WE’RE TOLD THAT to ‘fail to plan is to plan to fail’.
We’re not quite that dramatic here, but putting a little preparation and thought into your grocery shopping and meal-planning for the week can reap remarkable rewards.
We’ve had a couple of articles extolling the virtues of both (here and here) and we put the call out for your best tips for using up leftovers as well as your best suggestions for planning meals in advance.
First to the leftovers – we got lots of great comments and ideas such as this one for potato cakes from Molly Coddled, with a little suggestion/warning at the end:
Throw in some plain flour and salt and pepper (ground white) to the cold mashed spuds, add a smidgen of beaten egg to bind, make into patties and bake. You can fry them in butter but that would knock off 10 years of your life.
And Jimmy Murphy had a this to say about about what to do with leftover chilli con carne:
Of course, more than one person felt the same as Amy Shoebridge:
No leftovers in this house my family barely leave the pattern on the plates. If I tell my husband I accidentally made too much he usually replies, challenge accepted.
With regards to grocery shopping, whether to do an all-in-one big shop or a bit by bit shop throughout the week was the hot topic of conversation.
Kevin Fitzpatrick in last week’s poll says,
And Resel gets the Blue Peter badge for their foresightedness:
I do a monthly shop. Freeze a lot. Cook în bulk a lot. Once a week pick up some fresh produce.
Tom Doherty spoke about how the times have changed and how it affects the way he shops:
When I was growing up the weekly shop usually occured on a pay day of some sort. Since I get paid monthly I no longer run out of money and food on Wednesday. Some things last a month, they are bought monthly. Some things last a week and are bought weekly and so on.
Chris Kirke explains the virtures of list-making:
We stick to the list, that way we can manage the budget and know how much we spend week to week and see how prices vary.
And Daniel Murray makes a good point about purchasing perishables,
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