Food Tips From Grandma - A Comprehensive Guide To Saving Money - Aspire Center, Feel + Live + Be
I grew up with my grandparents. Having that said, things normal people learn later in adulthood, I have had the luxury of knowing them earlier because I had a walking encyclopedia in my life. My grams is all about being frugal and stretching a dollar the super long way. I didn’t have to google any food saving tips because I received them all from grams.
Making lettuce last longer
Lettuce is tricky especially if you live in a neighborhood that doesn’t have access to fresh produce. Most of the lettuce is turning brown before you even get it to your home. After washing your lettuce, place a paper towel over the container and store in the fridge so that the paper towel absorbs the moisture giving your lettuce an extra three days at the very least.
baking soda in the fridge via http://www.lovelivehealth.com/10-cleaning-problems-solved-with-baking-soda/4/
2. Baking soda is a must
My grandmother kept an open box of baking soda in the freezer as well as the fridge. Old food smell still lingers even after you have discarded of it. Baking soda absorbs any bad smells and also doubles as an awesome cleaning agent.
veggies in a ziploc courtesy of http://solkoblessednest.blogspot.com/2011/12/carrots-and-beans-and-cauliflower-oh-my.html
3. Freeze your meats
A lot of people simply put their meats in it’s original packaging in the freezer as is. That’s a major no no. Placing meat in the freezer as is makes it susceptible to freezer burn which ruins the meat. Instead grandma opted to removing the meat from the original package, seasoning it and placing it in a Zip-loc sliding bag in serving sizes and marking the date in which it went in so we wouldn’t lose track.
Mrs. Dash collection
4. Going Salt Free
High blood pressure runs rampant in my family. The original Mrs. Dash was a staple in our household when grandma decided to go salt free and I use almost every Mrs. Dash known to date in all of my cooking.
5. Cook per serving or invest in a good container
Food storage of raw food is important but cooked food is also important. If my fiance and I don’t cook for two servings, we store our food in air tight containers 1–2 hours after we cook. Leaving food in a pot and refrigerating can cut the lifetime of the food dramatically and taste really gross when re-heated. Left overs for us typically last a week(we eat it) and taste as fresh as the first time we cooked it or even better.
6. Heat with your oven not your microwave
Sensitive items like fried chicken and rice simply do not taste the same when heated up in the microwave. My grandmother always taught me to fire up the stove or oven when re-heating left overs. It’s more time consuming but who wants soggy fried chicken?
Tweet us your mom or grandma’s food tips! @nyaspire
