Become friends with your vendors at your local farmers market

They will save you the best items, share recipes, tell you what is coming and or going next week. I love my local farmers market because I have forged relationships which have added so much food knowledge to my cooking life.

Become friends with your local grocery store employees

If you shop around the same time you will probably see the same friendly faces. Nowadays ,working in a grocery store is a sought after position for foodies. These people love what they do and want to share their food knowledge with you. I enjoy seeing the butcher at Whole Foods, because they tell me about new cuts of meat and we discuss new cool ideas. Plus they will debone a whole chicken, paillard, scallopini or whatever special cut you need done to your meat. Also they will cut your fish and or meat into specific portions or skin your fish. They will let you know what is going to be on sale so you can plan a budget friendly week. Really this is a big tip, use these peo- ple they are the professionals and want to help you. This is a huge time saver for me during the week. If you need a specialty product they can usually order it for you too. I love grocery shopping as much as shoe shopping.......yes I said it. Maybe you won’t go that far, but if you take the step to know your grocer, they will appreciate it and you will have more fun grocery shopping. Trust me on this one!

Go to your local discount stores (TJ Max, Ross, Marshalls, etc...) for gourmet food items

Awesome sauce.....that’s my lingo for super cool. Find great items which are much less expensive than the grocery store or specialty food stores. I find tons of ingredient I use everyday at my local Homegoods store. Such as pimenton, truffle oil, olive oil, balsamic glaze, so much more. This is a really good tip people. Go to shops like; Ross, Marshals, Big Lot’s, Homegoods, etc

Plant a garden

A great way to save money on the items you use most. Don’t be afraid just start small like an herb garden and maybe another veg you use all the time. If your into juicing like I am, and use kale every morning, then try that. This will save you tons of time and money. You can also buy the herbs pre-potted which makes it even easier. There are all kinds of pre-built containers or pots or better yet a patch of dirt in your garden that will make this easy. Check out marthastewart.com for great ways to start a garden.

Use up your leftovers

A very healthy alternative to eating out if your in a rush. The premise of my blog is to teach people tip and share recipes so you learn to cook great, restaurant tasty meals at home that are healthy. Leftovers are awesome because they can be transformed into so many other meals. I use leftover proteins and veg in my Al- fredo pasta or my Spanish tortilla recipe (which are on this site). This tip will save you money and get you eating at home more. I also like prepare extra food when I’m roast- ing veg or sautéing chicken because I can throw these into a salad or a soup. Be cre- ative, it’s easy. One of my favorite for little bits of left over protein is croquettes....yummy! Here is a picture of leftover fried rice...my go to for super easy weeknight cooking.

Have a well stocked pantry and basic fridge ingredients always

This is a must for healthy, yummy and easy cooking. If you keep your pantry stocked and your fridge with basic cooking ingredients this will change everything. I list my essentials on the Basic Pantry Tab. Doing this will save you money, time and enable you to make quick easy dinners in a breeze, without frustration.

Understand the dirty dozen and the clean fifteen