According to Statista, retail and food service sales will reach $8.33 trillion by 2023, and most people will prefer to shop at their local grocery store instead of online.
According to a McKinsey & Company survey, 66% of shoppers have sought cheaper options in the past three months by choosing lower-priced stores, more affordable brands or using coupons.
A Google search for “easy recipes” returns 4.3 billion results, indicating that many home cooks are prioritizing easy recipes that save on ingredients to cut food costs and time.
Easy, simple
Many home cooks have a mental bank of meals they can whip up quickly without looking at a recipe. These might be the meals parents turn to at the end of a busy day when everyone is tired and short on time.
“My favorite easy recipes are ones I know the whole family will enjoy and can be whipped up quickly on a weeknight,” says Alex Caspero of the blog Delish Knowledge. “I call these ‘back pocket’ recipes because I don’t have to spend time looking up the recipe and they’re forgiving enough to adapt with what I have on hand.”
“One-sheet-pan” meals have become a craze online, with videos flooding popular social media apps like TikTok. Many of these one-sheet-pan meals feature healthy ingredients like salmon, chicken, and broccoli, as well as delicious oven-baked dishes. These meals are entire dinners rather than one dish, so they may use five or more ingredients, but are still easy to prepare. The cooking process is super simple: just pop a sheet pan in the oven and set the timer.
Simple recipes also help parents teach young children to cook at home. Most kids can heat up a can of soup or toast with supervision, and older kids can help with the more technical parts of a meal. When parents let their kids help prepare and plate simple dishes, it won’t be long before the family sous chef becomes the chef de cuisine. These skills prepare kids to cook for themselves as adults.
Less materials needed, less money needed
Easy recipes have the great advantage of being affordable to make, often resulting in budget-friendly meals. Having the essentials in your pantry may save your cook from having to go shopping. Canned goods in the pantry and frozen foods in the freezer can also be useful when making quick meals at home. For example, spaghetti is an easy option to make on a weeknight if you have pasta in the pantry, some protein in the freezer, and frozen or canned tomato sauce.
Some intrepid home cooks are adding canned vegetables to sauces or using hand blenders to get picky kids to eat something healthy.
Jacqueline Sanchez, owner of the cooking blog My Plant Based Plan, says, “My favorite easy recipe is one-pot three bean soup. It’s flavorful, hearty, and easy to whip up with ingredients you already have in your pantry and fridge. I also love being able to experiment with different spices so it’s always delicious. I choose this soup over other recipes because it’s all made in one pot, and cleanup is a breeze.”
Shoppers are saving money wherever they can. According to a McKinsey survey, about 68% of shoppers are reducing the stock on their shelves or in their pantries. This number rises to 72% for lower-income consumers, but even among higher-income shoppers, 57% are intentionally spending less at the grocery store. Easy recipes cost less, so keeping things simple is a smart, frugal choice.
Even if the individual ingredients cost more, if it results in enough leftovers for lunch the next day or later in the week, the extra cost is worth it.
Meal preparation and landing
Most experienced home cooks agree that meal planning is an effective way to save money at the grocery store: You can reuse one main ingredient for two or three meals, making it more cost-effective.
Meal planning also has health benefits. According to Beaumont Health, organizing your menu can help you eat healthier, control your portions, and reduce food waste. When shoppers have a menu plan in place before they go to the grocery store, they can shop according to the list, saving time and money. When cooks have a use for most of the ingredients in their fridge and pantry, they waste less food and save money.
Meal planners can also take advantage of store sales for the week: if eggs are on sale that day, for example, cooks can plan egg-centric dishes, like frittatas, for the week.
Bella Bucchiotti, founder of xoxoBella says, “Being Italian and loving to cook, frittata is my favorite simple dish. To me it captures the essence of Italian cuisine because it’s so easy to make and you can mix in whatever you like. Frittata is definitely a staple in my kitchen!”
Easy, healthy and planned: Experienced cooks know this is how to create delicious meals on a budget.
