How to save on food without sacrificing quality

To eat well, you do not have to spend a lot. While yes, for the sake of truth it should be noted that the good foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts and cold-pressed oils are often more bread, pasta and even meat. Most of my clients who go on healthy EatingThey complain that it is more expensive. Of course, for them I always answer:

Proper nutrition today will save you money in the health and future. After all, you do not have to pay the doctor and buy medicines from numerous ailments.

But really there is no alternative, and will again need to invest not only strength, but also polzarplaty in your health? And this is more than real in the face of soaring food prices ...

I hasten to please you. It is not necessary! I offer you my personal life hacking dietitian how to eat cheap but tasty and healthy.

1. Cook out of season products

This means that if the winter in your region do not grow tomatoes and cucumbers... then exclude them from the diet at this time of year at all, or reduce to a minimum. Replace them with canned (preferably those that have prepared your grandmother or yourself). And even better - in the cabbage and root vegetables of all kinds. Instead of arugula salads and other fresh herbs in the off-season cook salads of cabbage and beets. lean on

soup, borschtUntil perezimuete. Such food will cost you much cheaper. And yet you can avoid unnecessary foreign substances from the sprayed vegetables.

2. Say "no" to the semifinished products

It just seems that the dumplings are not too expensive. Good dumplings are often more expensive than meat. And the bad... what they do you need? If you do buy meat and spend a wonderful evening with the kids for modeling ravioli for the month ahead, it will cost you much cheaper. And they will be tastier.

My sacred rule: home-cooked meal is preferable, tastier, healthier and cheaper semi-finished products.

The maximum that I can buy from laziness - it is a ready pizza dough. But sometimes, when I think how much I have for this money could itself make cakes for pizza, fast regret this decision. So do not repeat my mistakes.

3. no sausage

Firstly, it is harmful. And secondly, it is expensive. If I feel like a sandwich, you can bake in the oven with spices and a piece of meat cut thin slices from it. If you live alone or do you eat at home a little, then the meat is lost, it can freeze in already finished form and take as needed.

If you like lightly salted fish, then it is much cheaper to salt themselves. Here is a basic universal recipe for which I salt the fish I am.

500 grams of fish fillets ASSUME 2 tablespoons salt and 2 tablespoons sugar spoons (salt and sugar mix well). Fish roll in mixture of sugar and salt, cover with foil, or simply keep in a sealed container and send for a day in the refrigerator. Everything! After one day, the fish is ready for use. Optionally, you can add any dried herbs (dill, parsley ...) and / or something sturdy, such as drizzle with brandy, whiskey or vodka. After salting the fish can be cut into portions, and can be frozen for the future.

4. Make up the menu for the week

Nothing so saves money, time and nerves, as the drawing up the weekly menu. On the question of home, "What's for dinner?" You will always have a ready answer. Yes, and do not need to be tormented by every day on this issue.

Yes, I have to spend an hour a week to draw up an eating plan. But I promise you that then you say to yourself, thank you for it, and more than once. I agree, and so it is necessary all the time to make different decisions and carry them out. reaching Weekly Menu forward, you will save yourself from making two more decisions a day, what would such a buy on the way home and that would now be out of the cook, but it is desirable in a hurry?

In drawing up the menu in advance, consider your plans for it this week and some days cook larger portions, to enough food for two days. For this purpose the best suited soups and stews.

For example, if you on Wednesday fitnessThen Tuesday cook something just for two days. Then I do not have fitness after starve yourself or negate the efforts expended by eating the remains of the cake, lying around in the fridge a week.

5. Buy as many products in wholesale stores

Yes, the quality and range of products in some of them is poor. But buckwheat of "Magnit" definitely no worse than buckwheat from "ABC taste". And the price is different sometimes very serious.

Personally, I do so: make a shopping list, I first meal in a cheap supermarket and buy everything is possible from my list. Then I go to a good / expensive shop, where exactly is all or almost all.

Yes, it takes more time. But I purchase products only once a week, so I have a menu and a shopping list for him. If we compare it with the daily races at the grocery on the way home from work, my method is faster and more economical.

6. Do not throw away food

Learn first to eat the remnants of food in the refrigerator, and only then go to the store.

Yes, I understand that you feel better if there is always milk in the fridge and eggs. But the world will not collapse if they were not there will be two or even (horrors!) For three days. Connect your imagination. After all, if you have at least some products, you will not be hungry. Cooking of balances, you try new and sometimes unexpected delicious dishes, as well as save a lot of money. Indeed, rarely one of us manage to go for milk and buy only milk... As a rule, we carry on a marketing ploy and buy more of what we need.

My kids, for example, love bananas. I buy them a ton per year. And often at the end of the week they come to an end yet. First there were indignation: "How so! No bananas in the house, Mom?! ". But then the children have reconciled and began to eat what they give. And we have more and no longer a headache, as well as how to feed the child.

In his weekly menu I introduced the day "from the remnants of dinner." In this day I ever exhibited on the table any uneaten hot food left over from the previous day or two, or if there are none, I cook something out of what is left. Usually this day closes a week.

7. Pay attention to the frozen vegetables and berries

They are no worse than anything fresh. Especially in spring and autumn of this advice will be most welcome. These vegetables and berries are frozen immediately after harvest, so their nutritional value is preserved as much as possible compared with the "fresh" vegetables that are stored in the cellars of weeks.

But only when they choose to shop, make sure that they are not covered with ice and rolled into lumps. This suggests that the conditions of their storage have been violated at some point, they polurazmorozilis and lost some nutrients.

Good frozen vegetables and berries should be crumbly.

8. Look for products with expiring

Not always, but often such products discount. If not, then go to the cashier and ask for a discount. More profitable for them to sell to you at a discount, to dispose of the products.

Often manufacturers overly hedged expiry dates of products. I almost do not pay attention to the shelf life of cereals and pasta, spices, salt, tea, and other foods that can be stored for long periods.

If it is meat, then came home and immediately freeze its previously spread out in portions in plastic bags. Do not forget to sign their normal ballpoint pen, specifying the contents and date of freezing. Otherwise, then you can not identify anything.

If it's cheeses and dairy products, it is best to eat them as soon as possible (no later than five days from the date indicated on the package). Well, if that today you are going to cook something with cream cheese, and it is just on the shelf utsenonny due expiry date, which expires today, too.

ATTENTION! These products are best left in the store, if the shelf life has expired: fresh meat and poultry; salty and especially salted fish; defrost food, which, in theory, should be frozen; milk and bread.

9. Cook for two days

As mentioned above, this will save up your time. Also, oddly enough, it will reduce the cost of food. The secret is that it will be less residues.

If you have a very large family and all eaten at once, some of the possible residues can make a great lunch the next day for someone from home.

10. In drawing up the menu, choose dishes, where products are repeated

If you have a salad of cabbage, it is unlikely that you will eat an entire loaf at a time. It is therefore advisable to include in the next day or soup or stewed cabbage. If one of the dishes have basil or parsley, then find a use for them yet at least one dish this week. So you do not have to throw away anything. After all, dispose of the product - which means to throw and money.

Frankly, conceiving this article, I was not sure, type it enough on tips economy. But in the process of writing remembered still many ideas that I have successfully put into practice. So much that they did not fit in this article. Therefore, the promise in the future to continue this topic.

Good health to you!