Efficient And Low-Cost Home Cooking Strategies To Learn During Quarantine

LifeStyleMay 7, 2020

All of us are trying to outlive the virus while eating homemade food and trying new recipes at home. But although we feel comfort and happiness in what we cook, sometimes, it can be hard not to feel guilty about how much we are spending on these recipes that we’re craving.

During these hard times, it looks like our food budgets have increased, when the whole purpose of eating at home is to save money. We talked to some experienced foodies about the matter to help us trim down on the spending. Here’s what they had to share with us:

Make adjustments on the recipes

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Daniel Gritzer, who works as a culinary director at SeriousEats, shared that although recipes are “special guides” that assist us in creating new and energizing foods, they can rapidly prompt overspending. Why? Because it’s easy to overbuy the ingredients that you’ll only really be using once or twice.

To limit the number of meals that you make from every new recipe every week, use the recipes as motivation instead of just going at it step by step. You can always make adjustments on the recipes, depending on what you and your loved ones like. By doing this, you’ll be able to trim the extra cost.

Limit cooking with meat

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Almost every individual spends the most on buying meat. Gritzer suggested that in order to save money on these animal products, use an enhanced approach, which means using meat as a supporting player in the meal. He further added that there are unlimited tricks on how you can make any dish meatier than they really are.

Gritzer gave examples about serving poached chicken with lentils and eating stir-fries. One tip he also gave is to look for meat that is less in demand because these are not as pricey as others. For instance, shoulder cuts are somewhat affordable. So are the cheeks!

Use what you have

There are a couple of websites wherein you can input the ingredients you have on hand, and it will provide you results of what you can make. Even if the meal that you are trying to make consists of more ingredients than what you have sitting in your refrigerator or cupboard, you should try to find a role for it.

Invent new things like throwing leftovers in a pan, along with scrambling in a few eggs for breakfast. Cat Cora, a famous chef, suggested stocking up refrigerators with jarred items, canned beans, pasta, rice, and groceries during the course of the pandemic. She said that these items are less expensive and last longer while staying delicious. You can also make different kinds of combinations out of them. Yum!