Turn Your Kitchen into an Iron Chef Episode
We all want to save money on food. The most obvious solution to this problem is to not eat out all the time, but the thought of making our own food and staying home isn’t always the most appealing option. So how, then, can we get the best of both worlds? How can we save money by eating in while still making the experience more attractive? One simple way is to make cooking at home more entertaining. By doing this, you and the people you live with will feel more inclined to make a meal in your own kitchen rather than go out for dinner and spend more money.
Add a Little Spice to Your Meals (pun intended)
There are several different ways to make cooking more fun; I’ll go through two of my favorites.
- The Iron Chef Strategy
If you have ever seen an episode of Iron Chef on television, you know how entertaining and energetic the kitchen can get when it comes time to cook. Bringing this mindset to your personal home’s “Kitchen Stadium” is a fun and exciting way to increase participation and innovation during dinnertime. Having “Iron Chef Cookoff” days where different people rotate playing the role of chef provides for an atmosphere and experience that you won’t be able to get if you eat out.
- The Ratatouille Strategy
The idea behind this strategy, adopted from the movie Ratatouille, is a more traditional approach to cooking. Rather than having two chefs compete against each other a la Iron Chef, the Ratatouille strategy assigns roles to each member in the kitchen, and makes them responsible for one part of the meal. This concept is not entirely revolutionary, and has been around long before Ratatouille even premiered. However, branding it with a highly popular movie that many people (and kids) enjoy will boost your participation rate.
The benefits to these two ideas are clear and simple: they help save you money and make cooking more enjoyable for everyone. So the next time you are debating about whether to drive to Chilis for dinner or stay at home, give one of these a try.
Your BudgeX Bargain: In the spirit of cooking, here’s a Free 250-page E-Book titled “How to Bake” from The Prepared Pantry.
