Winter can be an expensive time of year – our power bills go up as we heat our homes, and the prices of out of season fresh food also increase.
Love Food Hate Waste is here to help with Easy Choice – Family Kai, a free cookbook and meal planner – four weeks of five dinners that will feed a family of six for about $60 a week. Download your free copy
Here are some top tips for eating well and keeping your costs down.
Eat all parts of the vegetable
Believe it or not but broccoli stalks, silverbeet stems and the green part of the leek are all edible and tasty – as well as adding extra servings of vegetables and vitamins!
Cook once, eat twice
Cooking extra food means you have another night's meal ready to go, or you can use the leftovers to start another new meal. For example - in the winter Easy Choice, you roast a chicken with vegetables for the first meal, then make chicken noodle soup for the second meal. If there are leftover vegetables, they can be turned into a roasted vegetable frittata to make a third meal.
Use a slow cooker or crockpot
Not only are slow cookers an energy-efficient way to make a meal, they turn inexpensive cuts of meat into delicious meals.
Portion out before you tuck in
If you have made a meal which you intend to have leftovers from, pack them away before you serve the meal. This will stop you from overeating or your family accidentally eating tomorrow’s lunch.
Minimise meat
Meat can be really expensive, so reduce how much meat you use in a meal or go meat-free entirely for some meals. Beans, lentils, eggs and tofu are cheap, non-meat protein sources. Easy Choice includes recipes for family favourite meals nachos and burritos, using beans instead of mince.
Make the most of your oven
Your oven is the most energy-demanding of all your kitchen appliances, so if you are going to use it, try to utilise it as much as possible. For example, cook other things in the oven at the same time as the main meal you are cooking - you could roast vegetables for a meal later in the week at the same time you heat a pie.
Soup’s a success
Soup is a wonderful way to make a small amount of food go a long way. You can add all sorts of leftover meat, vegetables and grains to make something hearty, filling and delicious.
Don’t forget to download your free copy of Easy Choice – Family Kai for more great ways to eat well and spend less.
