Stretching your dollar ... Creative Cooking

We have done the grocery shopping, it is now time to cook the meals. There are many ways to do this but I prefer to cook and freeze meals so that during the week when things are really busy we have the meals waiting to come out of the freezer and no need to go pick up fast food instead.

photo via Piyachok Thawornmat / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Let's go over what counts as a Serving?

Breads, Cereals, Rice and Pastas
The amount you eat may be more than 1 serving. A dinner portion of pasta would count as 2 or 3 servings.
½ cup of cooked pasta or rice
½ cup of cooked cereal
1 ounce of ready-to-eat cereal

Milk, Yogurt and Cheese
1 cup of milk or yogurt
1 ½ ounces of cheese

Vegetables
½ cup of chopped raw or cooked vegetables
1 cup of raw, leafy vegetables

Fruits
1 piece of fruit or melon wedge
¾ cup of juice
½ cup of canned fruit
¼ cup of dried fruit

Meat, Poultry, Fish, Dry Beans, Eggs and Nuts
2 ½ to 3 ounces of cooked lean meat, poultry or fish
1 egg or 2 tablespoons of peanut butter or 1/3 cup of nuts count as 1 ounce of meat

If you are thinking of doing freezer cooking my best advice would be to start out small. Instead of doing a whole months worth of freezer meals try doing just a week. I also start with our tried and true recipes that my family loves and I know they freeze well. It is the perfect way to ease into  freezer cooking. Below I will post links to some of my favourite freezer cooking websites to help get started.

Photo via piyato / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Here are some other ideas on how to save on cooking:

• eat a meatless meal once a week (or more)
• never eat out
• eat from our stocked pantry
• eat leftovers
• get creative with your leftovers (make up new recipes)
• scrap out the last little bit from the jars or cans
• cook from scratch
• bring your lunch from home
• grow your own produce
• eat less (most people are eating more than the proper serving size.. see above)
• I can not stress a meal plan enough.. ALWAYS have one!
• base most of your meals on rice and beans (helps eat less meat)
• don't drink pop/soda, drink water instead!!!
• make your own applesauce and pudding cups for lunches
• make your own baby food
• always take your own snacks and drink with you when heading into the car then you are not tempted to stop for fast food saving dollars!
• cook with a crockpot to avoid using the oven and heating up the house (also uses less hydro)

Freezer meal websites:

Once a Month Mom
30 Day Gourment
Everything Mom
Bulk and Freezer Cooking

I plan on posting my freezer cooking next week after I do it later in the week. The links will be updated then. 

You can find the rest of this series here:

Week One - Stretching your dollar ... not your budget
Week Two - Setting your food budget Pin It