Stocking your pantry on a budget is an art form. Knowing where to cut costs and which ingredients you can swap out for less can be incredibly helpful when it comes to making delicious food without spending a fortune at the grocery store every week. Equally important is figuring out what your personal staples are and shopping accordingly. Knowing what you use up the most can help you strategize for bulk buying and having some left over to splurge a little on those other favorite specialties.
| Channel | Publish Date | Thumbnail & View Count | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
 Munchies | 2020-11-21 15:00:32 |  201,300 Views |
These Are The Only Kitchen Containers You Need | Game Changers
We reached out to Katelyn Leckie executive chef at The Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto and co-founder of Not Your Parents' Wine to find out what items we should buy on the cheap. As the executive chef at The Stop she prepares meals for families in need and for community markets that offer healthy food at affordable prices. That usually means combining nutritious and delicious with affordable large-scale cooking. She gave us a ton of great tips on what to buy how to buy it and when. Leckie also had some great suggestions to help us get the most out of our ingredients and avoid wasting money or food.
Dried beans almost always cost less per unit of time than canned beans and they’re much easier to buy in bulk. “You get more bang for your buck” says Katelyn Leckie “and I don’t actually soak them.” That’s a relief for those of us who worry that cooking dried beans takes a lot more effort. While many recipes recommend soaking dried beans overnight Leckie admits she often skips that step; “Once I start cooking I start by cooking them in a lot of water so that the water really gets around each bean and they cook faster.” Just be sure to check the expiration date because the older the beans get the longer they’ll take to cook. “So if you know you’re in a grocery store with a high turnover” Leckie explains “you’re probably fine.”
Rice is also something she buys in bulk. “I always buy a big bag and they go through pretty quickly” she says. If you eat a lot of rice you don’t need to spend a lot of money on artisanal basmati that comes in a 12-ounce package whereas you can buy a 10-pound bag of perfectly good quality rice at a local Asian market. The same goes for dried lentils.
