Money saving tips: My top 3 favourite recipes under $3

Get set for a mic-drop money saving idea: salads in jars. These pre-prepared portable layered lunches save a small fortune in my household. We simply invert onto a plate when its time to eat. I mentioned the cut-price concept in this column last week and was overwhelmed with questions and recipe requests.

So, this week, I reveal my three most successful cost-cutting recipes.

My tips for ‘tip salads’

First, let me start with a couple of tips. When you start out with this budget-boosting technique, you might be worried that the ingredients will go soggy, mix or get mushy. But it won’t happen if you choose the right ones.

In layers, the elements keep fresher for longer than a regular tossed salad. And its even possible to serve it hot - either spoon off the bottom/top protein layer once served up. Or, great for winter and easier still, make a whole salad that you want hot. Either way, all ingredients should be cooled before your salads are compiled.

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The basic culinary concept is to start with the wet ingredients that you want to ultimately end up on top of your salad but you want to keep away from the other components – think dressings, mayonnaise and sauces. Next come your proteins and then grains like rice, barley, buckwheat, small pasta or couscous and finish with greens.

Most proteins marinate nicely for a couple of days at the bottom of jars in your chosen dressing or sauce. But if this may shorten its life span, pop a lemon or lime wedge on top of the bottle before you seal it, to squeeze over your food once flipped.

And a few specific ‘tip-salad’ ingredient tips…

1. Keep boiled eggs separate or surrounded by drier ingredients.

2. If fish is to your taste – say a ‘turned-up’ tuna niçoise – just take a tin to put atop your plate last, so it’s nice and fresh.

3. Any rocket or spinach should always go loosely, unsquished at the top of your jars, because it keeps more crisp. Instead I sometimes cut an iceberg lettuce chunk the perfect size to fit last.

To make each of my flip-salad sensations, I line up a bunch of jars sized by appetite; Bonne Maman jam jars are perfect for me and wide-topped works.

So, let’s get to my family’s top three cost-effective combinations.

1. $2.60 poured-pumpkin surprise

My favourite ‘salad in a jar’ is a low-carb, low-cost taste triumph… I’ve rarely met someone who doesn’t love this, albeit quirky, combination.

It starts with pumpkin that has been diced, placed on baking paper, covered in sweet chilli sauce and then roasted until still firm so it holds shape. The baking paper stops the sweet chilli sauce from burning and means it stays a bit liquid-y. Then I layer in (also pre-cooked) rice and quinoa, sun-dried tomatoes and crumbled feta, and finally sprinkle with home-grown coriander or flat leaf parsley.

The quinoa and feta protein-up this recipe – so, yes, straight-up I am reversing the protein-first philosophy because the ‘saucy’ ingredient should always go at the bottom.

A single serve costs:

Pumpkin: 65 cents

Sweet chilli sauce: 25 cents

Rice and quinoa: 40 cents

Sundried tomatoes: 30 cents

Feta: $1

Total: $2.60

2. $3 Shake-the-chill chicken

I am a big fan of this one as it heats beautifully in the colder months and is healthy, zesty and refreshing at the same time.

Begin by barbeque-ing, grilling or frying chicken coated in olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper. Then spoon into your jar a dressing of olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper, with seeded mustard added to your taste. Next comes the cubed chicken. Cooked risoni pasta follows and fits nicely but also fills you up. Finally, I like raw (or defrosted frozen) peas, beans chopped to roughly pea size and a lot of flat-leaf parsley.

You’ll want to warm this before upturning it so the greens will soften slightly.

A single serve costs:

Chicken: $1.50

Dressing: 30 cents

Risoni: 80 cents

Peas: 20 cents

Beans: 20 cents

Total: $3

3. $2.50 naked burrito in a bottle

Since we are eating inexpensively, here, I go vegetarian for my naked burrito jar. But you could useMexican-spiced mince at the bottom instead.

I cut costs by beginning with a generous layer of bottled passata with a sprinkle of dried cumin and dried coriander instead of store bought salsa, then add tinned, drained kidney beans or four-bean mix. Cooked rice of your choice comes next – a decent layer. Then you finish with a couple of tablespoons of tinned, drained corn, uncut cherry tomatoes and chopped, fresh coriander.

A lime wedge takes this hearty salad – to be eaten cold or hot – next level. If you’d like to add avocado you can, but put it on top of the overturned salad at the last-minute.

A single serve costs:

Passata and herbs: 10 cents

Beans: 40 cents

Rice: 40 cents

Corn: 30 cents

Tomatoes: $1

Lime: 30 cents

Total: $2.50

We all know the small thing of packing your lunch saves big money, but with salads in jars, good health is also greater wealth.

Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon is the author of How to Get Mortgage-Free Like Me, available at www.nicolessmartmoney.com. Follow Nicole on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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