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Showing posts with label Home Cooking. Show all posts

Making some basics at home can cut costs and reduce many additives in food and cleaners. I make sauce mixes, drinks, laundry liquid, spray cleaners and I dry herbs and spices to use later. I love knowing what I'm using in my home and I can change my recipes according to taste or strength when I need to.

Lemon juice ice blocks, gravy mix, and flavoured vinegars are three things I make several times a year that help me save money and steer clear of preservatives and other potentially harmful chemicals. It shows how simple, homemade solutions can lead to small but lasting savings—and they’re healthier. Commercial lemon juice in a plastic bottle for instance, often contains preservatives like sodium metabisulfite, which some people can be sensitive to. Lemon juice is a natural deterrent to bacteria and by freezing fresh lemon juice, you’re not only cutting out preservatives but also ensuring you always have a natural antibacterial option on hand.

I use my gravy/brown sauce recipe with roast meats, in casseroles and, with mushrooms added, make mushroom sauce for steak. You can customise with herbs or spices for different dishes. It’s such an easy way to avoid the lengthy ingredient lists in store-bought sauces, which can contain fillers and preservatives. I make up a jar of this and leave it with my seasonings next to the stove. It saves going to the pantry and taking the ingredients out each time and then putting them back in.

Simple Gravy/Sauce Mix

I make a very simple mix of plain flour, salt, pepper and paprika. I also make one for roast lamb to which I add dried rosemary and one for roast chicken with dried sage - the paprika helps the sauce brown. When added to pan juices, it makes an excellent gravy or sauce. I make up about a cup of the simple mix at a time and that lasts a month or so. I use one or two tablespoons stirred into pan juices with enough water to make up the sauce. It's easier healthier and cheaper than Gravox or one of those packet mixes and it tastes much better.

Simple Gravy Mix - customise this to your own taste but start off with:

1 cup plain/all purpose flour
2 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

You can also make a spicier mix by adding a spoon full of chilli flakes, or a curry version by adding a tablespoon of curry powder.

Chilli Flakes

Wash and dry the chillies and only use those without rot or damage. Cut the top stem off and slice the chillies in half straight down. Place them on a baking tray covered with baking paper in the oven on about 40 - 60C. Dry in the oven until they feel dry, but not burnt - it will take a few hours. You'll have to watch them because some pieces will be smaller and will dry faster. Take small amounts out if you see that they've dried enough. When they're all dry, wait till they're completely cold and then blitz them in a food processor for a few seconds, until they're small flakes. Store in a airtight jar.

You can make chilli jam using fresh chillies or chilli flakes. Here is my recipe for that. How to make Chilli Jam

Sweet lemon/lime slices

This one makes sense particularly if you grow your own lemons or limes. I always have a jar of lemons or limes in the fridge over summer. When I have a drink I can add a slice of sweetened lemon to the iced water. It's suitable for iced tap water or carbonated water from a Soda Stream but also delicious in hot tea. When you get to the end of the slices, add the syrup to your drinks too, by then it will have a wonderful sharp lemon taste. A one litre jar will take three large lemons.

All you need to do is to add sugar syrup to your lemon slices. Sugar syrup is usually equal parts water to sugar. However, I use light syrup which is 2 cups water to 1 cup white sugar. Mix together in a saucepan and heat it on the stove. As soon as the sugar dissolves, cool it then add it to the sliced lemons, seal and store in the fridge.

Flavoured vinegar

Flavoured vinegar is another great idea, especially if, like me, you don’t like oil in your salad dressings. Infusing vinegar with your choice of spices and herbs adds layers of natural flavour. Store-bought salad dressings can be pricey and contain a surprising number of ingredients, so making your own is a healthier and cost-effective alternative. The effort is minimal, and the results are rewarding.

But vinegar is a good cleaner too. This is the spray I make up regularly that does a really good job and costs a few cents, not a few dollars like the supermarket version.

Surface Spray Cleaner

1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
¼ teaspoon washing up liquid

Mix all ingredients together and then add to a spray bottle. You can clean hard surface areas with this - bench tops, fridge doors, glass stove tops, cupboard doors etc. Be careful if you have stone bench tops.

