About Jessica Fisher
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Frozen Desserts Are More Than Just Ice Cream
I scream. You scream. We all scream for ice cream. Am I right? As I’ve mentioned before, ice cream is an important part of my freezer stockpile. In summertime I store the canister to our ice cream maker in the freezer whenever it’s not in use so that we can quickly and easily get churning. If you’ve followed the Freezer Cure for any length of time, though, you know that the freezer is for more than just ice cream. Especially in the dessert department!
May 1, 2019
Recipe: Baked Manicotti with Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Thyme
Manicotti can be a hassle to make, but when you make several batches to stash in the freezer, you can stretch your efforts over several meals. This dish, redolent with sweet and chewy sun-dried tomatoes is perfect comfort food for cold winter nights. I also love serving meatless meals. It’s a great way for us to curb our grocery spending.
May 1, 2019
Recipe: Chicken and Wild Rice Bake
I first started making this dish for my parents and siblings when I was in high school. As the eldest girl, I claimed free reign over the kitchen. Over the years I transitioned the recipe from using Cornish hens and boxed rice mix to easier-to-wield chicken pieces and a homemade blend of rice and seasonings. I’ve only used long-grain rice in this dish, but my new Costco find of short-grain brown rice has me eager to make this again soon.
May 1, 2019
Recipe: Freezer Taco Kits
Growing up in Southern California, I consider tacos to be a weekly standard. With taco kits, Taco Tuesday has never came together so easily! Prep a favorite taco filling — like this seasoned ground beef — and bag it up for freezing. Store it together with a bag of cheese and a packet of tortillas and dinner is ready in five minutes whenever you like.
May 1, 2019
5 Tips for Building a Budget-Friendly Pantry
Saving money on groceries is not only a prime method for staying in the black, but it’s also a great way to divert funds to other things. I mean, if you can eat well and still put aside money for a big trip or a new phone, why not, right? One of my most powerful tools in keeping our food costs low is to maintain a pantry (cupboards, fridge, freezer) that is friendly to our budget. How I fill it can have a huge impact on our finances.
May 1, 2019
Saving Money in Season: The Best Places to Get Great Deals on Fresh Produce
I grew up in what was then a small suburb of Los Angeles. Citrus orchards and onion fields dotted the landscape. Lombardi’s Ranch down the canyon provided fresh pumpkins at Halloween. My dad’s garden provided most of the vegetables we ate every day. Not everyone has a green-thumbed relative — or a penchant for zucchini en masse — so how does one find great deals on in-season produce?
May 1, 2019
Plan to Preserve: Budget Tips for Making a Big Grocery Investment
Summertime is the season to do all kinds of fun food things, like throw a big party, can batches of preserves and pickles, and stock the freezer for the fall. This growing season produces all kinds of opportunities for buying ahead, cooking ahead, and celebrating. But what if there really isn’t room in the budget to buy 40 pounds of pickling cucumbers, as perfect as they look? What if you just can’t foot the bill for a month’s worth of meals?
May 1, 2019
8 Grocery Shortcuts for Easy, Wholesome Dinners
The Internet and our grandmothers’ recipe boxes are stuffed with quick-fix recipes that go something like this: “Pour a can of cream of mushroom soup over chicken breasts. Bake one hour.” For most of my childhood, that style of dish was one of my favorite things to make. I felt like a real cook, preparing dinner all by myself, yet doing it so quickly and simply. As I get older, I crave the simplicity of those recipes, but without the preservatives and tinny, canned flavor.
May 1, 2019
5 Questions to Consider When Shopping Holiday Sales at the Grocery Store
Shopping the holiday sales is a sure-fire way to save money on groceries. It’s also an opportunity to save money on “seasonal” items you use year-round. Some of these may be ingredients that just get marked down for the winter holidays — like baking supplies, holiday beverage supplies, and cold-weather foods at rock-bottom prices — and others may be items that are really hard to find any other time of year.
May 1, 2019
10 Quick Tips for Saving Money on Groceries
The holiday season always tempts me a little toward excess. It might be the year-end bonus or all the fun food in the stores or simply a desire to celebrate that sways me toward letting go and splurging a little more than we need to. Over the last couple days I’ve been reminding myself that going “whole hog” this season is not going to help us meet long-term goals. “Eat, drink, and be merry” doesn’t pay for that trip to Scotland.
May 1, 2019
This Is How Much You Should Spend on Food and Groceries
It’s interesting to me how financial experts, mothers-in-law, and total strangers on a Facebook page all have distinct opinions on how much you should spend on groceries. The thing is, while food costs certainly shouldn’t be complex, they can vary from person to person and household to household — even region to region.
May 1, 2019
5 Money-Saving Tips from a Coupon Clipper
Here's how to coupon without letting it take over your life.
