When I was younger I remember looking into my grandma’s
pantry and cupboards and wondered to myself…”how was she going to feed everyone
when there seem to be nothing to fix?”
When dinner time came I was amazed to see all the yummy food before me,
she seemed to have whipped it up out of thin air…because I did not see any of
those yummy things in her pantry or cupboard when I looked inside of it.
That is what you call being a industrious woman in the
kitchen! I now have my own “Grandma’s Pantry”…I
have worked hard over the years to get to that point and it has been so
rewarding because I can fix just about any good simple recipe in a minutes
notice.
With a few important ingredients on hand in my pantry I can fix several healthy fulfilling home cooked meals.
I don’t buy a lot of convenience food because they tend to
be expensive and not very healthy to eat everyday especially if you also like
to visit the restaurants once a week.
There are a lot of ingredients in those foods that are NOT HEALTHY at all
and you pay in more ways then one when you stock up on convenience foods. I have learned how to make a lot of the convenience
foods from scratch and I store them for future use. I save a lot of money on my grocery bill by
doing this, plus they are healthier this way.
I LOVE TACOS!! It is my favorite food but I do not spend a
$1 or whatever the cost is for a packet of taco seasoning. I make my own homemade taco seasoning with
(salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, dried onions,
sugar, oregano, cumin). I have total
control of the taste and salt content of my seasonings. The best part is I am able to use some of the
same ingredients for my Chili Seasonings, Spaghetti Sauce, Seasoning of Meats,
Stews, and Soups etc. I could not do all
of that if I was to purchase a taco seasoning packet, I would need to purchase
more pre-packaged or pre-made foods to accomplish chili seasoning, spaghetti
sauce, stews etc.
So as you can see you get less then what you pay for when
you purchase convenience foods.
I also do not use recipes
that require me to purchase an item that I would only use for that specific recipe
…ex: Dry Sherry, Hollandaise sauce.
These would not be beneficial to me and my dinner preparations because I
would only use them once for that specific recipe. I fix simple meals and use recipes that use
simple ingredients it ensures that my food bill stays low.
With adopting the “Grandma’s Pantry” cooking techniques, I
spend less money on my grocery bills and feed a family of 5 for $250 - $400 a
month. I use what I have and I have
learned how to substitute certain things with what I have in my pantry.
I will be posting more information on how to make your
grocery bill dollars stretch without having to use coupons to save money. I will also talk about the possible pitfalls
of using coupons in a later post.
You can find out some of the ingredients I keep in my “Grandma’sPantry” by clicking the link.
A pastry bag: Is a cone shaped
bag used for piping of icing onto cakes or for more complicated cake
decorations. You can also use a pastry bag to create decorative food
arrangements of semi- solid food.
The Swap: A plastic bag. For a simple “Happy
Birthday” or “I Love You” design on a cake you can use a heavy freezer plastic
bag and turn it into a handy dandy pastry bag for basic decorating, frosting,
melted chocolate, whipped cream or piping of dough (like Churros..etc). Spoon in your ingredient and snip the corner
with scissors to your desired diameter and then gently squeeze out onto your
cake.
