Sunday's Plate

Just shopped at the grocery store for the second day in a row. I always do this. On Saturday, it's my family day when I go marching off to the store just for Terry and I. I'm always delighted with what's new, what's delicious, what's hiding on the shelves. It's one outing I always find fun and exciting. Yes, I have no life. And Saturday is also my scout day for Sunday when I do a big expensive shopping for school.

I do enjoy food seasons, and I'm always interested in the new stuff that my favorite store is offering. Yesterday, I bought fillet of sole at the fresh fish counter. It was yum. I usually fill my cart with veggies and some fruit, and then go off to the butcher and fish counter. Then it's a trip through the baking and dish isle. My grocery store as a marvelous kitchen department with darling dishes and all kinds of kitchen gadgets and cookbooks. Then it's staples, dairy, cat food and I'm done. I'm done without going down all the isles because most of what is sold I wouldn't buy.

Over the years, I've stopped buying a lot of things I used to buy simply because they are too expensive, and I can make them, and make them better. I never do anything hard, and I collect the machinery necessary to make life a little simpler. It's a matter of a few minutes several times a week, and the difference is a real savings and much better food. I feed Terry and I on about $5.00 per day each and we eat extremely well.

One of the things I started with years ago is making my own cereal. I never buy it with the exception of oats which I use in a lot of things like pancake batter and bread and meatballs. Not buying cereal means a savings of at least $4.00 a week.

I've stopped buying sausage. I can make sausage and have it taste like I want it too, for about $1.00 less a pound. If you buy ground pork and you season it yourself, it makes a much better product than the same old same old sausage.

I don't buy bread because since Terry bought me the bread maker, I have kept him in his now favorite bread for months. I don't need a bread maker, but it's simple, easy and makes good bread, so why not use it? Making my own bread saves me about $3.50 a week.

I don't buy jam anymore. I make it. It costs about $1.00 less a week to make your own. It takes about ten minutes to make, so that's something I do about once a month.

I don't use pancake mix, cake mix, or canned frosting. We eat scratch sweets which probably saves me $10.00 per week. This week, if I have time, I will make toffee for our baked goods at school. This will save another several dollars.

I never buy soup because I use left overs and make them into soup. I have a spaghetti -coq-au-vin - chicken stir fry- rice and peanuts soup on the hopper right now. This saves me about $6.00 per week in soup plus it cuts out cold cuts, deli cheese, and other foods that one would grab for lunch. We have soup instead. If you add up what I'm not buying, it comes to about $10.00 per week.

I make my own crackers. This is not hard and it's fun. You can make crackers in about 45 minutes for about a quarter.

My husband Terry loves yogurt and eats it for lunch about three days a week. He balked and balked about my making yogurt as a substitute for his precious store bought yogurt with all the sugary fruit. When I explained to him that half of his precious treat was sugar, he went over Greek yogurt at about $2.25 for five ounces. That comes to a whopping $6.75 for 16 ounces of yogurt.

When I bought a quart of whole milk and made 37 ounces of yogurt for $2.29 plus the original yogurt of $2.25 = $4.55, he was thrilled. It was good, and with some of our homemade strawberry jam, he was sold. Next week, I'll use my own starter and the cost will be cut in half.

I figure I'm saving about $40.00 per week and spending perhaps a half hour a week more in the kitchen.

I've started making yogurt at school in a thirty two ounce maker. Once the yogurt is made, we can either use it in place of sour cream, or make it into cheese and substitute cream cheese.

This past week at school, I've made ice cream. It's a treat for those kids who eat their lunches and drink their milk. It takes 2 cups of cream, 2/3 cups of sugar and some left over cookies, and the children are delighted. At home I make it every once in a while, and the cost saving is about $2.00.

All of our breakfast muffins, french toast, pancakes, waffles, cakes, cookies, bars and pies are all scratch. Once you make it, you never want to go back to those horrible box mixes. They all taste like chemicals and homemade cookies or cake can be the best thing you ate during any day.

Time, you say, I don't have the time. I never do anything hard and I really don't spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I know how long it will take to put ingredients in the bread maker - maybe three minutes, and I know how long it will take to make yogurt - five minutes. Jam is about ten.

If you think about store isles, and you think about shortening your visit to the store and your time hauling in bag after bag of pre-made food, and putting all this stuff away, the time spent doing this would be more than the time spent making a few things at home.

Think about it, and look at the right column of this blog for some of those recipes.

Have a great Sunday!