TGIFood

TGIFood readers share their thrifty cooking tips

(Image by Galina Afanaseva from Pixabay)

31 Jan 2025

Our legion of loyal food fans are generous in their thrift and kind with their comments. Thank you to all of you. Here’s what you had to share with us this month…

TGIFood always gets a read when it comes out. This was the opening remark by TGIFood reader Craig Thompson, who lives in Switzerland.

Craig Thompson writes:

“Before I tell you my story, thank you for your work. TGIFood always gets a read when it comes out. Your peppermint crisp tart last year made my fellow saffers homesick, and they paid ridiculous amounts of money to buy some peppermint crisp bars.

“When we first arrived in Switzerland in 2012 we had no idea about how expensive it was. Living on a shoestring budget became a way of life.

“The one thing that has saved us the most money has been an app. Anylist allows you to share shopping lists with household members, but also creates shopping lists from your recipes.

“The feature that saves the most money is meal planning. On a Thursday night we plan the meals for the next week, adding recipes for each meal, then updating the shopping list.

“This has cut our food wastage down to almost zero, no more buying stuff because it is a good price and letting it rot before use.

“There is a free version which we used initially, but have upgraded to a paid version. One of the best things in my kitchen is the tablet that I follow my recipes that are on Anylist.

“Keep up the good work.”

Craig Thompson (email and phone number provided but redacted)

I had not heard of Anylist. Having looked into it, I see that it’s an American app developed by Jeff Hunter and Jason Marr. Let me know if any South Africans use Anylist, and what you think of it.

For the record, Craig Thompson is not involved in Anylist, only a user and fan of it. — Tony Jackman, TGIFood Editor

(Image by Frauke Riether from Pixabay)

Kathryn Cooley wrote:

“Buy fresh! Look how long one cabbage can last. I prefer red! A tin of mealies is the equivalent of I mealie. Look at the price of both. Do a comparison with other veg. You will be shocked.”

That’s an excellent piece of advice. I found a punnet of four mielies in the bargain bin of my local supermarket the other day. The price had been marked down to R14.99 but let’s call it R15. With the markdown that’s R3.75 each and if, as Kathryn says, one mielie fills one can of sweetcorn, well, we’re paying 6.4 times the price of that single mielie to buy a R24 can of them. Sjoe. — Tony

(Image by Couleur from Pixabay)

Longtime reader Jonathan Rees wrote:

“Saw the thrift article… and here is what I am doing at the moment. We are in Barrydale in a fruit growing area. So there are a glut of apricots, cling peaches etc… so I buy a box and make juice and purée which can be frozen for drinking or desserts down the line.

“Anybody living in an agricultural area will be able to get cheap surplus at the right time of year. And a lot of fruit and other things have to comply with strict EU or other export regulations, so a lot gets rejected. The wily shopper will be able to get loads of ripe fruit direct from farms at this time of year.

“Lekker.” Jonathon Rees

Actually, I have several massive tubs of frozen fresh apricots in my freezer at the moment. Sadly they’re not mine. In that way that we do these things in the Karoo (including Barrydale), my tuisnywerheid friend Heyla Meyer ran out of freezer space so we offered her more space in ours, so that she can make more lovely apricot jam for her Sense of the Karoo label. — Tony

(Image by NoName_13 from Pixabay)

Maria da Silva wrote:

“Hello Tony,

“With the recent heavy rains, I notice the abundance of greenery on verges, etc. These are weeds, but many of them are edible. Combining them with other greens — such as raw cabbage and carrots, for example, that are cheap, it’s possible to make a very nutritious salad very easily. Add some seeds or other nuts (although this can be costly), and there’s a filling meal. I made one this week and it was delicious.

“We need to forage more. An article on weeds that are edible would help us use more of what’s around us freely.

“Regards, Maria.”

Well, yes, it’s on my list. I happen to know somebody who knows a lot more about all this than I do. Nikki Brighton, where are you? Please contact me… — Tony

Fran Viet wrote:

(Image by Chris und Alisia Alpinger from Pixabay)

“Yes, this is the time of the year when one makes do! In the months leading up to Christmas I make a point of buying an extra pack or two of whichever crumbed chicken pieces, sausages and bacon (and pasta) is on special to freeze for January’s lean days.

