Food tips are made to last
Penny-pinching gurus offer handy advice on making meals go further and ensuring nothing goes to waste
IF YOU’RE finding the supermarket shelves are empty or you’re stuck at home self-isolating, you may need to find ways of making your food stretch further.
Penny-pinching gurus from TheMoneyPig.com have some advice on how to help make our food last longer. A spokesman from the site said: “In these difficult times, it’s important to make sure that the food you have managed to buy lasts as long as possible, while keeping everyone full. “A lot of these suggestions are to do with the way you store food, and ensuring you use up tins with the shortest use-by date first. “Opting for cheaper options of some ingredients will also help keep the cost of dishes down.”
FREEZE
There are so many different types of foods you can freeze, which means they’ll be edible for longer. Just make sure you freeze and defrost the foods safely.
●You can freeze milk – but make sure you leave room for the milk to expand, so pour some off, if neecessary. Defrost in the fridge.
●Cooked pasta can be frozen – just drizzle with oil before you freeze it so it doesn’t stick together.
●Bread can be frozen as slices or loaves.
●Freeze cooked rice then you can microwave it straight from the freezer.
CUPBOARD
Many people will have cupboards and pantries full of old tins they’ve forgotten about. Try to create meals from the tins with the nearest sell-by dates and you may not need to buy as much extra food as you thought. If you’re short of ideas there’s a lot of inspiration online for recipes using tinned food.
INVENTORY
Write an inventory of the food you have in the house. You can then make meals with this food instead of needing to buy ingredients for your usual recipes. As your list decreases, you will also be able to see what food you need to buy when you go shopping. Doing this will also force you to be a bit more creative with the meals you make.
VEGETABLES
Use vegetables, beans and pulses to fill out dishes such as spaghetti bolognese and other pasta sauces so you don’t need to use as much meat. You’ll get more portions out of the dish which will help reduce costs and it’ll be much healthier, helping you work towards your goal of eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
PORTION CONTROL
Take a look at the amount of food you’re serving up as a portion. You may assume a chicken breast will feed just one person but if you weigh the raw ingredients, you can check everyone is getting what they need without overeating – so you can get more meals out of your food. The recommended single portion of chicken is around three to four ounces or 85g-113g, which is about the size of a pack of playing cards. Some people use the palm of their hand as a guide for a portion. Some chicken breasts can be two or three times the size of a recommended serving.
DRINK
The more liquid you drink, especially water, the fuller you will feel. Although you should still be eating your main meals, drink lots of water before and during mealtimes. Filling up on water may help keep the snacking at bay, which means these foods can be used in larger meals later on.
BROTH AND SOUP
If you have vegetables or food in the fridge that looks like they it may be about to start going off, create a soup or broth to use them up. This will also help cut food waste.
USE EVERYTHING
If you buy a full chicken, you’ll get more meals out of it than you would if you just bought chicken breasts. Think about how you can use everything – the breasts, thighs and even the bones. Boil the bones to create a chicken stock that you can use in another meal further down the line.