Cooking Tips To Save You Money

Tip 1: Cook and serve the right portions.

According to nutrition experts, a healthy serving of cooked meat is 3 ounces. That’s about 4 ounces raw. If you’re eating meat for dinner aim for it to take up no more than one-quarter of your plate. Fill half the plate with vegetables and the final quarter with a whole grain. Eating less meat is better for your health and your budget.

Tip 2: Cook ’em low and slow.

Tougher cuts of beef and pork are a lot cheaper than steaks and chops (about $2 to $6 per pound for many cuts compared with $10 or more per pound for steaks), but no one wants to eat a piece of leather for dinner. The best way to cook tough cuts of meat: cook them low and slow, usually for 3 or more hours, often in liquid, to make them melt-in-your-mouth tender.

Tip 3: Bring out the roast.

Roasting a big piece of meat is an easy way to feed a crowd. Of course, a crown rib roast or beef tenderloin (unless your market is running an amazing special) isn’t an economical choice. So choose cuts, such as leg of lamb, turkey breast or pork shoulder, and roast them. Your guests will never guess that Middle Eastern Roast Lamb with Tahini Sauce costs less than $3 per serving.

Tip 4: Add pasta or rice.

Got a few vegetables or a little leftover meat? Maybe you have some fixings for a salad or a light soup, but it’s not quite dinner. Pasta and rice are cheap, healthy pantry items that let you turn a few leftovers into a meal. Try quickly sautéing peppers and onions and toss them with noodles, herbs and a little cheese, or add rice into a vegetable soup to make it more satisfying.

Tip 5: Stir-fry for dinner.

Stir-frying with plenty of vegetables and just a little bit of meat is an obvious choice when you want to make a quick and healthy dinner. It’s also very forgiving, so if you have a little extra onion or half a leftover zucchini you want to use up, just throw it in your stir-fry.

Tip 6: Cook once, eat twice.

We like to double recipes so that we can get ahead on our cooking and have a dinner or lunch ready for later. The added benefit is it helps use up ingredients that we bought for that recipe (a bunch of herbs, for instance). Recipes that freeze well, like Rich Chicken Stew, Oven Barbecued Brisket and Hungarian Beef Goulash (pictured) are great ones to double. Also consider cooking an extra chicken or more meat than you need. The leftovers are great in soups, salads, quesadillas or hash later in the week.