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With the recent consumer movement towards healthy foods, manufacturers have found a new tactic. They provide the service of a prep-cook. This is a cook in a restaurant whose sole job is to do all of the preparation work like chopping vegetables, cutting up fruit, and cooking pasta or rice. In general she does everything that needs to be done ahead of time, before the actual cooking process can take place. At the grocery store we can now buy produce that is already processed to a greater or lesser extent, essentially providing prep-service for us, if we're willing to pay for it. Think of the bags of salad that have become ubiquitous in the modern supermarket. They can cost as much as $10 or $12 a pound for ingredients that are available in the same store for only $2 a pound. Why does it cost an extra $8 or $10 a pound for someone to wash a head of romaine lettuce, cut it up and place it in a plastic bag? At home this process takes less than 10 minutes. That means that the store is getting paid $48 to $60 an hour to do a little bit of washing and chopping. For this much money an hour, I will gladly wash and chop my own salad greens. Other prepared fresh items include sliced carrots, shredded cabbage for coleslaw, and vegetables already chopped for stir-fries or eating raw as a snack. Even those so-called baby carrots that we can buy all over town, are just big carrots that have been peeled and whittled into shape. I can always find 5-pound bags of carrots for under $3. For that same $3 I could also buy a single pound of baby carrots. For every 5-pound bag of carrots that I prepare myself I save $12. This may not be as much savings as the lettuce but it's nothing to sneeze at. My 5-pound bag of carrots allows me to be a lot more creative too. I can make carrot sticks for dipping, just like that bag of baby carrots, but that's only the beginning. My carrots can be shredded and turned into salads. They can be braised with a pot roast, candied in a buttery sauce, added to meatloaf, turned into a refreshing gelatin creation, or added to a nutritious and delicious low-fat carrot cake.
Plain, basic foods are incredibly economical when compared to convenience foods. We can use that information to motivate us into learning more about the cooking process and discovering new, healthy and economical recipes. Mixes and precooked foods eat up the food dollar, as well as limiting the variety of finished dishes available to us. When we start from scratch there are so many different ways to go. If ground turkey is cheap and abundant, then make it your mission to discover ten different recipes that use of it in a variety of different presentations. Try each one in turn and you'll see the excitement that comes from home cooking. Each time you find a new way to use that ground turkey that fits your health needs and satisfies the family, you'll feel like you hit a home run. Since you're using all low-cost ingredients, you'll even be saving money on top of that. Some great bargains are available to those of us willing to do the sweat work ourselves. Frozen concentrate orange juice requires about 1-1/2 minutes to prepare and it saves a $2 to $4 each time we make it ourselves instead of buying it from the refrigerated section of the grocery store. Reconstituting powdered milk takes a little longer but it saves even more cash than the orange juice does. Hot cereal, homemade low-fat granola, pancakes and egg-white omelets all make delicious, nutritious breakfasts. They take a little time for cooking and clean-up, but they taste so much better and offer such significant savings that we would be remiss if we didn't try them. Homemade soups, hot breads and desserts can be made low in fat and sodium at home, and still give us delicious flavor while costing a fraction of their fatty, salty store-bought counterparts. Once we decide we're willing to bite the bullet and prepare as much of our own food that we can, we have to face up to a few facts of life that may put us off at first. For instance, handling raw meat takes a little while to get used to. Cutting apart chicken pieces, or chopping up beef for stew is sort of squishy and cold. I used to try to bargain with myself to figure out ways around handling raw meat. It was a losing battle. Once I accepted that slimy hands are just part of the cooking process, things became much easier on me. Baking takes a little more time when started from scratch, sometimes as few as 5 minutes more, sometimes a little longer. Finding the recipe I intend to prepare usually eats up several minutes. That's one of the reasons for this website. With all of my favorite recipes right here at my fingertips, I waste less time looking for the specific recipe I want. One thing that mixes have in their favor is a picture on the box that tells us "we can eat this tonight". We don't have to do any planning ahead or hard work. We just look at the picture and say "Oh, that's what we're having for dinner." This is why menus are so important. Working from a menu gives us a head start on dinner every single day. We don't ever have to worry about what the kids will eat when they get home because we already have a handle on things. We aren't seduced by those pretty pictures that tempt us from the market shelves because we know that we don't need their mix to make a seasoned rice side dish or tuna casserole. We can make these dishes ourselves using real whole grains, less salt, and more flavor than that box will ever give us. Additionally, our dish will cost less and provide more servings. That is what cooking from scratch is all about. Getting healthier food and more portions for less money. Sure we have to earn it with time in the kitchen, but the returns on our time make the extra work more than worthwhile.
Copyright Hillbilly Housewife 2005-2007
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