Kitchen Hacks

...Tips and tricks to make life easier.

• Having a basic food pantry /freezer reduces your stress because you have the peace of mind knowing that there is always a meal in the house. 
• buying basic food at the lowest possible price and in bulk when it makes sense saves money and time.   
• 70-80 percent of all grocery purchases are impulse buys.   Avoiding impulse buys save money.  Stick to a list or at least get a good idea of what you need before you shop.   Studying the ads for produce in season and a rotation protein on a 'real' sale.  
• Meal Plans just make life easier.  
• The internet is full of ideas for new recipes or variations of old ones.  Switching up recipes helps to keep things fresh.  
• That being said, the average household has 7-10 dinners that almost everyone likes to eat.   rotating the same 10 meals makes you only eat the same things 3 times a month,. 
• Celery and Carrots are cheap and versatile.   
• On a four dollar a day budget, you need to average your protein at 2.00 a pound.   This is believable by having a couple of vegetarian meals a week and buying versatile meats that are low in price when bought on sale.   Chicken breast can be as low as .88-1.00 here at times.   Stock 4-6 weeks.  Pork Loin can be as low as .99.  Again, buy bulk and butcher it yourself.   
• Stick to basic meals.  We like Italian  and Tex mex.  I surmise that others do as well.   Many ethnic food has many inexpensive meals.  Rice and beans, bubble and squeak, fried rice, spaghetti and sauce ....
• Waste not, want not......with a little attention, many bits that may be thrown out can be recycled.  Anything that can be put on a pizza can be frozen and gathered for the next time you make pizza.   Ditto. Bits of veggies for vegetable soup.    Even good, but somewhat wilted greens can be used for fish packets.   (Layer spinach or wilted romaine, cooked rice, white fish, a green veggie on parchment. Wrap it up and bake,   
• Portion control.  Its good for your waistline and your pocketbook.   Buying bulk meat and portion controlling meal sized packets saves a lot of waste...or waist!   
• Taking a bulk package of hamburger or ground meat and frying it up until it’s no longer pink, then draining it and de-fatting it is the best and easiest way to store hamburger.   No thawing, low fat, and dinner can be made into any number of entries faster.   Tacos in 10 minutes.