The Ultimate Homemakers challenge

As the prices for groceries are on the rise, I find myself spending more and more money on groceries. Our family of six is eating about $700.00 worth of groceries every month. I have always been a good shopper. My mother made grocery shopping a part of our home schooling, and a huge part of training her girls for marriage. One of the most important parts of being a good shopper is not buy a lot of expensive prepared foods but, buying bulk and separating it into smaller packaging. This pretty much covers every thing from pastas to burger, juice, and ketchup. We don’t buy juice boxes generally as a rule and never buy lunch snack food such as granola bars fruit snacks and roll- ups, and currently not toaster pops. It is not just about healthy shopping, as I could blog just on that alone, and I am not a health nut by any means .It is about shopping to fit your budget and the needs of your family and that includes healthy eating ,healthy shopping . So, that is a good start for some of you, but for me I must step one-step farther. When we say don’t buy prepared, generally we are referring to snacks, instant this and that, pre-made whatever. However, when you truly think of it, very little is sold in the grocery store that is not prepared. With the exception of fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, and whole meat, everything is prepared. We buy it all from soups , pickles ,jam, syrups, Mac and cheese ,Mr. noodle other prepared rice and noodle mixes ,hamburger helper … and the list goes on and on even noodles them selves are prepared .

The Challenge

I my self am going on a summer challenge to slowly eliminate prepared foods from my diet and budget and replace them with home made varieties of the same from ketchup to noodles ,soaps even cheese if I can swing the milk . The reason is we must accomplish it slowly, as it will cost a bit to start canning more. We need to prepare in the summer for the fall harvest, to plan what we are going to build and watch for when it comes on sale in superstore. this includes sales on sugar and flour which I will need a lot more of  in order to make the jams bread ,pancake mixes . Will you take the challenge with me? It should be a lot of fun, as I turn packaged into homemade whether I blunder it or succeed we will do it together! Love Melody 

Here is a few pre made mixes to get you started

 

Mamma’s Biscuits  Mix

6c flour

8tsp Baking powder

Mix together and store in a sealed fresh Tupperware container.

To prepare

 1 cup of mix

 Add  

½ cup of lard or butter

2/3 cup of milk

Gently mix together to form a soft dough

Break of orange size pieces, place on bakers sheet

Bake until golden brown in a heated oven at 350 degrees

 

 

 

Momma’s Awesome Pancakes & Waffles Mix 

 8cups flour

4 cups powdered Milk (*optional)

8 tbsp.

16 tbsp. sugar (can be cut)

4 pinches salt

Mix together

Place in a fresh Tupperware container

 

To prepare

2 cup mix

Add

Water

For waffles

Add

5 eggs

Water (less than for pancakes)

Add just enough water to make your perfect pancake batter thickness

I like it a little thicker as it makes better thicker cakes

 

Momma’s Cornmeal Muffin Mix (the Best!)

 

4 cups flour

3 cup corn meal

12 tsp baking powder

4 tsp salt

1 1/3 cup sugar

 

To prepare

Add

2c mix

1 1/4 cup Milk

1 egg

¼ cup melted butter  

Mix together ,

Poor into muffin pans (no grease or paper necessary)

Let set for 15 min before baking for lighter results

Bake until golden brown 350 degrees