Are you concerned about the rising price of groceries? Lots of recipes are coming up on social media sharing foods people ate during the Great Depression. Some recipes, like peas and pasta, seem useful. Others like soda cake, appear to be based more on shock value. Let’s explore some commonsense grocery shopping and cooking practices to help you curb spending while keeping nutritious food on the table.
Nourishment for your family should be the overarching goal, whether your target weekly grocery budget amount is $150 or $300. Here’s how to trim down the weekly grocery shopping trip without compromising nutrition or great taste:
Cut Back on Meat Purchases
Instead of planning a different meat featured in each weeknight dinner, purchase one package of meat and then reinvent that recipe over the course of several days. Example, Sunday’s roast chicken becomes Monday’s chicken soup, Tuesday’s chicken pot pie etc.
Purchase Filler Proteins in Bulk
This way, you can cut the amount of meat in your recipes while keeping the protein coming. Keep world cuisine in mind when you do this. Think of all the delicious meals you eat at Chinese, Mexican, Thai, and other ethnic restaurants. Most of these contain a combination of meat or fish and other protein like beans, cheese and dairy or legumes like chickpeas, lentils and peas.
With this in mind, you can use the initial meat that you cooked as the basis for reinventing delicious and original meals over the course of several days.
Cans of beans will work in a pinch, and you can find them for as low as a dollar per can But it’s even better if you get into a food prepping schedule of pressure cooking bagged dried beans to start the week, storing and using these in your recipes as needed.
What to do if you’re really low on food and don’t have a lot of cash at the moment:
- Aim for balance in your meals as best as you can and don’t be afraid to get creative. Maybe you’re not a lentil gal but you bought a bag on impulse. It’s time to expand your culinary horizons.
- A good rule of thumb for every meal should be a starch, a protein and some colorful vegetables.
- If you’re lost, head to the internet for recipe inspiration and then modify your meal based on whatever you have.
- When you grocery shop, seek balance and essentials while keeping the bill down.
Ideas for how to do this:
If the recipes you have in mind for the week call for three different types of vegetables and two different fresh herbs, cut it down to the purchase of two vegetables and one herb.
Get frozen veggies when you can. Most people have been taught that produce section is best. But frozen vegetables are bagged and frozen as soon as they’re picked. They cost less, and will also last you much longer than fresh veggies which must be consumed typically within a week.
If you normally buy three types of bread products such as sliced bread, bagels and muffins, skip the bagels and muffins. At the time when you would normally eat a bagel, toast up a slice of bread and add some cream cheese and jelly.
If you normally would love some real syrup on your pancakes but the budget says no, create a sweet topping using what you have. Here’s some ideas:
- Whipped honey butter
- Jelly or preserves
- Cinnamon mixed with sugar
- Yogurt blended with pumpkin and brown sugar
Believe it or not some of the greatest recipes that are now considered a delicacy were born from necessity.
Did you know that cookies were once a peasant food? Wealthy landholders would give their milk waste, i.e. cream which became butter to the servant. The servants would then mix it with sugar and flour to create a delicious treat, the ubiquitous cookie.
Prepared and convenience foods cost more, so cook from scratch whenever you can. This requires planning, shopping, prep and storage. Try to think of a day of the week that you can devote to food prep.
