You know, the staple foods in your house - Do you make a lot from scratch?
Bread, tortillas, noodles, sauces, hummus, salsa, etc, etc?
I had plans to do some cooking and experimenting this weekend, but the savvies had other things on their list. Like playing out back...
Swinging on the swing set...
and seeing how many things they could put under their twin beds, or as they called them, their "new homes." You'd be shocked at how many toys can fit under a single twin bed. Or maybe you already know.
But anyway, I was just wondering how many of you out there do a lot of baking from scratch, and if so, what staples do you make on a regular basis? Do you have favorite recipes? Does it save you money?
I'd love to hear!
14 comments:
I just posted my homemade bread recipe today. Oh so yummy! I made 15 loaves in 3 hours last week (see posts).
We often make our own hamburger and hot dog buns. I'm pretty sure I have that awesome recipe in my archives. Really easy!
I occasionally make homemade tortillas and noodles. And, I've made homemade salsa. I would LOVE to have a "salsa garden" where I grow all of the salsa ingredients. (I had a friend who did that once.)
We ALWAYS make our own jam. I put up 50 quarts of strawberry jam a week or so ago. (see post)
We used to "make" our own honey. Seriously. My husband became a beekeeper so that he could have a few hives to pollinate our blueberry bushes, and to "harvest" his own honey. Oh my! So yummy! I made my homemade whole wheat bread with our "homemade" honey (instead of sugar).
Oh yes ... I also grind our own wheat, not only for our bread ... but we grind our wheat for our pancakes or waffles (breakfast 3-4 times per week).
We don't have a garden this year because we thought we were moving. :( But, we love to have our own veggies all summer.
I would like to get a yogurt maker, so that I can make my own yogurt. We used to have a cow, so we were hoping to have our own milk to make our own yogurt with.
I make my own mochas and lattes. Saves us a LOT of money. LOVE my new espresso machine.
Do almost all of our baked goods from scratch. Hardly ever buy cookies. Love to bake cookies and pies ... occasionally make cakes.
We never buy rolls or biscuits ... always make those from scratch (and often grind our wheat for those, too). Definitely save money by grinding our own wheat.
LOVE to make homemade pizza. (Grind the wheat and make the crust from scratch.)
Looking forward to hearing what your other readers make from scratch ...
Oh yea ... make my own babies too. Made a double batch once (you beat me with 2 double batches). :)
Be BLESSED!
Laurel :)
I make a lot of bread and can and freeze all throughout the summer! I have attempted noodles before, but I just don't have the technique down. I do make my own tortillas, pita bread, and english muffins.
I do all of our jam, freeze beans, corn, strawberries, blackberries,blueberries and zucchini, can pickles, dilly beans, garden vege juice, peaches, applesauce, tomatoes and grape juice.
I've tried canning salsa, but haven't some across a recipe that we "love".
I'm heading over to Mama D.'s to check out here bread recipe. I'm posting my Kosher Dill Pickle Recipe on my blog today if anyone is interested.
Wholly molley...I think I need to be following these kitchen masters who left comments! WOW!
Let's just say, I give it a noble effort! I don't can things. We tried canning when the boys were babies, but now we love all things fresh! I make fresh salsa (pico de gallo) a lot. We freeze a lot of tomatoes and apples since they seem to be easy.
My goal is more to avoid pre-packaged, heavily processed, corn syrup loaded foods. SO I read a lot of labels! Everything sweet, I make from scratch so I can cut back or substitute for the sugar.
I have made homemade tortillas, english muffins, and noodles, so I know you don't have to be an expert. They were pretty time consuming!
My goal is to attempt cooking/baking things once and then keep the recipes that clicked for me!
Have fun!!!
Wow is all I can say too! I so admire all mothers that can make sooo much from scratch all the time! :) We do a few things like pancakes, waffles, banana bread and sometimes bread and noodles, but we don't have a garden now, so that limits a lot of what we freeze/make in terms of jams and salsas, etc. Oh, I do make my own hummus, because nothing in the store is better than that... :)
We make all our staples ourselves. We started teaching ourselves about 3 years ago, and will never go back.
We don't use fancy ingredients, or have a fancy kitchen by any means (in fact, we have about 2 feet of counter space in our tiny apartment kitchen) but we make our own breads, crackers, tortillas, granola, sauces, etc., and are working our way towards making our own condiments too.
