So much water and so little to use

Save!  -Depends.

The long and the short of it:

We have a tremendous amount of rain fall in Singapore and all that water is just getting flushed down into the sea. Collect em and use em!
Beware dengue though!

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Singapore receives like, a crazy amount of rain in a year. When it rains, it just pours (well mostly). A large amount of that stuff flows into our reservoirs and even more of it just flows back into the sea. It's just a huge resource waiting to be exploited!

So... If you live near the ground floor or at the ground floor, grab some buckets and collect some free water. You can use that clear, kinda clean, sky juice to mop your floors and flush your loo. It'd be cleaner and less gray than using water from other washings.


I can't do that cos I live higher up on a HDB and until someone invents a safe way to harness rainwater from the 17th storey, I'll refrain from sticking out a pole to hang a bucket. Least someone gets killed by killer litter.

Oh don't shower or brush your teeth with rainwater though. You'll probably get sick.

Waste not any chicken

Save!  -Depends.

The long and the short of it:

Remember those Cold storage / Jasons half priced roasted chickens? Save the bones to make some damn delicious soup!

Additional or local tips!

No need for any salt or seasoning when cooking. Cos the birds are already seasoned for you! Use bones from 2 birds for a solid soup.

Use a pressure cooker to speed things up!

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Who doesn't love a good chicken soup?

Photo from Simple Bites

Being a person who abhors waste, I will save the bones from previously roasted chickens to make into soup! I've like 4 chicken carcasses in my freezer now waiting to be cooked. Hmmm yum yum.

Basically just follow any typical chicken soup recipe (here's one recipe that I reference). My chicken soup is also a lot simpler. I just add some thyme and bay leaves, potatoes and onions plus some chicken pea to have that option into making it a full meal.

There you go. Good healthy non-canned chicken soup that's rich and full bodies with a nice roasted edge. And yes, the soup will look brown because it's made from flavourful roasted chicken bones!

But do you save anything?
If you cook with chicken stock cubes then you probably save nothing.
If you cook your own chicken soups then this will probably save you $5-6 per soup since you still have to buy chicken bones or a whole chicken to make the soup base.

Cooking saving hack Part 1 - Planning to eliminate waste

Save! Maybe about $0.50 on heating and water per cook, depending on how frequent you cook and the proportions. If you cook often, this adds up.

The long and the short of it

Plan your meals so you only need to cook once in awhile and have little to no waste. It's also more environmentally  friendly!

If you cook pasta, cook it with a stew to use the starch water.

Save any fat rendered out from crisping bacon or roasting chicken.

Local tips!

Use sturdy reusable plastic food containers to freeze your stews and meals for another day.

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I hate food wastage and I try my best to use up all and I mean all that I put in the pans. I just hate throwing out anything in the kitchen. The best way for processed food bits is to the compost heap (which I don't have and don't know how to start... yet) or into the stomach.

Fat Drippings
Starting off, I save all fat drippings and freeze them to use in mashed potatoes, bruschetta, salads or for simple stir-fries. Chicken fat, bacon fat whatever fat that's rendered off, I pour off and save. These drippings are flavor bombs and can and should be reused! There are entire forums dedicated to this (e.g. Chowhound, SeriousEats, CookingJunkies)
You might say the fat is unhealthy etc but you should just listen to common sense, which is to have everything in moderation.

As long as you're not drinking it by the gallon, you'll be fine...

Image taken from Butterbeliever, like many a home chef converted, also thinks like I do!

Pasta Water
For awhile now, I have been thinking of how to save my pasta water as I hate to pour them into the sink since:
1) it's a waste of about 2-3 litres of good clean food grade water (the horrors of waste!)
2) starch being starch, it might clog the drain

So I thought, since I love to do up big batches of stews and need water and starch from potatoes to thicken them, I might as well cook these two meal items together. Cooked pasta water becomes the water base for stews and the pasta starch will also help to thicken the stew! 
2-in-1 ah!
Just moderate the salt level accordingly i.e. use less salt in the pasta water.

So now, I try my best to plan pasta with a stew. Then I'll partition the stew into plastic food containers (reusable ones mind you) and freeze them for later consumption.

Frozen foods can last indefinitely but the tasty stews normally don't last more than 2 weeks. Just remember to thaw the stew first before you pop it in the microwave. No point wasting good energy heating up frozen food. Let Singapore's sunny weather do that for you.

So this is a simple cooking hack. Save energy, save your pockets and save the Earth.


What are some of your cooking hacks to save on gas and food waste?
Share them with me in the comments section!

Oils oils oils ooohlala

Save! - About $5 per meal so if you do the maths, let's say we have this once every 2 weeks, that's about $130 per year... though I think it's a bit hard to eat too much tuna and sun-dried tomatoes

The long and the short of it

Eat the tuna, save that oil for a pasta or omelette later. Works the same way for anchovies or sun-dried tomatoes.

Local tips!

Ayam brand tuna FTW cos all the other brands suck bricks and are pretty much inedible, keep the oil for some pasta or omelette (Basically white people food).

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Packing oils used in common pantry items is one of the most overlooked areas in frugal cooking. Think of that can of tuna with its luscious tuna infused oil, or that jar of sun-dried tomatoes sitting in that yellow sunny liquor of flavor. How many times have you scooped out the ingredients and tossed out the flavor bank that are the oils, steeped in and concentrated with all the flavors of the ingredients?

So reconsider saving these oils and reusing them in pastas and omelettes for a quick meal or snack. Below are some suggestions that would make some decent dishes.

Tuna pasta

Cook your pasta in some nicely salted water before tossing the cooked pasta in some flavorful tuna oil to get some nice and nutritious tuna pasta together with whatever goodness that has come from the fish. Good enough to stand on its own or as a side dish to an accompanying seafood dish.

I personally can just eat this all on its own.

Sun-dried tomato pasta

Same as above, just use sun-dried tomato oil and this pasta will shine all on its own or as carbo for any mains. I usually mix it with some diced sun-dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes or artichoke hearts, depending on what I have in the pantry. If I have any canned artichokes, I will toss in some of that oil too.

3 minute sun-dried tomato omelette

Beat two eggs and throw in a teaspoon of sun-dried tomato oil. Microwave it on high for about 2-3min or until its set. Yes microwave it. It works. For that extra bit of luxury, add in a drop of truffle oil or toss in some bacon bits.

Oh and some final words.

Sure, fats and oils have amassed a sort of bad reputation over the years due to negative marketing but are they really that harmful? There's been a counter movement and research to suggest that fats aren't as bad to our health as they had seemed. And why do I say marketing? Because a lot of health foods and what I would like to call health fads are backed primarily by marketing. Fruit juices are healthy? Haha what a joke. Are fats and oils unhealthy? Sure they are, if you drink a bucketful of it every day.

The key to good health is always to do things in moderation. If you're eating a spoonful of it every other day, you'll live.