Creamy Scrubber

To make a product similar to Gumption take a small container - about 500 mls/1 pint and add one cup of laundry liquid. Then add enough bicarbonate soda to make a paste. Mix with a spoon until it's mixed well. If you use a stained spoon to do that, your spoon will be sparkling when you finish.

This mix will dry out if you make too much. I make enough for about a month, then make a new batch. I use it to clean the shower, bath, ceramic and stainless steel sinks.

Don’t stop at these, there will be plenty of things you use in your home that, if you think about it, you can make up at home for a fraction of the cost of the supermarket version.

I enjoy housework because I love my home and want it to support me and help me live the life I've chosen for myself. A house is not an inconvenience, it's a home and safe haven, and possibly the largest investment you'll make in your entire life. So I believe the time we spend on house maintenance and cleaning as a good way of protecting what we worked hard for. And that, my friend, is a very good investment in the future.

Thanks for visiting me today. I hope everything is going well for you and your family. 😀

I eat my main meal at lunchtime. This is last week's lunch - corned beef with mashed potatoes, salad and homemade relish.

Although I seem to be moving further away from meat meals, I've had a craving for corned beef lately. It's a reminder of my youth because corned beef, mashed potatoes, cabbage and relish/pickles was a popular meal in Australia's suburbia in the 1950s/60/70s. My main problem with it is that the pieces of corned beef on sale at the supermarket are quite big and I don't want to waste what I buy. So when I see a small piece, I grab it, and at home, divide it in two and have a more reasonable size to cook and eat in the following days. I also use corned beef as a cold cut for sandwiches and when I make meatloaf, I divide that in two as well, eat one half for a couple of days and freeze the rest.

These meals are egg-based - above: asparagus quiche with filo pastry, below: tinned red salmon with boiled eggs and salad.

Another thing I've been thinking about recently is how the increasing cost of living is impacting people all around the world, and how we can respond to it in a common sense way. First of all let me put my hand up and acknowledge that it's been fairly easy for me to keep my food costs to a reasonable level. I don't have to consider other family members who want their steak or leg of lamb meals and don't want to think about balancing the budget. This week at my local Woolworth's supermarket a leg of lamb large enough for a family roast (1.8kg - 2.8kg) is $42. Buying a leg that size will give you leftovers for meals the following day as well as cold cuts for sandwiches in the lunchboxes. Other popular meats include T-bone steak - $30 kg, Scotch fillet steak - $41.50 kg and eye fillet - $52.00 kg. If you buy eye fillet from the butcher, it costs around $70 kg. 😳 Cheap sausages are $5.90 for 550g, Angus beef sausages are $9.00 for six sausages. If you're going to serve your steaks with a salad, one iceberg lettuce is $3.00, 500 grams tomatoes is $5.00, a cucumber is $3.50, red onions are 68 cents each, so two = $1.36. I think you probably have the makings of salad dressing at home (olive oil/vinegar) but if you have to buy the processed dressing, it will cost you $3.00. You'll get 6 bread rolls for $2.85. To buy a steak/sausages and salad for four people for ONE meal will cost around $66!

There are a few delicious meat meals made using the cheaper cuts of beef - skirt steak, gravy beef, blade steak are just some of them. If you slow cook them as a casserole, stew or soup, they'll provide a wonderful meal that your family will enjoy. They're also suitable for freezing, so store your leftovers in the freezer for backup meals in the following days.

Meatballs, cabbage and boiled potatoes.

Beef casserole, using the cheaper cuts of gravy beef or skirt steak, with herb dumplings.

Leftovers - pasta with bolognese sauce.

I wouldn't pay that because I could make something delicious that would be much cheaper and nutritious for less. Everytime someone pays those prices it tells the supermarkets that we're willing to pay those inflated prices. And if you just buy the salad it's still $12.86. Instead of salad, you could do a potato bake - that would cost you $4.50 for 2 kg potatoes, one onions is 68 cents, a small jar of cream is $3.75, pack of pre-grated Parmesan cheese - $2 and your electricity to bake it would be around 50 cents. That option would cost $9.43. Remember, theoretically, I'm cooking for a 4 person family.

Egg and bacon pie.

Making shortcrust pastry. It's easy but if you need a quicker option, buy a pack of filo pastry and use that instead.

