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9:00 pm
February 5, 2012
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I wish life gave me the time to make everything from scratch— from my pasta sauce to the butter I put on my bread. But realistically, a single mother with two baby boys, it seems impossible at times. Regardless, I want to make the impossible possible and build a tradition in my kitchen and in my kids tummy by giving the best the earth has to offer them. So what do you think is worth making from scratch? Should I just buy my own butter and jelly from the supermarket? What foods are worth buying than making?
9:20 pm
December 14, 2010
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I buy pasta sauce and pasta. I make bread and jelly but I buy butter. I buy meat and I make soup. I can't recall when I have bought soup. I buy cheese but I make Mac and cheese. I buy canned tomatoes although I know how to can them but at a dollar a can I spend my time on other things. I make cookies but I buy crackers. I buy potatoes and make mashed potatoes. I am appalled that you can buy mashed potatoes and cooked rice. They are so easy to fix at home.
I make jelly but I have time to gather the fruit. If you don't have that time buy jelly. I eat fresh fruit. It is available year round. Same with veggies either fresh or frozen but I don't try to grow it or put it up.
Learn how to buy large cuts of meat or whole poultry and cut it into portions that work for your family.
This week I found chicken legs for 49 cents per pound in ten pound bags. it took 15 minutes to cut them into drums, thighs, and back. I wrapped the drums four to a package and the thighs two to a package and froze them. Ten dollars and an hour of work resulted in twenty two thighs and drums. I cooked the backs for stock and got 8 pints of stock for soup and two pounds of meat picked from the bones for soup plus a pint of rendered fat for cooking.
10:17 pm
November 15, 2010
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there is an excellent book on this exact topic….
Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese
She goes into detail about variables….the monetary cost of an item, the quality of homemade versus store bought (and yes, some things are better store bought), the time involved and the equipment needed.
You might want to check it out if you want a comprehensive listing.
HTH
10:42 pm
December 28, 2008
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Good question! But a LOT of variables here.
You might start by reading labels. If there is stuff in there that you just do not want your children (or yourself) to consume, that might help you set your priorities.
We like fresh pasta, but given the ease of storing, the lack of additives, and no loss of nutritional value in dried pasta that is what we usually eat.
Must agree that most tomato products are not worth the effort to me. Others will disagree, of course. We do still raise a few tomato plants each year. The extras usually are just pureed and canned.
Some of us have recently learned to dehydrate frozen veggies. Those are a great source for soups and such. And save a lot of storage space. Frozen vegetables are often the freshest and most nutritious.
We also like recipes such as the sloppy joe sauce that can be canned. Tastes better than store bought – no preservatives! Brown a pound of beef, add a pint of the home canned sauce and dinner is done!
Have fun looking around this forum. There are all sorts of great ideas to try.
11:31 pm
November 8, 2011
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jbalt009,
I understand what you are going through. Everyone here at CITR are more than happy to help. Look through your recipes. Pick your absolute favorite and try to make it from scratch. And then laugh if it turns out aaaaaawful! The fun part of cooking isn't just the eating part, but also the mistakes that you make and try to hide.
These are the best parts of a traditional kitchen. Then as you're shopping with your sons talk to them about what you are buying, get them involved.
Shopping in Miami is a nightmare! I understand. I am in the Tamiami area. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. I have been talking to as many people as I can around here (and in Miami) to glean as much info as possible.
11:57 pm
December 14, 2010
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I just thought of something that is promoted on TV for kids. The freezer eggos and waffles and that sort of stuff. Pancakes are among the easist and quickest breads to fix and will always please small kids. Even cold they can be spread with jam or jelly or peanut butter and folded in half. make life as uncomplicated as you can by keeping your food simple and basic. popcorn is good food and it should come in a jar not in a microwave packet. Pop it in a little bacon fat in a heavy aluminum pan on top of the stove.
12:10 am
January 2, 2011
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This is a great topic! As a mom who works full time I absolutely hear where you're coming from jbalt. I tend to pick and choose what I purchase vs. what I buy. Sometimes I'm price driven…when bread was up towards $4 a loaf at the local grocery store I started to make my own.
Most of the time, I'm driven by not wanting to put a crazy amount of preservatives into my family. We have a dehydrator & that has allowed us to store a great deal of fruits & vegetables. One of my daughter's favorite snacks is homemade fruit roll-ups.
