Seattle’s Child asked parents who have also been food bloggers — including Marti Miller Hall, Linda Miller Nicholson and Alice Currah — their top tips for saving time and money in the kitchen, plus a favorite family meal. Here’s what their years of experience yielded.
Time saving tips
Use good equipment. All three moms enthusiastically agreed that having good tools was the key to cooking easier, faster meals for their families. “Good-quality tools and cooking utensils are worth the extra money. They will save so much time and money in the long run,” says Hall, who emphasizes that even on a tight budget, the right equipment has paid for itself over the years. “I have a high-quality, powerful food processor that’s easy to use and clean and has lasted me for years.” Nicholson agrees that the food processor is a must for parents with young kids. “It’s an especially usefully tool when you have kids in the kitchen with you. You don’t need to have knives out. It really can be used for everything from chopping vegetables to grating cheese.”
Currah suggests looking on Craigslist or at your local Goodwill for very inexpensive kitchen tools. She also swears by her pressure cooker: “I can make a beef stew or pot roast that would normally take hours in just 40 minutes in the pressure cooker. It saves me so much time.”
Get creative with leftovers. Take leftovers, such as a roast chicken and veggies or even a stew from earlier in the week, and wrap into puff pastry or crepes for an updated take on leftovers, suggests Nicholson.
Double up on your meals. If you are planning to make a soup or casserole, make two. You will put in the same amount of effort shopping, chopping and measuring, so make two night’s worth of dinner and freeze the other half for a dinner later in the month. The same goes for marinating, says Currah. If you buy two steaks, marinate them both, grill one and toss the other in the freezer.
Use your microwave. Currah uses the microwave to boil water faster than on the stove, cook eggs and melt chocolate for frostings. “It saves so much time,” she says. Currah even has a recipe for making salmon in the microwave on her blog. [FOR ONLINE VERSION: Link to “How to Microwave Salmon” https://savorysweetlife.com/2011/02/how-to-microwave-salmon/]
Use the settings on your kitchen gadgets. Hall invested in a high quality rice cooker with a timer. She often sets the rice cooker to start 40 minutes before she will arrive home from work or errands. She also uses her oven’s time-bake feature. In the morning before work, she will put in a tray of veggies or potatoes and set the oven to start baking them 30 minutes before she arrives home. “The meal is already half done when I walk in the door,” Hall says.
Prep ahead of time. “I will do a lot of cooking or prep on the weekends,” says Hall. “I will cook up a big pot of beans, and we will use them throughout the week in burritos and soups.”
Money saving tips
Use store flyers to meal plan. Both Currah and Hall plan their family’s meals using the sale flyer at the grocery store. “Even if you don’t coupon clip, you can still plan to go into your local grocery store and purchase meats and produce that are on special that week – and plan your meals that way,” says Currah. “It’s a great way to save on fish, beef, veggies and fruit and have variety.”
Buy bulk. “Buy from the bulk foods section; don’t pay for packaging,” says Currah, who buys most of her spices from the bulk food section of the grocery store. The same goes for many seeds, nuts and grains. And, when trying a new or exotic spice for a new recipe, you can buy only what you need, not a whole jar.
Shop at ethnic markets. Both Hall and Currah frequent Asian markets and neighborhood ethic grocery stores to get great deals on family staples. “Asian markets are one of my favorite places to stock up on tofu, soy milk, spices and veggies at a fraction of grocery store prices,” Hall says.
Shop with cash and coupons. Hall is a frequent user of the coupon website www.thecouponproject.com, which was created by a mom from Tacoma. She also only shops with cash to keep to her weekly grocery budget.
Buy in season. Stock up in the summer when farmers’ markets and chain grocery stores are selling fruits and veggies at low prices and freeze them for use in the winter when the same ingredients will cost much more.
Use whole foods. Although the Hall family doesn’t eat meat, which she acknowledges saves them money, she also avoids the high-cost vegan and vegetarian substitutes like veggie burgers and imitation chicken nuggets. “These are usually out of my budget, unless I have a great coupon.” Instead, Hall makes most dishes from scratch using whole – and often bulk – ingredients like beans, lentils, grains, nuts and veggies.
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