May 1, 2019
5 Times When I Let My Food Budget Slide
Every once in a while you've gotta loosen up.
May 1, 2019
10 Ways to Save Money on Groceries Without Clipping a Single Coupon
Forget the fistful of paper coupons — today we can zip through the grocery store and save without busting out the scissors.
May 1, 2019
10 Ways to Turn Hard-Boiled Eggs into Lunch
It’s incredible. It’s edible. And it’s an amazing powerhouse of protein that fits almost any budget. It is, of course, the egg. And since I learned how to hard-cook eggs in my pressure cooker, well, they are an ever-present constant in my fridge as well as on my menu. Hard-cooked eggs make a great snack, are incredibly portable, and can make lunch into something special without much effort at all.
May 1, 2019
10 Delicious Ways to Turn an Avocado into Lunch
If you've got an avocado, then you've got lunch.
May 1, 2019
10 Pantry Staples You Should Buy Generic
Big brand names aren't the end all be all.
May 1, 2019
The Best Section in the Grocery Store That Most of Us Are Overlooking
I’m not sure what it is, but I love going to the grocery store. Even on vacation, it’s one of my favorite pastimes. I think it’s because the grocery store holds a world of possibilities. For me, it’s not a dispensary for processed foods, but rather a doorway to untold delicious opportunities. Ooh! What could I make with this beautiful Camembert? Ah! How should I serve this gorgeous asparagus? Huh, I wonder what you do with summer savory?
Apr 30, 2019
I’m Lowering My Grocery Budget by Another $100 a Month — Here’s How I’m Going to Pull It Off
I’ve been closely tracking my family’s grocery spending for well over 10 years now (nerd alert!) — and it’s been, um, paying off. Staying on top of things and keeping a low grocery budget has enabled us to get out of debt, stay that way, help our kids pay for college, and even save up for extended European vacations.
Apr 30, 2019
The $100 Grocery Habit I Think Everyone Should Adopt
Have you ever seen that John Cusack movie, Better Off Dead? It’s totally weird, but there’s an element of the film that comes back to me, over and over again — especially when I’m grocery shopping. You see in the flick, Lane (Cusack) is pestered continually by the paper boy coming to claim his two-dollar pay. Lane’s mom is never home when the paper boy comes, but the boy is insistent that he be paid, shouting through several scenes, “I want my two dollars!
Apr 30, 2019
10 Ways Your Freezer Can Be Your BFF
Your freezer wants to be your best friend. Let it. Who else will make your food taste better than before? Check out this list of items better when consumed frozen as well as those that are better for having been frozen. You’ll find new life for many of your favorites just by giving them a chance to chill out. Some things are pretty tasty with a chill still on them. They tend to lean toward the sweeter side, which means a cool dessert is always close at hand.
Aug 30, 2017
10 Foods to Stash in the Freezer for a Quick Weeknight Soup
Soup night is one of my favorites. About once a week in cooler months, I rummage through my freezer for little nuggets of gold that I can quickly turn into soup. Soup is so forgiving and can be made with the smallest bits of different things. Paired with a loaded bread basket, soup night is a winner. Here are 10 foods to stash in your freezer for quick and easy soup suppers. A good stock or broth is key to a great soup.
Aug 22, 2017
10 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Buy in the Freezer Aisle (but Should)
I’ve always looked at my freezer as one of the best kitchen tools at my disposal. Not only does it hold my hoard of butter pecan ice cream, but it also serves as a staging area for any number of meals that I can pull together in minutes — without resorting to flimsy TV dinners.
Aug 9, 2017
The 10 Things I Always Have in My Freezer
I like to think that one’s freezer is a lot like one’s medicine cabinet. A peek inside reveals so much about the character and lifestyle of its owner! I suppose a refrigerator can offer you a similar insider perspective, but the freezer? Well, the freezer really gives you a look at the person’s future hopes and dreams — what is she stashing away in cold storage? — as well as one’s everyday habits and preferences.
Jul 12, 2017
The Key Steps to Making a Food Budget That Works for You
How do you create a food budget that works? I mean, you could just buy what you want and let the chips fall where they may. You could buy only what you need, but sometimes, uh, you really need a gallon of high-end ice cream. As boring as it sounds, having a food budget — a distinct allowance for grocery shopping — really is important. In fact, it’s key to living within your means and achieving your financial goals.
Mar 1, 2017
Partner
An Easy, Late-Summer BBQ Dinner
While summer tends to have a slower pace than the rest of the year, it seems like our family still does a good job of completely filling up the days. As a mom of six kids ranging in age from 7 to 19, I have a lot to keep me busy, from playing endless games of Monopoly to carting kids to the pool to making sure no one loses their math skills over the summer. Funnily enough, the kids all want to eat, too. Several times a day.
Aug 21, 2016
Yes, a Pantry Challenge Can Save You Money. Here’s How.
