Cooking Kosher On A Budget

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Meal Planning: Shabbos
5 Tips that Will Save Your Budget and Peace of Mind

By: FELISA BILLET

When it comes to cooking for Shabbos, the easiest way to save money is to meal-plan. While some cooks prefer lowering their food budgets by cutting corners on weekday meals, everyone can save money when cooking for Shabbos by simple advanced planning.

“Besides the costs you will cut, putting thought into how you are going to make Shabbos is the key to having a calm and low-stress experience,” says Rivka Slatkin, founder of jewishlifeorganized.com and author of the e-book, Shabbos Perfectly Organized.

Jewish women may be expected to “make Shabbos,” but that does not mean cooking—or planning—comes easy. Whether you enjoy preparing for Shabbos or loathe it, here are five invaluable tips that will help you save money and preserve your sanity as candle-lighting approaches.

Budget Saving Tip #1: Shop With a List

Making a list is perhaps the most effective strategy for budget-conscious cooks. By firmly sticking to your list, you will be less swayed to make unnecessary purchases. Over the long run, the costs of impulse buys add up.

Use This Tip to Ease Shabbos Preparations:

Beyond your shopping list, create a list of all the tasks that need to get done for Shabbos. Refer to this visual aid every week, making minor adjustments when special circumstances arise.

“Just like grocery shopping, Shabbos preparations become easier with the more clarity you have,” says Slatkin. 

Whether a person sticks to specific tasks on appointed days, like baking challah and dessert on Monday, grocery shopping on Tuesday, making soup and appetizers on Wednesday, and cooking entrees on Thursday; or whether one makes an entire Shabbos meal on Thursday night, following a list makes Shabbos preparations fool-proof.

“Without the list, not only can’t you attempt to make a schedule, but if you face a mental block in your preparations, your list will put you back on track,” says Slatkin.

Budget Saving Tip #2: Shop and Cook With Flexibility

When you are brand- store- and recipe-flexible, your wallet will thank you. 

Take advantage of weekly specials for products you use, even if the items featured aren’t your favorite brands. If frozen gefilte loaves are offered through a promotion but they aren’t your preferred label, consider preparing the gefilte fish in a different way to mask the slight change in taste or texture.

If you enjoy shopping at a local grocery store but you find a new venue that has better sales, like an online source such as Kosher.com that has fantastic sales, take the extra steps to stock up on items that will warrant the savings.

And, instead of planning a menu based on your mood, be open to using produce and other ingredients that are on sale.

Use This Tip To Ease Shabbos Preparations:

Flexibility also applies to getting ready for Shabbos. 

Whether you start Shabbos preparations on Monday or Thursday, create a comfortable schedule that has room for flexibility. When unexpected things arise, your master list will prevent you from overlooking what needs to get done. 

“Until I followed the strategy of creating a list and schedule, and working with flexibility; I was frazzled every week,” admits Slatkin. “Now I know when are the optimal times for me to shop and cook.”

Budget Saving Tip #3: Cook Things That Work

An easy way to save money is to stick to a repertoire of tried-and-true dishes so you can prevent wasting ingredients.  By cooking dishes that guarantee success, there will be fewer flops and fewer ingredients thrown down the drain.

Use This Tip To Ease Shabbos Preparations:

Cooking from trusted recipes is a great time-saving strategy for women who don’t have a passion for cooking. Slatkin suggests making a list of relatively simple recipes you can make “with your eyes closed.” Depending on your level of organization, divide the recipes into set menus with shopping lists or keep them as one long list to allow the flexibility of mixing and matching dishes to create different menus, even if you are not ready to veer from the ten or fifteen dishes you make best.
 
“Since I’m not the biggest cook, once I made a rough list of very simple recipes I know how to cook, making Shabbos got much easier because I streamlined menu-planning by sticking to my list of ‘options,’” says Slatkin. “And if I come across something new I like making, I’ll add it to my list.”

Budget Saving Tip #4: Cook and Freeze

Shopping in advance allows you to plan your menu based on sale items. Purchase a large quantity of a staple item when it goes on sale. Then, double or triple the recipe, and freeze.  For example, when ground beef is marked down to $4.99 a pound, one of the industry’s lowest prices often featured at Kosher.com, make a big batch of meatballs or meat lasagna.  Serve one on Shabbos and freeze the rest for another occasion.

Use This Tip To Ease Shabbos:

Not only will cooking and freezing enable you to prepare food at the lowest prices, but when things are done in advance, Shabbos can be welcomed with peace of mind.

To streamline Shabbos preparations, instead of shopping on Thursday and cooking on Friday, consider shopping on Tuesday and cooking and freezing that evening. Save Thursday or Friday to prepare items you’d prefer not to freeze. 

Simple things can be done in advance like setting the Shabbos table, laying out the kids’ clothes, and assembling the chulent (refrigerate the insert overnight and plug in the base on Friday).

Budget Saving Tip #5: Go Homemade

It’s no secret that homemade food tastes better and is cheaper than prepared food. By making simple condiments that cost a fraction of what they sell for in the store, savings add up. Things like salad dressings, cold marinated salads, dips and spreads are usually cheaper to make than to buy.

To Ease Shabbos Preparations:

For those who value homemade food from a financial and culinary perspective, break up the cooking process in two stages so Friday will be less hectic.

On Thursday (or before), make condiments and other dishes that lend themselves to being made in advance but not frozen. Even lettuce, which is cheaper to buy as a head than in bags, can be washed, spun dry, chopped and stored in a salad crisper for two to three days. 

For things you want to cook before Shabbos, prep the ingredients Thursday night (such as cleaning a chicken and dressing it) so on Friday, all you have to do is pop it in the oven.

“Making Shabbos can be hard, especially if you have little kids and don’t have a support system, or if cooking doesn’t come easy,” says Slatkin. “But when you have a list and stick to a well-thought out routine, you’ll turn into one of those people who make ‘making Shabbos’ look easy. And the truth is, once you establish a strategy, it is.”

Recipes: Garndmas Meatballs, Spiced Gefilte Fish

Author Bio:

- FELISA BILLET is a freelance journalist. Her work has appeared in newspapers and magazines, including USA Today, Jewish Action, American Jewish Spirit, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Pregnancy, and My Midwest. Felisa is at work on a cookbook, The DIY Kitchen, which explains how to make supermarket staples from the comfort of home. She is a mom of three kids and lives in South Florida. - Read more...