Healthy Food from Scratch – without processed food

Well that was fun! We have about twenty or so recipe books gathered over the past 10, 15 years or so (what a waste of money – I’m making a note of the recipes I like then I’m selling them), and I’ve been through everyone looking for dishes that we would like. There are plenty that we each like, but very few we all like and can agree on, cooking several meals at each sitting is a no no because you are just increasing your costs, not necessarily in food costs (if you keep the portions under control) but with cooking costs, (it’s the same when someone is eating later and needs something warmed up, eat it cold I say and save me money!
One thing I’ve tried to do over the years is build up my own collection of recipes, that we would have more than the once, that I’ve cut out of magazines and the like, these I’ve inserted into plastic wallets and put into a folder (saves space and the plastic wallets are wipe cleaned after use).
We have finally agreed on some recipes that could be put together for a menu for the week, and as I’m trying to eliminate processed foods and save money I need to have a clear strategy for the shopping trip. There will undoubtedly be some products that we can’t make ourselves from scratch but we’re going to have a good go and only resort to processed products when all avenues have been exhausted (I know it’s not all going to happen overnight but you have to start somewhere).
For the list of recipes we have some sort of menu for the coming week and from these we’ll have a list of ingredients for the shopping list, now is the time to see what’s already in the cupboards so we don’t buy anything we already have.

Until next time: I’m making sure I don’t duplicate anything we already have so not wasting money.