Cooking Tips, Part 1

In the midst of the economic crisis, cutting costs is essential, and what better way to start than by cooking at home instead of eating out.  I know, I know, I love to eat out too, but it's too expensive when you're trying to save money, especially around the holidays.

So my first tip:  Stop eating out.  And stop Starbucks too.

Other Cooking Tips

1.  Set time aside once a week to cook a few meals in one day and freeze them.  Pampered Chef offers a Power Cooking Show with meals that cost around $2 per serving, using chicken or ground beef.  Power Cooking takes about 30 to 40 minute to prepare ingredients for 3 meals, and either cook one for that day's meal and freeze the other 2, or freeze all 3.

2.  When cooking a meal and freezing in a ziploc bag, flatten the full bag and lay in the freezer.  This saves space and defrosts faster.  Plus, Pampered Chef's pans conduct temperature so well, you can pull one of those meals from the freezer an hour before you need it, place it in the skillet (still in the bag), and it'll be ready to heat!  Quite the time saver.  I don't know how many times I've forgotten to take dinner out of the freezer the night before and then needed to order take out.

3.  Do not use nonstick spray or oil (unless it's for flavor) in nonstick cookware, it actually wares down the finish in the pans over time.  

4.  Shred blocks of cheese instead of buying pre-shredded cheese.  It saves money, plus those convenient bags of shredded cheese contain cellulose, the equivalent of saw dust.  Gross.

5.  When removing the tops from strawberries, use a small paring knife with a long, thin blade.  Cut directly around the top and pull out the core.  This saves more meat on the strawberry as slicing the tops wastes more.