Frugal Kitchens 101 - K-Cup Coffee Shops

Single-brew coffee systems have become quite popular because they are convenient and save money.  Like many, I saw the immediate benefits of the single-brew systems especially for entertaining.  We bought a Melitta One:One single brew system that use pods quite similar to round tea bags only coffee.  We were quite happy with it even though it was difficult to find the pods in town but since we were in the US on a fairly regular basis, that wasn't a concern.  Then in early 2011 the Melitta started leaking sporadically gradually getting worse.  Compounding the problem, the pods for the Melitta were getting hard to find in the US as well, or at least where we shopped.  Finally, I had enough and replaced the Melitta with a Keurig single-brew coffee system.  Unlike the propriety pods for the Melitta with no option for using your own coffee, the Keurig had the My K-cup reusable filter system which would allow us to brew coffee using any ground coffee we wanted not just their K-cups.  In the event K-cups were no longer available, the system would still work until the appliance itself died.

I immediately started the cost analysis of the K-cups.  Each K-cup makes one 5.25 oz, 7.25 oz or 9.25 oz cup of coffee, tea, hot chocolate or other speciality drinks.  Depending on where you buy them, K-cups range in price from 35¢ to 79¢ which is a savings on $1.25 for a small take-out coffee and a considerable savings on speciality or gourmet coffees at coffee shops.  There's less waste produced with a K-cup and a lower carbon footprint as you don't have to drive to the coffee shop.  It's an added bonus to grab a favourite gourmet coffee and have it brewed into a travel mug just in time for heading out the door.  By far at 8¢ per cup, the My K-Cup filter with regular ground coffee bought on sale is the cheapest but it doesn't hurt to enjoy a favourite gourmet brew either.  The problem with some of the flavoured and gourmet coffees is you might not like them which has led to K-cup coffee shops which are becoming very popular because you get to sample the flavour of choice before buying a full package.

I just discovered one close enough to stop in when in that community.  The premise is you can pick a K-cup of your choice then have it brewed while sitting and enjoying the coffee shop or you can buy 6 or 30 mix-and-match K-cups or you can buy full boxes of one flavour of K-cups.  The one I went to charges $1.50 for a brewed coffee of your choice, $5 for a mix-and-match 6 K-cups (73¢ each), $22 for 30 mix-and match (73¢ each) and $16 for single flavour K-cups (66 ¢).  Be warned that they don't carry all variety of K-cups as the one we went to did not have any Folger's K-cups but they did have Starbucks.  Of note, if it is important to you, there was one K-cup (pink blend) with proceeds going to breast cancer research and several varieties that were Fair Trade.

Now, clearly the K-cup coffee shops are not cheaper per cup of coffee than Country Style or Tim Hortons BUT they are offering you a chance to taste test before buying a full box of that K-cup and they are giving you an opportunity to buy a wide variety of K-cups to taste test at home at a slightly lower price than you would pay for a full box of K-cups, single flavour, regular price.  The one we went to had sample K-cups of three of the brands that Sam's Club sells.  Sam's Club K-cups range in price from 43¢ to 56¢ but you have to buy a 80 pk which would really be annoying if you found you didn't like the taste of the coffee.  So if you have a chance to test out the coffee first, pay the extra at a K-cup coffee shop then if you like it buy it by the package on sale or at Sam's Club.

President's Choice The Great Canadian Single Serve Coffee Pod

My husband and I love our coffee.  By far we prefer coffee made in our vintage 1950's perculator which brews excellent coffee.  However, it is not convenient if only wanting to brew a single cup.  The Melitta Espresso & Cappuccino maker brews a lovely coffee but it is more for speciality coffees rather than daily use.  Several years ago, we bought a Melitta One:One single serve coffee maker that used round pods similar to Tetley tea bags.  The biggest problem we had was finding the coffee pods for the Melitta so when it started leaking, I splurged on a new Keurig single serve coffee maker in 2011.  As with our last house, the Keurig is one of two small kitchen appliances that have earned a place on the counter, never put into storage.

