The Covid -19 Pandemic has turned our world upside down and I know a lot of you are seeing your home in a whole new light these days. One of the primary areas of your lives that I know have been affected is manging your food cost while creating a variety of tasty amazing meals that you crave. Creating meal plans can help you do both and start u on this journey we want share some real-life tips and tricks you can incorporate to get you started:
Identify what you enjoy eating and what you don’t
Sounds simple doesn’t it? Sadly, though a lot of us eat for the sake of eating and eat what is available at the time you feel hungry. To combat this never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach (you will be more inclined to buy food items you don’t need) and make a detailed meal plan for each week incorporating three square meals and two snack items.
If you don’t know what you want to eat, try envisioning eating at your favourite restaurants, what meals would you want to eat from those menus? From there jot down that specific meal and create your meal schedule… Be sure to incorporate salads, fruit and nuts for a balanced meal plan.
Do some research on recipes and menus (We can help with that lol)
When you have identified what meals you want to enjoy, if you don’t know how to prepare those meals find out how. There are thousands of food website and apps that you can use one of our recommended favourites is https://tasty.co/ they not only provide recipes but step by step videos guides in preparing some of the most delicious dishes.
Identify Substitutes for Expensive Ingredients
So, you have identified the meals you want to cook, and you know how to cook it but to create it is way over your budget? Don’t you worry about this too much as there are numerous solutions starting with understanding what role each of your ingredients play in your complete dish and swapping these out for cheaper products. As an example, instead of using heavy cream in your Alfredo Sauce substitute for dairy /coconut milk and incorporate butter to recreate that rich creamy texture.
Another Option is making your own often used food items such sauces, seasoning, breads, juices instead of purchasing these “ready-made” from your local supermarkets. This is a good way to use up some items in your cupboards and incorporate a healthier diet.
Some examples include:
Purchase seasonal fruits and make your own Juices- Be sure to cut and freeze these in Ziploc bags and blend these when needed incorporate lemon juice, ginger and any other items you need.
Utilize you Regular Jamaica Seasoning into More ways: Seasonings such onions, scallions’ tomatoes etc to make your own tomato sauce you can even purchase tomato paste (Less than $200) to use as your base. This can be incorporated in your gravies, soups and can even be served on its own over your favourite pasta as a complete meal.
Incorporate Vinegar, pepper, onions etc to make your speciality seasoning, you can blend these and freeze these or bottled and store. Once you maintain the proper storage conditions these can keep for months at a time.
Get Back to Your Local Roots
We Take it for granted that we as Caribbean Nationals were born out of slavery and a lot of the cultural meals were created from literally scraps and whatever our ancestors could find or what was given to them. What can we learn from this? Utilize what is available in your cupboards to create traditional meals some amazing options are one pots such as season rice cook ups. Utilize cornmeal (which is amazingly cheap) to make “tun cornmeal” variations of your choice. At the end of the day its how we combine, mix and match and incorporate seasonings and cooking techniques such as braising, steaming, frying etc that makes your meals truly tasty.
Reach Out to Us for Help
Reach out to us at Yaad Chef Consultancy to get recipe ideas, live cooking classes, nutritional guides and much more to help change your interaction with food ad create your own unique culinary experiences.