Make it yo'self!

Sorry for the poor picture quality. I had to take this photo with my dumbphone (tm), because all cameras in a five mile radius of my house appear to have crapped out, all at the same time. It's a gov'ment conspiracy, ya'll!

Not really.

And while I'm hangin' out in disclaimer-ville, I might as well mention that even though I'm about to get all preachy about homemade, good for you food, I am not, have never been, will probably never really be a whole food, real food, paleo, vegan, etc, etc. My kids eat at McDonalds sometimes. I LOVE "chinese" food. And pizza. In any form. When we go to church, the whole family hits up the cheeseball bucket. Orange fingers are practically a Wednesday night tradition. What I'm trying to say is, I am not on a bandwagon. What I am is cheap. Well, more like broke, but it adds up to the same thing. So. On to the good stuff.

A few weeks back, just before we had a wet, rainy, no-internet-because-satellites-apparently-don't-work-in-the-rain episode, I decided that it was time to start making a lot more of our food from scratch - A. because I want to, 2. because it usually tastes better, and C. because, as I mentioned, I'm cheap. I started thinking about foods that we buy cheaply, and how that equals less quality, and more unpronounceable ingredients, and made a list of things to start making from scratch. Then I spent 2 weeks wailing and gnashing my teeth because of the aforementioned internet outage. And deciding that I really need to invest in some good cookbooks, gardening books, and books with lots of pretty pictures, because if we ever lose internet for good, I will be adrift in a sea of emptiness and pinterest withdrawal.

Ahem.

Anyhow. The internet is back up, and so I've been on the hunt for recipes and whatnot. And I've been trying out some fun stuff, like homemade yogurt - which is about the easiest thing in the world, and tastes so much better than storebought (I'm about to say that alot, just a headsup). There's a nice tutorial here:

http://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/how-to-make-yogurt-from-scratch/

Today I made the wheat crackers at the top of the post, because I've had a serious hankerin' for crackers and none in the pantry. And these are super yummy. I just ate about half of them with some homemade pesto. Oh my goodness. I used a mix of wheat and white flour and subbed 1/4 cup of wheat germ for part of the flour, and it was delicious. The whole process, start to finish, only took 30 minutes, and cost pennies to make (compared to 3 bucks a box. Nabisco can suck it!). They taste so much better than box crackers. Here's the recipe link:
http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/02/05/finer-things-friday-homemade-cracker-recipe-at-long-last/
(I noticed that this same website has a lot of recipes that look interesting)

I've also been making bread (lots of bread!), pesto, and lots of other sauces, on top of the summertime canning and preserving. It's easier on the grocery bill, and on our health (and tastebuds!). I've never been much of a label reader, because seriously, who has the time? but just the other day I made a coconut cake for my dad's birthday, and read the ingredients in the white frosting can. If I had any powdered sugar in the pantry, I would have thrown that junk right out and made some real frosting, with real, pronounceable ingredients. It doesn't seem like that big a stretch to me that the less processed food is, the healthier it is for you. And if it tastes better, too, then why not make the switch?

I've challenged my self to "make it yo'self", so I'll be trying to post a lot more recipes and showing what has worked (and what hasn't!) in the homemade food department. In the meantime, if you're interested in healthy and affordable food - give it a try! It's amazing how easy and affordable a lot of staple foods are when you make them yourself!