by Lisa of La Mia Cucina

Happy New Year everyone! I hope the start to everyone’s 2009 has been delightful!

I’m going to talk about a New Year’s Resolution that I believe any family can attain this year. It’s all about pinching pennies but not losing out on what we all love so much - THE FOOD!

Well you’d have to live under a rock not to know how sad the shape of the economy is in, especially here in the states. Although I can’t imagine it’s all that much better anywhere else in the world either. Everyone is tightening their belts, hanging on to every loose penny they have. We, being foodies, are having to look at our sometimes extravagant grocery bills and taking a moment to realize that for most of us, this can’t go on. I can’t imagine that I’m in the minority here with not one, but TWO pantries filled with exotic or unnecessary ingredients that I just had to have because I saw a recipe that needed it.. yet haven’t opened the package since buying it.

And lets talk about waste.. how often do we follow a recipe which makes way too much food for just yourself or your family? How often do we actually package it up and take it to the neighbors or our co-workers? Or is it more like we end up forgetting about it in our refrigerators until the end of the month when we clean the damn things out? And really, why ARE we taking it to our neighbors and co-workers? Can we afford to be feeding the public? Why aren’t we halving these recipes - or better yet, freezing individual sized portions for quick and easy dinners in the future??

The more we talked the more inspired I became. It also made me realize just how many nights we’ll order out because we’re both too tired to cook anything. Well if we had frozen past dinners properly, we could also cut down some major spending in carry out. An inexpensive way to freeze properly is to invest in a Reynolds’ Handi-Vac system. This little gadget is ran on batteries, fits easily into a kitchen drawer and works just as well as the bigger systems from Food Saver. From what I’ve read, the only two reasons why the less inexpensive Handi-Vac isn’t as good as the Food Saver is because it doesn’t work well with liquids and it takes like 3 seconds longer to suck the air out than the Food Saver. MY GOD. So, unless you freeze a lot of liquids, the Handi-Vac can be yours for less than $20.00 whereas the Food Saver can cost anywhere between $100 to $200 depending on which model you choose. And yes, there is an extra cost for the bags for both systems.. although with the Handi-vac system, you can open a frozen bag easily, take out what you need and reseal it again. You can’t do that easily with the Food Saver as you usually have to use scissors to open those bags.

The Kitchn has a ton of excellent recipes that freeze well.. you’re bound to either find something here or find something to inspire you. There are also terrific tips on freezing meals here as well.

I make an amazing AMAZING Spaghetti Pie - it makes a ton, and it freezes individual slices so well.. you just take them out of the deep freeze in the morning, unwrap them and put them on a dish in the fridge to thaw all day while you are at work, then pop them in the microwave for a super easy dinner that night.

Cookie Baker Lynn makes these tasty Enchiladas that I can vouch for freezing well. And what’s more perfect than a quick dinner of enchiladas, green salad and a glass of wine?

Don’t really have the freezer space for all of these future dinners? How about making a meal into two meals? For instance, Robin at Big Red Kitches makes a Bolognese that she serves over pasta one night and then uses the left overs for an Italian version of the Sloppy Joe called the Sloppy Guiseppe!

Susan of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy makes a delicious sounding Picadillo that she serves over yellow rice one night and then uses the left over Picadillo as a pizza topping another night! Yum!

And why should cooking on a budget mean losing flavor or creativity? Michelle of Thursday Night Smackdown has a whole category called “Cheap Ass Mondays” and each one of those recipes, made for practically pennies, looks and sounds delish. One of my favorites is her Winter Squash, Bacon & Sage Ravioli in Hazelnet Brown Butter made for about $2.50 per person. Take time to read through this blog, kids.. she’s hysterical.

Matthew and Alexa devote their entire blog on budget cooking and they are doing an excellent job of it! At Sustainable Pantry you’ll find this recipe for Sopa Seco De Fideos which looks amazingly good!

So there you have it.. we all need to cut some corners these days - and we can do it without feeling punished. We can keep all the flavor and nutrition with just a little thought and creativity. I dunno, but for me, just the thought of not having to worry about what’s for dinner when I’ve got meals frozen or left overs to recreate in the fridge is almost better than the actual money we will be saving.

xoxo

As always, you can find more budget-friendly recipes on the FoodieView Recipe Search Engine

To find more about Lis, you can visit her blog, La Mia Cucina.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Recipe Roundup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.