Tips for Cooking Family Meals on a Budget

Creating meals from scratch may sound like a task and a half – especially when you have only got a limited amount of time available to you – however, put in the time and you can offer your family more than a nutritional meal. You can save money too.

Sure you will have to spend a bit buying the ingredients (or more than a bit with kosher ingredients!), but what is amazing about cooking from scratch is that these ingredients will make multiple meals across the week. Meaning in the long term, you will be saving the pennies and reducing your food costs.

Where do I start?

As I mentioned above, one of the biggest constraints we face as a nation is the fact that many of us have little time to cook. From long working hours to caring for our children, time seems to slip away from us leaving us with the options of processed foods, ready meals and take aways.

However with a little planning, you can cook on a budget and still eat healthy.

1. Cooking from scratch – I’ve already mentioned some of the benefits from cooking from scratch i.e. value for money (1 lot of ingredients can make multiple meals), but there are many more to consider.

– You know what you are eating. Did you know your average chicken nugget only contains 50% meat? Makes you wonder what the other 50% is. Cooking from scratch allows you to know exactly what you are eating, as well as cut out unnecessary extras.

– You can cook in bulk. If you are struggling for time, make enough for several meals and store it in the freezer.

2. Order in bulk – often the bigger the packet, the larger your savings. And this applies to many of your foods. So instead of buying a 500g packet of pasta, opt for a 1-2kg packet and compare the prices. You’ll soon see that the larger packet is cheaper per g.

You can also get better deals on meat when you order in bulk. I remember staying with someone for Pesach and she ordered one side of a cow for her family! A little gross but it sure lasted the whole Yom Tov.

Simply order and you can have them cut into your preferred portion sizes. You can even go as far as to order with a friend or colleague.

3. Forget processed foods – have you ever stopped to see what they contain? When you consider what manufacturers add to foods, and how little of the real meat/food you are getting, they are not as cheap as they appear.

Instead, have a go at making them yourself. For example, instead of buying crackers, make them yourself. Alternatively, swap your supermarket bread and chips, and make them yourself. Invest in a breadmaker or slice up some potatoes yourself.

4. Plan ahead – we often go to the supermarket with no clear idea of what we need. As a result we tend to buy foods we don’t really want or have already got. That’s why it is important to plan ahead, so you don’t overspend.

– Plan your meals for the week – take into consideration the ingredients you’ll need and in what quantities

– What have you already got in your cupboards – can any tins or leftovers from a previous meal be incorporated into a new dish?

– Keep your cupboards stocked with the basics – beans, soup, lentils, tinned tomatoes, tinned tuna, pasta, flour, rice, milk, eggs, cheese – all of these can be used to make multiple meals

– Write a shopping list – once you know what you need, write a list and stick to it. No deviations

5. Avoid wasting food – how often do you prepare too much, are unable to finish it and end up throwing it away? We’ve all done it, but did you know that most food will keep for up to 2 days in your fridge? Simply cool any leftover food as quickly as possible, cover and store in your fridge for the next day.

6. Use local shops – going to your local green grocer and market can save you lots of money, mainly because you do not have to pay for the packaging like you do at the supermarket.

7. Consider cheaper cuts – when it comes to fish and meat, just because it is cheaper doesn’t mean it doesn’t taste delicious. It is all about cooking it the right way. For example, it is possible to make a casserole from braising steak. Yes it may be fattier than other cuts of beef, but trim off the fat and slow cook for 2-3 hours and it can become incredibly tender.

The last thing you want is to make a nice family meal with succulent lamb chops only to spend all your time chewing the meat! A little preparation and care when cooking can go a long way.

And that is it! Give these 7 tips a try, and witness the difference they can make to your bank balance. With practice you can make your weekly shop a lot more affordable.

Get Published on Jewish-life-organized.com

I’m so excited to announce that Jewish-life-organized.com is hosting a contest to find hidden talent out there through offering to publish your unique article that you’ve written exclusively for Jewish-life-organized.com.

That’s right. If you’ve been a fan of Jewish-life-organized.com, now you can actually be part of the JLO family (no, you don’t have to take care of my kids) by submitting your unique content.

