some of the recipes might not work for you btu if you already have your own adaptations it should be easy to substitute.
The important thing is to make a menu for the week and a shopping list.. it keeps you shopping trips fast and focused and decreases stress and work for you
I started cooking as a young boy. Breakfast was easy, but a whole meal for the family required some guidence. Mom showed me how to prepare a roast - season, heat the oven, heat the cast iron skillet/dutch oven, brown all sides, cut the veggies (potatoes, celery, onions, garlic, carrots),
pack all the veggies around and under the roast, put the lid on, pop in the oven at 275 f, and leave for at least 3 hours.
Used to make it every Sunday before church - was ready when we got home.
Learned about seasoning from a friend when I got out of the Air Force. We cooked chicken every day for a month. One spice at a time to learn the flavor and how they blended. Now I can conjer up a recipe from anything.
Outdoor cooking is how cooking began, and is a little different from a modern kitchen. If using wood or charcoal, temperature regulation takes some time to learn. We have had some great river-side steaks when we were canoeing, tho.
My FAVORITE website for cooking is [HYPERLINK@www.allrecipes.com.] You can search by ingredients to find recipes for stuff you already have on hand, OR if you find say, five recipes that you like, you can add them to your shopping list and it will tell you what to buy and how much so you can make those recipes. Plus, other people have tried and rated the recipes so you don't usually have to worry if you stick with four star recipes or above! We have eaten foods I would never have dreamed of making before. My favorite quick and easy (and healthy) recipe on there is Mexi-Hominy. I'd never tried it, and it was fabulous! Good luck, and happy cooking!