12:18 am
February 8, 2009
Offline
I don't like to buy the junk food stuff, so if my kids want stackers..I make them, from our own bacon and our own eggs and I bake the pancakes from scratch.
Also if we have tomatoes..I make salsa..but same as Ross, I buy the tomatoe paste etc..you can't make your own cost wise.
There is a lot I make from scratch as granola, bread, cookies etc.
I don't can a lot and never meat, why should I, if I have a freezer, so much easier. only the salsa and some jams and pickles, but love to make tons of soup and just freeze it.
Just put 11 containers of peasoup in the freezer.
Make your own butter is fun when you have a cow or can buy cream cheap. if not and you have to buy the cream in the store, it will be more expensive and I would choose to buy butter.
Try…experiment..and you will come with what and what you don't want to make from scratch.
Good luck.
12:20 am
February 10, 2009
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First off, I totally agree with Pete, by reading labels carefully you can decide two things, first, if it’s full of chemicals you can’t pronounce, is it something you like enough to try to recreate from scratch, or else, maybe it’s not so bad and you can buy the product that may save you time.
If you are making a casserole make two and freeze one! My mother taught me that growing up. She worked full time and still cooked a lot of things from scratch. If you line a pan or dish with plastic or foil and freeze it, you can pull it out after it’s frozen and wrap it well, then unwrap it some later day and pop it back into the pan and bake it. Very few casseroles need to be defrosted before baking, but if one does you can take it out the night before and put it into the fridge. You have the mess of making it one time, but the second meal leaves you with nearly no mess.
Then, I absolutely never buy broth. I simmer whole birds and/or chicken pieces gently till the meat is just cooked, then strip the meat off the bones. That meat is the base for quite a few meals, the bones with plenty of the meat still on them goes back in the pot to continue cooking. I dislike the meat and the veggies that start early in the process because they get so overcooked, so by pulling most of the good meat off very early in the process, it keeps a good texture and taste, the scraps still on the bones and the veggies add to the broth flavor. Then I discard those and add whatever veggies I like late in the process to eat.
The reserved meat is ready to add some to some soup, some to be used in a pot pie, or some gravy and veggies, in a chicken salad, or all sorts of other things as well as wrapped well and frozen in a little of that broth for a fast meal. Some broth is used that night, the rest is either canned or frozen.
I bake some bread, but buy some too. All depends. I’ve heard of that book by Jennifer Reese and I should look into that too. I agree, this is a great topic!!!
9:44 am
June 2, 2010
Offline
Great topic and so current for me right now. I am normally only at my office 1-2 days per week. The rest of the time I work from home. For the past 2 weeks, I've been at the office a minimum of 60 hours PLUS working from home. My normal routine has gone to heck in a hand basket. I actually bought a pizza to bring home for dinner on Monday. I normally make our pizza but there are times when things just don't go the way you want.
I think having a well stocked pantry is a must. That way you can put together meals without heading to the store first. Making the decision of what to make and what to buy is up to you and your taste/time factor. This Christmas I gave all of our kids mixes in a jar as their presents. The quick mix in our files is wonderful. It allows them to quickly put together pancakes, muffins, whatever without buying an expensive store bought item but with the convenience of a store bought item. A win-win all around. There are many mixes over in Farm Bell that give you the ease of store bought but you control the ingredients. A huge plus in my book.
BEG's idea of making two meals at one time is a definite plus. I'm still adjusting to cooking for 3 so I always have leftovers. Some we eat for lunch, some go into the freezer or canning jars for later meals.
I make most of our bread because I use the easy no-knead method. It requires about 3 minutes of hands on time. I managed to keep our bread drawer stocked these past 2 weeks even though much else went by the wayside. Homemade bread just makes me feel better. My friend buys her bread but makes her own butter, yogurt, kefir etc. They have a cow so it's just second nature to them.
Great topic, thanks for bringing it up. Can't wait to read more replys.
10:16 am
February 5, 2012
Offline
Pete said:
Good question! But a LOT of variables here.
You might start by reading labels. If there is stuff in there that you just do not want your children (or yourself) to consume, that might help you set your priorities.
We like fresh pasta, but given the ease of storing, the lack of additives, and no loss of nutritional value in dried pasta that is what we usually eat.