Here’s how the contest works:

1. Submit a short post (400-600) words, on any topic related to the Jewish holidays, Jewish parenting, Organizing products, your favorite Organizing tips and tricks, Kosher kitchen organizing, you name it! It is preferable to have pictures submitted along with your posts.

2. The contest will run through February 28th

3. Submit as many posts as you like

4. Your posts will be put live on Jewish-life-organized.com shortly after they are approved

5. That’s when you want to go to the Facebook Like button on your post and click it to “Like it”. You can direct your friends over to the Like button, getting as many people to read your post and vote for it.

6. The person that wins the contest, is the one with the MOST likes attributed to your post.

Here’s what you win:

• The ENTIRE Yom Tov Perfectly Organized Collection

• How to Organize your Kosher Kitchen

• Beautiful Shabbos Tables

• …and, the Top Secret Program that is being launched before Pesach 2011!!!
• PLUS, a 45 Minute Phone Consultation with Rivka talking about your home or anything you wish to DECORganize

Have I answered your questions effectively? Please post a comment or email me if you have anything further to ask with regards to our contest.

I can’t wait to find all the hidden writing talent out there in the blogosphere

PS- If you already own some of the books in the prize package, no worries- you are going to LOVE our 45 minute one-on-one LIVE DECORganize phone call

I’m not very good at baking. I don’t know what it is, if it’s the necessity of following directions to the “T” or if it’s just not my talent, but I’m just not!

I think what happens is that I get excited to use healthier substitutes in my recipes and many times, they just don’t work!

I get really excited using vegetables in my baked goods, I know that might sound disgusting, but if Jessica Seinfeld can write a book called Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food with great Baking recipes insidethen I can use vegetables in my cookie recipes! I especially love her Chocolate chip cookie recipe with Chickpeas inside You really can’t even taste them I promise!

Anyhow, so this week I decided to substitute sugar in a recipe for a banana and the cookies came out horribly so guess what I did? I consider this genius

I threw the cookies into the food processor and made them into cookie crumbs. There were a lot! So I stored some in a freezer bag and will reuse for baking at a later date- perhaps I’ll make a graham cracker piecrust or use them for sprinkling on top of something like an apple crisp, and this particular time, I made a Trifle with them! I had never made a trifle before. Here’s what I did.

I took the crumbs and pressed them down at the bottom of the trifle bowl. My neighbor happened to have pudding cups so I layered the next layer using pudding. Next came the cookie crumbs again and miraculously they stuck together, very “cake-like”, which is necessary for a trifle. After that came another layer of pudding and then again. I topped the whole thing with a can of cherry pie filling.

How’s that for my kitchen fiasco? Did I mention that I’m a good recycler? I’ll get you a picture soon. The trifle came out very well and I’m actually thinking of making a trifle for Tu Bshvat using the 7 species of fruits and simply layering them in a trifle bowl.

Here’s a cooking tip for you! When you don’t have enough cooking space, and you need to use multiple pots and pans and multiple burners, this cooking tip, that my very organized friend Tzipporah Weingot gave to me, will definitely be of a help to you.

Instead of taking up a burner and a frying pan to saute onions, which you may need for multiple recipes, why not take an aluminum pan, cut up onions and let them “saute” in the oven!

That way you don’t need to stand there and stir the onions, they’ll actually get nice and brown in the oven-saving you time and energy and counter space and pots, and burners. I thought that cooking tip was really helpful since I’m constantly sauteing onions!

I loved this article from Jamie of theorganizeddesigner.com! You can also hire her to come to your home if you live in LA.

Here’s what she recommends:

Organizing Challenge #1: What’s for lunch?

posted by Jaime-The Organized Designer

Make Challah French Toast with all of the leftover Challah you have from Shabbos! I don’t love the way Challah freezes so why not make french toast with it all?

Our family created a Sunday morning tradition of eating challah french toast and then choosing from a “salad bar” of toppings that can go on the toast.

