Tips for affordable cooking

Varied food, but inexpensive. This is how it works.

You shouldn’t skimp on ready-to-eat and semi-prepared foods in the store.

Healthy food that is good and affordable. That’s the wish of many families. Especially now, when the price of food has risen.

In its press release, the Heart Association has listed financial tips that make everyday life easier.

Pumpkin lasagna is a delicious oven dish. Roni Lehti

1. A lot at once

When you cook, make large quantities at once.

Heart Association’s nutrition expert Anna Kara advises making, for example, lasagna, pasta sauce or puree soup in double or triple quantities.

Put some of the food in the freezer. Children can take food from the freezer and, if necessary, thaw it themselves.

2. Also think about the next day

You should cook a large pot of potatoes and pasta at once. You can get the ingredients for the next day’s casserole or a tasty salad.

When food is always ready, the need for impulsive and unplanned shopping trips is reduced.

3. Remember the food circle

Try to have vegetables, something high in protein and something high in carbohydrates at the meal.

For example, a meal can have carrots, whole wheat pasta and cottage cheese. Or bread, fish sticks between the bread and cucumber slices on the side.

Eat seasonal vegetables, when they are at their best and cheapest.

At its simplest, vegetables can be served in chunks, not as complex salads or dishes that take hours to cook.

Fish sticks are to the liking of the whole family. Adobe Stock / AOP

4. Buy ready-made

Self-made is of course good, but despite that, you can buy ready-made meals and semi-prepared foods from the store.

According to Kara, there are many great and cheap options in ready-made and semi-prepared foods in stores, such as:

Canned pea soup. It is an everyday savior, healthy and also for children. In addition, canned pea soup is a cheap convenience food.

– If there’s something worth correcting, it’s here, Kara says in the announcement.

Fish sticks and spinach leaves. They are easy and quick. All kinds of steaks and sticks can be supplemented with vegetable blocks, potatoes, pasta or bread.

Tortilla covered. Lätty itself is not a nutritious food, but you can put almost anything inside it: fresh or cooked vegetables, skewers, steaks, meatballs, leftover sauce from the previous day and cheese curds forgotten in the fridge.

Tips: Heart Association’s nutrition expert Anna Kara

ttn-52