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I'm not trying to be extremely frugal, but I'm trying to cook more to avoid eating out too often which adds up the expensive. I figured that even if I buy good ingredients(fresh veggies, quality beef cut, seafood), it's still much cheaper than eating out.
I don't enjoy cooking at all, I hate doing grocery and cleaning the kitchen.
How do you who live frugally make your own food on a regular basis? Any good cookbook or recipe website to recommend? I know there are a ton, but they are not easy to follow.
A lot of people who are only cooking for one person seem to cook one dish and use it for several days worth of meals. If that doesn't work for you, you can plan a menu for a week or two, shop for it, and try to plan some quick, easy meals along with the more complicated meals. If you rinse all the utensils you use and put them in the dishwasher as you're cooking, rather than letting them pile up, you can make cleanup a lot easier.
Is it just you? Perhaps make large casseroles or other things that freeze well and after your dinner, divide the leftovers up into serving size portions and freeze. Those can be zapped in the microwave on the nights when you really don't want to cook.
I've just made beef mushroom pie. I made a double recipe, so have two beef pies, of about 5 servings each. That's a couple of dinners and 8 servings frozen for later. Also in the freezer is individually packaged stuff to make pizza, which won't dirty anything more than a cookie sheet, a silicon baking sheet, and the plate I eat off of.
I use the silicon sheet because it simply rinses off and the cookie sheet comes away clean with no burnt on cheese. So a quick swab with hot water and a sponge is all it takes, no soaking or scrubbing needed.
You can cook in bulk, divide into portions and freeze / store them.
For instance, cook a 10 lb bag of inexpensive chicken quarters in a pressure cooker.
Reserve the stock, and freeze in large ice cube forms. (2"x2"x2" ice cube forms)
Debone the meat, divide into portions, freeze. (I use silicone muffin forms for meat pucks)
Take the bones and scrap and make some more stock in the pressure cooker, rich in calcium.
You can even make chicken rinds with the cooked skin. I microwave them until chewy / crunchy. Dust with salt.
Meal plan. I sit down every Wednesday (when the sales fliers come out) and plan meals around what's on sale for the week. That mostly revolves around the meats, but sometimes the veggies/fruit. I know more or less exactly what I'm going to eat for the following week.
From that meal plan comes the grocery list. This helps Both the frugality and the eating healthy aspects. If it's not on the list, don't buy it. If it's not needed for a meal, don't add it to the list. As you develop cooking skills/knowledge, you'll find that you pretty much skip the entire middle of the store. You'll also learn the store you frequent the most and can get in/out Fast (my list is arranged by isle/path taken, I can be in and out for a week in about 20 minutes).
Cook in bulk. There's next to no additional effort to make a double-batch. Maybe a little more with prep, but cooking and cleaning are exactly the same. Anything that can freeze, I do cook extra and freeze. This means that somewhere down the road I have a simple heat-n-eat meal for when I'm simply not interested in cooking. Also good use of sale items, and if you're on a tight budget it'll give you a little cushion if things get real tight.
Tools. Cooking is simply easier/more enjoyable when you have good tools. Yes, it's an investment to buy good stuff, but spend the money once and you should be set for life. Doesn't need to be done all at once either. I can highly recommend Tramontina tri-ply pots and pans (walmart, I'm not a fan of sets but you can get a complete set for $120, they compare with Alclad stuff that's about 4~5 times more expensive), which Will last a lifetime in the home. Mine ar 7+ years old and you'd be hard pressed to tell. Prepping for meals becomes a whole lot more enjoyable with a good sharp knife too. I like super-thin Japanese style knives, just get joy from being able to cut see-through slices of dang near anything. Tons and tons of options, but this one seems to always be listed as the top cheap option (link). Of course that means learning to sharpen knives too... whole 'nother topic. The last thing I use daily that makes a huge impact is a very good quality, and very large, end grain cutting board. Makes the knife edge last longer, raises my work-surface 2" (I'm 6'4", counter height work is painful for me), and the large surface gives me lots of room for piles of different things.
The last key is what you're cooking. This simply takes time, reading magazines with recipes, watching cooking TV shows, hunting online. I've found that gathering all my recipes in one place is helpful. It used to be on note-cards and printed paper, for the longest time I've been using Pepperplate, an android/ios app and online webpage (though the app works better). There are other options, but this one is free and works for what I want/need.
Everything past that is simple desire. If you don't have the desire, you won't do it. From a money standpoint, my wife and I eat VERY well (steaks, seafood, artisan cheeses and cured meats, multiple bottles of champagne, etc..) on about $500/month. That works out to under $3/meal per person, or under $20 a day for Both of us to eat. From a money perspective, it's a no-brainer. But there are other benefits too, you don't waste tons of time traveling to/from a place, waiting on servers, getting unknown quality, dealing with the hordes of rude other customers, etc... this is bad for me, I'm a 2-hour round trip drive from any place I'd be willing to eat (rural), it's close to 4 hours of my life to "go out" to eat and I rarely get out of the experience for under $40 between 2 of us. When we're doing it mindfully (making the experience/food the highlight), that's one thing and we have spent way, WAY more than $40 and 4 hours for one meal, but for just basic daily food?
Cleaning is always a chore. I clean by hand (no dishwasher), and have for my whole life. It's just a necessary thing like taking a shower or changing the oil/tires/brakes on a car. We do it together mostly, makes the process a little nicer when you're spending time with someone you love, even if the task at hand is just cleaning the kitchen.