I bought a My K-cup reusable filtering system for the Keurig with my initial purchase.  K-cups are expensive at about 80¢ per cup whereas using store bought or fresh ground coffee, the price goes down to 8¢ per cup.  My main concern with the K-cups has not been price, it has been waste.  The K-cups cannot go in the recycle bin although they can be emptied into the compost then the cup and foil top tossed.

K-cups are convenient.  I did find an online source that sold certain K-cups as low as 40¢ each and was happy with my order but after several high pressure emails followed by a multitude of spam from them, I won't deal with them again!  Sam's Club is the best price for K-cups followed by Bed Breakfast and Beyond but our local No Frills has been putting the K-cups on sale as well.  I was looking for a few extra K-cups for holiday entertaining and came across the President's Choice The Great Canadian single serve coffee pods.  A twelve pack was $4.99 (42¢) so I decided to try them even though I am a bit leery of cheap K-cups.  I brought back a package of Grove Square K-cups from Florida only to find out it's instant coffee!

The President's Choice The Great Canadian single serve coffee pods are a unique soft-bottom single serve pod.  There is no hard plastic cup as in a K-cup (left).  If using a K-cup, it is placed in the K-cup holder then punctured top and bottom before the brewing process.  If using a My K-cup reusable filter system, the K-cup holder is replaced with the filtering system so nothing is punctured.  The soft-bottom pods are somewhat in between with the pod being placed in the K-cup holder but only punctured on the top.  Essentially, they are as convenient as K-cups, less expensive and have none of the mess of cleaning a reusable filter.  The box does indicate that the soft-bottom pods will work with most single brewers using Keuring Incorporated brewing systems but they are not affiliated with or approved by Keurig.  On the same note, I am aware of three other reusable systems other than My K-cup (Keurig) that can be used in Keurig systems that aren't affiliated or approved by Keurig.

It's hard to get a picture of both puncture marks on the K-cup (left) but there is a puncture on the bottom as well.  Once the K-cup has been used the foil top can be removed and the coffee grinds put into the compost.  While there are many ways to reuse the actual plastic cup, in most cases they will end up in the waste because a lot of municipalities don't allow unmarked plastics in the blue bin.

The soft-bottom pod has only a puncture in the top and the bottom becomes firm as the coffee swells during brewing.  The foil top can be removed then pushing hard bottom to top the soft bottom and coffee will pop off the ring for the compost.  You are left with a small, plastic ring considerably smaller than the K-cup.  I'm sure I will come up with a few ways to reuse these rings but if tossing, they should be cut to prevent any problems with wildlife strangling.

One of the biggest differences in the soft-bottom coffee pods is the package which overall is less than K-cups.  K-cups are usually kept in some type of rack right beside the brewer for easy access.  So you walk past the rack and all of a sudden want a coffee!  I usually buy K-cups in bulk from Sam's Club, occasionally buying a flavoured coffee on sale when I find it.  Neither of us are much into flavoured coffee but some of our guests are.  I have a couple of boxes and a plastic bin of K-cups so just restock the rack as needed.  However, the soft-bottom coffee pods cannot be stored in the rack for convenient use.  The reason being, there is nothing to stop the coffee from losing its aromatic flavour.

The soft-bottom coffee pods are packaged in a vacuum sealed, foil pouch inside a small cardboard box, both of which can be recycled.  The pods should be stored in the pouch, in the refrigerator for best flavour.  Another downside to the President's Choice soft-bottom coffee pods is the are only available in medium roast and west coast dark roast but both gourmet coffess made with 100% Arabica coffee.  I suspect they may introduce flavoured coffee pods but again, if you are looking for a nice alternative to K-cups, this coffee is good.

The Classic Yet Verstile Caesar Salad

My husband and I eat some type of salad pretty much daily at home as well as when travelling or at our vacation home.  It is the must have with any dinner but quite often during the warm months at home and at our vacation home, we turn to salads for lunch and/or dinner.  Salads pack a lot of nutrition while replenishing much needed water even though they tend to be low in calories making them an ideal choice.  In fact, the majority of calories in salads come from the dressing and toppings like cheese or croutons.

