Oh yeah! Take-out pizza was a weekly regular thing for me too! 30 bucks for the pizza meant it was costing 15 bucks for a single meal, half a large pizza, not only was it thousands of calories, but I got to thinking what else I could buy and cook for $15 bucks, and it always ate me up inside, that’s enough for a luxury meal if buying the ingredients and cooking it myself, something like a 6-8 oz steak or salmon and 4 oz shrimp dinner with 2 healthy sides like asparagus and basmati rice. Not to mention how much less something like tofu, beans, lentils, or even chicken or pork would cost!
Big blocks of cheese from Costco and bulk tomato sauce and diced tomatoes are a huge saver in bulk versus shredded cheese packs at supermarkets. Costco have variety packs of pretty high quality pastas sometimes too that are great deals. Other than that, I normally rotate discount pasta varieties from Kroger, but if you have the time and means to build up a collection of seasonings and spices and learn some cooking skills, you can save a lot versus the equivalent eating out, and can watch calories easier when you measure stuff yourself. I was shocked how much added salt and fat are in a lot of chain restaurant meals. I really like adding dried TVP to sauces sometimes for extra texture and protein, that kinda works for Italian and Mexican style cooking the way tofu does for a lot of Asian recipes. Bulk dried beans, barley and garbanzos are relatively cheap at places like WinCo and store well and you can get a lot of mileage out of, and if you have a Korean grocery chain nearby, they often have the best prices on bulk rice and a great selection of seasonings and frozen seafood.
Oh yeah! Take-out pizza was a weekly regular thing for me too! 30 bucks for the pizza meant it was costing 15 bucks for a single meal, half a large pizza, not only was it thousands of calories, but I got to thinking what else I could buy and cook for $15 bucks, and it always ate me up inside, that’s enough for a luxury meal if buying the ingredients and cooking it myself, something like a 6-8 oz steak or salmon and 4 oz shrimp dinner with 2 healthy sides like asparagus and basmati rice. Not to mention how much less something like tofu, beans, lentils, or even chicken or pork would cost!
Big blocks of cheese from Costco and bulk tomato sauce and diced tomatoes are a huge saver in bulk versus shredded cheese packs at supermarkets. Costco have variety packs of pretty high quality pastas sometimes too that are great deals. Other than that, I normally rotate discount pasta varieties from Kroger, but if you have the time and means to build up a collection of seasonings and spices and learn some cooking skills, you can save a lot versus the equivalent eating out, and can watch calories easier when you measure stuff yourself. I was shocked how much added salt and fat are in a lot of chain restaurant meals. I really like adding dried TVP to sauces sometimes for extra texture and protein, that kinda works for Italian and Mexican style cooking the way tofu does for a lot of Asian recipes. Bulk dried beans, barley and garbanzos are relatively cheap at places like WinCo and store well and you can get a lot of mileage out of, and if you have a Korean grocery chain nearby, they often have the best prices on bulk rice and a great selection of seasonings and frozen seafood.
For your health!