Hope you can find your own routine and method to make it easy/less painful. I can't imagine NOT cooking for myself, I dread eating out (again, aside from dedicated, mindful, experiences) as the food is always disappointing, as is having to pay the high costs for that disappointment.
Like others suggested, make a plan, and cook large quantities. Eat fresh the first day, portion the rest and freeze.
Let's say you (or your wife) cook 8 portions of a whole meal. Eat two, freeze six. It's easy to cook large portions, it takes a little more cooking and cleaning time, but much less than when you cook for two every single day. You just need bigger pots and pans, and freezing bags or containers..
Another day cook something else. Now you have 12 portions of food already cooked, good for 6 days and two different dinners to chose from. In a day or two cook again something else. Repeat the procedure. Depending the size of your freezer, you can keep cooking till the freezer is full. Then you have different food to choose from, already cooked and you can eat it on days you don't feel like cooking or have no time.
Every few days you need to cook again to replace meals already eaten. If you stick to this routine, you will not have to shop/cook/clean every single day...
That's what I do - I am just one person and cook on evenings or weekends. My freezer is full of variety meals ready to warm up on non-cooking days and I don't need to cook every day...
If you freeze your meats/fish and sides separately, then you get a big variety of stuff to mix and match.
put what you're doing in the perspective that preparing your own meals from quality ingredients gives you and your wife better control over your health and budget than going out to eat.
if you'll make that paradigm shift in how you regard the necessity of eating, you can turn the process (selecting items to cook, shopping, cooking … and dining) into a pleasurable experience.
Consider various cuisines as a new experience to be savored and enjoyed. Bear in mind that you can create and enjoy at home most of the dishes that you now get at restaurants … but now you can control the ingredients and final results to your taste. You can eliminate a lot of the "stuff" that goes into commercial food prep, especially some of the items which are targeted to commercial convenience and food preservation rather than your healthy dietary intake.
Perhaps less fat, sugar, sodium, preservatives in your diet would be beneficial to your long term health? How about lowering your intake of additives such as MSG?
While there's a million cookbooks to be had, you may find that starting with a very basic … yet adventuresome … monthly magazine gives you a lot of insight into the gastronomic adventures ahead.
IMO, one of the best is "Cook's", where the contributors go into some detail regarding the background of the item to be prepared and how they arrived at the simplest/best technique to create and cook the item. Their directions are exceptionally clear as to the tools, methods, food prep, cooking times/temperatures, and so forth. Additionally, they support the written articles/recipes with on-line video's of the food prep which you may access as a magazine subscriber. On top of that, they periodically issue a targeted recipe magazine … featuring a given cuisine; could be Asian, or BBQ, or another regional/national type cuisine.
Alas, cleaning up after the food prep/cooking/dining is one of those chores that must be done as part of the process. You can select the menus, foods, and tools that minimize that work. Non-stick cookware, good quality cutlery and cutting boards, and using food prep techniques such as slow cookers, oven casseroles, a pressure cooker, or grills can help minimize the chores. A BBQ can be a big enhancement to your cooking adventures … and it doesn't have to be a big elaborate one (even a small hibachi can cook a whole chicken's worth of parts with minimal charcoal consumptions but big flavor results and minimal clean-up), or perhaps the convenience of a propane fired BBQ will work for you.
Good luck with your cooking adventures ahead.
Where you'll start to see immediate savings from your food planning and cooking adventures is in buying in bulk the foods you like on special. Buy quantities of what you like that can be kept/stored for up to 6 months. Buy only the basic ingredients, do not buy "convenience" foods that have been prepared for you.
You don't need to spend big bucks on high end kitchen knives, especially not the "sets" that are offered. Start with a good quality 3-4" paring knife and a 7" chef's knife
from a manufacturer such as Frederick Dick (F Dick) … these are the knives you'll see used professionally at many meat counters. Don't forget to get a honing steel with your knives and use it several times per week (just a couple of light strokes is all it takes) … you'll find that truly sharp knives are a pleasure to use and make the food prep much easier. In time, you may find that a few more specialty knives will be useful and enjoyable to have, but again … buy the individual knife that fits your hand and meets your needs/wants.
PS: you'll not find a microwave in my kitchen, nor Teflon based non-stick. I'd rather use well seasoned cast iron on the stovetop or in the oven, or enamelware.
Genius Kitchen is a recipe repository....they have all but replaced cookbooks.....IMO.
"Scripps Networks Interactive, owner of Food Network and Cooking Channel, needed a new way to reach hungry millennials — many of whom have tuned out cable TV.
So the company built Genius Kitchen: a multiplatform digital-media brand aimed at young adults (ages 21-35) who are passionate about food, cooking and culture. Genius Kitchen will comprise original short-form programming, plus licensed food shows and content repurposed from Food Network and Cooking Channel.
In addition, Genius Kitchen’s videos will be integrated with a database of more than 500,000 recipes culled from Food.com, which Scripps Networks plans to phase out. When you’re watching a Genius Kitchen show and there’s a relevant recipe being featured, you can have it delivered directly to your smartphone."
Its like starting to go to the gym. It sounds good so you join, you try it a few times and its not that easy, some people stick with it most people don't, the ones that stick with it are happier, healthier, and end up actually loving going to the gym and will fit it in whenever they can.
just gotta get past the hump
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