OR you could make a quiche from scratch. That would cost $5.70 for 12 eggs (you'd have 6 leftover for breakfast), small jar of cream $3.75, garlic and onion about 85 cents, 500g bacon $6.75, and cheese $7.70. The homemade pastry would be $1.40 for 1kg of plain flour, $7.00 for 500 g butter (you'd have almost ¾ of the butter left over), the rest is just salt and water. There's a recipe for pie crust on Grandma Donna's blog here. This option would cost around $24.75 to make the quiche and you'd have eggs and butter leftover for another day and probably have quiche left over for lunches the following day. Add the salad at $12.86 and this meal would be $37.61. Both are reasonably healthy options but one meal is almost half the price of the other.

I buy frozen Australian peas and grow the greens and herbs I eat every week; they're really easy to grow, even in pots. My list includes parsley, chives, basil, cucumbers, radishes, rainbow chard, perpetual spinach, lettuce, chillies and green onions. I grow the lettuce in the shade of the bush house/verandah, the rest grow in the sun in the old sandbox. All of them are easy to grow from seed. I sprinkle seeds on the top of good potting mix in pots and grow in the shade. It requires water every second day and it will grow fast. I let the plants grow for about 4 weeks and while they're still small, I harvest a quarter of the pot with scissors and add them to my salads. The lettuce continues to grow after harvesting so I just give them a drink of Seasol to keep them healthy and they'll be ready to harvest again in 4 weeks. Setting yourself up to grow some of your own food will cost around $40, for seeds, potting mix and Seasol, but that should keep you going for a few months.

If I were to buy fresh parsley, chives, basil - all $3.20 a bunch, and rainbow chard - $4.70, spinach - $3.90, lettuce - $2.50. I woudln't buy all of them every week but most weeks herbs and green would cost me $10 if I didn't grow them myself. I think this is an excellent chore for one of the kids to take on. They'd learn to produce food and give the family the FRESHEST herbs and vegies every week. But even if you do it yourself like I do, it's well worth it.

Here is a list of some of the many vegetables, legumes and nuts that contain protein.

What I'm getting at here is that there are always options and protein doesn't have to be meat, chicken or fish. You don't have to choose the thing you've always chosen. Be wise and think of what you can do with different ingredients and when this cost of living crisis is over, and it will end, you'll be proud of how you got your family through it by changing what you eat and adjusting what you spend.

Homemade potato and curried mince pies - no pastry.

Vegetable frittata - which is just a fancy way of saying eggs with whatever vegetables are in your fridge.

The main problem moving away from meal, chicken or fish meals is that they all deliver the protein we all need. However, that doesn't mean there's no substitute for meat, fish or chicken. Egg, milk, cheese, yoghurt, legumes and pulses such as chick peas, split peas and lentils are all high in protein and they're all cheap, healthier than meat and better for the environment. If you have some tried and true meat-less, or almost meatless, meals, please share them with us. And don't forget tinned fish such as tuna and salmon. Boths are cheaper than meat and very nutritious.

Mostly meat-free egg recipes

45 reasons to have eggs for dinner

Delicious RecipeTin Eats meals

Let's think about unit prices, generic brands and being flexible with our choice of brands.

Unit prices are generally displayed under the product price on supermarket shelves. Checking the unit price gives us a more accurate understanding of the value for money of each item - even if something is "on special". So make your selections based on the unit prices, not the product price.

Generic brands can help you make ends meet in times like these. Supermarkets are retailers, not manufacturers so the generic brands are made by the same manufacturers that make the branded products you know well. There are no factories set up to make inferior generic brands - so manufacturers making flour, butter, tea, sugar etc. for the supermarkets just change the packaging and produce the generic brands you see on the shelves. And they're all cheaper than the well known brands.

Being flexible - this is good advice all through life. Flexibility helps us cope with difficult times and situations. We can all switch to generic brands when we need to but we can also substitute ingredients so we don't have to buy something we might use in just one recipe. If a recipe you want to try suggests something you don't have in your pantry, look up one of the websites below to find a substitute for it.

Allrecipes

Food Network

Food52

Baking for the grandkids - cup cakes and sausage rolls.

And finally, use your common sense and go with your instinct. Often your instinct will guide you in cooking. Back yourself in everything you do. You might have to stop and change your mind when it doesn't work but every time you do something new, it will teach you something. Open up your memory bank and store everything you learn for another time when you need it.

If you want the recipe for anything above, please use the search bar on the right hand side.