So I'm pretty much just the same as you. I, too, have a hand-me-down bread machine, whence the outsides of my sandwiches, and marinara comes from the stove, not from a jar.
I don't know if this counts, but I never buy pancake mix, or brownie mix... making it from scratch is really not any harder, always cheaper, and fewer preservatives!
Also -- and I know this isn't fair, because I live in Arizona -- I don't have to buy orange juice, because I have orange and grapefruit trees in my backyard, and I got a juicer for Xmas.
Have you ever tried making a bunch of OJ and freezing it? I'm about to move away from a house with an AMAZING orange tree, and I'm the only roommate who likes the oranges, so I wanted to pillage the tree before I left, but I'm hesitant to make a bunch of something that won't be worth it, you know?
i can e-mail you the recipe. it is mostly tomatoes from cans in various forms (hopefully this will change this year) so i wouldn't really call it "from scratch" but it's easy. freezing is pretty simple...let it cool first, and i like smallish, single-serving containers so i can defrost one at a time instead of hacking away at a frozen brick.
I also have taken to making my own bread now that Bob has a bread machine. I love making spaghetti sauce - my dad has a canning pot at my parents' house so I jar some of it up over there, along with pickles (mmm, bread and butter.) When I'm making Indian food, I make my own paneer. Make french fries sometimes, but not always... I'm crafty, so I make blankets. I still buy blankets sometimes, but I make them too. (Does that count?) Sometimes I make my own conditioner?
we recently switched to bar shampoo to cut down on plastic waste. it's surprisingly good and i haven't even needed conditioner...but i'd like to hear how you make it in case i want to try!
i always make my own granola. and pizza. and some stuff that's convenience food, i like to make and just keep in the freezer instead of buying canned-- soup, baked beans, stuff like that. um. . . pesto. and i never do this, but i always dream of making pasta. do you need a pasta maker for that?
do you have a favorite granola or baked bean recipe? both are things i've been wanting to try to make.
pesto and soup were two things i thought i'd mention above but didn't...i don't remember the last time i bought canned soup. making a whole pot is so satisfying anyway and you can eat it all week!
i am kind of daunted by the idea of making pasta, and we have a pasta maker (although you can definitely cut it yourself). from what i can tell, you can make egg pasta with a pasta maker and freeze it, but i don't know if i'd be able to approximate the kind of dry pasta you get at the store.
Pasta makers make the process easier, unless you're really good with a knife.
It tastes a bit better, I think, than the stuff from the store- more like food and less like filler. It's definitely freezable (I made butternut squash ravioli and froze it, reheating to eat months later), and works fine thawed. If you're going to dry it, expect it to dry not-straight-like-storebought because you have to hang it on hangers or racks for it to dry evenly.
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I don't know if this counts, but I never buy pancake mix, or brownie mix... making it from scratch is really not any harder, always cheaper, and fewer preservatives!
Also -- and I know this isn't fair, because I live in Arizona -- I don't have to buy orange juice, because I have orange and grapefruit trees in my backyard, and I got a juicer for Xmas.
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Sometimes I make my own conditioner?
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pesto and soup were two things i thought i'd mention above but didn't...i don't remember the last time i bought canned soup. making a whole pot is so satisfying anyway and you can eat it all week!
i am kind of daunted by the idea of making pasta, and we have a pasta maker (although you can definitely cut it yourself). from what i can tell, you can make egg pasta with a pasta maker and freeze it, but i don't know if i'd be able to approximate the kind of dry pasta you get at the store.
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It tastes a bit better, I think, than the stuff from the store- more like food and less like filler. It's definitely freezable (I made butternut squash ravioli and froze it, reheating to eat months later), and works fine thawed. If you're going to dry it, expect it to dry not-straight-like-storebought because you have to hang it on hangers or racks for it to dry evenly.
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