Cooking from Scratch – Healthy Cheap Meals

Cooking meals from scratch is a great achievement when it is so much easier to succumb to supermarket pressures and buy ready meals.

But done correctly, cooking at home from scratch is both healthier and more cost effective than processed rubbish.

The secret is to plan ahead:

Keep the freezer topped up with ingredients, don’t run it on empty or partially empty (or partially full whichever point of view you may have), as it’s a waste of energy and cost.

Cook extra portions and freeze the spares so that you always have an odd meal in for days when it’s not practical to cook for only one or two people.

Fill the oven when cooking too, eat and store according to your needs and menus for the week.

When cooking always use the correct sized saucepan and don’t have the flame licking up the sides (if using gas that is, if there’s flames and you’re using electric I’d call the fire brigade). Also, put pan lids on when cooking to speed up the process and save pounds.

Pressure cookers are great for saving both fuel and time (and again money)

Slow cookers are brilliant, but clue in the name ‘slow’ can take 8-10 hours to cook a stew, so you have to start at breakfast time to get an evening meal – but oh boy! Is it worth the wait! A fantastic way to use cheaper cuts of meat and uses only the equivalent of an electric light bulb – fantastic value.

It’s not always possible, but I try to ensure everyone is having the same meal at the same time so I’m not having two (or more) lots of cooking costs and reheating costs etc.