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Hello,
This week's issue is about Cooking from Scratch. I hope you enjoy it. We also have a poll today about Cooking from scratch, you can vote at the link below.
Poll: Do you cook most of your meals from scratch?
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We are also excited to announce a new feature on ThriftyFun, Frugal Travel Guides. We hope to create frugal travel guides for locations all around the globe and we need your help to do it. If there is a travel destination that you are familar with, either your home town or a place you love to travel, please share your experiences and tips. By sharing our travel experiences we can help each other travel for less. At the end of September, we will give a $100 prize for the best travel guide we receive and 5 $20 gas cards to the runners up. To submit a frugal travel guide, visit the link below.
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Thanks for reading,
Susan
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Tips
Cooking from scratch can save you a lot of money. Here are some tips to help you learn to cook from scratch. Post your ideas.
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What's A Cookie Cost?
By Sandy Baker
Do you wonder if it is cost effective for you to purchase that $4 bag of cookies or to make your own? While there may just be a good amount of savings in making your own desserts and snacks you should take into consider the time factor. But, if you can squeeze in 20 minutes here and there, everyone will win with great tasting and less expensive cookies for their snacks.
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Cooking with Dried Beans (and Peas)
Beans, beans, the frugal fruit, the more you eat them, the more you save money! Actually beans are a legume but there is no question that they are a frugal staple in any diet.
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Have Spices and Seasoning When Cooking From Scratch
One of the keys to cooking from scratch is having a good supply of quality spices. There can be sticker shock when shopping for spices but a little goes a long way. Keep an eye open for sales or buy spices in large containers from a warehouse store or by weight in some health stores and refill your spice bottles. You can also grow some of your own herbs and use them in cooking. Substitute about 1 tablespoon of fresh herbs for 1 teaspoon of dried herbs.
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Don't waste money on prepared foods. Instead, prepare meals ahead of time and freeze them, or double a recipe when cooking, and freeze the second for a hectic day coming up.
By Chell
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There are a lot of items you can make yourself. I ususally stock up on tortillas when they are on sale at the store. I have had success freezing them. Sometimes it's fun to make a couple batches of your own and they are quite cheap to make.
Makes about 12 tortillas
- 4 cups Unbleached all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons Salt
- 4 teaspoons Baking powder
- 2 tablespoons Vegetable shortening or Lard
- 1 1/2 cups Warm water or more if needed
Mix flour, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Gradually work the shortening or lard into the flour with a pastry blender (A pastry blender helps make the texture that you want with tortillas). Continue mixing until the flour and shortening (or lard) is completely mixed. Next, start adding water until the dough is soft but not so much that it becomes sticky.
Once the dough is ready, make three ounce balls of dough. You can use a small scale to get an idea of how big three ounce portions should be. Role each ball until they are about 1/8 inch thick and 6 incches in diamater (a great size for fajitas).
Too cook the tortillas, heat a skillet on medium high heat. Place the tortillas one at a time on a dry skillet. Cook until they are light brown and then flip and then flip over and brown the other side.
Now you have fresh warm tortillas! You can eat them warm or store them for later in the fridge.
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Don't buy the expensive biscuits in the tube from the cooler at the grocery store. Make your own from scratch! Saves money and tastes much better too
By Robin.
Editor's Note: Here's a Homemade Bisquick... http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf747410.tip.html
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Bread: bake it or buy it?
By Patty Getz
I often get the question is it really cheaper to make something rather than buy it. One example is bread, when you can buy bread for 50 cents, why make it? There are a lot of reasons, besides cost to make bread. Whether it is worth your time, and is cost effective, is largely an answer that only you can answer.
You must start with your time, because there is nothing more frustrating than buying all the equipment, and ingredients, to only watch them collect dust on a shelf, because you never had a chance to use them. Will you have the time this change requires? Bread does not have to take a lot of YOUR time, but you will find that it does require you to be home for a long period of time, that is unless you opt for a Breadmaker. To make bread from scratch, takes about 5 hours, but it only requires only about an hour of your time.
