What do you make?!
Answers: Do you make anything home-made? I mean items that you use regularly? Jams, Jelly, butter, bread, pasta, canned veggies, and the like. Does it save you money? I have thought about making these things instead of buying them if I can, because I can control the ingredients that go into my food, and not to mention I kind of feel like it's a lost art, except in Europe. What do you think?
I make many homemade dishes. I have been greatly blessed in my life to have many people who have been excellent cooks and I learned from cooking with them.
My mother in law was a phenomenal cook, and I quickly learned how to make homemade pastas and gravy(tomato sauce) from her, chicken cutlets, stuffed artichokes and mushrooms, homemade meatballs and just about any other dish you can name.
I also learned how to make a lot of great dishes from my Mom, soups and stews and traditional roasts. My family and I rarely eat out in fast food type resturants, we can eat a lot healthier and much more inexpensively with homemade meals. When people talk about spending money on fast food, I just inwardly cringe.
My husband also enjoys cooking, so it has been a shared process through the years. I have to deal with some allergies, and many processed foods have so many additives, they can actually cause severe allergic reactions in many people. The salt content is unbelievable, especially in canned and processes foods. High blood pressure runs in my family, and I have to be diligent as I do not want to have to deal with the accompanying problems.
When our son and daughter were growing up we would keep a garden every year, now we belong to a co- op local farm, so we can purchase wonderful fresh vegetables that are organic for less than a great deal of typical supermarket offerings that have traveled several hundred miles before getting to the store.
In the winter time, we will travel to the nearest natural food stores to purchase our produce, there is nothing like vegetables that smell like they just came out of the garden.
We invested in a stand mixer (Kitchenaid), a Showtime Rotisserie, and a Foodsaver Vacuum Packaging system and we constantly use them. I can cook two large chickens for way less than the price of one precooked chicken, have enough for several meals, plus use the balance for making
stock.
We have known several people who have had gall bladder problems, and they couldn't figure out what was going on for awhile. Once they started working with a nutritionist, it turned out that the only commonality was that they ate fast food most of the time. These were relatively young people to be having these types of problems in their twenties and early thirties with no family history of gall bladder problems.
I would estimate that we save around $150.00 per month by going the homemade route, and that really adds up, considering how expensive everything is.
Good luck and Happy Cooking.
I make chalk models :)
yes pasta
I'm made jam before, but not on a regular basis.
I think buying ready-made stuff is much more convenient.
i've made pb and j.....soup.....ratatoillie....and cereal!
in most cases its cheaper to buy things than make them because the companies are doing it in bulk. your just making one. and theyre using machines. and your using your hands. just buy in bulk if u want to save money(if you know you eat alot of peanut butter buy alot of peanut butter at once)
toast. but only with parental supervision.
Go for it, I grow my own tomatoes, spuds, silverbeets and sweet potatoes, this year Im gonna add lettuce, cabbages and carrots.
making the food costs more money if u make a beef stew with vegetables but it will be worth it because u will have more for the next time. Its quicker. put in beef, carrots, peas (optional), grapes (gives the stew flavor), sweet potatoes, and regular potatos. Brown rice is good to put the stew on.
Canning your own food is A LOT of work. And usually, you are canning in the hottest time of the summer--so your air conditioner is working overtime just to keep the house "warm". I used to can--but gave that up in the divorce LOL I don't think I saved any money on canning my own veggies, jellies, pickles, etc. but I got a ton of compliments on it. I never ate any of it. After going through all that work, I hated even looking at the canned foods.
I do make my own broths, salad dressings, pasta sauces and salsa's to jar because I can control the sodium. I make bread, however, since there are no preservatives it is healthy, not econominical. The bread only keeps two to three days. I also will not buy the containers of fruit in syrup. I make and freeze a fruit salad each week and take it out as needed.
I don't make any of these, though I have pondered it.
My grandma used to make jams, cus they are supper easy and yummy! She just picked raspberries from a tree in the park and wash them, mortor them and add suger. That's it. It takes superb!
My mom used to make fresh pastas. I have to say the difference is gigantic. She makes the dough and actually knead it and cut it into noodles by hand and then pull them out. It's beyond this world. Best pasta one can ever have.
I agree these are lost arts. And it's so sad. We should make these at home. People always say it takes so long. But for me it didn't even seem like it took long at all, as long as you are good at it. My mom can make past in half an hour. The smell, on the smell just melts my heart.
I make my own jam and peanut butter.
Its harder than to go to a supermarket and grab one, but the hassle that i go trough in the process of making it worth it after u tatste ur home made stuffs.
Its without any preservatives and it really taste better with fresh ingredients.As i heard from some of my friends who work in some of the factories producing these stuffs, the said that they use fruits that are not good to be sold out there.SO its sounds yucky.
And another thing you can control the ingredients to your whims and fancy and according to your taste buds.
I am really into making these stuffs on my own...
i must say, i do like making things like cookies and brwownies and jams, but it is a little expensive so i cannot do it all the time..usually stuff i make has less preservatives, but the store stuff is so much cheaper
I would go for it , I don't think it saves money but you get the satisfaction.