It’s been seven years since I first started doing a regular pantry challenge, and it’s never failed me in saving money and helping our family stay under budget. If you’ve never heard of a pantry challenge, know that it’s not complicated; it’s simply making the effort to use up what you already have. By not buying more (because you already have what you need), you lower your grocery budget for that period of time.
Sep 1, 2015
9 Things to Prep and Freeze for Easy Summer Meals
I don’t know about you, but the summer heat is starting to get to me. I’m a wimp, that’s for sure, but still — I’d rather sweat at the gym or on a hike than in my kitchen while making dinner. I’ll confess to leaning on snacky dinners and take-out when the temperature rises, but my favorite budget-friendly strategy is to have some freezer meals at the ready. Last month I worked up a freezer meal plan with some of my favorite summer recipes.
Aug 4, 2015
4 Ways My Family Stays on Budget While Traveling
My husband and I love to travel. After years of scrimping, saving, and paying off debt, we reached a point in our family life where we could swing the costs of family travel. While our family particularly loves Santa Barbara and Mammoth Lakes as closer-to-home locations, we were able to introduce our children to England and France when we spent a month there last fall.
Jul 8, 2015
6 Ways to Host Without Going into Hock
Best-Ever Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Over the last four weeks, our family has celebrated Father’s Day and two birthdays, as well as hosted houseguests three times. We’ve absolutely loved the feasting and fun, but my grocery budget has definitely been challenged. While I am rarely tempted to splurge in a clothing store, the supermarket is another story.
Jun 23, 2015
Save Money by Stocking Up on These Foods During the Summer
One of my favorite strategies for saving money on food costs is stocking my pantry and freezer to serve me all year long. Packaged foodstuffs generally last for many months, which means I can stock up on a great sale and use those items far past their typical “season.” Also, learning a few tricks in food preservation allows me to extend the shelf life of seasonal produce and enjoy summer fruits in the dead of winter. Here are few of the seasonal deals I look for throughout the year.
Jun 9, 2015
How Familiarity with Your Grocery Store Can Save You Money
Does it matter where you grocery shop? I mean, aren’t all stores basically the same? No, they aren’t. In fact, there can be a huge range of pricing for the very same item in a number of stores. Where you shop can save you money. But did you know that shopping at the same store can also reduce your grocery bill week after week? Familiarity can breed contempt — but I prefer when it saves me some coin.
May 19, 2015
6 Ways I Reduce Waste Through Savvy Meal Planning
Saving money on food isn’t always about what you do at the grocery store and how much cash you hand over to the clerk. It’s often also determined by what goes into the trash can at home. Some statistics say that Americans waste up to 25% of the food they buy. If that’s true, then we can reduce our grocery bill by a fourth by not throwing away food. There are lots of ways to reduce waste at home, such as not overbuying and doing an occasional pantry challenge.
Apr 21, 2015
5 Benefits to Paying Attention to Sales When Grocery Shopping
I started grocery shopping when I was a teenager. I worked as a “bag girl” at the local Lucky Store so my mind was literally on food at least four hours a day. I convinced my dad to let me do the family grocery shopping. I made a list of meals I wanted to eat during the week and bought the items on the list. Rarely did I take inventory or adhere to a food budget. I just bought what I wanted. This habit followed me into my college and newlywed years.
Apr 7, 2015
Inventory: My First Step in Meal Planning and Saving Money on Groceries
So, you’ve got some goals for your money — that big trip, the new car, the debt-defiance — and you’ve got a food budget to help you tell your money where to go. You might think that the plump grocery fund is your carte blanche to go shopping, but there’s something you need to do first before heading out. Nope, I’m not talking about meal planning or grocery list making, though those are super important.
Mar 23, 2015
6 Cookbooks That Helped Me Save Money Without Clipping Coupons
Years ago, coupons played a significant role in my money-saving strategies. However, once we paid off our all-consuming debt, I decided to ditch the processed foods and work more to improve our family’s diet. That meant that coupons were no longer a great fit for me. (While there are health-food coupons, the practice of clipping every coupon that came down the pike was no longer the best one for me, either for time or nutrition.
Mar 20, 2015
How a Food Budget Got Us Out of Debt (and 4 Steps to Help You Create Your Own Budget)
Years ago my husband and I thought we were frugal people. We looked for sales, drove used cars, and otherwise opted out of an extravagant life. However, it somehow missed our attention that we were still living beyond our means. Since ours was a one-income, self-employed household, we’d never learned how to budget. In fact, we’d kinda dismissed it as being impossible to budget on an irregular income. Credit cards and home-equity loans fooled us into thinking we were doing just fine.