Breadmakers are the ideal solution for many families, as it allows you to put your ingredients in, and walk away. I prefer to make mine from scratch, I do use a large mixer, but it gives me far more flexibility, and making it from scratch I think yields a better quality product. Do you have the time? Will you still feel the same way in 3 months? What about 6 months? Or a year? This is the time to be really honest with yourself.
So once you have decided that yes you can reasonably commit some time to your project, then you have to decide, how much you will need to invest on equipment. Some things require no special equipment, and again with bread making you do not have to have much in the way of equipment, but you may wish to use a breadmaker, or mixer. Be realistic, will you do it by hand? That takes more of your time, and physical effort. Will you make enough bread to pay off your investment. I almost never buy bread products from the store anymore, so the investment was well worth what I paid for it. Will it be for you? Only you can say. If you are going to be an occasional baker, and want to know if it is going to pay off, chances are the answer will be no.Do some research, dont just go down to your local department store. Do a search on the internet, check yard sales, watch the sales.
Now you have the Equipment handled it is now time to do some number crunching, go to the places in your town where you get the best prices, dont forget to look for restaurant supply stores, and wholesale warehouses,they are great sources of bulk ingredients, at a decent price. Find the best prices on the ingredients, you can get. I can get a 50 lb sack of flour for 8 dollars, a large package of yeast for 3 dollars, and since my basic recipe takes little else, I dont worry too much about the rest. But other prices you make want to look at, are sugar, honey,salt, and oil, all common ingredients in the basic bread.
Then you will need to estimate, how many loaves of bread that sack of flour will make, I do know that I use about 2 packages of yeast, for one bag of flour. So I can weight the amount of flour the recipe calls for, then divide that number into the price of the flour, and you will have the number of loaves of bread that 50lb sack will make. Now that you have the number of loaves for bread, and the yeast, you can calculate the price per loaf. You can do the same for any other ingredients, I just guestimate the cost of the salt, sugar, and oil, because the recipe I use, only takes a small amount of each.
Dont forget your electricity as well, just like you should remember the cost of gasoline to buy loaves of bread.
In the end my calculations come out to about 29 cents a loaf. But there is still more things to consider. One is storage, and the proximity of your store. If you are like me and cannot buy cheap bread close by, you will choose to buy several loaves of bread. This takes up precious space in my freezer. When I bake bread, my ingredients are stored, mostly on my shelf, I usually have enough for 3 -4 months baking. In all honesty that is far more convenient for me, than running out to the store for a loaf of bread. However do you have the place to store your bulk ingredients? If not you may have to settle for a smaller bag of flour, that too will bring your costs up.
And Finally the health issues, these days, there is a growing concern for what is being put in our food,and legitimately so. Preservatives, and additives,such as colors, and flavorings, do not need to be accounted on the label, which means there can be a variety of things in your bread that you dont realize. Many of the chemicals and additives, are under the Generally Recognized as Safe category, which is not tested, and is not regulated. I believe many of modern day disease stems from these products. There is a growing trend by many families, to eat as much whole food as possible, and to eliminate the presence of these chemicals and additives in our diet.
So there you have it, all the information that you might need to make an informed choice, about your decision to bake or not bake. I hope this gives some food for thought, and helps you to decide, whether it is cheaper to make it or buy it.
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Stocking Staples and Cooking From Scratch
The key to cooking from scratch is making sure that you have staples on hand. Potatoes are one of the best and most versatile staples. Potatoes are cheap, can be stored for a long time and can be used in a variety of dishes. Other staples to keep on hand are rice, beans, cooking oil and flour.
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Chili and Tortillas From Scratch, For Stretching A Food Budget
We have always been on a food budget and 2 of our 5 kids were boys who had hollow legs, especially when they started playing football. I always buy dry beans to soak for chili, burritos, soup or whatever. I get twice as much for more than half the price. I also to find farmers who sell them at bulk amounts. Then I can store them for quite awhile. I put them in seal a meal type bags and vacuum seal them.
For the tortillas which are about 1.50-2.00 a dozen which we would need 2 pkgs, I started making my own, therefore also purchasing flour in bulk form. Recipe: 2 Cups flour, 1/2 tsp salt, mix, 1/4 cup shortening, mix. 1 cup of cold water mix, pinch off about the size of a golf ball, roll, and fry in dry skillet till it bubbles, turn and fry dry about 15 - 25 seconds. Good!
