Why not save some money while helping the environment with these food tips. If you find that you are time poor and heading for the take away option instead, prepare meals in advance by making a massive batch and freeze in several containers.

When you find that after heading home from work and there is no time to cook, just head for the freezer and voila!, an instant meal which doesn’t cost you a fortune, better for you nutritionally and healthier.

If you are looking for some great batch cooking meals, try Beef and Lentil Casserole, allow 2 hours to cook in the oven with only 4 easy steps to prepare and only 3 grams of saturated fat.

Another trap is to heading to the supermarket without checking the fridge and pantry first.

I like to apply the 20/80 rule, whereby we only ever see or use 20% of what is in the fridge and pantry, the other 80% is hidden and never seen. How often when you moved house or had a Spring clean to find a jar of something in the fridge 6 months past the used by date or a tin of something in the pantry 2 years past the used by date.

Unfortunately all of this unused food ends up in land fill which not only is a waste of money but users valuable resources to grow and transport the food in the first place.

Quite often we have enough food in the fridge and the pantry to make a meal, make it a challenge to use all of the vegies in the fridge, either make a stir fry or casserole type dish. A lot of recipes can have the ingredients substituted.

Go online and search for recipes based on some basic ingredients that you have on hand.

Victorians throw away 700,000 tonnes of food waste every year, why not try to reduce your impact on landfill while saving yourself money.
With a little bit of planning and having strategies in place, you can stretch your $ a little further while reducing your environmental footprint.

1.Turn excess fruit into jams & preserves.
Buy fruit that’s in season and quite often you can turn that pile of unwanted peaches into a yummy jam. Better still help reduce the waste from the local green grocer or fruit and vegie shop by buying all that manky fruit that looks unappealing but is great for making jams. The great thing is you can often get the fruit a lot cheaper as well.

2.Make a cake, with the recent glut of banana’s due to the favourable ripening weather conditions, why not make a banana cake with any left over bananas. As they tend to ripen extremely quickly you may suddenly have a pile of very sad looking bananas so start baking today for a yummy treat.

3.Any left over vegetables can be made into a casserole or soup just keep some legumes in the pantry for a yummy meal that only costs a few dollars per serve, why not try a beef and lentil casserole, just add all your left over vegies.

Back in the early days of submarines, there was fresh fruit and vegies that quickly deteriorated. To ensure that there was no wastage everything was cooked, even though it may have looked very unappealing.

4.Use any fruit and vegies that cannot be recovered by making soups, jams, conserves or casseroles by adding them to the compost bin.

Think about permaculture where everything is recycled back into the system. The great thing is fruit and vegies make great compost and the worms will love it:))

On the weekend in Melbourne, I went to a BBQ where this amazing rice salad was served. Best of all it’s Gluten free & dairy free.

WILD RICE, ALMOND AND CARAMELIZED ONION SALAD

1/4 cup olive oil
2 large onions (brown or red), thinly sliced
2 tblspns brown sugar
2 tblspns malt vinegar
3 cups chicken stock
8 cardamom pods, bruised
100 wild rice
2 cups basmati rice
2 cinnamon sticks
2/3 cup almonds, toasted (in oven or in dry frying pan, but watch carefully so as not to burn)
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted (see above)

1. In large non stick frying pan (with lid) heat 1 tblspn of the oil on med-low. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes, or until they soften but not browned. Sprinkle sugar over oion and stir until dissolved. Stir in the vinegar. Cook for a further 7 minutes, or until caramelised. Remove from the pan and set aside.

2. In a large saucepan, bring the stock to a simmer over a medium heat (or boil the kettle and dissolve 1-2 stock cubes). Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in the frying pan over a medium heat. Add the cardamom pods and rices and then cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Add the cinnamon sticks and stock to the pan and stir to combine.

3. Cover, bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat, then stir through the onion mixture, almonds and pine nuts.

Can be made up to two days before. Store in a sealed container.

If you’re looking for other great recipes, check out:
www.fitstyler.com.au/Health_Nutrition/Healthy-Recipes

Recession buster tip #10 Cook at home and save money $$$

It seems simple enough but cooking at home contrary to popular belief is definitely cheaper if you avoid supermarkets for your meat, fruit and vegetables.

With the success of Masterchef, people are not only cooking at home but is entering the vernacular of daily conversations.
Even a friend of mine emailed me a recipe that he had tried and raved about it, Gary’s Fried Rice & Open Beef Kofta it’s great to see that finally are seeing the benefits and enjoyment that can be had by cooking at home, it’s simple enough to learn and you can save money

The findings of a recent survey confirm that in households where there is a male/female relationship, the female still cooks the majority of the time.
What does this mean, well if the wife/female doesn’t want to cook and the male partner can’t be bothered or is too scared in fear of being told off then the easiest option is ordering take out/take away food.

So give your partner some encouragement and limit the criticism to get some extra help in the kitchen.