Mar 10, 2015
How My Freezer Replaces Canned Soups
I grew up on canned soups. That was just how soup was made, right? I clearly remember the first time as a child that I had homemade soup at a restaurant. Cream of chicken, good cream of chicken. I came home begging my mother to get me some cream of chicken soup. Imagine my dismay when I heated up a can. It definitely was not like the soup I’d had at that restaurant Aunt Cass took me to! I had seen the light.
Feb 25, 2015
Get Saucy with Your Freezer: The Sauces I Freeze
On our first official date, I cooked a simple meal for the man I would marry: Chicken Parmesan over spaghetti. I used canned sauce, and, like my mother before me, I broke the spaghetti. It was the first test of our relationship. My mom always broke the spaghetti because that’s the way my dad liked it. I didn’t know that. I thought that was how you were supposed to make it. I couldn’t understand why this cute guy’s jaw dropped open as I split the handful of noodles in two.
Feb 23, 2015
8 Things That Don’t Belong in Your Freezer
As you know by now, I’m a huge fan of the cook and freeze method. I’ve been doing it for almost half my lifetime which probably makes me officially “old.” I’ve frozen everything from lemon juice to lasagne to buttercream frosting. I know which casseroles my family loves and which ones are better left unmade. Also? I’ve learned that there are indeed a few foods better left unfrozen.
Feb 18, 2015
17 Strategies for Stashing Seasonal Produce in Your Freezer
Apples, peaches, pumpkin pie… it may be a song from the 60s. Or it could be a list of just some of the yummy things that you can stash in your freezer. If you see a great deal on fresh produce — or have a flourishing green thumb of your own — you needn’t worry about how to use it up at harvest time. Stash it in the freezer so that you can experience the joy of sun-ripened sweet corn or the deliciousness of a juicy peach pie any time of year.
Feb 16, 2015
7 Ways to Organize Your Side-by-Side Freezer
Side-by-side freezers present their own very special and unique challenges. First released in the late 1940s, the side-by-side fridge-and-freezer combo gained popularity thanks to its narrow doors and in-door ice and water dispenser. However, folks have been known to grump about the freezer space lacking in, well, space. The freezer of the side-by-side is narrow, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make the most of it.
Feb 12, 2015
Why It’s Important to Defrost Your Freezer
I chose literature as my major over science, two subjects I had loved in high school. The swaying factor? Math. I haven’t escaped science (or math) altogether, though. Cooking is science! Maybe that’s why I liked science in the first place. And you know where science comes into my life regularly? The freezer. Most home cooks and scientists know that freezing food is a great method of food preservation. It stops the growth and movement of microbes that lead to food’s decay.
Feb 9, 2015
Stone Soup: The Answer to Freezer Odds and Ends
You know the folk tale of the three hungry soldiers returning from war? After years of hardship, the villagers in the town they come upon are reticent to share any food with them. The soldiers end up tricking the townspeople into contributing a bounty to their Stone Soup. One man brings a hunk of beef while another brings some carrots. A woman and her child contribute potatoes and onions that they “happen” to find in the cellar. The resulting meal is a feast for all to partake of.
Feb 6, 2015
How I Save Money by Eating Down the Freezer
Twice a year, I unplug my deep freeze for a few weeks. It gets a chance to thaw, the ice melting off the sides. I wipe it down, and I save a few kilowatts in energy rather than running an empty freezer. Why do I have an empty freezer? In January and July, I do what I call the Pantry Challenge. I focus on using up what we have rather than buying more. I work with my most perishable items, those in the fridge and freezer, before moving to my canned goods.
Feb 5, 2015
How I Take a Freezer Inventory That Works
Whether you have an itty-bitty fridge freezer or a large deep freezer in the basement, it doesn’t help you a whole lot if you don’t know what you have in there. Often we forget about something for so long that we end up chucking it. They say Americans waste 25 to 30 percent of the food they buy. Think of the resources — and money! — we could save if we never wasted food. Over the years, I’ve learned how to keep a freezer inventory that works for me.
Feb 3, 2015
Why My Freezer Is the Most Important Part of My Kitchen
Our theme this February is Love Your Freezer! Jessica Fisher, our guest expert and the author of Not Your Mother’s Make-Ahead and Freeze Cookbook and Good Cheap Eats, is one of the savviest people we know when it comes to the freezer. She’s sharing her best tips this month to help us save money, save time, and love our freezers more!— Faith & The Kitchn Team I’ve been cooking independently (not in my parents’ home) for about twenty-five years.
Feb 2, 2015
How I Make Burritos to Freeze
My first real job as a teenager was bagging groceries at the local grocery store. It was the first of many food-related jobs for which I’m truly thankful. Not only did I learn the proper way to place cans in a paper sack, I also encountered a number of ingredients and foods I’d never heard of. This was the late 80s in Los Angeles County; you’d think that we were really cosmopolitan back then, but we weren’t.
Jan 8, 2014