Bringing Back the Home-Cooked Meal

Every good home-cooked meal starts with a well-stocked pantry. This does not mean you need to go out and purchase excess gourmet items you will not use. The well-stocked pantry contains essential items that you should have on hand at all times that form the building blocks of delicious homemade meals. Keeping a well-stocked pantry with staples means that you always have the basics to prepare virtually anything and reduce the trips to the store, saving you money in the long run and reducing your carbon footprint. Connecting with your local farmer, like us, will help you explore new produce while expanding your palate for fresh fruits and vegetables in season.  

 

What should your pantry include?

Your basic pantry should include dried beans, herbs & spices, vinegar & oils, rice, and a few more staples. Dried beans are very inexpensive to use and require very little effort to use, maybe just a little prior soaking. We grow our own beans on our farm including Black, Kidney and French Horticultural Beans. Herbs and spices can be in the form of fresh, dried, or even frozen. Many of our Community Supported Agriculture members prepare their spices from the items included in their weekly shares including our chili plants, potted herbs, and aromatics. Read more tips on how to stock the perfect pantry on our website by clicking this link.  

 

The Cost-Efficient Kitchen 

Want to reduce your food costs? Monitor sales and stock up on essentials when on sale to be inventive and cost-effective. Did you know that our farm offers a weekly sale item in our farm store and farm market on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday? You can check out our weekly digital sales circular on our website to learn more by clicking here. 

Eating at home and cooking your meals is the best for your health and can help reduce your monthly food budget. There are other numerous benefits to preparing your meals at home including being able to monitor ingredients, and portion sizes while making healthier choices. Sounds easy, right? It is and where do you start?  Meal planning is a great tool to help maximize your weekly groceries by getting as many meals as possible. A weekly meal plan will help you refrain from buying food that you don’t need while reducing your trips to the grocery. A meal plan can help you be prepared for busy days, reducing the amount of take out which will save you money and help you create new meals from leftovers!

Stretch Your Meal Budget

Don’t throw away leftovers! Learn why it’s so important to reduce food waste by reading our previous blog here. Repurposing leftovers is another great way to save money. A quick and easy way to use up leftovers is to keep the vegetables, greens, potatoes, meats, and all the bits leftover from dinner and create an egg dish or a rice or quinoa bowl, a wrap, or even a salad for breakfast, brunch, or lunch. It not only helps reduce waste, but it also makes for a flavorful reinvented meal while reducing greenhouse gasses. 

Save your potato skins, leek tops, or root vegetable peels, and turn them into chips easily in your air fryer (make sure they are washed and thoroughly dried first). Roast chard, spinach, or kale stems to soften them and turn them into something delicious rather than discarding them. Find the recipe here.  Save nearly expired veggies and fruits before they turn bad by freezing them. You can then use them in various dishes to add flavor, fiber vitamins, and minerals. Add the frozen fruit to a smoothie in the morning, toss cooked veggies into soups or sauces, or add frozen chopped veggies to omelets or casseroles to amp up nutrition and flavor! 

 

Soup to the Rescue

What else can you do to save money on groceries? When in doubt, make more soup! Soup is an excellent way to reinvent leftovers, use up wilted produce, and incorporate more vegetables into your diet. Soup is so economical and there are so many varieties to try that you can enjoy a new meal almost every day of the week just by trying a different soup at mealtime. Don’t have time to make homemade soup from scratch? Stop into our farm store and pick up our soup made fresh with many of our homegrown vegetables, aromatics, or herbs. Did you know that soup is back in season in our farm market in Jefferson and our farm store in Chester? Both stores are open year-round, all winter long, visit our hours of operation to learn more. Check out our variety of soups on our website by clicking here.