Good chefs or experianced cooks please help 10 points!!

Question

i love cooking and iam begining to get more adventurous what holds me back is the cost of ingrediants esp where u only need a little bit of something that cums in a big bag.

i find i have a press load of ingrediant i only use a little of

how do u make the most of ur ingredients to save money do u plan ur shoppin around what u want to make or what u have?

any tips wud be greatly appriecated for a 21 year old amiture!!

Answer 1

All of the things you need can be overwhelming at first.  What you need to  do is find more recipes that use the things that you already have.  Get creative make up your own stuff with what you have laying around.  Recipes are only  (for me) great suggestions.  I am always altering them.  

There are no rules to food....as long as it tastes good

Answer 2

Personally, honey, what I do, is that I pick recipes that require the spices I use most. If I see a recipe that sounds good, I check it out first to see if it requires something that I don't ordinarilly use, then, I ask myself, if I got this, would it be worth the cost of it to me to only use it once before it goes bad? If it's not an important meal to where I have to use it, I don't get it. PLUS, there are SOME recipes that you could omit SOME of the spices without effecting the outcome of the taste. Through many years of having to pinch pennies, I have gotten to where it's second nature to me to weigh my options when it comes to expensive ingredients. On holidays & special occasions I will buy what is necessary for me to make a special dish. My family claims that my cooking don't suffer a bit because of me taking the cheaper route.

Answer 3

I cook for my family of 5 and am on a tight budget.  I know what I am cooking for two weeks before I go shopping.  That probably sounds exhausting, but it just takes some practice.  Buy the spices that are in the little plastic bags. They are cheaper than the bottles. And will last a year or so. Reseal them each time and store them in an airtight container. Grow fresh herbs.  

Answer 4

for herbs and spices... try to find a place that sells those items in bulk... where you can scoop as much as you need.

For example, I recently purchased some tumeric and only needed a little.  I purchased about 1 tablespoons worth and it only cost me $0.10.  That was a lot cheaper than buying a whole bottle for $2.49, which will go to waste since I don't use it that much.   The best thing is I saved $2.39 by buying what I just needed.

Other ways to save on herbs and spices is to buy the plastic bags instead of the bottles...  The one's in sealed plastic bags can be found at Cost Plus or in your local supermarket in the Mexican food aisle (brand names are Mojave or LaCucina (sp?)).  Maybe ounce for ounce the plastic bag is more expensive, but I find the plastic bag-type seasonings are just the right size.  The price of those spices in the sealed plastic bags are around $1 while the same spice in the plastic or glass container is easily double or triple that price.

Answer 5

I myself would buy the smallest package available of whatever ingredients you need and then divide it up and freeze the things that you can for later use and the things that can't be frozen try and plan other dishes that will use up those leftovers.For instance,one night I made taco salad for dinner,and I had some tomatoes leftover,so I bought some sliced mozzerella cheese and made grilled tomato & mozzerella sandwiches (which my family LOVES!!) so I used up my tomatoes.Some things like meats are cheaper to buy in bigger packages so I buy mine and divide it up and put it in the freezer for later use.Another thing you can do, if for instance you have leftover beef stew, I put mine in the freezer and then use it later as a base for vegetable beef soup,the beef gravy makes a wonderful flavorful base (you still need to add beef broth but the gravy gives it a nice consistancy) Also I don't know if you know this or not but there are some spices that you can seal up really good in plastic bags and keep them in the freezer to keep them fresher longer (things like oregano,or italian seasoning,etc.this also works for like gravy mix,we do this at the school when we open a big bag of gravy and only use half or over the 12 week summer break) Hope this helps!!