Cooking on a Budget Tips from Rebecca

Cooking on a budget

Welcome back, today we have some tips on how to reduce waste while cooking on a budget.

Get comfortable and confident making some basic meals - from there you can start to add or replace ingredients to change things up and keep your meals cheap but interesting.

Sauces, spices and herbs are going to be your best friends - they can take meals you're starting to get sick of and make them different.

It is really great to get used to using canned and shelf stable ingredients in your cooking - the less perishable things you have in the house, the less that you have to keep track of that can end up in the bin. The book Rebecca recommends here is Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love and it is available at Dunedin Libraries but there are so many other great books out there on this topic, and recipes online.

Think first before throwing things away - can you use that pasta cooking water, canned bean juice, lemon rind, carrot tops? If you're not sure, Google it and there'll be lots of recommendations for what to do with it.

Rebecca wants to reassure everyone that 'rice with sauce' is for very, very lazy days and isn't a regular meal - she's not in danger of getting scurvy anytime soon!