Must agree that most tomato products are not worth the effort to me. Others will disagree, of course. We do still raise a few tomato plants each year. The extras usually are just pureed and canned.
Some of us have recently learned to dehydrate frozen veggies. Those are a great source for soups and such. And save a lot of storage space. Frozen vegetables are often the freshest and most nutritious.
We also like recipes such as the sloppy joe sauce that can be canned. Tastes better than store bought – no preservatives! Brown a pound of beef, add a pint of the home canned sauce and dinner is done!
Have fun looking around this forum. There are all sorts of great ideas to try.
Good point. I should read the labels and figure out if the complexity of the ingredients are consumable. Simply said…
10:20 am
April 1, 2009
Offline
excellent topic, wish this had been around when I was young, but that was before computers, I worked 2 jobs 7 days aweek for 10 years, and very little time to cook and had no freezer.
Even though there are many folks that can't do a lot of canning etc, I think the posts here gives them some good guidelines on how to make better choices when buying their groceries and perhaps do a little do ahead cooking for the week. We keep a good stock of canned veggies as well as frozen, I purchase a lot of our frozen fruits and veggies at the resturant supply and divide them up into small portions, my canned veggies I purchase at Aldis, especially to tomatoes, they are the best I have found and their prices cant be beat.
Excellent information.
10:21 am
February 5, 2012
Offline
CD said:
This is a great topic! As a mom who works full time I absolutely hear where you're coming from jbalt. I tend to pick and choose what I purchase vs. what I buy. Sometimes I'm price driven…when bread was up towards $4 a loaf at the local grocery store I started to make my own.
Most of the time, I'm driven by not wanting to put a crazy amount of preservatives into my family. We have a dehydrator & that has allowed us to store a great deal of fruits & vegetables. One of my daughter's favorite snacks is homemade fruit roll-ups.
They say once you get in the hang of making your own bread it becomes the norm. I usually buy nature own sugar free bread, but I know my son will appreciate homemade bread more since eating plain bread is his favorite snack after school.
What is a dehydrator? I never heard of that… Do you mind sharing the ingredients to your homemade fruit roll-ups. I usually purchase Welch fruit snack for my boys.
10:28 am
September 12, 2011
Offline
What a great topic! 
So timely, too! I am a working grandma and no longer have children at home (I don't count the 29 year old that has moved back home…he can take care of himself! 
especially when it comes to food!)
But i have raised 5 children and have had to periodically work during their growing up years. To me, baking bread depends on my time. My husband,children and grandchildren love Grandmother bread but truthfully I only make it when I have time. In our family Sundays are the Sabbath and we do as little baking and "work" as possible, which leaves me with Saturdays. I agree with Buckeye Girl on baking casseroles ahead. Saves so much time and mess. I take it a step further. When hamburger is on sale, I might buy 10-20 lbs of it and cook it , making it into hamburger patties, meatballs, small meat loaves, or just crumbles. then I am ready for "whatever". Same goes with Boneless Skinless chicken breast…just cook and freeze in portions. if you have the time, canning the chicken is a wonderful way to go. Much better than freezing. My husband loves it so much he has learned to can meats and considers himself a "pro". This is a win-win for both of us. Being a single mom, you don't have that option. But you might try sharing with other moms by taking turns with caring for their children while they process food and vice versa. Play dates for the kids and something accomplished for you. To me the most important thing is the skill you learn in doing these things. It gives you such a sense of confidence and accomplishment! Maybe you won't have the time to do it every week, but you know you can if you have to do it. Our country would be a better and stronger one if more people took responsibility for simple things like gardening and food storage.
another plug for do-it-yourself: Gardening. Do it if you can. You will have wonderful experiences with your children as you all plant and work your garden together. Even if you only have a few pots with tomatoes and herbs, you are teaching a valuable lesson to your kids about self-reliance. Plus think about all you will save on "organic" veggies! You will have a Master Gardening program in your state. There are volunteers there that have the emperience you can draw from…they answer your questions for free and give you good ideas about what to plant and when. Good Luck to you!