One of my favourite salads is Caesar salad.  It can be served with or without chicken strips but I really like mine without the chicken.  A little shredded Parmesan cheese adds protein and even though croutons are the norm, I seldom eat them.  It is likely one of the most versatile yet most inexpensive salads to make.

Caesar salad really starts with romaine lettuce, lemon juice, dressing, bacon bits and/or croutons all of which can be easily made at home.  Romaine lettuce grows nicely in pots on a sunny windowsill or in the garden.  I usually use Renee's Caesar Salad dressing to make Caesar salads at home.  This is a creamy gourmet dressing very, very close to homemade.  The thing is, a Caesar salad is just the beginnings of a Caesar salad wrap or a dinner Caesar salad.  Simply add pre-cooked chicken strips to either for a delectable meal.  I keep pre-cooked chicken strips in the freezer as a quick meal start simply for this purpose.   The chicken strips can be cold or warm.  I personally prefer cold but have had chicken Caesar salads with warm chicken strips as well.  The strips can be grilled or pan-fried then frozen in packets for later use.  I keep packets of frozen pre-cooked chicken strips on hand in the freezer for easy summer meals.

Home Canned Crushed Tomatoes

I am not a huge fan of home canning plain, basics as in tomato products.  The reason is two fold.  First home canned basic tomato products while versatile take up a fair amount of space in the pantry that could be better used for a home canned convenience product.  I would rather can the tomatoes in the form of ready to use sauce or quick meal than just plain tomatoes.  Second, there is little savings in canning a basic tomato product like whole, diced or crushed tomatoes.  This is not the case for me as my tomatoes are free to begin with but it is a factor for others who have to pay for their produce.

I decided to can a few jars of crushed tomatoes for the pantry.  Like most of my tomato products, I acidified and pressure canned both batches.  Pressure canning results in a healthier product that makes the beneficial anti-oxidant lycopene more readily available to the body and it save considerable time over processing in a boiling water bath canner (BWB).

I hot packed the first batch of crushed tomatoes (l jars to the back).  Plain tomatoes tend to be a bit problematic in that they will lose liquid during the canning process especially if raw packed.  I don't like that so hot packed the jars meaning I brought the tomatoes to a low boil using the method to prevent separation then processed.  There should have been no liquid loss but I suspected the venting time was a bit longer than it should have been for the first batch.  The batch was fine with all jars sealing just a bit more headspace than I like.  The second batch (500 ml jars to the front) had no leakage problems.  Once I removed the rings for storage, I was more than happy with the results.  The jars were picture perfect!

When it comes to home canning, pay attention to the required headspace.  This is a must and very important when processing using a pressure canner.  Be meticulous about the venting period before the canner is brought to pressure.  This allows any trapped air in the jar to be released before the canning process.  Most canner manufacturers recommend a 10 minute vent period.  Ignoring either of these will cause problems like liquid leakage and failed seals.  In the event a jar does leak during the canning process, as long as it seals during the cooling period the food is fine for storage although you might have a bit of a mess to clean-up in the canner.  If the jar does not seal during the 24 hour cooling process, put the jar in the refrigerator for use within a day or two or reprocess.

Home Canned Tomato Purée

One of my goals with home canning is creating a few convenience products for the pantry.  I have to tell you I don't can a lot of whole, diced or crushed tomatoes because I can take the tomatoes to the next level before canning.  This means I prefer canning tomato sauces and ready to use tomato products over plain tomatoes if I have to make a choice.  I canned 7 - 750 ml and 6 - L jars of tomato purée.  Tomato purée is thinner than tomato paste but thicker than tomato sauce.  It unseasoned so can be used as a base for tomato based sauces, ketchup, soups and tomato powder.

