We were getting low on bread here because Hubby made French toast for breakfast recently. So yesterday he made a loaf of cinnamon bread in our bread maker. It is cheaper to make it in that machine rather than turn on our natural gas oven. We will have it this week for breakfast with our eggs.
Thinking about the eggs, I need to freeze a few dozen that are in the fridge. I will put one or two eggs in baggies and lay them flat in the freezer. The one egg bags are for baking and the two egg bags are for easy over or scrambled eggs.
For dinner last night, I decided to make a big pan of my grandmother’s recipe for Bacon & Macaroni Goulash. I purchased a 3 pack of bacon at B.J.’s Warehouse Club last week. It is the cheapest price I could find for really good bacon. It was $ 16.97 for the 3 pounds.
I cut up a pound of the bacon and added a cut up onion to cook them together. I used my large electric fry pan because it takes less energy than the natural gas stove top. I not only want to save money on food but I would like to lower my utility bills whenever I can also.
While that was cooking, I cooked a pound of cavatappi pasta in the microwave because that is cheaper than boiling water and cooking it on the stove top. I drained the pasta and added it and some spaghetti sauce to the onion and bacon. When it was hot, all we had to add was some Parmesan cheese and a side salad.
It was delicious and from the leftovers above, we will have a few more meals of it. We just have to dish up our future plates and heat them in the micro.
Moral of the story: Take the time to quickly think about how you are cooking each meal and with what appliance. I always try to do it the most energy efficient way that I can. Our last couple of monthly utility bills have been so high and I expect the one I get next week may top $300. Ugh!
As you can see, I also like to cook in large quantities so that I spend less time in the kitchen cooking different meals. Hubby and I don’t mind eating the same meal a few nights in a row.
I know that each time I do all of this that it is a little bit of savings. But all of those little bits add up to big dollars in the long run. And all it costs me is a little brain power!
4 replies on “Think Before You Cook”
Hi Precious. I cook in big batches like you do. I love when I cook during the week and we can eat leftovers on the weekend. Your grandmother’s goulash recipe looks good. I had not thought about freezing eggs before, might have to give that a try.
On Saturday I made some barley soup with the turkey breast carcass Hubby had smoked recently. I made homemade broth on the stove, and then put the broth, cut up veggies, barley, and bits of meat from the carcass in the crock pot to finish. It was really good. I saved some soup for supper sometime this week and also put a container in the freezer for later. I made cornbread muffins to go with.
Hi Chris,
Thank you. With eggs so expensive and the fact that we use a lot, I buy them whenever I catch a sale. When they get close to expiring, I freeze them.
You soup sounds delicious. We love barley soup in this household.
Definitely food for thought. I normally only use the oven for oversized pizza, full sheets of chicken tenders or baking bacon. But I never thought about using the micro in place of the stove top.
Hi Patti,
I love how you use your oven.