new at cooking - question

I just started cooking and I'm really enjoying it. My problem is ingredients. I decide the recipes that I want, and then I make a shopping list. But I end up getting more of things than I need, because they don't have the exact amounts, and then I have to throw away food. Or we change plans and I don't cook a night I planned to, and then that's wasted ingredients. I thought we would be saving money on eating in, but instead, we're ending up throwing out food and making multiple trips to the grocery store. Any ideas? TIA!

Re: new at cooking - question

You need to do a little research on what foods are good to freeze. For example, if you need 4 oz of tomato sauce, and the cna is 8 oz, you can freeze the rest and use it at another date.

Also, if you buy fruits and veggies and don't use them one week, they are perfectly fine to use the next week. Most veggies will stay good for a while - when I buy peppers, carrots, celery they stay good for 2 weeks or more if properly refridgerated.

We freeze ALL of our meat so it doesn't go bad, and then take out what we need the night before we're going to cook it.

Re: new at cooking - question

Added onto what she said, I will often double the recipe or more, knowing we can get several dinners out of it and I also bring leftovers to work for lunch.

Some herbs and spices and such are okay if you even add more to the recipe as it's written......gives it more flavor.


Also research a little bit like PP said........a lot of recipes you can substitute with your basic pantry spices, instead of buying everything fresh all the time.

In general, when I grocery shop lately, I buy less fresh produce than I think I will want because 9x out of 10, I don't eat it all and throw it out which is a huge waste.

Re: new at cooking - question

I agree with both PP and I just want to add that if you do buy veggies and plan on using them for a meal but you don't, then what I like to do is cook the veggies and freeze them. You can pull them out whenever you are ready for them and you don't have to worry about throwing them away because they went bad.

new at cooking - question

If you keep at it things will probably get easier. I love trying new recipes, but I tend to stick to ones that use familiar ingredients. I don't choose recipes where I know I'll have to buy a ton of different things that I won't use again. I have my standard pantry items always on hand and then look for recipes that go well with that. It sounds like it would be boring and we'd always eat the same things but that's really not the case. I also save tons of recipes in my bookmarks and pinterest and organize them by protein. Then I can see what meat is on sale and plan my menu around that which saves a lot.

Re: new at cooking - question

I agree with the previous suggestions.

When you plan out your dinners for the week, try to choose ingredients that you can overlap into a few different meals.

Also, to keep a little flexibility, I usually only plan 3 or 4 dinners per week, expecting that we will have leftovers a night or two. I usually keep some things on hand (like bread and cold cuts) so that if something unexpected crops up and I don't make a whole dinner, then we can just make sandwiches. But that way you can shuffle things around, versus planning for 7 dinners and making only 4 or 5 and having a lot of fresh ingredients that may go to waste. Try to be realistic about how much you will cook and don't be overambitious when planning or shopping.

Try to plan a dinner that can be made fully from pantry or frozen ingredients, so you don't have to worry about things going bad, and use your most perishable items (fish, fresh produce) for the meals you make earliest in the week. So something like a pasta dish is something that can be made with pantry ingredients later in the week. As you cook more and more, you will build up a fuller pantry and spice rack which will then cut down on your weekly shopping bill.

I just cook for me and dh basically... we have a 3.5 year old, but he eats earlier than we do and I usually make him something separate from us. So I have a few strategies for minimizing waste:

1. I will freeze leftover meat that I don't need (for example, pork tenderloins usually come as 2 together, and I often only need 1, so I freeze the other to use in another week's meal plan, or if I only need 1 lb of ground meat, and the package has 1.5 lbs, I will freeze the other half lb).

2. I try to use up extra produce -- I make salads for lunch. You can roast or steam veggies and then puree them into soups, which are good for lunches and dinners. A great way to use up odds and ends, if you like eggs, is to bake a quiche (I just always keep a frozen pie crust on hand) or a frittata, and then you can freeze individual pieces to defrost in the microwave for healthy breakfasts or lunches or even other dinners.

3. Fresh herbs -- I started growing my own, which helps. But you can also sometimes freeze them (especially a hearty herb like rosemary) or use them up in other dishes you are making... throw onto roasted veggies or into side dishes like rice or potatoes, use in soups or sauces, put into eggs. But honestly, sometimes you can either substitute dried, as others have said, or just do without it if it's not integral to the flavor of the recipe. If you are making salmon with dill sauce, you obviously need dill, but if the recipe calls for fresh parsley to be sprinkled over on top of pasta or a casserole, I might just skip it.

4. Eat leftovers for lunch.

5. Don't be afraid to improvise -- I love reading and trying new recipes, but you don't need to cook everything you eat from an elaborate recipe. Sometimes you can just improvise from ingredients on hand or doctor a recipe a bit (or just take inspiration from it) so you can use up what you have.

Keep at it - cooking (and planning) definitely gets easier with practice!

new at cooking - question

when i started cooking for our dinners, i used to plan 7 nights of cooking a week..which was a huge mistake because it led to way, way to much food

i now cook 3-4 nights a week, and the rest of the week is leftovers

when i see meat on sale for very cheap, i buy it regardless of our menu for the week and freeze it

at the end of the week, if i have any leftover veggies that i can freeze, i chop them up and throw them in the freezer

as much as i love fresh herbs, for me it's more of a waste-so i use dried herbs 95% of the time

extra soup i'll freeze

i'll try and think of more

Re: new at cooking - question

Everyone has given really good advice. I only cook 3 times a week max. Everything else we eat are either leftovers or re-purposed for another meal (such as turning leftover roasted chicken from Saturday into avocado chicken paninis on Monday).

When I pick recipes for the week, I check to see if there's an overlap in ingredients between recipes, especially ingredients that I normally don't keep in my pantry. This way there's less waste. Also, whatever veggies and herbs are left I try to freeze them. (Right now I have 3 bags of sofrito in my freezer ready to use anytime I feel like making picadillo or arroz con pollo!)

If i have a recipe that only calls for a small portion of produce (like one rib of celery or a couple carrots out of a whole bag I purchased), I'll take the leftover produce and find another way to eat it during the week. This week I took carrot and celery sticks to work with a snack pack of hummus. If I didn't take it to work, I would have used it to make homemade chinese fried rice.

Also, if I'm making something I know will freeze well, I'll make a double portion (like soups, chili, etc.).

new at cooking - question

everyone has given really great advice.

also keep in mind that if you have leftover veggies, chicken, etc, you can freeze it to make stock out of it when you have enough (chicken and/or veggie stock)

you can also freeze leftover herbs - chop them up and put them in the ice cube trays. cover with olive oil, and when it is frozen pop them out of the trays and into a freezer bag.

Re: new at cooking - question

Wow, thank you so much!! These are all such great suggestions. I will definitely try them. I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond!