It’s a try­ing time for all of us amidst this pan­dem­ic. In ad­di­tion to hop­ing and pray­ing for the best, we can al­so make things a lit­tle bit eas­i­er for our­selves and for oth­ers by be­ing cog­nisant of smart food bud­get­ing strate­gies and avoid­ing food wastage. As­sess­ing what you al­ready have and plan­ning your in­take, tak­ing what you need and not over­buy­ing, as well as util­is­ing what you al­ready have in your pantry, will al­low you to max­imise your food and min­imise wastage while si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly al­low­ing oth­ers to ac­cess the food that they need. Food is vi­tal as a source of com­fort and nour­ish­ment and I hope that the fol­low­ing tips can help you max­imise your food and avoid wastage dur­ing this time.

Get Cre­ative with Left­overs

Some are not a fan of eat­ing left­overs but this is one of the biggest cul­prits of food waste! Don’t la­bel left­over as old or stale for food but as con­ve­nient in­gre­di­ents for your next meal. For in­stance, if you have some ex­tra noo­dles left, whip an easy stir-fry by toss­ing in some veg­gies you have on hand like onions and car­rots. Saute noo­dles and veg­gies you have on hand, cou­pled with a dash of soy sauce and sesame oil for a full de­li­cious meal made of left­overs. Trans­form your left­over plain rice in­to a sweet dessert. Just toss your left­over rice with but­ter in a saucepan, add some frozen fruits and co­conut milk and al­low cook it down un­til it be­comes a thick, creamy rice pud­ding.

Stock up Non-per­ish­able foods

Stock your pantry with food prod­ucts with long shelf-life like dried beans and canned fish as they a smart way to keep food for a long pe­ri­od of time as op­posed to fresh foods which tend to ex­pire fast. Amaz­ing­ly, canned and dried food are af­ford­able and can even be more nu­tri­tious! Dried or canned beans, lentils and chick­peas, amongst oth­er puls­es, are great sources of veg­etable pro­tein and var­i­ous vi­t­a­mins and min­er­als. Their long shelf life as dried and canned foods are a huge plus and they’re al­so ex­treme­ly ver­sa­tile, al­low­ing you to use them for a va­ri­ety of soups, stews, cur­ries and sal­ads. Canned fish like sar­dines, tu­na and oth­er fish­es are a great source of pro­tein and healthy fats. They al­so make for a great ad­di­tion to sal­ads, pas­tas and bread.

Freeze Fresh Fruits and Veg­eta­bles

It’s im­por­tant to have a healthy in­take of fruits and veg­eta­bles not just dur­ing this time, but al­ways. Re­mem­ber that fruits like frozen berries, pineap­ples, ap­ples and man­goes can be added to juices, smooth­ies, por­ridge, yo­gurt, ce­re­al and so much more af­ter de­frost­ing. Great news: it’s man­go sea­son and here’s a help­ful way to make the most of your mag­nif­i­cent man­goes. Freeze your man­goes whole or peel them pri­or, place in a seal­able plas­tic bag and store way in the freez­er. Now you can make man­go chut­ney or whip up some man­go am­char talka­ri year-round with no waste. More­so, pre­serve fresh sea­son­ings like pi­men­tos, gar­lic, chadon beni by grat­ing or chop­ping them up and plac­ing in air­tight con­tain­ers or seal­able plas­tic bags. It’s a great way to give fresh in­gre­di­ents longevi­ty and it makes for when you’re to cook them.

Ar­ti­cle by Son­ali Sook­nanan

Son­ali de­scribes her­self as a granny in a mil­len­ni­al's body. She is a Com­mu­ni­ca­tions ma­jor and Lit­er­a­ture mi­nor, pas­sion­ate about un­der­stand­ing the hu­man con­di­tion and un­rav­el­ling deep­er truths about life that are em­bed­ded in every­day, mun­dane oc­cur­rences. Above all, Christ and her loved ones, but al­so cof­fee and cake, keep her go­ing.