Dada JoeSadly, it is the case of most young men and women that their income isn’t enough to see the month down the wire. Their budget is further strained by bills, some necessary, others not so much but required to make life worthwhile.
One bill that drains the pocket like an ECG prepaid meter is the cost of food. It’s a basic human need and who can live without food? Jesus maybe just not you and I. Food is expensive in the capital and major cities, if it’s your habit of eating fast food and at restaurants then you probably already know what percentage of your income that depletes.
As a single guy living alone in the capital Accra, I’ve had to be sharp in order to save especially on food and here’s how I manage just GH100 on food.
First of all you have to know how to cook or just be ready to bear your bad and remotely delicious food without complaints. I’m not a nutritionist but as a food technologist I have good knowledge of what a balanced diet is therefore if you can make Light soup, groundnut soup and vegetables stew with chicken or fish accompanied by some banku, Eba or rice you are surely bound to get most if not all of the essential nutrients required by your body.
THE BREAKDOWN
Ingredients:
chicken/Salmon 1/2 kg = GHC 5.50
Tomatoes = GHC 3
Powder pepper = GHC 1
Groundnut paste = GHC 1
Ginger = GHC 0.50
Onion = GHC 1
Carrot and spring onion = GHC 2
Curry = GHC 0.50
Maggi/Onga = GHC 0.50
Egg 2 = GHC 1
Tomato paste = GHC 1
Garden eggs = GHC 1
Fermented Corn dough = GHC 2
Cassava dough = GHC 1
TOTAL = 22
From the ingredients listed above you would get Light Soup, Groundnut Soup and Vegetable stew. Here’s a basic way of preparing the listed dishes, experiment with the ingredients to make cooking fun.
LIGHT SOUP
1. Steam a part of the chicken or fish with grounded ginger and Onion.
2. Blend a few boiled tomatoes and garden eggs
3. Sieve and add to contents of cookware
4. Add water, powder pepper, salt and seasoning appropriately and allow to cook well.
GROUNDNUT/PEANUT SOUP
1. Steam a part of the chicken or fish with grounded ginger and Onion
2. Add your groundnut paste with a little water, allow to cook stirring intermittently till its oily.
3. Blend boiled or blanched tomatoes and add.
4. Add water, powder pepper, salt and seasoning appropriately and allow to cook well.
VEGIE STEW
1. Wash and Sanitize the vegetables using a solution of vinegar, Hydrogen peroxide or table salt.
2. Chop vegetables.
3. Put oil in the heated cookware and add some chopped Onions and allow to fry for a short while.
4. Add powder pepper and tomato paste and stir for a while
5. Add blended tomatoes, salt and seasoning.
6. Break the egg, and spread the mixed content into the stew and allow to cook for a while
7. Add the chopped vegetables and allow to cook well.
Now you have it, should last you a week or beyond depending on your consumption rate. If you finish it just do it all over again. With less than GHC 70, you can cook 3 times within the month, use the balance of GHC 30 to buy 5 kilos of rice and 5 kilos of Gari(Olonka). You can now prepare your banku, you should get at least 10 balls from the amount of dough stated. Eat some, keep the rest in the fridge.
5 kilos rice should last you well over a month if you consume like I do. Change the combination as you wish. Light soup with eba or rice, Groundnut soup with rice balls, rice, eba or banku. Stew with rice, eba or banku. Eat moderately and reasonably and you could save a whole chunk of your income for other necessary things plus you get to sharpen your cooking skills.
NsemWoha
Emmanuel Quayson
Dada Joe