Cooking from scratch vs buying convenience foods

For a while now, every time I’m at the supermarket, I’m checking out what people are buying and saying to myself “tsk, tsk” or silently saying “there is another, cheaper, better way to make that meal than to buy that packet mix/bottled sauce etc”. Then I got to thinking. Who am I to dictate to people what is better? What’s that person’s story? Do they know how to cook? Are they super, super busy? Is there really any benefit to cooking from scratch vs buying convenience foods?

I know that’s what I prefer to do because I love cooking but I’m not perfect (not that buying convenience foods make you some kind of evil person). I’m super, super busy, just like other parents but by having a well stocked pantry, I don’t have to buy those ready made, convenience meals. I can make them just as quickly with what I have on hand but that’s because I know how and I know how to do it quickly. I also have some ready made items on hand for those busy nights which you might prefer to buy takeaway but you can save so much money if you prepare it yourself at home.

Living with a more than fussy eater, I know that if there’s a meal that they will eat, you’ll cook it over and over again. Growing up I think my Mum had about 10 or 15 different meals up her sleeves that she would serve us over and over again. She knew that we liked it and ate it so why wouldn’t she cook it again. Same goes with a particular brand of ready made pasta sauce or packet curry mix. If you know your family will eat it and there will be no waste, why wouldn’t you buy it? 

My only advice is that if you spent $2 to $3 on a packet mix every time you shop, you can create something similar at home with basic ingredients that might cost up to $10 in total but you’ll be able to make it 20 or 30 times and those ingredients can also be used for other dishes.

For example, a basic Beef and Potato Curry I make in the slow cooker has nothing but salt, pepper, curry powder, plain flour and stock powder in it. You can add more spices but if your family eats it like this, then make it like this, every time.  The curry powder will last for a long time and can be used in just about every other cooked curry dish I can think of, used to flavour a salad dressing or flavour devilled eggs. I use stock powder a lot in my every day cooking, even if it’s just to boost the flavour of my pasta sauce and plain flour. Well, that is used in my baking, used to make white sauce or to dredge meat when frying.

On the other hand, I buy 2 boxes of homebrand crumbed chicken tenderloins, every fortnight, for $4 a box and each box is 400 grams. I could quite easily buy the raw chicken and crumb them myself but this is one of my ‘go to’ meals when an alternative might be to buy takeaway. I can cook these up with my homemade potato wedges and salad or vegetables, serve inside a tortilla, baked and sliced with an easy honey sauce for Chinese Honey Chicken (just pour over chicken a mix of 1/2 cup honey and 2 tbs soy sauce). 

Same goes for ready made baked goods that have been marked down at the supermarket. I quite often pick up a marked down pack of 12 doughnuts, sometimes for 50 cents, that can be popped in the freezer and brought out if I’ve got nothing in the biscuit tin for the kids. They can be warmed up in the microwave and still be fresh. I couldn’t make anything like that for 50 cents. 

As far as buying pre-chopped vegetables (except for frozen), I draw the line. The costs are so much higher because you have to pay for someone to cut them. It really doesn’t take all that long to cut a few potatoes or pumpkin.

But I’m not here to tell you what’s right or wrong. Do what works for your family but remember, there are other ways to cook a nutritious meal for your family, that is time saving and cheap and that is by cooking it from scratch yourself. 

Top 5 back to school savings

 

January is always back to school for Australian children and there’s a huge expense involved. About 98% of Australian school children wear a uniform to school. If you send your children to a private school, the expenses are even higher. Most kids will probably be up for a pair of new shoes at least once a year, if not more.

I’m certainly still a novice at the whole school thing, with my daughter starting her third year and my son his first but I’ve implemented a couple of money saving ideas that I thought I’d share. Although we’ve only got a couple more weeks before they go back, you can keep some of these things in mind for next year.

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1.  Wait until after the “Back to School” sales to buy your supplies

I started getting catalogues the week before Christmas for all of the “back to school” sales. There’ll be a huge influx of people going mad, rushing to the stores to make sure they don’t miss out on the essentials. Just after school has started, you’ll find things like lunch boxes, drink bottles, school shoes, stationery, school bags and clothing reduced even further. See if you can make do until then or ask yourself if you really need it after all.

