I make a tomato base, spiced onion base, salsa verde, and at the moment, have a quart of “potato-leek soup base” in the freezer too. I also freeze herb “disks”: Mexican, Italian, savory, curry, and Oriental.
The pizza was a quart of tomato base + an Italian herb disk. A couple of weeks ago, we were eating a lot of things made from the onion base as I’d just gotten 50# of onions. Etc.
Do you have certain recipes you use certain veg or meats for when they’re cheap? The easiest example I can think of is my fake tomato soup, made with roasted red peppers. Before I found a way to buy organic, heirloom tomatoes cheap, I never had enough. Roasted red pepper soup was my winter “go to” that reminded me of the tomato soup I used to have as a kid. But without being up all night in agony that I was in if I bought the same red & white can I’d eaten before.
I used to do a pureed root veg + zucchini soup in the fall when veg was cheap, freeze it up in for many serving of soup over the winter, I would grate in cheese and we’d eat it with bread at least once a week. We had a red pepper soup as well, but we ate it too much, and now I can’t make it any more. French onion soup was a big one last year because I got a big bag of onions in the fall. I also just froze ice cubes of caramelized onions. This year we have a fair amount of tomato red lentil coconut curry and butter chicken base.
Soup was really great because it was high vegetable and low effort on cold nights. We stopped doing it so much when we were trying to deal with the shadowy one’s carb issues, because no baguette to make it a fully satisfying meal.
When stewing meat is on flash discount I tend to make a braise stew or curry and freeze it in one or two cup containers. We currently have slow roasted pork belly in the freezer for indulgent ramen meals. And pulled pork. I generally freeze chicken, sausages and bacon uncooked.
Most things can go into fried rice stretched with with napa cabbage, on top of roasted sweet potato home fries, or wrapped into a tortilla. I used to say on top of pizza or inside a savoury tart, but we do that less now.
In addition to Tamar Adler I love Deborah Madison’s “What we eat when we eat alone” - it is a great book-essay about how we feed ourselves and has a lot of great tips if you are getting bored with your usual.
Not quite like that but basically every time we do a roast chicken it provides three meals worth of meat.
My favorite variation so far is Moroccan Roast Chicken,(Edit: and this recipe for vegetable ideas) then use the leftovers to make pitas, then there’s usually still some chicken leftover from that which gets turned into chicken salad sandwiches or added to a green leafy salad.
I also tried doing “peking” chicken once, the leftover chicken went into a stir fry and then chicken fried rice. These don’t have to be back to back, the third meal can be a week later if you freeze whatever’s left over from the second meal.
Then regular herb roasted chicken over root vegetables, I don’t specifically remember what the other meals are because it’s so ubiquitous. Right now I’m feeling some chicken noodle soup, yum.
We also did this with beef when we were more likely to do beef roasts - ropa vieja leftovers might get turned into beef quesadillas or fajitas or whatever.
Not chicken related - Sometimes I plan oven-use to connect meals. Like if I’m making a baked pasta dish like ziti then I will try to have other vegetables chopped already (usually the morning before cause I’m not going to have time to deal with two meals worth of prep after work) so I just put it in the oven as it’s waiting for me to put in the ziti, then use the roasted vegetables the next night. Part of the trick for this is that I use a google doc for my meal planning and I leave a note to future me to pair those meals again in the future.
June at Budget Eats is the one who got me to think about using an oven for more than one thing at a time. Never considered it before as a money saver.
Good for you!
My “cook it together to save time/money” thing has always been grains, pasta, veg bases: mashed potatoes, rice, any other stovetop cooked grains, pasta. I try to cook a double batch and then set aside the second side. Most difficult with pasta, but cooked pasta freezes and goes into soups just fine…
I made a huge amount of chili the other day but I (shockingly because normally my pantry is full of them) didn’t have enough cans of tomato puree to make the stock the way I usually do. Instead I used the cans I had and then added beef stock and tomato paste, but it was still really watery so I added amaranth and it worked! I am obsessed with amaranth as a bulker/thickener!
Baked potatoes work well for that too. Old mashed potatoes can be especially good.
I stopped buying tomato sauce years ago when I looked at the label of the brand I bought: tomato paste and water. Hm. Why not just buy tomato paste? That’s what I’ve done since.
Since these days I can’t eat regular canned tomatoes anyway, I buy tomato paste from Italy (pricey) in a tube that lives in the fridge. When I need that tomato background and not necessarily tomato contents, I use the paste. A tube tends to last about a year. I usually squirt some in a stew or meat loaf.
A tube sound handy! I usually just see cans here and I got tired of buying a can of tomato paste when I just needed one or two tablespoons, finally I got a slightly larger can and doled out one tablespoon at a time onto wax paper I had put on a cookie sheet and then froze it. Now I can just get one tablespoon at a time instead of having to buy a can and throw out most of it.
When I used the small metal cans, I’d open it on both sides and then freeze it. Use one lid to push the paste through to the other side, slice off what you need. Replace the 2nd lid and refreeze. Like cookie dough.
That’s what I did until I couldn’t use the stuff in quantity any more. These days I use it like a spice or herb.
I used it whole! It’s so teeny tiny that it blends right in, you can’t even visually see it in the chili unless you know its there and look really closely.
I am learning from this conversation that I use an absurd amount of both tomato puree and paste I go through the tubes in like a couple weeks and I don’t think I’ve ever used only part of a can. I buy the puree and chopped tomatoes too because I shop sales and those are often on bigger sale in larger cans. I also use the chopped for things like quick salsas and stuff. My blood runs red with lycopene, just like my ancestors.
I thought this would be great to drop here. I honestly can’t wait to try some of these ideas because I have a lot of rice paper like, always because I love spring rolls, but I really want to try some of these.
I’ve shared her vids before but this one is really a gem because it’s on a farm!
I’m becoming pretty obsessed with various African cuisines in part because of her and in large part because of Jessica Harris! High on The Hog is one of my all time favorite food history books and now I’m reading her book Iron Pots & Wooden Spoons: Africa’s Gifts to New World Cooking and I already have the feeling I’m going to buy her cookbook too. Iron Pots has a lot of recipes in it whereas High on The Hog (which focuses on the USA, the other book is more global) is more of a straight food history book but it’s essential if you want to understand American cuisine. If you want to learn more about South American food you should also read Iron Pots because so much food that’s seen as South American is actually African, especially Brazilian food (including the national dish of Brazil)!
Anyway, just thought I’d share in case there are other food history/culture fans here.
I go through the tubes in like a couple weeks and I don’t think I’ve ever used only part of a can. I buy the puree and chopped tomatoes too because I shop sales and those are often on bigger sale in larger cans. I also use the chopped for things like quick salsas and stuff. My blood runs red with lycopene, just like my ancestors.
