Frugal Eating/Cooking Tips

[kitsune]

Are you a college student? Living alone? Looking to save money? In this thread, we are going to share cooking/eating tips that will save you money. Feel free to post your own!

• Learn to cook! And make a habit of preparing your own food than going out to eat. This should be a no-brainer but being able to cook will save you money in the long run. It's cheaper and healthier to buy your own groceries and prepare food yourself than living off of pizza and junk food.
• Make large batches of soups/stews and freeze them in individual serving-sized containers. When they're completely frozen, pop the soup blocks out of the containers and place them in plastic bags in the freezer to store. Soup is so easy to cook so be sure to make extra so you'll have a quick snack/light meal in the future.
• Use boiled eggs as filler in tuna salad sandwiches. Tuna is so rich in flavour that you can get away with adding 1-2 eggs to 1 can of tuna without compromising taste.
• Grow your own green onions! Next time you buy green onions, save at least two inches of the bottom of the stems (including the roots), and place them in a glass of water by the window. Replace the water every few days. Snip off pieces of them as needed. I have at least 30 stems of green onions growing right now and sometimes they grow faster than I need.
• Make instant/ramen noodles healthier by adding protein and veggies. When I make instant noodles, I use only about a quarter of the seasoning packet. I also like to poach an egg, and add left over chicken and chopped veggies in the boiling water. Here's a youtube playlist of neat things you can do with ramen noodles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kvv...7D9DE7CD877A6D
• Steam vegetables in the microwave. It's so much faster and easier than steaming it on the stove. In a microwave-safe glass container, put in your desired chopped veggies, a couple table spoons of water, some butter and your favourite spices. Cover and microwave until it's tender to your liking. I stir the veggies every 1-1.5 minutes so everything mixes and cooks evenly. Depending on how dense the vegetables are and how much you're steaming, this can take anywhere from 3-8 minutes. Just keep stirring and checking every couple minutes.