5 Items You Shouldn’t Bother Buying

Nov 26th

There are items in your kitchen that cost pennies that the grocery stores have for a much larger mark up. Here are Five that come to my mind.

1) Bread Crumbs, Croutons If you have bread in the house you have these items. If bread is going stale DON’T THROW IT OUT, put it in a freezer bag in the freezer and pull out when you need bread crumbs or croutons. A quick spin in a food processor or grater gives you bread crumbs and a few chops with the knife makes croutons. Easily jazz these up by toasting with olive oil for crunch and herbs for seasoning.

2) Stock, Broth Every time you make a roast and have leftover bones, every time you peel an onion and have the skins, cut carrots and have the tips, stems from herbs after the leaves have been pulled off, etc KEEP THEM. Any tails keep in the freezer or fridge depending on when you will make your stock. When ready throw in a pot, top with water, bring to a boil, then simmer those flavors in. When finished cool and put in an ice cube tray, freeze, then empty into a freezer safe container and date. You will have portioned out stock always.

3) Fancy Frozen Vegetables Buy plain frozen vegetables, or before fresh vegetables turn, throw them in a freezer safe bag, date, but the fancy herb butters are an unnecessary mark up. Make your own butter by taking fresh herbs (keep the stems for stock), finely chop and mix with butter (this goes for jazzing up mayonnaise also) and cook the vegetables with the butter mixture.

4) Brown Sugar, Confectioners Sugar Keeping a stocked pantry is all you need without buying the extra stuff. Brown sugar add molasses to granulated sugar. 1 cup sugar: 1 Tablespoon Molasses and mix. For confectioners sugar add 1 Tablespoon corn starch to 1 cup granulated sugar to blender or food processor and blend on a high speed until sugar turns to powder.

5) Bottled Water It is a waste of money. Get a reusable water bottle and fill up at the tap. It is not healthier/cleaner and in fact those plastics are leaching into the bottled water.

What are some foods you can think of you shouldn’t buy?

About the Author,

I had to teach myself to cook and began to learn how to create the dishes I had eaten in my own kitchen. Before long, as my own kitchen confidence grew, friends were calling, texting, emailing daily to ask what they should have for dinner or how to prepare this or what to do what that. And that is how this site came to be.