10:30 am
February 5, 2012
Offline
kellyb said:
Great topic and so current for me right now. I am normally only at my office 1-2 days per week. The rest of the time I work from home. For the past 2 weeks, I've been at the office a minimum of 60 hours PLUS working from home. My normal routine has gone to heck in a hand basket. I actually bought a pizza to bring home for dinner on Monday. I normally make our pizza but there are times when things just don't go the way you want.
I think having a well stocked pantry is a must. That way you can put together meals without heading to the store first. Making the decision of what to make and what to buy is up to you and your taste/time factor. This Christmas I gave all of our kids mixes in a jar as their presents. The quick mix in our files is wonderful. It allows them to quickly put together pancakes, muffins, whatever without buying an expensive store bought item but with the convenience of a store bought item. A win-win all around. There are many mixes over in Farm Bell that give you the ease of store bought but you control the ingredients. A huge plus in my book.
BEG's idea of making two meals at one time is a definite plus. I'm still adjusting to cooking for 3 so I always have leftovers. Some we eat for lunch, some go into the freezer or canning jars for later meals.
I make most of our bread because I use the easy no-knead method. It requires about 3 minutes of hands on time. I managed to keep our bread drawer stocked these past 2 weeks even though much else went by the wayside. Homemade bread just makes me feel better. My friend buys her bread but makes her own butter, yogurt, kefir etc. They have a cow so it's just second nature to them.
Great topic, thanks for bringing it up. Can't wait to read more replys.
It has been a while since I purchased frozen pizza. Frozen pizza have too much sodium and crazy ingredients that I just can't pronounce. My professor from college once said, "if you can't pronounce it then don't eat it". Making homemade pizza is not only delicious, but I find it to be much more healthier. I make delicious veggie pizza with mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, carrots, onion, spinach, and broccoli. Have you ever considered making a lot of dough and breaking it up so you can save the other half in the freezer? I find it easier to cooking the complex items like the beans and meat on Sunday. So they are easily accessible during the week.
10:41 am
February 5, 2012
Offline
mamacarpenter said:
What a great topic!
But i have raised 5 children and have had to periodically work during their growing up years. To me, baking bread depends on my time. My husband,children and grandchildren love Grandmother bread but truthfully I only make it when I have time. In our family Sundays are the Sabbath and we do as little baking and "work" as possible, which leaves me with Saturdays. I agree with Buckeye Girl on baking casseroles ahead. Saves so much time and mess. I take it a step further. When hamburger is on sale, I might buy 10-20 lbs of it and cook it , making it into hamburger patties, meatballs, small meat loaves, or just crumbles. then I am ready for "whatever". Same goes with Boneless Skinless chicken breast…just cook and freeze in portions. if you have the time, canning the chicken is a wonderful way to go. Much better than freezing. My husband loves it so much he has learned to can meats and considers himself a "pro". This is a win-win for both of us. Being a single mom, you don't have that option. But you might try sharing with other moms by taking turns with caring for their children while they process food and vice versa. Play dates for the kids and something accomplished for you. To me the most important thing is the skill you learn in doing these things. It gives you such a sense of confidence and accomplishment! Maybe you won't have the time to do it every week, but you know you can if you have to do it. Our country would be a better and stronger one if more people took responsibility for simple things like gardening and food storage.
another plug for do-it-yourself: Gardening. Do it if you can. You will have wonderful experiences with your children as you all plant and work your garden together. Even if you only have a few pots with tomatoes and herbs, you are teaching a valuable lesson to your kids about self-reliance. Plus think about all you will save on "organic" veggies! You will have a Master Gardening program in your state. There are volunteers there that have the emperience you can draw from…they answer your questions for free and give you good ideas about what to plant and when. Good Luck to you!
Thanks for that useful information on the Master Garden Program. Are you a certified member? Just for those who don't know about the Master Garden Program recruits individuals who are interested in learning about gardening and sharing the information they learn with others. Applicants complete 50 hours of training at a local facility. And on the first year of the certification members serve 75 hours of their time in exchange of the certification in their community. This is a statewide program here is the link so you can find a program near you http://www.ahs.org/master_gardeners/
10:53 am
February 5, 2012
Offline
Okay so if you don't have a cow or goat. Buying your own butter is worth it. How about mayo and mustards? If so, does anyone know of a good ingredient for condiments. My son loves ketchup, but it is not good for you.
