Homemade Cheese Sauce

This is one of those things that it never really occured to me could be homemade. I have so many recipes sitting in my "to try" file that call for cheese sauce (better known at the supermarket as Cheez-Wiz) but I just can't bring myself to spend $3+ on a single ingredient.

The other day, while cruising through The Tightwad Gazette, I found this recipe for homemade cheese sauce! I was ecstatic to say the least! Not only is this recipe far cheaper to make than the store boughten alternative, but it is just as tasty when used in recipes! Oh happy day!

Bring on the cheese recipes...

Ingredients...

...2 T. butter

...2 T. flour

...1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

...1 c. milk

...salt, pepper

Directions...

Melt butter in a saucepan. Blend in flour and combine with 1 cup of milk. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook until sauce thickens and then add shredded cheese. Cook until smooth.

Rhubarb Jam

So this is more of a summer recipe...making jam is just something you do in the summer. However, I made two batches on a chilly fall (winter?) day. I was taking inventory of my deep freeze when I noticed that we only have one container of the Strawberry Rhubarb Jam left from when I made it in June. So I pulled out some of the frozen rhubarb I had chopped up when it was fresh from the crop and made up this version. It's a bit more tart than the strawberry rhubarb version...but it's still ohhh so good! I love homemade jam!

Ingredients...

...6 1/2 cups rhubarb, chopped
...1/3 cup orange juice
...1/2 cup water
...2 cups sugar
...Fruit Pectin (optional)

Directions...

Place rhubarb, orange juice, water and sugar in a large saucepan or stockpot. Bring to a rolling boil and let it boil for 15 to 20 minutes, or until thickened. At this point, you can add a half packet of fruit pectin if you wish, but the orange juice has enough natural pectin in it to appropriately thicken the jam on it's own. Adding pectin is up to each individual person and how thick they like their jam. Place into freezer containers and freeze until ready for use. Store in refrigerator in between uses.

Mayonnaise

I don't know why it took me so long to make mayonnaise from scratch! This is absolutely delicious, 100% easy, and, as with all homemade recipes, it tasted a million times better than store bought! You HAVE to try this!

Ingredients...

...1 egg
...1 1/2 tbs. white vinegar
...1/2 tsp. salt
...1/8 tsp. garlic powder
...1 tbs. powdered sugar
...1 cup oil (you can use any kind you want. I used vegetable because it's all I had on hand)

Directions...

Place egg, salt, garlic powder and powdered sugar in bowl. Wisk until well combined. Slowly pour oil in while wisking quickly. Continue wisking until oil is mixed well.

The Verdict...

I positively couldn't believe how good this tasted! I completely prefer it to store bought now! I haven't done up any cost comparisons yet, but I'm eager to see how it compares!

Flour Tortillas

This is one of those "I-know-I-can-make-it-cheaper" recipes. The price of flour tortillas is outrageous, and I just knew that there had to be a way to make them from scratch! I was right!

Ingredients...

...4 cups all purpose flour
...1 tsp. salt
...2 tsp. baking powder
...2 tbs. lard (I used butter, it worked out fine)
...1 1/2 cups water

Directions...

In a large bowl, wisk together flour, salt and baking powder. Mix in lard (butter) with your fingers until the mixture resembles corn meal. Add water and continue mixing until the dough comes together. Place on a lightly floured surface, and knead for a few minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Divide dough into 24 pieces, rolled into a ball. Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat (I strongly recommend using a nonstick pan for this to prevent a burnt-black-won't-come-clean mess!). Using a floured rolling pin, roll each ball until it is the same thickness as a piece of paper (in a circle of course!). Place into hot skillet and cook until bubbly and edges turn golden. Flip and repeat. Repeat process until all dough balls have been cooked.

My Thoughts...

I'm really glad this worked out! I froze many of the tortillas as we will never go through 24 before they go bad. This is much cheaper than the grocery store, and I like knowing all of the ingredients in them! Just another pantry basic that can be made from scratch crossed off my grocery list!

Homemade Cream Cheese Spread

I love putting a cream cheese spread on my bagels! It adds so much more flavor than butter and is a nice change from peanut butter or jam. So yesterday when I had some strawberries leftover after making some homemade strawberry rhubarb jam, I decided to make an attempt at some homemade cream cheese spread!

The Ingredients...

...5 oz. cream cheese (really. it's however much you want to use. I just used 5 oz. because it's what I had leftover after a frosting recipe I made)
...1 cap full of vanilla extract
...Smashed Strawberries (yet again, how much is up to you. I just kept mashing and adding until I felt it tasted right.)

Directions...

Soften cream cheese and stir in vanilla. Smash up strawberries and stir in. Store in refrigerator.

My Thoughts...

This was quite comparable to the store boughten cream cheese spread. I'm eager to try this again with different flavors. I haven't done an actual price of this homemade version...but I do know that it most definetely cost me under $1 to make. Which sure beats the pants off of the store bought price any day! Next time I have a craving for cream cheese spread on my bagel, I'll just whip up my own!

Cooking Beans in Your Crockpot!

I love making my own cooked beans to have on hand for dishes! They're so easy to make, and the crockpot makes it a "fix it and forget it" task! Cooking your own beans is alot cheaper than buying them canned. A can of beans costs upwards of 99c around here, while a single bag of uncooked beans costs 99c, and I can get 3 cans worth out of a bag. So thats only 33c!

