The kitchen is the heart of every home and it is a place that many of us spend a lot of time during the week making meals for our loved ones and experimenting with flavours. 

After the festive season a lot of us are in a little financial trouble – and while there are options such as taking out fix and flip loans and borrowing from family; you can also make some real changes to the way you work in your kitchen to save money long term. 

Today we want to help you be more frugal and less wasteful in the kitchen and learn how to make the most of your food. 

Don’t throw away banana peel 

Banana peel is one of those parts of a fruit that people instantly throw away without a second thought- but do you have to? Banana peel can be a great vegan option as a replacement for pulled pork – and you can make a healthy pulled banana peel recipe as a midweek meal for your family. 

Ingredients: 

• 6 Banana peels 
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika 
• 1 tsp olive oil 
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper 
• 1 tsp garlic 
• 200ml barbecue sauce 
• Your favourite side dish

1. Wash your banana thoroughly. Peel bananas and use the fruit for smoothies, dessert, or freeze for later. 
2. Scrape away the white part inside the peel with a spoon. Cut into small strips. 
3. Add olive oil and spices to the banana and let sit for 5-10 minutes. 
4. In a frying pan, add oil and banana peel and cook for 5-10 minutes. Add barbecue sauce and cook for a few minutes. 
5. Serve with your favourite side dishes! 

Store your vegetables right 

It is important when trying to be frugal in the kitchen that you store food correctly. When storing bananas for example you should leave these in a cool dry place, whereas when storing things like strawberries they need to go in the fridge. Read the packaging of your foods for their recommended storage and this will ensure that you don’t end up wasting food. 

Batch cook your meals 

Batch cooking is a great way to save energy as well as make your meal times less stressful. Consider batch cooking things once a week such as lasagna and pasta bakes and keep them in the freezer when you want them later in the week. This will ensure food won’t go to waste and that you’ll get as much as you can out of all of your ingredients. 

Clear the freezer once a month 

One good idea that you should consider is to clear out your freezer of all of your meals and vegetables once a month. We have a tendency to fill our freezers and forget about our food and buy more – and this is not going to help us save money. Make sure to clear your freezer once a month and make a few meals for free before you start buying more food for the house. 

Ensure that you take the chance to be frugal in the kitchen this month and learn to make the most of everything you have.