In their 1994 revision of home canning guidelines, the USDA warns against using some recycled jars (eg. mayonnaise jars) as there may be more breakage especially if processing using a pressure canner.  The reason for this is two fold.  First, the interior of the jar can be scratched from using metal utensils like knives.  Second, manufacturers have gone to a thinner glass for mayonnaise jars.  However, some store bought pasta sauces are packaged in 750 ml Atlas mason jars.  At one time, Atlas did manufacture mason jars specifically for the purpose of home canning.  Of note, the word 'mason' does not refer to the jar itself but rather the design of the threads.  I have about a dozen of the Atlas mason jars recycled from store bought pasta sauces  generously saved for me by family and friends.  They end up being used two or three times a year so have seen a lot of use.

The manufactures made a bit of a change realizing folks were reusing the jars for home canning although I think a more likely explanation was to cut down production costs.  They have gone to a smaller mouth, thinner thread on some of their sauces so the mason rings will not fit even though the jars continue to be embossed with 'Atlas mason'.  If you are buying commercial sauces specifically for the purpose of reusing them for home canning, take a mason jar ring with you.  Avoid any sauce with the thinner lid fitting the thinner rims.  Jars that can be repurposed for home canning will have a lid with a band the same depth as a mason jar ring.

The jars pictured have been in service for about 10 years without a problem.  I've had no more breakage than using regular mason jars which is minimal to begin with.  The risk of any scratches in the jar are minimal because any frugal homemaker would use a spatula not a knife to get the last remains from the jar.  The jars are 750 ml rather than 500 ml or a L which is an off size for home canning jars.  In this case the jars are processed to the next largest size so I processed according to the 1 L size (20 minutes at 10 lb pressure).

I canned the second batch of tomato purée in 1 - L mason jars.  While this is a new product in the pantry, it will be one that graces the shelves from now on.   Something tells me I did not can enough of it!

Tomatoes and tomato products tend to separate during storage due to the release of the enzyme pectase (pectinesterase) that is released when the tomato is cut.  A special process is used to prepare the tomato purée to prevent it from separating. This involves heating a small amount of the purée quickly over high heat then slowly adding in the remainder of the purée in small amounts while continuing to cook.  I started with about 750 ml of the purée.  Once that came to a boil I stirred in about 500 ml of the raw purée.  I continued in this fashion until all the purée had been added and was fully cooked then boiled the purée down a bit to get the right consistency.  The result was a beautiful tomato purée ready for the pantry and doesn't it just look lovely?

Frugal Kitchens 101 - Implementing Making Homemade Convenience Foods

The last two Frugal Kitchens 101 have focused on the equipment needed to make homemade convenience foods, the reasons why you should make your own convenience foods and gave you two short exercises to do in preparing for making your own convenience foods.  Armed with the two lists you created last week and the list of equipment needed from the first article you are now ready to proceed.  I have two very important points to consider before embarking on making your own homemade convenience foods.  First, think big but act small or in other words count your pennies and the dollars will follow.  You do not need to go out and buy all the supplies to make every convenience food to stock your pantry.  Remember, Rome was not built in a day!  You need to take baby steps realizing that each step you take is a step towards saving money while putting a healthier product in your pantry.  The second consideration is to never make a large batch of anything unless it is a family tested and approved recipe.  That means, it is fine to make 5 trays of your homemade lasagna for the freezer but not ok to make 10 cups of a taco seasoning blend you have never tried.  Make a test batch.  If it works, fine then go ahead and make a larger quantity but if it doesn't you are out little and can still do some tweaking.  Here are a few tips to get you up and running, making your own homemade convenience like a pro:

• equipment -  Equipment can be a limiting factor for some types of preserving (eg. canning, dehydrating, freezing).  Check Kijiji, your local Freecycle and thrift shops to get your own equipment or check with family or friends to see if you could borrow a piece of equipment you need from them for a day or two.  The cheapest source for zipper style freezer bags is Sam's Club (8¢ per gallon bag) and for vacuum bags is The Sweet Attack (17¢ per quart bag).  Ask friends and family to keep food jars with lids they would otherwise be putting in the recycle bin.  These are excellent for storing your homemade mixes in.
• always cook extra - I cannot stress this philosophy enough.  There are very few times I ever cook 'just enough' of anything.  The reason being it takes the same time and energy to cook 2 roasts or double the amount of rice as it does for the just enough amount.  In fact cooking multiples saves both time and money.   If you cook one roast, cook a second which gives you meat for dinner and left-overs from the first roast with hopefully enough left-over for a quick meal start and the second roast can be thin sliced then packaged for the freezer to be used as lunch meat.
• aim for one bulk cooking session per month - Bulk cooking is a great way to build your stash of homemade convenience foods.  I love cooking but I'm the first one to say a OAMC session isn't for me.  Basically, this makes all the meals you need for a month over a hectic two day period.  I use a modified bulk cooking session where I focus on one or two dishes.  For example, I may take a bit of time to cook up 10 lb of meatballs or make 5 trays of lasagna.  It helps to add to my convenience foods without tying up and entire weekend.
• enlist family and friends - One of the great things about actual OAMC sessions is they encourage you to get help from family or friends.  More helping hands makes the work go by quicker.  Even in your own home, get your family to help.  Tell them Saturday is cookie making day and each one has to come up with the recipe they want to use.  If you are a family of four, that should give you more than enough cookies for the month while spending a bit of quality time with your family.  Don't be afraid to delegate.  During busy bulk cooking and canning sessions, my husband's jobs are to bring up the canners and jars, use the KitchenAid attachments to grate the huge bowls of cheese we go through, take filled boxes and trays of food to the pantry and run to the grocery store if need be.  When the kids were home running to the grocery store was their job because my bulk cooking sessions are seldom planned, they just happen.  Even little ones can help get things out like measuring spoons, bags, wrap, containers and they love helping with some of the prep work.
• assembly line - While the assembly line method should never be used for home canning it lends itself nicely for assembling mixes and dishes for the freezer.  Using this method I can easily make 10 homemade cake mixes in under 10 minutes!  That is less time than it would take me to drive to the grocery store, get the mixes, check-out and come home.  The same thing applies to most dried mixes.   It also applies to a lot of freezable casseroles, tv-style dinners, and packaging dried herbs or seasoning blends.
• make what you use, use what you make - Never, ever make a homemade convenience product that you know you will not use.  For example, your family detests boxed mac & cheese.  Even though you can easily clone this using powdered cheese, if your family won't eat it, it is wasted food which translates into wasted money.  If you are unsure about a homemade convenience food substitute for a commercial one, always do a test run then tweak before making in bulk.
• comfortable use - I eluded to this in my opening paragraph.  Only make in bulk what you know you can comfortably use from a family tested and approved recipe.  All new to you and your family convenience foods should be put through test runs.  Never make more than you can comfortably use within the safe food storage guidelines.  Tossing expired food is not very frugal.  Try to figure out your usage.  You make tacos once a week.  Each batch takes 3 tbsp of taco seasoning which means you need a total of 156 tbsp or about 10 cups for the year.  You are further off to make 4 batches per year for freshness rather than make the seasoning mix all at once.

Frugal Kitchens 101 - Homemade Convenience (2)

Last week's Frugal Kitchens 101 discussed homemade convenience and some of the equipment needed and what to focus on.   Store bought convenience foods are more expensive and often filled with artificial colourants, flavours, fillers and other additives.  In short, most of them are over price while being unhealthy.  Homemade convenience foods, on the other hand avoid all the negatives of store bought while saving you both time and money.  Let's face, we can all appreciate saving both!  This article will expand on homemade convenience a bit further.  I have two short exercises for you to do:

• check your pantry - Go through your cupboards, refrigerator, freezer and pantry.  Make a list of every single store bought convenience food you have on hand.  If you are the average consumer it will include store bought convenience foods like pasta mixes, canned pasta, canned beans, frozen pizza, fish sticks, condensed soups, boxed cookies and those types of foods. 
• scout out your grocery store - The grocery store is filled will a multitude of convenience products.  If you need inspiration for making your own, just wander through the canned, snack and frozen food aisle.  Make a list of what you could make yourself at home as a homemade convenience product (eg. make a huge batch of pancakes then freeze them for a quick breakfast warmed up in the toaster during the week).