I do hope you'll stop by and check out some of our recipes -- which use whole wheat and reduced/natural sugars when possible.
We make our own bread, tortillas (once you start you can't go back to the store bought ones), muffins, pizza crust and infrequently pasta. We had been making our own yogurt and crackers at one time too. We make our own spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce but not from fresh ingredients, usually canned. I do think things taste better homemade and we avoid all those extra ingredients. We always make brownies, cookies, cakes, etc from scratch. We just started making ice cream too.
It's definitely a team effort now that I am back to work full time. Ralph has to do A LOT of it. Also, I was moving us into more whole grains and traditional ways of cooking but then we had a baby, moved across country and I went back to work full time. I think it will be awhile before we get back to that.
Give yourself time to work into making things from scratch--it can be overwhelming if you're not used to it. Pick one or two things and get into a routine then add more. Give yourself lots of grace with little ones around. :) You can get there if it's what you want to do just take it a step at a time.
Looking forward to seeing what you decide to do.
We enjoyed canning spaghetti sauce, apple sauce, and pickles last year. May try pickled beets this year. I freeze veggies from our garden and chicken stock for winter soups. I'm just starting to experiment with some dairy (butter, kefir, mozzarella). I'd also like to try making sprouted bread and sourdough, but don't yet know how I will find time for these ambitious goals! I've enjoyed recipes from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, and http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/
I do bread on occasion. Since I just learned how to freezer can. I will never buy jam again. I make my own. It's very tasty. I can't wait to start canning tomatoes for sauces. I like to make my own salsa too. My friend taught me how to make tortillas, but it's been a long time now. I should start again.
I'm excited to peruse these recipes from the previous commenters! I aspire to more home-made... I have a sneaking suspicion I'll be more successful when the wee bean (11 mos.) is more into playing with his toys for little stretches instead of climbing up my legs.
(I have been making my own refried beans -- organic dry beans are much cheaper than canned beans and no BPA from the cans! Still looking for the perfect recipe.)
I am in awe of peeps who make lots of staples but I have neither the time or inclination to do it in my house.
But I do make tea ever night and I make sure we have a protein and vegies or salad each night...and we always sit down together and eat. Thanks for this really interesting post (and comments).
I think it's great that you are even considering homemade staples when you have 5 children. I wish I had your motivation :)...
changed my blog url
www.lillypiesandcupcakes.blogspot.com
I make a lot of sauce like tomato and alfredo sauce. I make all my sweets like brownies, cookies, and pie crusts from scratch as well.
When you're only buying flour, sugar, eggs, and milk all the time after a while it does add up in savings.
yes, I cook alot from scratch.
I do my own pasta... amazing and yes, if you did it often enough, with a big family to feed you would save money. I made a batch the other night and guesstimated it cost about 50cents to make. {We have our own chickens so I don't buy eggs}, to buy the same quantity of fresh pasta in my local supermarket would have cost me $8!
I also bake muffins.... all the time.... cakes, biscuits,
most evening meals. {We'd be lucky to buy take out once a fortnight.} We make our own pizzas... I bought pizzas the other night for us all... not a scrap left & it cost >$70!!!!!! BOYS!!!! won't do that agin for a while....
have all the ingredients to do hummus but am yet to develop the urge... that's more a summer food in my family, so the tins of chickpeas will wait!!
I had a breadmaker but the loves were just not big enough so I gave it away to a smaller family a while ago. I do not miss it at all.
We have a coffee machine too.. rind the beans at home etc.... it's much cheaper than having coffee out. BUt we balance it with the "niceness" of getting out for coffee together. We do it once a week with the smaller boys and it's nice to go somewhere with them......
hope that helps... and Laurel... you rock!! :D
I found you through the Moms of Multiples list... and since I feel as though I live in the kitchen sometimes, I had to comment.
Yes, we make many of our own staples from scratch. We do grind our own wheat and make our own bread (loaf, rolls, hamburger/hot dog buns). Though when I say we, what I really mean is my 15 year old son makes our bread. We (12 year old daughter)also make our own granola for breakfasts.
I have been experimenting with making such things as ketchup, steak sauce, BBQ sauce and the like. I hate looking at the ingredients on things and seeing unrecognizable words. I will admit though, that sometimes life gets to hectic and we have to go back to premade. (Like all of last year when all I did was nurse twins instead of cooking.)
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