“Then in January I can use up my freezer and cupboard stores. Chicken with a large tray of roasted vegetables — whatever is still in the cupboard; sausages and a heap of mashed potato and smoor, or bacon pasta or quiche.

“On the making-it-go-further front I’ve learnt to make white sauce with only a cup of milk and then make up the difference with stock for pasta dishes. I’ve also learnt to expand dishes like mince by adding chopped tomato or celery and grated carrots with plenty of tomato purée or passata.

“Luckily we keep chickens and have a small veggie patch so I’m able to whip up egg dishes, side dishes with spinach and or sweet potatoes, gooseberries and strawberries easily.

“Hoping some of these tips help!

“Regards, Fran Viet.”

Yes, much of what Fran says mirrors my own thinking. Looks like we’re all on track with a lot of this. — Tony

Roast chicken can be a bargain too. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

Dave Swingler is not only a TGIFood regular but was a fan of Top of the Times when I edited that section of the Cape Times back in the Nineties. So we seem to go back a long way. Dave writes:

“Hi Tony, I loved your newsletter today, as always. I thought of you yesterday...

“En route to my local Elgin Free Range Chicken Factory Shop with lean pockets after Christmas — EFRC is itself a Januworry solution with 3:2 specials on drums, thighs, mini-fillets, trimmings and livers, and minced giblets for my pets @ R40/kg — I saw a new Die Visfabriek factory shop had opened conveniently opposite.

“Now, DVF would not be my primary port of call, with ‘ultra-highly processed’, ‘hydrogenated vegetable (palm?) oil’ and ‘mechanically harvested’ chicken all sounding alarm sirens.

“But I found some interesting products, not least a pack of recently frozen (within the week) ‘Salmon Frames’ at R49.50/kg. I hastened home with 788g for R39.01.”

That does look like a bargain. (Photo: Dave Swingler)

“Here I washed and dried the not-insubstantial pieces, brushed the flesh with olive oil to crisp the Omega-3 fat-rich flesh, and air-fried the lot in batches in my Instant Vortex Plus, on high (205°C) for 5 minutes.

“After a rest, I flaked the meat off the bones (easy with a fork, but take care to leave pin-bones behind) and then made a quick stock with the skin and bones. A dash of brandy, smooth rice flour (my go-to for thickening) and a turn of cream added luxury to a hearty pasta sauce for two, which I served topped with cut dill over fusilli — the screw form has gutters which ‘trap’ the fish flakes.

“No, chardonnay was not the belle of the ball, rather this after my travels in Spain: Godello from Galicia. It’s near-royalty paired with sous-vide octopus finished over the fire.”

Dave is a wine fundi of note, as many of you will know, so I’d take his wine advice seriously. And when I am living closer to that part of the world, it looks like I need to visit Elgin. — Tony

(Image by Galina Afanaseva from Pixabay)

Nearer home, even The Foodie’s Wife Diane Cassere, who is also a fan of TGIFood would you believe, wrote in to say:

“At the risk of sounding like Patsy in Ab Fab..... ‘you can never have enough hats, gloves and shoes’, I would suggest that the trick to budget eating is bacon and feta. Not necessarily together, but if you throw some bargain bacon cuts into the freezer well before the Christmas ‘bargains’ and make sure you have a stock of feta, January bargain meals will taste that much better.

“Tins of tuna are also a good ruse. Chuck some over the salad with the feta and you have something continental and Mediterranean or exotic instead of a bog standard garden salad.

“Those little packets of black olives also raise the tone a little, not least as a substitute for snacks when the budget is creaking at the seams.”

I happen to know that all of the above is true, as I find those things in my salads all the time. *Makes note to buy more black olives, feta, tuna and bacon*. DM

Find all of Tony’s Thrifty January recipes in one place here.

Categories:

TGIFood

Tags:

DM is much better if you are signed in...

TGIFood