Green Options

According to James Poterba, Head of the National Bureau of Economic Research, we are officially in a recession, so it’s more critical than ever to start cutting expenses wherever possible. 

One of the biggest areas in which you can reduce spending — especially in households with children – is right in your own kitchen. Here are some helpful tips for meal planning, food preparation, and grocery shopping that will reduce the strain on your wallet while offering some significant health benefits to boot.

Put on your Planning Cap

Planning your meals at least a week ahead will drastically reduce waste, and keep you from the trap of randomly tossing items into your grocery cart.  Figure out what your menu will be and buy only those key items.  And be sure to stock up on non-perishable goods that have longer a shelf life so that you’re armed with the right ingredients for each meal — dry and canned foods (rice, pasta, tomatoes) and powdered milk.

Sorry, vegetarian and vegan Eat Drink Better readers.  This tip is for the omnis! We recently made the move from a vegetarian kitchen to a sometimes-omnivorous kitchen.  Without getting into the nuances of both my husband and my’s food preferences, we’re more likely to eat at home if I cook meat sometimes, and I’d rather save the money and eat at home where I can control ingredients.  One thing I recently tried as part of this new arrangement was cooking a whole chicken. Why deal with a whole chicken when you can buy the convenient prepackaged boneless skinless breasts?  Because you can save a ton of money by buying a whole bird.  Find out how, after the jump…

The other night, I was baking a sheet of puff pastry for a veggie-topped refrigerator pizza.  Time got away from me, and I got the puff pastry out of the oven just as the bottom started to burn.  Not wanting to throw the base of dinner away, and also not wanting to eat semi-burned food, I had to think of a way to get rid of the bottom of the burned crust.  My successful solution, after the jump…

We’re starting a new weekly feature at Eat.Drink.Better.  It’s called Thrifty Thursdays, and will offer a quick time- or money-saving tip for your kitchen.  Eating good food that also has your health and the environment in mind can be time-consuming and expensive, but it doesn’t have to be if you keep small tips like these in mind.

Many people struggle to eliminate wasting food, and with the economy the way it is, cutting down on food waste is a surefire way to save a little money.  You paid for all that food (or worked hard to grow it yourself), you should be eating it.