Cooking from scratch

One of my all-time favorite kitchen activities is to cook from scratch.  My favorite meals are those that are prepared with home-grown, home-made ingredients.  Ingredients such as cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, mayonnaise, buttermilk and more can all be made at home.  Baking mixes, graham crackers, crackers, pop-tart taste-a-likes and your favorite snacks can all be made at home.  You avoid the preservatives and if you prepare it well yourself you know it won't be recalled!

If convenience is the reason you buy processed foods, I can excitedly tell you that you can cook meals and snacks ahead and freeze or can them so you can use them without any preparation next time.  Bread and pie dough can almost always be found in my freezer.  I pull out a loaf of bread dough at night and let it thaw all night and bake in the morning.  Cookies can also be frozen.  Babyfood can be frozen in individual portion size cubes using a ice cube tray.  If you have a FoodSaver, you can cook a variety of meals, snacks and sides, FoodSave them and have them last much longer than food stored in typical storage wraps and containers.  You can pre-make mixes and store them in jars or bags.  The ideas are simply endless.

Meals made with home-grown vegetables and herbs simply taste better.  Being able to use produce grown in healthy soil, right off the vine, and prepared in ways that preserve nutrients, homegrown meals are hands down the healthiest options.  Can your produce, soups, meats and fruits.  Produce home made meals and freeze them.  Freeze excess veggies, fruits, meats and soups.  Dry vegetables, fruits and meats for yummy snacks.  Eat meals consisting of raw vegetables just picked from the garden! Mmmmm!  Take the kids out to help you harvest from your garden and let them sneak a few vegetables in as a snack!

My goal is to cook once a month to save a deep freezers worth of meals, doughs and other home-made ingredients (we have two - a smaller deep freezer used for my homemade 'stuff' and a much larger one to hold our bulk meats, poultry, wild game and other 'main parts' of our meals.  The smaller freezer on top of our fridge is used to hold 'daily use' items so I'm not opening the deep freezer on a daily basis). My garden planning is done in an attempt to harvest several times during the season and feed my family fresh veggies and fruits all season long, while having enough excess to use in meals (to freeze), and can or freeze the rest so I have produce from the garden year round.

Anything that alters the raw, natural state of fruit and vegetables is going to reduce the nutrition value.  I believe produce is healthiest in this order: raw/unaltered, frozen, dried, then canned.  Because vegetables and fruits rot if not eaten in time, the next best thing you can do with them is preserve them. 

Ready to get started?  Pick your favorite store-bought item.  Then google (or use whatever search engine you like) it's name and find out how to make it!