My son likes chocolate syrup on top, my daughter likes raspberries, and I like brown sugar. Pick whatever you like and set it up like an ice cream bar. So much fun to get a lazy Sunday morning started

Making Challah french toast is really simple!

Here are the ingredients for your recipe:
Challah bread
Vanilla extract
Ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1/4 of milk
Butter/margarine

Slice the bread into slices between 1/2″ and 1″ thick.

Cut as many slices as you think you can eat. Make the batter
In a bowl mix together 2 eggs, 1/4 cup of milk, a splash of vanilla extract and a few pinches of cinnamon. Grease your pan with the butter/margarine. Dip a slice of bread into the egg mixture and make sure it gets fully coated on both sides. Place the bread on the frying pan.
]Brown each side for a minute or so. Do this for all of the slices and then choose your toppings!

As my long time readers on JLO know, cooking and managing the cooking during the week is my least favorite pastime and organizing subject. I’d much rather clean a toilet or decorate my home We all have our strengths right?

But, I’m also a very self motivated person and like to “face my demons” so I mostly try not to think about how much I’d rather not do it, and so I stick to the research (of always looking for easier ways), plan, and attack!  Which means I just do it anyway.

In my  research, I have to say that I am always looking for new and improved ideas when it comes to managing the cooking that needs to happen and I hate to say this but I have yet to find a shortcut or a “new” idea with regards to cooking.

All the organizing tips seem the same to me- plan your menus, clip your coupons, plan your recipes, grocery shop, cook one dish and freeze another, maybe prep some of the ingredients beforehand. All stuff I’ve heard before.

I think the trick here is to just go ahead and DO IT.

I will just mention two other tips that seem to work for me.

1. Have a list of about 10 dinners that you know like THE BACK OF YOUR HAND. Things you don’t even need a recipe for and what goes well with them. Then, if you weren’t a goody goody one week and didn’t plan your meals, you can at least go to the grocery store and get the ingredients in your “mental” recipe files.

Note- if the idea of storing recipes in your “head” is stressful to you, don’t do it. Everyone is different. I’m talking REALLY simple- for instance, one of mine is eggrolls so I know I need eggroll wrappers, tofu, and cabbage and soy sauce and that is basically it)

2. Second tip is to keep a whiteboard on the fridge and as you run out of ingredients, simply write them on the whiteboard. You will have to transfer them into some sort of grocery list, and I think comparatively to everything else, that isn’t so bad, is it? Or bring the whole whiteboard along if you have to and it isn’t too large

Meal Planning Primer for Jewish Homes…The Basics, some Advice, and then some Fun!

Meal Planning Basics

Meal Planning is not rocket science. But for some, (like me) it is hard to sit down and take out a calendar, marking what you will be having for dinner each day.

It’s a necessary evil because as you know, it is easy to eat unhealthy foods when mealtime shows up and you have nothing to show for it!

What I like to do is work backwards. Take out a calendar and go back to to last week. What did you have for dinner each night last week? Try to remember? If you threw a quick pot of macaroni and cheese on, then write that down.

Writing what you already know is somewhat easier than coming up with fresh new ideas.

HOWEVER, if you have a great cookbook in front of you, it doesn’t have to be so hard!

There are several great kosher cookbooks as I’m sure you know, the only thing you have to supplement is that they don’t usually talk about the logistics of meal planning, providing the charts and lists necessary to do so, because it is a book of recipes! Lucky for you, you CAN get the organizing aspect to food and recipes by signing up for Shabbos Perfectly Organized, my ebook that talks about making Shabbos organized with a focus on meal planning!

Click here for a sample meal plan I put together for the next 4 Shabbosim.

So, if you have a great cookbook in front of you, go ahead and pick out recipes for dinners for the next week (or at least for Shabbos!). Then, make a grocery list of what you will need to make the dinners.

Meal Planning Advice

(Don’t be like me! my girlfriend advice to you)

For some reason, I’ve always hated meal planning. I think it is because I’m a naturally creative and free spirit type of personality and forcing myself to sit down and think of meals is a bit restrictive for me.