2.  Buy second hand uniforms 

I was so keen to buy new uniforms for my daughter when she started school. She had sparkling, shiny shoes, crisply ironed uniforms. After the first art lesson, they were covered in splotches of paint (that is supposedly water based) even though they wear an art smock and the stains just don’t come out. Even though I hung my daughter’s uniforms in the shade, the fabric goes ‘pilly’ and my daughter chews ties and the collar on her school dress. After a good soaking in a pre-wash solution and a good iron, the second hand clothes will come up just as nice. Consider approaching school Mums who have older children and who might be passing down their uniforms. Hit the uniform shop up half way through the year to see if second hand supplies have been replenished. Families come and go throughout different times of the year.

 

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3.  Use birthdays and Christmas to give school supplies

Prior to the year your child starts school, think about purchasing drink bottles, lunch boxes, pencil case or school bags and gifting them to your child.

 

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4.  Repurpose whenever possible

Before I purchase anything, I look around the house to see if I’ve got something that can be used instead.  I’ll go to the thrift store to purchase it before I buy it new from a department store. I’m repurposing an old backpack for my son for school and covering existing logos with a cloth patch of his favourite, Lightning McQueen. He did get a ‘car’ shaped lunchbox for Christmas from Santa but I found an ordinary plastic container to work as a lunch box. Our climate is very humid and during the warmer months, the insulated lunch bags go mouldy. this makes it very hard to keep clean and dry.

5.  Reuse stationery from the previous year

My daughter didn’t have a ‘book list’ for her first year in school but the second year she did. She came home last year with plenty of stationery that will be perfectly good for her this year. Trying to work out whether to go through the school to purchase your book list or buy it yourself can be a tricky dilemma. In one way, you’re helping the school with fundraising. On the other hand, you could be doing yourself out of a few dollars and spending unnecessarily.

I’m going to hold off purchasing her book list for next year until after she has finished school. Don’t feel pressured into doing anything you don’t want to do. I know schools have deadlines but as a family, we have expenses. If I can re-use a few of her exercise books instead of having them here, lying around cluttering up the house, I’ll use them.

These ideas are common sense and you probably already know them. Back to school can be quite daunting for us parents and it’s going to be a new experience for new school students as well as their parents. We need to make this transition as smooth as possible and stress free in every way, especially the back pocket.

 

 

Beef & Lentil Pasta Bake and making your meat go further

We’re not big red meat eaters. Not for health, money or any other reason. It’s just that way. We probably do prefer pork above all meats but also eat chicken, fish, lamb and veal as well as other pork products like bacon, proscuitto, sausages and ham. When I budget for the meat shopping, I usually allow $100 from our local bulk butcher and this will last us 6 to 8 weeks, if not longer.

This is because I have learnt to bulk out a lot of meat dishes with pulses (ie lentils, chick peas etc), grated vegies and bread crumbs. Six sausages to a packet when freezing does our family of four quite well. The kids will have a sausage each and I’ll cook the other 4 up into a curry or sausage hot pot of some sort and slice the sausages to serve, which feels like we’re having a lot. Meatballs and rissoles (hamburger patties) are usually mixed with grated or pureed vegies and dried breadcrumbs, or lentils like I have used in this recipe.

Tonight, for example, I had a very simple beef mince and vegie pasta bake which was made with about 200gm (or a handful of mince). It was an 8 serve lasagne dish so it really did go a long way because I added half a cup of red lentils to the meat and vegie sauce before mixing with the pasta. My husband, or the kids, didn’t notice and it tastes really good (to me anyway, well it was eaten and my husband had seconds).

Beef & Lentil Pasta Bake

200gm (handful) beef mince
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 cup dried red lentils (rinsed) or 1 can lentils (drained and rinsed)
2 cups vegetables, chopped (I used grated carrot, cauliflower and green beans)
1 can diced tomatoes
2 small onions or 1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup chicken or beef stock
1 tbs dried basil
1 tbs dried oregano
salt & pepper
1 packet dried pasta shapes (I used small spirals)
1 quantity Bechamel sauce
parmesan cheese

Bechamel sauce:
2 tbs butter
2 tbs plain flour
3 cups milk
1 cup grated cheese

Boil pasta according to directions, drain and put aside.  Fry onions in olive oil until slightly softened. Add mince and garlic and cook until mince is browned. Add rinsed lentils, tinned tomatoes, stock, herbs and salt and pepper. Add chopped vegies and cook until lentils are soft (approx 15 mins). Combine pasta and meat sauce and put in a lasagne dish.

Bechamel sauce:
Melt butter. Add flour and stir until a roux forms (thick paste). Add milk and keep stirring until sauce forms and thickens. Add grated cheese. Top meat/pasta with bechamel sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake in a 180 deg C oven until golden.

Dishes like this are always better the next day and this will take care of my husband’s lunches for a few days as it freezes really well too.