Food Tips

20 Sep Food Tips

Read more tips for Saving Time and Money in the Kitchen.

Here are food tips to get you started.

• When kids don’t like vegetable soups, puree them. It will go over better.
• Cut up overripe fruit into a bowl. Top with some lemon juice and sugar. Mix and serve as a snack or dessert.
• Cut up overripe fruit into a bowl. Top with a scoop of plain yogurt and some maple syrup or brown sugar. Nice dessert and easy way to get rid of fruit the kids won’t touch.
• Throw leftover meats and steamed veggies into a stew the following day.
• Double or triple your pancakes and freeze them for later use. Same goes with French Toast. Make them both from scratch and save big time.
• Make your own oatmeal for breakfast. Buy the one-minute variety. Add your own brown sugar, cut up fruit, raisins etc. Much cheaper than premixed packages.
• Freeze food in meal size portions in Ziploc bags, using a straw to remove all air. This way you max your freezer space. Can use different containers so that liquid contents get a particular frozen shape. Used plastic milk bags washed and dried make excellent sturdy freezer bags when using a twist tie.
• Buy your ground beef in big portions. Cook up once you get home. Freeze in meal size portions. Will save you lots of time. Do the same with chicken breasts (can be used in fajitas, salads, sandwiches, main dishes), sausages etc. This will save you most of your cooking time through the week.
• Double or triple your recipes so you can freeze them. Will give you a day off and be very helpful when you are sick, too busy or in a mad rush.
• When in season, go ahead and freeze in an airtight bag overripe tomatoes that have been passed through a blender for tomato sauce, head of cauliflower chopped into florets, chopped parsley, leeks, green peppers. All are handy to throw into soups and stews. Freeze ripe bananas and use in milkshakes or banana bread.
• Instead of buying chopped walnuts, buy them in the shells, have fun with your kids hammering and shelling them, put in a Ziploc bag, freeze and slowly use. Very cost effective and handy.
• Use square plastic bread ties or plastic credit card type cards for scraping bowls and pots and pans before washing. Excellent for scraping stuff off counters.
• Cook rice in the oven beside your main course. Saves time and energy. Throw l cup of rice into 2 cups of boiling water with salt. Keep covered and bake at 350 degrees for half an hour.
• Don’t always serve your salad with the dressing on. That way you can use leftovers in tomorrow’s sandwiches, fajitas, tacos, etc.
• Freeze your great desserts in containers marked broccoli, spag sauce etc. As a result, no kids get tempted to nibble before you want them to.
• Post a list of ideas for breakfasts, lunches and even meals in a hurry on the inside of your kitchen cupboards. Then when you are wondering what to do, you can easily get on top of things with little stress.
• Use dry powdered milk instead of real milk in most of your cooking and baking.This will save lots of money and give your kids more milk to drink.
• Start a Kids Cookbook. Once they are old enough to read, get a binder, some lined paper, plastic sheet covers and begin writing down step-by-step recipes for your kids to follow, ie. RiceKrispie squares, french toast etc. Write recipes in very easy to follow directions like get the white plastic bowl, use the glass square baking pan, etc. This will empower your kids to bake and cook much more often, even without your help. Organize sections: Breakfasts; Lunches; Desserts: Cookies, No Bake Recipes, Cakes; Main course dishes; Salads etc. Then just keep adding the older they get. What a personal repertoire of family favorites they will have.

YOUR IDEAS:

• For Sunday dinner we always have mashed potatoes it seems, anyhow….since I hate peeling potatoes I always peel twice as many so that on Mondays we can have potatoes again in some other form, and I don’t have to peel anymore darn potatoes. Melinda
• Our kids LOVE quesadillas! I just pick up those flat tortillas and freeze them so they’re always available for a quick meal. Use can use whatever you want (which is great to use up leftovers). Put the Oven at 375 degrees. Melt 1/2 cup cream cheese and mix with 1/2 cup salsa.Put in the fridge while getting other ingredients together. Chop green peppers, onions, chicken (any meat on hand).Grate cheese.Spread cream cheese mixture on half of tortilla. Add remaining ingredients and fold over tortilla.Place on cookie sheet and bake until brown (usually about 10-15 minutes). Enjoy with sour cream. It comes in so handy for all sorts of moments. Keri K.
• A friend of mine gave me this idea a few years ago when your kids don’t want to eat veggies: “Crackers soup”. You just take whatever veggies steamed or boiled (I always try to mix colors, to get an orangie or reddish color… but it doesn’t really matter much), blend them with a bit of salt, add sour cream (generously)…. heat and serve. Let your kids add pieces of crackers to it.  Pilar
• The best thing I ever did was to buy two lunch boxes for everybody.  The kid’s bus goes too early to make lunches in the morning and in the evening the LAST thing I feel like doing is making 4 lunches.  So, I make all the lunches either in the morning or afternoon for the next day.  I love it because when I am making lunch for my 3 who are at home, I can save time by making extra sandwiches, bagels whatever and pack them in the extra lunch boxes.  When I make juice during the day I can fill up the thermoses at the same time.  If I bake throw some cookies in there, whatever !!  There is no better feeling than knowing all the lunches are made for the next day before supper even starts !!
• One of my easiest, most inexpensive and nutritious dinners is quiche. Many people don’t realize how simple it is to make and that the whipping cream and Swiss cheese in the traditional quiche Lorraine recipe can be substituted with cheddar and 2% milk. I usually make one plain cheese one for the little kids and one fancier one for the big kids– I just throw in whatever leftovers I need to use up, like some cubed ham or crumbled bacon, some spinach or sauteed vegetables. If you aren’t practiced at making your own pastry, you can buy the ready-made pie crusts and it’s still an inexpensive dinner. Throw on some rice and cut up some raw veggies while it bakes and you’re done in less time than it takes to order and wait for pizza. Michelle
• The easiest way to freeze a casserole is to place aluminum foil inside the dish when cooking. After the casserole cools, it can be placed in the freezer, and the dish can be removed after it is frozen. Meal items such as lasagna, meatballs, most casseroles, and sauce freeze well.
• In many recipes, an expensive ingredient can be omitted or substituted without losing the tastiness of the dish.
• Don’t grocery shop when you are hungry.
• Whenever possible, use homemade sauces, special seasonings (e.g., taco seasoning), and cream soups a good recipe will take a little extra time but save a lot of money. Stephanie
• One of my easiest, most inexpensive and nutritious dinners is quiche. Many people don’t realize how simple it is to make and that the whipping cream and swiss cheese in the traditional quiche Lorraine recipe can be substituted with cheddar and 2% milk. I usually make one plain cheese one for the little kids and one fancier one for the big kids– I just throw in whatever leftovers I need to use up, like some cubed ham or crumbled bacon, some spinach or sauteed vegetables. If you aren’t practiced at making your own pastry, you can buy the ready-made pie crusts and it’s still an inexpensive dinner. Throw on some rice and cut up some raw veggies while it bakes and you’re done in less time than it takes to order and wait for pizza. Michelle