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Cooking from Scratch

March 25, 2010 By Emily McClements
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Photo by nc_hiker

I have been cooking more and more from scratch at home then ever before.  Partly I’m trying to be frugal and save money by buying basic baking and cooking supplies in bulk and then using them to make stuff at home.

Also, I really like being able to control the ingredients and what goes into the food we eat.  After reading Real Food and watching Food, Inc. (more to come on that soon), I’m convinced that there’s a lot of “food” out there that isn’t really food, and that we shouldn’t be putting in our bodies.  I’m also becoming more convinced that there is a lot of stuff that looks and sounds good for us, but when I turn the package over and read the ingredients I am unpleasantly surprised by what I find.

Another thing that’s great about cooking from scratch is that I can make at home what I may have previously had to run out the store and buy to be able to make dinner.  Last night I was making Mexican Rice for our small group and realized I didn’t have any taco seasoning, so I looked up a recipe on allrecipes.com and viola, homemade taco seasoning and yummy homemade Mexican Rice.  Or tonight we’re having quesadillas and I don’t have any tortillas.  No worries, I now have tortilla dough resting on the counter waiting to be rolled out and cooked and then I can use them to make our quesadillas.  With basic ingredients always on hand you know you’ll be able to throw together just about anything you might need to complete a homemade meal for your family. 

I was recently reading an interview with the author Michael Pollan.  He wrote The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food.  (I haven’t read either, but hope to within this year.)  I thought it was really interesting, because in this interview, Mr. Pollan talks about cooking at home as an important step, maybe the most important step to take, in beginning to change our eating habits and changing the food industry. He says that when we let a big company or corporation cook for us, they use less than ideal ingredients because they are cheap and we think they taste good.  They use way too much fat, salt and sugar, more than we would ever use if we were cooking for ourselves.  Companies are not in the food business to provide us with the healthiest, best food for our bodies. They don’t have our best interest at heart.  I had never thought about it in that way before, and it’s just one more reason for me to try to cook as much at home as I can.

Cooking from scratch doesn’t have to be all or nothing.  Start by thinking of one or two things that you buy at the store that you could probably make pretty easily at home.  Take baby steps, make small changes and before you know it, you’ll be making all kinds of things from scratch.

Here’s a quick list of things I used to buy, but now make at home:
Yogurt
Granola
Tortillas
Dried beans (instead of canned beans)
Dinner Rolls
Vanilla Coffee Creamer
Brownies
Bread (I still buy bread for sandwiches, trying to find a good homemade sandwich bread recipe)
Hummus
Granola bars
Lemonade
Chicken Stock
Taco seasoning
Chicken Nuggets
Peanut Butter (I still buy natural peanut butter, but I do make it at home sometimes too)
*There may be more, but that’s about all I can think of right now. 

And Things I still want to try making myself:
Pita bread – tried this once and it was a disaster – let’s just say I set off the fire alarm!
Vanilla extract
Mayo and Salad Dressings
Sandwich bread
*There’s lots more on this list too, but I have to keep it manageable and doable to not get overwhelmed.  Baby steps, right! 

Cooking from scratch at home gives us the opportunity to feed our families healthy, nourishing food that has not been processed beyond recognition, and not to trust our food to a company who cares more about their bottom line than about our waistline.  I encourage you to try cooking one new thing from scratch at home this week!

6 CommentsFiled Under: In The Kitchen Tagged With: baby steps, frugal cooking, homemade, homemade convenience food

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Comments

  1. Jason Anderson says

    August 27, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    I need a wife for all the homemade stuff.. i never have time with my work schedule

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Meal Plan Monday says:
    October 10, 2010 at 10:23 pm

    […] lax with meal planning lately, so I’m glad to get back into it and work on getting back to cooking from scratch and planning snacks to have on hand.  I’ll list the things I’m planning to make this […]

    Reply
  2. Garbage Inventory – Part II – You Are What You Waste says:
    January 17, 2011 at 6:56 am

    […] in. I realized that, obviously, the more you eat real, whole foods (as in not processed foods), cook from scratch and buy in bulk, the less food related/packaging waste you will create. This is an area I really […]

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  3. My Top 10 Not So Frugally Green Confessions says:
    February 15, 2011 at 4:53 pm

    […] Maybe because of the lack of meal planning, and also because of the lack of time, I have not been cooking from scratch as much as I would like. We have many more items of boxed and processed foods in our cupboards […]

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  4. Change Challenge – Ingredients to Avoid | Live Renewed says:
    May 20, 2011 at 2:30 pm

    […] But, there are definitely some food additives that are worse than others – some that have been shown to have harmful effects on our bodies and our health, that we should try to avoid completely, in all of our food. Theses are the ingredients that I am specifically looking for when I am reading an ingredient label.  If a food I’m considering buying has one of these ingredients I will try my absolute best not to buy it, and find an alternative, or consider making it myself from scratch. […]

    Reply
  5. Meal Plan and Buying Bulk Foods says:
    May 27, 2011 at 11:14 am

    […] foods like frozen pizza, so that makes me happy because I realize that I am getting better at the cooking from scratch thing, and making do with what I have on hand.  And now, my pantry is overflowing with stuff just […]

    Reply

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