I’m working on knowing and remembering that meal planning is not just meal planning at face value. It is spiritual work. And I’m not only referring to Shabbos meal planning which is obviously spiritual. I’m talking weekday dinners too.

I was talking about this issue with Madeline Binder of Madeline Binder’s Book of Kosher Recipes and here’s what she and I discussed. She wanted to give the beginners out there some background information on meal planning for Shabbos.

Shabbos for Beginners

That’s why I like Madeline Binder’s Book of Jewish Recipes because the recipes listed are not only delicious and traditionally Jewish, they get me in touch with the spiritual side of meal planning that I often need to be reminded of.

You can also take a look at a collection of popular free healthy Shabbos recipes put together by my friend Sarah Zeldman of Healthy Shabbat.

Meal Planning Fun

Not everyone grew up cooking with their Bubby, and that’s okay. You can cook with Madeline’s Bubby’s recipes! I also want you to read this encouraging poem if you didn’t grow up with those fond memories…

Whatever your knowledge of your Jewish roots are or were, don’t fret. Just because you may or may not have been aware of them doesn’t mean you were alone.

Read my friend Leah’s inspiring poem that she wrote just for me and my readers. I have “complained” to her before about not having fond memories of being in the kitchen and that is why I have a page on my website called “I Hate Meal Planning”.

I want to encourage those of you without those fond memories and instill inside of you a sense of belonging and togetherness with the rest of our Jewish Life Organized readers knowing that you are not alone

Preparing for Shabbos

Watch our popular video “Shabbos Company” here at this link…

What to do with Cholent Leftovers and More!

The following article includes some excellent tips for running a Jewish household on a tight budget. I’ve reprinted it for you here with the author’s permission. –Rivka

New Life for Leftovers

by Stephanie Savir

Does your family dislike eating leftovers? Do you throw away food? If so, perhaps you should consider the savings benefits of using up the food in your fridge, freezer, and pantry. There are two: time and money. Here are some ways to get creative with your leftovers by making whole new dishes with food that is often thrown out.

What to Do with Rice
You can whip up quite a few tasty foods with leftover rice.
Rice pie crusts are great for quiches. They are much thicker and heartier than pastry pie crusts, and crunchy, too. Reheat 2 cups of rice with a little water. To hot rice add: 1 tsp. salt, ¼ tsp. pepper, 1 tsp. garlic powder, and 6 egg whites. Mix until sticky and press into pie pans with a spoon. (Spray spoon with oil so rice doesn’t stick.) Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until slightly brown. Cool crusts before filling. (recipe adapted from The Complete Tightwad Gazette)

Rice pudding is sweet and healthy. This is a fun dessert or Shabbos breakfast treat. Use this recipe or check your own cookbooks for many variations of this recipe: Preheat oven to 375°. Heat ⅔ leftover rice on a low flame. Add 1½ cup milk. Beat together 2 eggs, ⅔ sugar, ½ tsp. salt, and 1 tsp.vanilla. Add warmed rice to this mixture. Pour into 1½ quart baking dish. Place in a larger pan of hot water or place a pan of water in the oven. Bake for 25 minutes, stirring several times for the first 20 minutes.

Lentil and rice casserole is very nutritious and filling. The lentils are a great source of protein and fiber, and their flavor goes nicely with the rice. To prepare lentils, place desired amount of lentils in a pot and cover with water until one inch over the lentils. Simmer with lid tilted on pot for 20 to 30 minutes. Lentils should be soft but not mushy.

Add 1 cup cooked rice to 1 cup cooked lentils. Add 2 T. onion soup mix for flavor. I add cheese, milk, and chopped spinach, and mix it all together on a low heat until the cheese melts and the milk is absorbed. It comes out sticky and yummy.

Alternatively, you can make this dish fleishig by adding diced chicken and chopped spinach. For a casserole-like consistency, prepare a pareve béchamel sauce: Melt 2 T. pareve margarine in a pot, add 2 T. flour to make a paste, and pour in 1 cup soy milk. Stir constantly. Sauce will thicken as it heats up. Remove pot from burner and add salt and pepper. (Sauce recipe adapted from the Spice and Spirit Cookbook.) Mix the sauce with the lentil mixture, spread in a baking pan, cover with breadcrumbs, and bake for 20 minutes at 350° – or just serve it right out of the pot.

