Three Food Prep Techniques Guaranteed To Save You Money!

Today I'm not talking about clipping coupons or comparison shopping. I'm showing you three super-easy ideas, which will enhance your weekly cooking routine. You will not believe how simple they are to incorporate into the way you prepare the food.  As an added bonus, they will save you lots of money on your monthly grocery budget!

#1 - Use one main ingredient for multiple recipes. 

If you want to save some serious money, use one or two ingredients as the base of multiple dishes. 

1 big pot of beans = 4 recipes = 8 meals!

This is a pressure cooker full of chickpeas. Two pounds of dried beans costs me just $2.50 because I buy them in bulk.

All these beans will become the backbone of four nutritious, filling recipes. Each recipe is enough for TWO meals, meaning that my $2.50 investment in chickpeas gave me items for eight meals! That's some serious dollar stretching!

A Sample Game Plan! 

 

1. A big batch of my chickpea soup. I created this recipe many years ago when I found a similar recipe in a favorite cookbook. The original had ham and parmesan cheese. I redesigned it into a nutrient-packed vegan version. I make a big batch at least twice a month. 

2. Tuno salad (vegan sandwich spread so good you'll want to eat it by the spoonful)

3. A batch of hummus. We use it not only for dipping raw veggies, but also for spreading on tortillas and then topping with an assortment of sliced raw veggies and greens. Drizzle with homemade salad dressing. This is amazing for lunches! 

4. Chickpea Barbecue for sandwiches - sort of like sloppy joes, only with amazing-for-you vegan goodness! I talk about this recipe and the inspiration for making it in Tip #3 of this post.

#2 - Creative Leftovers

Creative Leftovers: It's one of the main keys to eating healthy food on a budget! Some folks hear the word "leftovers" and just break out in hives. Maybe that's because they are envisioning eating the exact same dish for two or three nights in a row. The sheer monotony drives them crazy.

Forget that sad scenario! That's not what I'm talking about. Creative leftovers means that you use one main dish and then create 1 or 2 more completely different meals, using that original dish as the base for those additional dishes.

Let's look at an example:  

 

Sunday: Last week I bought a huge head of cauliflower at SAMS for $3.00. I roasted it for lunch on Sunday. (Here's the recipe for roasted cauliflower from Minimalist Baker. It is amazing and my kids are all constantly begging me to make it again!


Monday: cauliflower tacos - featuring 1/2 a head of leftover roasted cauliflower, leftover brown rice, leftover roasted sweet potatoes, and a jar of salsa. Mash the sweet potatoes and spread on tortillas (this will help hold the filling in the tortilla), add cut up cauliflower and brown rice. Top with salsa and roll. Voila! Another tasty dinner for just pennies!

In fact, there was enough left over for a couple of us to enjoy it for lunch on Tuesday. I threw the filling over greens for a main dish salad. But, then, I throw nearly anything over greens.

#3 - Think Outside the Box. 

There are couple of distinct parts to "thinking outside the box." First, I must admit that I have always viewed recipes only as guidelines, like a list of helpful ideas. The ability to know how to creatively substitute and interchange ingredients is a critical skill in saving money on your food budget.

If a recipe calls for cauliflower, often broccoli is a perfect substitute. Don't have any wax beans on hand, substitute green beans or another vegetable. Once you get the hang of which colors, tastes, and textures can be effectively combined, a whole new world of quick and easy lunch and supper dishes will be opened to you! 

Thinking outside the box also includes looking at what you already have on hand and using it, before you run to the grocery store, believing that you have "nothing" in the house with which to make dinner. 

An Example: My Weekday Dinner Solution

 

Recently, my 20 year old got home from work and asked what was for supper. I gave him a list of options, none of which sounded good to him. I had made a crockpot of homemade baked beans and he asked for some sort of sandwich to go with them. Since I don't eat meat, beef was not on the menu - nor was it in the house. But, I really wanted to give him that barbecue sandwich. It was then that I realized that I still had some leftover garbanzo beans from earlier in the week. Quickly, I brainstormed some possibilities. I sauteed onions and garlic, added the beans and some bottled barbecue sauce. As you can see from the photo, the end result resembled traditional barbecue, at a fraction of the cost.

Just beans?

 

Am I telling you that you have to cook only beans to save money? No!  What I am suggesting, is that you should take these three tips and run with them! By modifying them to match your family's personal tastes, you will save big money on your monthly grocery bills!

What are your best money-saving food -prep tips? Let us know in the comments below. 

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Do all to the glory of God, 

Hope