10 Tips to Make your Food Go Farther

Let’s face it… Now is not the time squander your food budget! Here are some great tips on how to make your food last so you don’t have to run to the store as often during this time.

Freeze your Braising liquids & Meat Juices– What do you do with all of those amazing juices after a roast? If you said throw them out.. shame on you! Collect them in a container and freeze them. Then skim the fat and use them as a base for an amazing soup or stew! Just add a little veggies, meats and grains and you have an instant dinner~

Make Soups & Stews- Soups and stews go a long way to feeding you and making you feel full, and it conserves your ingredients because it is mostly water!! Just add flavor with salts, seasonings and condiments like soy sauce, vinegar and even ketchup! And with a soup or stew, you only need 1-2 chicken breasts or a half of a pound of meat to feed four people. Just add grains or rice, potatoes, vegetables to fill it out! Even throw in a little spaghetti (break it up and use 10 strands) for a substantial feel!

Use Rice– Make your favorite meals into rice dishes Make amazing rice dishes with half of the ingredients! For example, you love Chicken parmigiana? Make it into a rice dish! Just saute some onions, garlic, one chicken breast and a cup of rice. Add 1 cup of tomato sauce and 1 cup of water, stir together, bring to a boil, simmer and cover for 20 minutes. Top with mozzarella cheese and salt to taste! Do this for any of your favorites! Beef Teriyaki, Chicken Marsala, the sky is the limit!

Use as much as possible. Save those vegetable stems for flavorful broths! Save the bones and seafood shells and make amazing stocks!  Stale bread for croutons, bread pudding or to thicken a soup!  Don’t throw away those greens from cauliflower.. they make amazing stewed vegetables!Many people throw out bones and vegetable trimmings that can still be put to good use. For instance, chop up broccoli stems and cauliflower leaves for stir fry or steamed vegetables.

Stock up on Low-cost Staples. Whole grains like oats, rice, quinoa, millet, couscous and buck wheat are relatively inexpensive. Use them to fill out a meal so you don’t use much of the expensive stuff. Make stirfries, rice dishes, etc. Saute veggies and meats with some sauces and spices and then add cous cous at the end to soak up all of the juices and make your meal go farther!

Use Canned Tuna in Different Ways. Tuna is relatively inexpensive. Make a cheesy rice, veggie and tuna casserole by adding tuna to a couple of cups of cooked rice, frozen veggies. Season and stir in some cheese, top with breadcrumbs and bake! Do the same with pastas! Shred some potatoes, add tuna, flour and seasoning maybe some peas or other veggies and form into patties and you have tuna cakes!  Make an amazing tuna pasta salad by using some ramen and tuna.  Just crush the dry ramen, put it in a container, dump the tuna with the juices, some mayo, salt, pepper, a little vinegar and dijon mustard and some frozen veggies. Mix and let the ramen soak up all the liquid for an hour or so.

Potatoes– Make amazing things with Potatoes!  Used mashed potatoes and add a little flour and

make a dough. Then stuff it with chicken, peppers, ground meat and what ever flavors you like. Pan fry, bread and egg them or bake them to make stuffed potato croquettes! stuff mashed potatoes into meatballs and use less meat. Bread and egg them and pan fry. Top with gravy. Use shredded potatoes as fillers for chicken and meat patties.  Stuff potatoes in wonton wrappers for amazing potato dumplings and serve them with sour cream and applesauce.

Tortillas, Wonton or Egg Rolls wrappers– Save by wrapping it up! Making fillings for wraps cuts down on the amount you have to use. Use one chicken breast, boil and shred it. Add veggies, salsa and cheese and then wrap it in a tortilla and bake for quesadillas! Put it in an egg roll wrapper and pan fry it for an easy meal!

Cream cheese & Mac & Cheese is a great filler and you can make some amazing fillings with it! Add cream cheese to hot sauce, blue cheese, celery and chicken for an amazing buffalo chicken filling or you can stuff in a tortilla and bake it for an amazing quesadilla! Use it with salsa and chicken and veggies to make southwestern chicken filling for a quesadilla or wrap! Stuff meatballs with mac & Cheese,coat with hot sauce or bbq sauce and bake them  for an amazing dinner!

Make left over sauces into Soups and Stews! Don’t throw them away! use them for flavoring soups!

We can’t wait to have you all back in the kitchen when this global crisis is over! We hope you will help support us and keep our doors open during this time by purchasing items and gift cards in our store.  Use Code GETMEINTHEKITCHEN for 15% off everything including Gift Cards! See all of the amazing stuff in our store AT THIS LINK