What to Do with Cholent

You can also add leftover rice to your cholent instead of (or in addition to) some of the barley. It gives the cholent a nice, thick consistency.

Speaking of cholent – this is a commonly thrown-out food. Try making cholent burritos. Purchase “wraps” or tortillas from the supermarket. Reheat your cholent in a pot with a little water. Add cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Be careful with the cumin and chili powder – too much can make your burritos too spicy. Dice tomatoes and shred lettuce. Spoon cholent into wraps, top with lettuce, tomato and taco sauce. You won’t believe how delicious this is!
What to Do with Challa

You can do so much with leftover challa and bread. Save it in a zipper-bag in the freezer until you have enough for some of the following. (Keep in mind that, according to the Star K Vaad Hakashrus, challa that has been on the Shabbos table is to be considered fleishig.)

You can make delicious French toast from stale bread. Just slice it and soak in eggs with a little milk added. Two slices per egg is a good ratio. Melt butter in your frying pan and cook the bread on each side. Serve savory with ketchup, salt, and pepper, or sweet with maple syrup or cinnamon and sugar. (This can be made for a fleishig meal by substituting soy milk. Serve as a quick supper accompanied by soup and a salad.)

Breadcrumbs: Slice all leftover bread and toast it in the oven, on cookie sheets, until both sides are well toasted. When cooled, drop the toast into your food processor at medium speed. Add a little salt to absorb any moisture. To make Italian flavored crumbs, add 1 tsp. each of dried basil, thyme, parsley, rosemary, and oregano. Store the finished crumbs in sealed containers in your freezer.

Croutons: Cube your leftover bread and place in a large bowl. Mix in salt and garlic to taste. Add Italian herbs if you like. Shpritz with olive oil. Mix well with your hands until cubes are nicely coated. Place cubes on cookie sheet and toast in the oven until well dried out. These taste great in soups or salads. Use within a week.

Challa kugel: Cube your leftover bread until you have 3 to 4 cups. Soak cubes in soy milk until quite mushy. Add sautéed mushrooms, onions, and celery. Mix with 3 eggs and ?? cup of oil. Add salt, pepper, and onion powder to taste. Cook in 9 x 9-inch pan at 375° for 1 hour. (Recipe adapted from the Spice and Spirit Cookbook.) This comes out like stuffing. You’ll find more recipes for a variety of challah kugels in many kosher cookbooks.

Kishke: Place 1½ cups homemade bread crumbs in food processor with 2 stalks sliced celery, 2 sliced carrots, 1 quartered onion, ½ cup oil, 2 tsp. salt, ½ tsp. pepper and 1 tsp. paprika. Blend until a thick mixture forms. Shape into a roll and wrap tightly in aluminum foil. Bake for ½ hour at 350°. Just before Shabbos, place kishke, wrapped in foil, on top of cholent. Slice and serve together with cholent. (Spice and Spirit Cookbook)

What to Do with Meat and Vegetables

Have just one or two leftover pieces of Shabbos chicken or ½ cup of leftover cooked vegetables? Dice it up and store it in a container in the freezer. When the container is full, make a stir fry. Sauté onion and a bag or two of frozen Chinese vegetables. Buy or make a sauce, add chicken, and serve over rice.

You can also use your diced chicken in a pot pie or shepherd’s pie. Save veggies that didn’t get eaten from various meals in another freezer container. Slice and sauté mushrooms, celery, carrots, and onions, and add these to the defrosted leftover veggies and chicken. Make or buy a gravy, place in a homemade pie crust and bake 30 minutes at 400°.

Diced frozen chicken and vegetables will save you time and money putting together many other creative, nutritious meals. Toss chicken into soups, casseroles, seasoned rice, or a garden salad.
What about the sauce from your chicken? Many times I have enough that it can be frozen and reused for another Shabbos. This is a nice time saver. You can also use this sauce as a basis for a chicken vegetable soup or gravy.