Don't be afraid of cooking your own beans, the crockpot makes it a snap!

First, pull out all of the split, wrinkled and misshapen beans....

Then, place in a large bowl and cover with 2-3 inches of water. Cover and let soak overnight. If you live in a warm climate or if your furnace is on, let them sit in the refrigerator overnight while they soak. This will prevent bacteria from forming!

On a side note, I have heard that this step can be omitted, it doesn't do much for the softening of beans, it is just a way to release the gasses that come along with beans. So this step is up to you!

Then, strain and again look through for misshapen, wrinkled and split beans. Place in the crockpot. Cook in the crockpot on low for 8 hours. As with the bowl, fill the crock with enough water so that there is two to three inches covering the beans.

Once done, measure out 1 1/3 cups of the cooked beans (1 1/3 cup cooked = 1 can storebought). Place in a Ziploc bag or plastic container. Freeze until ready for use.

I love cooking beans this way, mostly because using the crockpot only costs pennies per hour to run versus the stove! So not only is it frugal to cook your own beans, but it is also frugal on your energy bill too!

For more great kitchen tips, check out Kitchen Tip Tuesday over at Tammy's Recipes!

Syrup....from Scratch!

I have been wanting to make my own syrup for quite some time now and we finally used up the last of our store boughten syrup so that I wouldn't feel guilty about it going to waste while I made a brand new batch. And let me tell you, I will NEVER buy syrup again!

Ingredients...

...3/4 c. packed brown sugar

...1/4 c. sugar

...3/4 c. water

...1/2 c. light corn syrup

...1 t. vanilla (or, if you would rather, you can do 1/2 t. vanilla and 1/2 t. maple extract)

Directions....

In saucepan combine sugars, water and corn syrup and bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 7 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla (and maple, if using) flavoring. Let stand 15 minutes to set.

My Thoughts....

This was gooo-oood! Way better than store bought! It was the same consistency and color as store bought, but it just tasted better! I love making my own pantry staples, not only do I know exactly what's in them, but they always taste better, no matter what it is!

Amish Bread

I got a bread machine last week at a local store, which is similar to Goodwill. It was only $6 and needed a little bit of TLC...there were some stains on the exterior and it was obvious that after baking the last loaf of bread in it, the previous owner just sent it to be donated. At any rate, it cleaned up fabulously and works like new! Yesterday was a pretty dreary day, so I decided that there was no better way to warm up my house than to bake a loaf of bread in my new machine! I decided to make som Amish bread, and it was sooo worth the (very little) effort that it took!

Ingredients...

...1 c. warm water (100*-115* F)
...1/3 c. sugar
...3/4 t. salt
...2 T. oil
...3 c. flour
...1 T dry yeast (I measured out my packet and it came in at just a hair under 1 T. so I just settled for that)

Directions...

Dissolve sugar in warm water and add yeast. Let sit for about 15 minutes, until a foam forms on top. Place in bread machine and add oil. Swish around until oil and water mixed together. Add flour and place salt on top of the flour. Set machine to the dough setting and start. Once the machine has ran through the dough cycle, gently mold dough into bread pan form, making sure to try and get all air bubbles out at the same time. Cover and let dough rise for 30-40 minutes, or until about doubled. Place into preheated oven and let bake for 25-30 minutes.

My Thoughts....

Yuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmm! I forgot how much I love homemade bread until I had a slice of this. Once our freezer stockpile of markdown bread I got runs out, we're surviving solely on homemade bread, no more store bought! There is nothing better than homemade bread....except for maybe the homemade jam I put on it!

Let's Make Jam!

In an attempt to begin becoming more self sufficient, and to cut my costs at the grocery store, I am taking on making my own pantry staples. I decided to start off with jam. Strawberry Rhubarb Jam. YUMMO! I was super nervous when I started this process, I was so afraid that I was going to mess it up somehow! But it turned out to be a relatively simple process!

The ingredients...

...1 lb. chopped rhubarb
...2 lb. strawberries
...6 1/2 C. Sugar
...1/2 c. water
...1 packet liquid fruit pectin (I used Sure Jell Certo)

The directions...

Mash strawberries....

...so they resemble something like this. I used a potato masher and it worked wonderfully. Sadly, upon finishing the mashing, these eerily reminded me of the strawberries that my high school served with lunch often. Set aside.

Next, place rhubarb in the biggest saucepan you own (seriously. I used the one that I cook spaghetti in, and it was just barely big enough once everything got in there) with 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil, about three minutes, until rhubarb is soft. Add strawberries & sugar. Cook over high heat, stirring constantly until it comes to a rolling boil. Let boil for two minutes. Quickly add packet of pectin to the boiling mixture, and stir in. Resume to boil for one minute. Quickly pour finished jam into jars or containers (if canning, insert that process here). Let stand to cool for an hour or so and thicken up. Thickening process could take several days in refrigerator. Store in refrigerator or freezer (unless you canned). ENJOY!!!

My Thoughts...

YUUMMM!! This was delicious! And super easy too! I'm going to repeat this process once other fruits are in season so we have a wide variety of jams for the year to come, as well as some extras to give as gifts. I'm excited that this process turned out to be so easy!

To see more great recipes, check out 5 Ingredient Fridays over at Paige's Place and Recipe Swap over at Grocery Cart Challenge!