I am creating a few pages that I will be adding here one by one. This page is dedicated to being food smart as I call it.

If you are dedicated to save money and lower the expenses around food, then these advice could be of use to you. Since food prices have raised here in Iceland I have had to be smarter and smarter regarding buying food and storing it and do my best in not letting things go bad.

 

To begin with, if you live anywhere where coupons are available, do not hesitate to collect them. Every single reduction of price is positive obviously. Coupons are not available here in Iceland as it is in U.S.A. so what I have to do is just be smart about what I do.

When I go to the store I always write down what I need. I take my time going over what it is that I really need and re-evaluate every single item, if it is something I just want or if I really need it that way I can reduce what is on the list again. Main thing is to buy items that do not go bad quickly, or can be stored in a freezer.

 

Milk products

Something I would always like to have in my fridge is milk. I use milk for baking, and adding nutrition and value to soups. If it is close to going bad, I can use it to make all sorts of breads. Milk can also be frozen, but it is not as good after it is thawed for drinking, but perfect for baking none the less. Same with cream, it can be frozen. This does not have to go bad. I always look at the date and grab the one with the best date on it.

Cheese does not have to go bad either. I never buy any expensive cheeses, only blocks of cheese that can be used for anything. Bread, grating and so forth. Every time the block is about to be finished I put the rest in a bag and into the freezer. Either I cut it into dices or grate it, or I just freeze it like it is. If you buy natural cheese that does not have a lot of preservatives in it it might mold as days pass. But that does not have to mean that it has gone bad. If you cut a thick slice of the side that has started to mold and then shave off the rest of the block to get the outer layer completely off and put the cheese into a new bag, and as long as it has not warmed up after you got it and went sour, it can be used for a long time. I always store cheese in a plastic bag that is completely sealed, fold the bag over and use the weight of the cheese to keep it closed. Pretty simple and very efficient for an expensive item like this.

I never buy skim milk or half cream, it has much less value of nutrition in it and has been processed which I think is not any better for me.

Breads, cakes & more

If you have access to cheap flour, then making bread is very easy. Especially if you have a bread machine. You can use quite a lot of left overs to add to the breads as well, like mushrooms and carrots like one nice lady from U.S.A. told me about a few months ago but lost touch with. Bananas can also be used for bread even though the bananas are completely brown or almost black, just as long as they have not started molding or smelling foul. That actually makes a very good bread with great nutrition.

If you buy sandwich bread, then I do recommend to buy a few and freeze the bread as soon as you get home. That insures that you always have fresh bread. When I afford to buy a few breads at once I always take only half a bread out at a time, or what I need each time to try to make sure that nothing goes bad. One slice of bread thaws pretty quickly. Even if you are making a grilled sandwich, the bread does not have to be thawed before you put the sandwich into the grill.

If I do forget to freeze bread or canceled what I had in mind to do and the bread is starting to dry out, I still trow it back into the freezer. I put it in a different bag. This bread can be later taken out and put into the oven at 100°c and dried up, and then crushed into bread crumbs to cover fish and other meats for oven baking and so forth. This even works with all types of bread, even garlic bread and makes good bread crumbs for cooking as well.

If only using normal sandwich bread you can always add some sort of herbs or spices into the mixture to add flavor. 

If the bread is stored in a sealed bag in the freezer it can survive in the freezer for a while. If your bread comes in a bag with air holes, I would switch bags and put the bread into a sealed bag. Nothing worse than having freezer taste from your bread. 

If you bake quite a bit then you can also freeze what ever you bake. Even my grandmother used to freeze all sorts of cakes with cream and frosting and all, just as long as it is in a sealed bag it is fine.

You can make all sorts of dough that you can freeze as well. It is pretty easy. You need to have a freezer with a quick freezing compartment of course to be able to freeze the dough quickly and efficiently. A few years ago I was told that one can freeze pizza dough. Just stir the whole thing up and throw it right into the freezer before it starts to lift. Then when you take it out and put it underneath a cloth, it thaws and raises at the same time. Can take a few hours but it was nice to have pizza dough in the freezer read to be taken out whenever without the fuss of making the dough as well.

Baking is fun, cheaper and healthier in most cases, can be stored nicely and making your own food fills up the housewife pride with accomplishment.

 

- These pages are under constant construction so visit often and see what has been added -