Cooking from scratch

[lilac5]

You can make gourmet quality style food at home that is way cheaper than what it costs in a restaurant/cafe. That saves money.

Depending on the recipe, most scratch foods are cheaper to make than convenience, if you buy your ingredients on sale, even better savings.

[Darth Penguin]

My fave crockpot blog

I use a lot less liquid than Stephanie does when cooking whole joints such as chicken, as I find it makes the meat mushy and tasteless.

[marstec]

I cook almost exclusively from scratch, much to the consternation of my family. The children seem to crave processed food because they had it so infrequently when they were growing up!

I very rarely freeze meals for later because I have a habit of forgetting about it for several months, and by then it has petrified in my freezer. I also like to take advantage of fresh seasonal veggies and fruit. It is a wonderful time right now because the garden is producing and the stores have locally grown produce available for good prices.

Some suggestions I can make to encourage people to do more scratch cooking and baking:

Make up recipe cards for a recipe you've tried and really liked. I write up a simplified version of the recipe with any adjustments I've made, if any. Pretty soon you'll have a nice collection of go-to recipes. Be very disciplined about which recipes to include in this collection so that it is a reference and not a paper trap. I have a lot more baking recipes in my go-to box than savory ones because I tend to just "wing it" with supper dishes. Baking is more of an exact science.

For recipe ideas, I like to look at sites such as TasteSpotting. It is described as a "community driven visual potluck". You will see pictures of what people are cooking and baking and there are links to their blogs so that you can get the recipes. I'm new here, so not sure how to post a link to it, but you can just google it.

[2010ontest]

You can make gourmet quality style food at home that is way cheaper than what it costs in a restaurant/cafe. That saves money.

Depending on the recipe, most scratch foods are cheaper to make than convenience, if you buy your ingredients on sale, even better savings.

yep,

When you cook from the scratch you look for deals on ingredients for cooking from the scratch ! And yes you saved event more than before!

[Valiant]

I enjoy simple, home cooking because of:
- ambiance: the kitchen is filled with delicious aromas and creative activity
- preparedness: dishes of food are ready for that sit-down meal of gratitude and enjoyment, or frozen in readiness for the days when I'm too busy to cook.
- less waste of food/produce in the fridge or crispers because it can easily be made into delicious, filling meals
- bigger portions with home cooking, better taste
- not eating preservatives, extra salt/sugar, etc. from packaged foods
- the money I save by cooking from scratch becomes my emergency fund, and that is what I fall back on during tough times.

[Natalka]

marstec, what a great site that is!

http://www.tastespotting.com/popular...tes/all-time/1

Mind you, the first one I clicked on was in Italian, LOL!
I'm going to be spending some time on there...

I'm the same as you with regard to sweet/savoury dishes - my file for baking is way thicker than for cooking!

[muggos0101]

marstec, what a great site that is!

http://www.tastespotting.com/popular...tes/all-time/1

Mind you, the first one I clicked on was in Italian, LOL!
I'm going to be spending some time on there...

I'm the same as you with regard to sweet/savoury dishes - my file for baking is way thicker than for cooking!

looks almost the same as http://foodgawker.com/ which isn't a bad thing

[Natalka]

Oh, odd how they look alike! Ah, muggos - there's a tab for craftgawker, so thanks for that!

[Valiant]

One thing about good home cooking--there's usually lots of leftovers for the next day, or for casseroles, stews & soups.
So I'm saving money and time, because I don't have to cook as often.
And I can spend time on other things I enjoy, and just raid the fridge and freezer as necessary. I really hate to have to stop in the middle of doing something just to cook a meal.

[Orual]

I am not a cook all day type of person but I do like having some scratch meals frozen for lazy days. Something I do to make it easier is just make double meal when I cook. It doesn't really take me any extra time to make 2-3 times the spagetti sauce I need, then I just freeze the extra portions and defrost in the microwave when I need them.
I would concur that my homemade spagetti sauce costs more than the $1 jar, but it has meat and veggie chunks in it, you can't compare the quality of the two, if you could the cost would be better I am sure. Also my sauce is actually filling, so it goes a lot further.

I also freeze my own veggies from time to time. If I find amazing deals on veggies I will for sure buy a bunch and spend some time freezing. If you have a local place that only sells produce this is great place to start, our local one has lower or comprable prices with much better quality products than the mega stores.

[Zonny]

I'm a big fan of the crockpot, been using it a lot lately. THere's a FB group that was called crock pot girls, now it's crockin' girls due to trademark issues, lots of good recipes on there.

[KrazE]

I am a huge fan of http://southernfood.about.com/

[sunny3]

Good for you! Not only is cooking from scratch usually cheaper, it's usually healthier. Take your time to get to know what you like, don't like, what you're willing to do/ not do, what works for you and what doesn't...

Some tips:
Libraries have cook books too- i recommend: Eat shrink and be Merry, Every day Foods (saw a pizza dough on the show that i want to try), and canadian living puts out a magazine maybe once a year called "make it tonight" that has well over 100 recipes- quicker and easier style.

Plan dinners for the week- that way, you can learn to be much more efficient. Yes, cooking from stratch is more work but it need not take hours. Knowing what you're eating tomorrow will mean that you know what to take out the night before to unthaw. Maybe one night you are making stir fry and while you are already peeling and cutting carrots, why not peel a few more in order to make cooked carrots tomorrow as a side dish (slice thin and put a couple of tablespoons of margarine in the pot (no water) and some dry thyme, place the cover on and cook on low stirring on low until carrots are fork-tender) as a side dish or vegetable sticks.

I don't do it but it is best to buy groceries when you'll have time and energy for work afterwards- take the skin off chicken (debone if you wish), slice up chicken for stir fry or kebobs... before you freeze it. Rince and cut up fruit, veggies... maybe throw something in the crockpot and put it in the fridge to just drop into the base and cook tomorrow morning...

Learn to make meat balls (use chicken if you wish) and pre-cook and freeze them- then you can take them out for spaghetti and meat balls, meat ball sandwiches, sweet and sour meat balls...

Get a good meat thermometer- it will help you learn how to cook foods properly in order to not overcook nor undercook.

Learn to roast a chicken- feeds the family but cooked chicken can be put on pizza, put in sandwiches, put in a casserole, soup... You can freeze cooked chicken.

Get a good selection of spices- these will go a long way to making your dishes taste right- need not buy large quantities, bulk barn is good for buying in whatever amount you need.

PM me with an email if you want some of my favorite and reasonably easy recipes (I have very little in terms of desserts).

To cut costs, if you have a car, get to know the farms around your area- sometimes you can buy 50lbs of potatoes super cheap directly from the farmer. Find out where the orchards are- ask if they have "seconds" these sometimes have minor defects but are good apples that you can get for as little as 5$ for 25lbs- good for eating fresh but also making apple crisps, apple sauce...