What to Do with Fruit

If your family is like mine, once the bananas begin to brown, no one will go near them. This is the time to bake banana bread. The following recipe is healthy enough for a snack and not just dessert. We have it for Shabbos breakfast, too. Once baked, slice and freeze it. Then stick slices in your family’s lunches or take it with you on car trips.

Banana bread: Blend ½ cup oil, 2 eggs, ½ cup sugar. Add 1tsp. baking soda, 1½ cups flour, and three mashed bananas. Mix well. Bake in well greased loaf pan at 300° for 50-60 minutes.

Banana ice cream: This is a delicious and healthy dessert or snack that’s simple to make and has a consistency that is amazingly like chocolate ice cream. Peel, wrap, and freeze overripe bananas. Cut one frozen banana into chunks and throw into the food processor with about 4 T. cocoa powder. Process. First the banana will form tiny separate balls. Continue processing until it begins to clump into one- to two-inch chunks. Don’t over process. Serve immediately, plain or sprinkle with toasted almonds, coconut, etc.

Flavored oatmeal: You can cook other overripe fruits, like peaches, apples, or pears with your oatmeal. Add brown sugar instead of regular and it tastes just like those packages of flavored oatmeal that kids seem to love. Put the fruit in with the water and let it boil for up to five minutes for apples, less for softer fruit. Then cook the oatmeal as normal. Add the brown sugar during the last minute of cooking.

Stephanie Savir lives in Baltimore, MD with her husband and three children. A marketing and PR professional by trade, she is also a freelance writer for numerous websites and magazines. She can be reached at sjsavir AT aol.com.

Bulk Cooking Primer for Jewish Homes…The Basics, Some Advice, and then some Fun!

Notice how I started off the cooking page with the word “Bulk”. That’s because in Jewish families, often you need to learn how to cook in bulk!

Some of the balabustas you’ve spent time with have 30 people every Shabbos! How does their food taste so good and serve so many people?

Cooking Basics

First we’ve got to start with what pots you are using. I am pulled in two directions with regards to pots because I’m a health freak. So I try to buy cast iron pots that do not have teflon or aluminum in them. I just feel that those are health risks. However, I do recognize the need to have large pots and with cast iron or enamel pots, the pots can be SOOOO heavy that there is no way to buy a bulk cooking pot out of those materials.

So, I compromise. I think stainless steel is a pretty good compromise, since there is no teflon in them just nickel. Also, you can get some very large stainless steel pots which you need if you are going to cook in bulk.

Here is a link to a “larger” enameled cast iron pot: I know they are expensive, but if you are concerned about the teflon issue, you’ll realize their value.

Also, here’s the fun part. There is a method that I’ve started using, that allows you to cook one-pot meals without the mushiness of a crockpot and the “crockpot” taste! It was created by Elizabeth Yarnell, who grew up with a Kosher Kitchen, and she named it Glorious One-Pot Meals. The food turns out amazing- nothing like in a crock pot.

When I tried it, I was seriously surprised that the fish tasted like fish, the rice tasted like rice, and the vegetables tasted like vegetables. See in the picture how everything is seperate from each other? They were all in the one pot. I love it.

For this method, you absolutely do need the enameled cast iron pot

because the pot is the whole secret to the dish maintaining its flavors.

Cooking Advice

Okay, so you’ve got your pots under control, your cooking methods under control, now you just need more tips on cooking in bulk.

One piece of advice with regards to bulk cooking is to find recipes that you don’t have to quadruple on your own. For instance, there are kosher cookbooks with recipes for making Sheva Brachos or that have recipes from caterers.

There’s a cookbook I have called “The Heimishe Kitchen- A Yiddishe Simcha”-(do a search on the internet to find it) and it is perfect because the servings are for around 60 people so I don’t have to make my own calculations.

Here is an example of my Rosh Hashanah meal plan that I created using the Yiddishe Simcha cookbook: See if you like the recipes.

Cooking Fun

Once a month cooking! Or for your family, it might be for one Shabbos