The Tightwad's Guide to Cooking from Scratch

[Neko-chan]

...

 

[framing fowl]

I just checked out a really good book from the library. Wildly affordable organic : eat fabulous food, get healthy, and save the planet--all on $5 a day or less by Linda Watson. What I liked about it is it was just published and I think the prices were actually in line with what I see at the grocery. Her premise in writing the book was a challenge on eating organic on a food stamp budget. (And the saving the planet rhetoric was minimal and not political.)

What I like about the book is it is incredibly detailed. There are pantry lists by the month and season with every ingredient from every menu accounted for. The menus seemed fairly reasonable (except for breakfasts) but I did see the lists being useful. Especially for someone starting to fill a pantry and learning to cook from a stocked pantry. I only had time to do a quick overview for the week I had it and need to recheck it out so I can go back in detail and pull out the parts I want to incorporate.

Anyway, if you're overwhelmed and not sure where to start, I thought it was a good intro or if you're OCD and want to know that you will need 1/4 tsp of paprika in May!

 

[framing fowl]

When I started cooking and eating more vegetables, I was a bit unsure on how to fix them so they would be tasty or what to do with them. I started menu planning so I knew what I was going to purchase in advance. There's just the two of us and with the grocery stores being so far apart, it didn't make sense to shop at more than one store or compare circulars to save .20/lb on something. But then when I got to the store, I would find other veggies cheaper but not on the menu but I wouldn't buy them because I didn't know what I was going to do with them.

Problem solved. I finally got enough confidence to buy what was on sale at the grocery when I got there without a menu. Then when I got home, I would just go to a recipe website like allrecipes.com and put the vegetable in the search engine. In about 30 seconds, I usually had 2 or 3 ideas that I was drooling over.

I also am figuring out how to stock our pantry so I almost always have the staples on hand for just about any reasonable recipe so I don't have to plan a menu in advance. It's given me a lot more flexibility. It's been a learning curve but well worth it!

 

[bambi]

Farming Fowl, I just download to my kindle the book you suggested. It really looks to be a good book and one I think I can learn from. I am glad I download just a sample because I think it will be more pratical in book form. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Britesea]

Me too! I just took down a recipe for homemade "Bisquick". Haven't given it a try yet, but when hubby gets back to work and I have the house and kitchen to myself again for the mornings, I'll do whatever it was I wanted to make.

I just tried making it with whole wheat for the first time-- I was surprised how well it turned out. All of the purchased whole grain mixes I've tried were heavy and made nasty tasting biscuits.

 

[TanksHill]

I do my own mixes. But usually I am using Bobs red mill GF flour.

G