These days, going to the grocery store makes even the strongest of us cower due to rising food prices. For that reason, I have been coming up with creative ways to reduce the grocery budget for my family of four. Most of our family meals are made from from scratch, but now, I am consistently making a few staples that I would usually purchase premade.
Bread, cup cakes, muffins
I love baking. I am a frequent baker of cakes, cupcakes and muffins, because I like having control of the ingredients in our food. Having children with food allergies has made me conscious of the ingredient list, and I am able to have snacks that I can pack for school.
Unfortunately, anything that requires yeast as the rising agent is my nemesis. I loathe the waiting, but I have decided that it is worth it to bake our own bread. It's becoming costly, and I like being able to have bread with no preservatives. I found a great bread recipe online, and I hit gold the first time. My family loves it and I am experimenting with adding different flours. Next stops, focaccia and sourdough.
Salad Dressing
My family loves a simple dressing. The 'everyday' salad dressing that we use quite literally for almost every salad we make is a mixture of olive oil, avocado oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. It never disappoints. I have also began making small batches of Japanese ginger salad dressing, which requires blending ginger, carrots, onion, sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar and oil to give the most aromatic and flavorful dressing you can think of.
Caramel Sauce
One day, I ran out of maple syrup at home and needed a syrup for crêpes which we make every week. I decided that homemade caramel sauce would be a great easy alternative. I make mine using cane or brown sugar in my cast iron pan and have been very happy with the results.
Pancakes and crêpes
In my house, we enjoy Saturday and/or Sunday breakfast. After a busy week, it's nice to enjoy a batch of crêpes. I have also been adding puréed vegetables to add color to my crêpe recipe since I have a picky eater. She loves the color and has no idea she is eating her veggies at the same time.
Barbecue sauce
Barbecue sauce is a staple in our house, so for this reason, I make a batch of barbecue sauce that stays for quite a while. I get to control the degree of sweetness and we all enjoy knowing that we can always whip up more as long as all the ingredients are in stock.
This is a growing list of items. I know that for so many this can be time consuming, but it is worth it for us. Are you making anything from scratch?
(Photos: Baking setup Wix, Loaf of bread Lillian.com, Salad dressing Erhardtseat.com, caramel sauce Bellyfull.net, crêpes Wix, barbecue sauce Natashaskkitchen.com)