Paula Shelly at Dinner Designs in Viewmont has a front seat view of rising food prices. A former personal chef and now owner of a business which pre-prepares food for busy cooks, she's seen wholesale costs go up some 32 percent. That means the chef at your house is facing an even tougher battle when it comes to putting something healthy on the table. Here's Shelly's advice.
1. Try Dinner Designs or a similar pre-prep option. The veggies are chopped, the meat is trimmed and the balanced menu is planned. All you do is assemble the ingredients, take your dishes home and cook them when you're ready. Sure it sounds expensive — it's $17 to $21 a meal at Dinner Designs — but when you break down the cost per serving per person, it's comparable to fast food, with far better quality. And you don't have to buy way more than you need for recipes.
2. Take the same principle home. Not ready to pay someone to get your food ready for cooking? Put aside a day to plan your menu, trim your meat and assemble all the casseroles or other dishes you'll serve. It'll be much easier not to swing by the drive-through if you know you have an easy dinner waiting in the fridge.
3. Consider servings. You can — and should — cut the recipe in half if you don't have all four or six people to feed. If you do make the entire recipe, take out the servings you'll want and refrigerate or freeze the rest. Do that before you start eating to keep your leftovers more appetizing.
4. Think about what freezes well. You might be surprised. Quiche, after it's baked, is one of those things. Pasta is on the list, too, along with meat and the marinade and cooked rice.
5. Inventory. Post a list of what you've got in the fridge and mark it off as you use it. That works when it comes to raw ingredients and assembled meals. You waste less of the food you spent so much money on.
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