yes, this office worker thinks that cooking by himself is cheaper than ordering takeout! First of all, let me explain this problem first. I usually cook my own dinner because the brunch canteen in my unit covers meals. Generally, I cook two dishes, a staple food and a plate of fruit in the evening, so that I can eat no leftovers. If office workers bring their own meals, in addition to saving money, they should also consider the nature of ingredients. For example, vegetables will have nitrite overnight, and it is best to cook vegetables in the morning. Sharing my cooking experience with you can completely reduce the cost to a certain extent and do more and more fun things with the saved money. Isn't it more fragrant?

first, how to buy cheap ingredients.

first of all, I usually buy vegetables from these aspects: first, large supermarkets; Second, Pinduoduo; Third, the community group purchase group; Fourth, the vegetable shop with discount at the entrance of the community. I used to go to a large supermarket once a week, such as Wal-Mart, and basically every time I found vegetables with a low price of about one yuan. Moreover, I will keep a note record of the lowest price of vegetables and meat in my mobile phone, so that when I go shopping, I can know very clearly whether this price is the lowest price and whether it is cost-effective to buy it. Be aware of the price of ingredients, so you won't be deceived by the price of merchants because you are young.

It's also a good choice to buy vegetables in Pinduoduo. However, it's not recommended to choose leafy vegetables because they are usually sold at 5 kg or 11 kg in Pinduoduo. It's more convenient to choose roots and stems which have been stored for a long time. If you like a vegetable or fruit very much, it is more cost-effective to buy it in Pinduoduo if you are sure that you can finish it. I bought 11 Jin pineapple in Pinduoduo several times before. In order to eat cheap pineapple, I even learned to cut out the beautiful fruit shop with a pineapple knife.

the phenomenon of group buying in residential areas is also found everywhere now, and it is also a normal development trend now. Once in a while, there are cheap dishes worth buying. Because I said earlier that as long as you know the price of a dish, you will know when the price reaches your expectations.

There should be a discount vegetable shop at the entrance of the community. You can talk to your grandparents. The famous vegetable shop is Aunt Qian. There are also many fruit and vegetable shops that have not learned the business model of Aunt Qian. The shop near my home offers a 51% discount on all vegetables after 9: 31, but it is also very cheap. Learn to ask the aunts and uncles in the community more often, and they will know where it is more cost-effective to buy food and meat. Where is the cheapest place to buy food around the community? It's right to follow the aunt. However, this kind of physical store generally adopts the stored value card method. In order to avoid risks, it is not recommended to store too much money in the card at once.

second, how to make cheap ingredients.

first of all, in the production of ingredients, you should be sure that beef and mutton are more expensive than chicken and duck, chicken is the cheapest, chicken wings are more expensive than chicken breast, frozen goods are cheaper than chilled goods, and the kind just slaughtered is more expensive. All kinds of seasonal fish and shrimp will also be expensive. If you are very demanding about the ingredients themselves, there is no way to make cheaper dishes than take-away. If you cook too much at a time, you can freeze it directly in a box, or you can freeze the ingredients directly when you buy them. It is also a good choice to pretreat the ingredients in advance.

For example, I usually use frozen chicken wings for braised chicken, chop the chicken pieces with a bone chopper, add potatoes and boil them together, and pour them on the rice, which will be very delicious. In kung pao chicken, people usually use chicken breast. As long as it is marinated with starch in advance, it will be tender and not firewood at all. Pipa leg is a bit chicken-ribbed. Personally, I don't like to chew it directly. Chopping chicken pieces is too big. Generally, I will bone it and fry it with chicken leg meat. Last time, I tried to bake the pipa legs with salted chicken powder in a rice cooker, and it was also very delicious. Duck meat, half duck and frozen duck legs in that supermarket are very cheap, and it should be done well, but I don't usually eat much duck, so I can't give any advice.

For seafood and aquatic products, saury, blue and white fish, yellow croaker and Basha fish are very cheap. If fishing is closed, you can find many cheap frozen yellow croaker by searching "Zhoushan yellow croaker" on Taobao, just pay attention to the fact that some of them are relatively small, and maybe seven or eight can make a dish. This kind of frozen fish only needs to be thawed and marinated with salt, pepper, ginger slices and old wine for 15 minutes. Steamed fish with soy sauce tastes similar to fresh fish. Friends who have higher requirements for umami can also make it strong and make it braised with bean paste, so that the original umami is almost impossible to eat. Or get along well with skilled fishermen around you who are not air force, so there will be endless river fish (laughs).

I've bought shellfish, too. In the Japanese TV series Yesterday's Gourmet, there was also a way to preserve inexhaustible shellfish: spit sand directly and freeze it, and it tastes the same when you eat it again. Note: Frozen Pippi shrimp is different from ordinary frozen fish, which can be divided into ship freezing and cooked freezing. Generally, the meat quality will not shrink after being cooked and frozen, but ship freezing is different. Be careful not to be fooled.

finally, share some low-priced convenient dishes recipes. First, cold black fungus. About 11g of dried auricularia auricula is put in a heat preservation box, a teaspoon of sugar is added, a box of warm water is filled, and the auricularia auricula is covered and waited for 11 minutes, and the auricularia auricula is soaked. I feel that this method is like magic. Blanch the fungus with hot water, shower, add three cloves of minced garlic, one tablespoon of soy sauce, one tablespoon of vinegar, one tablespoon of sesame oil, one tablespoon of sugar and a little chicken essence, and stir well.

second, pumpkin and jujube soup. About 511g pumpkin is peeled and cut into pieces, a handful of red dates and a spoonful of sugar are thrown into the rice cooker, filled with a pot of water, and the soup button is set regularly. When you get home from work, you will have cheap and delicious pumpkin red date soup to drink.

third, roast potato horns. Cut potatoes into hob pieces, sprinkle with minced parsley, spiced powder and cumin powder (whatever you want at home), add a spoonful of oil, and bake in the oven at 221 degrees for 31 minutes. Potatoes are really cheap, and this dish feels expensive on the electricity bill.

fourth, sweet and sour pork ribs, this dish will be a little more expensive, but it is quite simple to cook. Blanch the pork ribs to remove impurities, stir-fry them normally according to the ratio of one wine, two sauces, three vinegar and four sugars, and add a small bowl of water. After boiling on high fire, it will be very delicious after cooking on low fire for about 15 minutes.

a few more pictures of other dishes I have cooked myself

fried dumplings with ice

fish head and bean curd soup

Kumamon curry rice

braised Sanhuang chicken with honey sauce

Italian tomato risotto

Korean bibimbap.