Need help cooking cheap meals from scratch, want to get away from processed food?!
Answers:
you will need good cook books, lots of time and need to buy lots more food, great idea in principle but home cooking from scratch is quite time consumming, rewarding though and definately better for you. Apart from drawbacks already listed, home cooked food will not last as long as processed due to lack of preservatives, one of the reasons you want to get away from processed food! But have to bear in mind when leaving in the fridge.
You need to build up a store cupboard of basic ingredients. Things like: pasta, rice, dried pulses. Then seasonings like mustard, oil, (for cooking and for dressings) wine vinegar, worcestershire sauce. Stuff like tinned tomatoes and tomato paste, tinned fish like tuna, jars of mayo, capers, olives, anchovies, some basic dried herbs and spices.
Always have some flour in the cupboard. Always have some garlic and maybe some fresh ginger on hand. Have butter, milk and yoghurt in the fridge. Some good cookbooks have more complete lists of basic ingredients. Once you have the basics then you should just have to shop for your fresh meat and vegetables to make all your meals from scratch.
well done... at last someone with common sense...
we cook every day, sure its a pain, and its time consuming... but, hey, we know what were eating...
meals are easy. once a month or thereabouts, we goto the veg shop (farm) get it in season, and freeze it...cabbages for 15p and caulis for 35p... aubergines, and leeks and god knows what else..(onions, sweetcorn, broad beans, broccoli, carrots... but, its cheap, and so fresh you wash the mud off it yourself. (we also keep 5 chickens)
the only tinned stuff we buy is baked beans, tomatoes... and ok, the kids say, whats for eating dad... and mum says, look in the fridge... yeah... the kids moan, its full of ingredients... ahh well, i reply, youre just nice hungry...
so they make biscuits
Crock Pot Meals
Stir Fry Meals & Casseroles are inexpensive, last a while & don't take long to prepare or clean up while being very healthy if you choose the right meals
I say spend your money on a Wok & Crock Pot a couple cook books of each and experiment according to nutrition guides, ur taste, and have fun with it
Stif fry? They are great and you can do vegetarian or with meat. You can use any meat you have on hand- steak, chicken, pork, shrimp, etc. Use whole grain rice of pasta instead of white.