When the store has two for one on tortillas, I always stock up on those too.
By RoseMary
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The Old Fashioned Way is the Cheaper Way
By Kelly Ann Butterbaugh
Today people look for items to make life easier. Yet, those items cost money which is earned by working, thus defeating the purpose of making life easier. In the "olden days" things were done more economically than today, and life seemed simpler. Sometimes, the old fashioned way is not only the simpler way it's the cheaper way.
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Make Your Own Casserole Sauce Mix
Casseroles and cream soups go together. They are great on homegrown vegetables fresh from the garden, jar or freezer.
But the more we read the labels, and if you're into watching sodium in your diet and economics, there has to be an alternative. There is. You can make your own healthy casserole or cream soup mix. I keep a container of the mix handy for white sauces, gravies and soups.
The mix uses low fat and low sodium ingredients. You'll be surprised how easy the mix is to use and so much healthier. For example, one 10.5-ounce can of cream soup has 225 calories and 12.5 grams of fat. The homemade mix has only 107 calories and just 1 gram of fat. If we compared a 1/2 cup serving, it would be 90 calories verses 43 calories and 5 grams of fat verses a trace.
The sodium picture is even brighter. One can of soup has 2,225 milligrams of sodium compared to 1,200 in the casserole sauce mix if regular bouillon is used. Per one-half cup serving, this translates into 890 milligrams or 37 percent daily value for the canned soup and 480 milligrams or 20 percent daily value for the casserole mix. If you use reduced sodium bouillon as called for in the recipe, you'd reduce the sodium level even more. Not only will you spare your body fat and sodium, you'll be saving pennies for your pocket too and eliminating cans from the landfill!
The homemade casserole sauce mix is a basic white sauce mix with some herbs if you choose. When ready to use, if you like cream of celery soup, add some chopped fresh celery to your dish. If you prefer cream of mushroom, add some fresh or canned mushroom pieces. Or, if it's cream of broccoli, add fresh or frozen chopped broccoli. Be creative.
Healthy Casserole Sauce Mix
(Use instead of canned cream soup)
Directions:
Combine ingredients. Store in an airtight container.
To prepare as a substitute for one can of condensed cream soup in recipes, stir together 1/3 cup dry mix and 1 1/4 cup water in a saucepan or microwave cooking dish. Cook and stir until thickened. Mix makes the equivalent of nine cans condensed soup.
As you plan your company dishes for this holiday season, why don't you mix up a batch of casserole sauce mix and cook up a healthy holiday meal. By sharing your healthy version of the family's favorite dishes, you just might encourage other family members to try the casserole sauce mix too. Of course, you could always mix up a batch and give it as a gift using a recipe card as a gift tag.
Source: University of Missouri Extension, By Karma Metzgar.
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When de-boning and skinning chicken breasts, put an extra pot on the stove with the scraps (including bones, skin, fat scraps, etc.), adding water to cover, some onion, a carrot and celery tops plus a whole peppercorn or two. Bring to a boil, cover, simmer for one hour, strain, clarify if you want, and freeze in 14-oz. portions. You have homemade chicken stock in less time than it took you to prepare and cook the evening meal, and a head start on another meal.
By Ronsan
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My mother-in-law gave me this tip when my husband and I first got married and moved into our first home. I tried it and it's true, and it's also healthier and earth friendly.
The tip is to cook starting from scratch. For example, if you want corn bread, cakes, etc., don't go buy the "just add milk and eggs" varieties. With those, you're buying their time to assemble the ingredients, and you're paying double.
Whereas, if you buy the ingredients yourself and use your own recipes, you can buy the items on sale and with coupons, and it really doesn't take long to make the recipe. Plus, the "just add" mixes often add preservatives to extend the shelf life, which are horrible for you, and use extra packaging, you can leave that part out and we all win.
I tried this with corn bread and did the math. The money that I was spending on a popular corn bread recipe was equal to the amount of money that I was spending to buy three times the yield in the actual ingredients. (One meals' worth with the mix vs. three meals' worth with my own ingredients.)
By Melissa
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