11:00 am
February 5, 2012
Offline
jbalt009 said:
Okay so if you don't have a cow or goat. Buying your own butter is worth it. How about mayo and mustards? If so, does anyone know of a good ingredient for condiments. My son loves ketchup, but it is not good for you.
Sometimes we get consumed with finding the answers to things, that we dismiss what is right in front of us. CITR has this cool link with recipes from custards to great appetizers. Check it out http://chickensintheroad.com/c…..m-recipes/
11:14 am
December 14, 2010
Offline
One of the criteria that I use for the make/buy desision is how much do I use and how long will it take to make it. Most condiments fall into this catagory.
If I use only small amounts then buying seems to be practical. I haven't yet found a recipe for pasta sauce that I like better than Classico brand with their many varieties. So I buy it and use less than a jar per month.
12:45 pm
December 29, 2011
Offline
What a great topic!
We have a 16 month old toddler, and have been transitioning into a more healthy lifestyle. The big things that we make homemade are:
hummus (so easy from dried beans- and no preservatives!) And perfect toddler snack!
pesto (I grow tons of basil in containers and at the end of the season, cut it all down and make it with oil and nuts and freeze into ice cubes and throw into sauces all year, or thaw to use as a plain pesto sauce for pasta) (you add the cheese when you use the pesto later)
Veggie broth (we make a veggie "depression" broth using the "scraps"- carrot and potato peels, ends of eggplants, outsides and ends of onions, stalks of broccoli, ends of beans, basically everything you would normally compost from veggie waste, etc. We put all that in the freezer in a bag when it's scrap, and add to it, and when it gets full enough, we put it with water in the crockpot overnight- in the morning we strain all our new veggie broth into containers to freeze. Free broth! Something we used to buy! With something we used to just throw away!
Pizza (yeah, frozen pizza just had too many scary sounding things in it- and fresh is SO GOOD) Plus it's fun to make- kids love to make pizza!
jellies (we liked the expensive organic ones, so making our own from berries we picked works better for us- mostly from berries we got for free from a neighbor's house) We did it one night, and we've been eating those jellies since then.
most of our bread, but not always. That one depends on time. We use the bread machine a lot, and I have a "basic sandwich french bread" dough I can make in that, let rise, and bake that takes practically no time anymore. It's SO much cheaper than bread with good ingredients at the grocery.
Salsa (see below about tomatoes)
Pasta sauce. Ross is right, you can get good jarred ones which we'll use too, but we have a lot of canned tomatoes that we might as well use for something!
We can our tomatoes- mostly bought at the farmers markets at the end of the day when they just want to get rid of them- in late August especially!!!- we worry about the BPA in cans AND at the prices we got the tomatoes, it was cheaper. Yes, a lot of work back in August. But opening a jar is like having it be August in January!
beans (meaning we use dried beans rather than canned beans- again, cheaper, less waste, and no BPA worries)
soup (no brainer- better and cheaper to just throw everything you have together into soup- especially when processing meats as others have noted)
Piecrusts- we eat a fair amount of quiches around here, and there were too many scary sounding things in most frozen piecrusts- and making them is, well, easy as pie!
dried greens – when the greens come in, they just keep coming- so we dried the extra kale and chard in the dehydrator and put them in jars and sprinkle them into soups and sauces all year round to add some vitamins
sausage – this is a new one- I was inspired by some people on this site and by a free deer we got from a friend…. and MAN is it twice as good as anything I can afford in the supermarket- I don't think I'll go back! Again, one night of hard work, but lots and lots frozen just waiting for us!
eggs- I'm going to put this one on here, because having chickens (even though we don't have them right now) was one of the easiest things I ever did, and the eggs were a completely different product from the ones you get at the grocery store! We even had extra to freeze so that we had them when the production went down a bit in the winter.
gardening- the food is SO good, and it's fun to see what you can grow literally *anywhere*- and fun for kids to help with too… our toddler loves to dig up potatoes!
There are lots of things that are *fun* for kids to do at least a couple times so they know how it's done that just aren't terribly practical for everyday- at least not for us. For instance, cottage cheese is easy to make, but it's so cheap to buy we'd lose money if we made our own. Lots of cheeses are like that. But fun to try a couple times at least!
Pasta's also fun to make and we do that occasionally, but it's so cheap to just buy it and have it on hand….
I've loved reading everyone else's! Awesome topic!
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