Ok, you now have two lists so let me comment on those first.  The pantry check will give you a good idea of the store bought convenience foods you use and what products to focus on when making your own homemade convenience products.  Chances are good, these are the very same products that make their way into your grocery cart every time you do a large grocery shopping.  If these foods are mixes (eg. rice or pasta mixes) about 20% of the cost is for actual food with remaining 80% going towards mark-up and packaging.  If you use one box of boxed mac & cheese a week at $1.29 for brand name the cost works out to $67.08 per year.  If you make from scratch at 20% of that cost you only pay $13.14 for a year for better quality product even if using powdered cheese bought from a bulk food store.  Now that is just one store bought convenience product.  Imagine if you do the same cost analysis for all the store bought convenience foods you buy.   If you really want to save money then you have to look at all the convenience items you use in the same light.

Let's consider commercially canned foods.  In comparison to home canned they are considerably more expensive even taking into consider the hydro, gas or propane used to process the food.  A jar of gourmet style roasted tomato sauce cost me about 20¢.  A similar store bought tomato sauce (with sugar and/or HFCS added) costs over $3.  Both are just as convenient but the homemade is healthier and a lot less expensive.  But consider what the commercially canned foods are giving you that home canned foods are not - exposure to BPA (bis-phenol A) which has been linked to breast cancer, in over 130 studies as well as hardening of the arteries, depression and diabetes.  Campbell's the dominant company making condensed soups is finally making the move to stop using BPA in the plastic coating, mandatory in all commercially canned products manufactured in North America.  France, the European Union, Canada, Denmark and Japan have taken action in banning or partially banning BPA.  The USA FDA may ban the use of BPA in food packaging in their decision on March 31 of this year.  Consider too the CFIA (Canada) and USDA (USA) both have set standards for allowable bug parts in commercially canned foods meaning you are getting more than what you bargained for aside of food in the form of additives, preservatives, carcinogens and even bug parts.

Onto the next list, the one you made at the grocery store.  First, if you are shopping mainly in the centre aisles rather than the perimeter of the store you are spending too much money.  So looking at the convenience products you can easily and rather effortlessly make at home, here is a short list to consider.  Your list should be individualized based on those two lists - what you regularly use and what you can easily make yourself.

• tv dinners or individual dinners - Use left overs to create your own.  Freeze for later use.
• seasoning blends - Grow and dehydrate the herbs yourself (right on your windowsill) then buy what you can't grow (eg. salt, peppercorns, bay leaves, cinnamon, etc.) to make your own seasoning blends.  Two good examples of homemade seasoning blends that take seconds to make yet are considerably less expensive than store bought and taste better are: poultry seasoning and taco seasoning.
• frozen or refrigerated dough - Make your own from scratch then use as you would store bought.  You can even freeze bread dough so you can enjoy fresh baked bread when you don't have time for all the prep.  One trick I use is if I'm making dough, I double the recipe.  Half goes for that day's use and the other half goes for later use.
• frozen breakfast foods - Take an hour or so to stock your freezers with ready to heat and serve breakfast foods like breakfast sandwiches, omelets, breakfast burritos, pancakes and waffles.  You can use a large batch muffin mix to use as needed or simply make a couple of trays of muffins then freeze for use later.
• dump and pour meals - These include condensed soups and stews, canned pastas, and any other food that you basically open the can and serve.  Substitute with homemade soups and stews that freeze nicely or you can home can them for the same heat and serve convenience.  
• the starches - Beans (eg. kidney, navy, etc.), rices, potatoes (sweet and regular) and some pastas can be cooked ahead then froze in meal sized portions or as part of other dishes.  Beans and potatoes can be home canned but rice and pasta should be added to soups when reheating.
• the snacks - Dollar for dollar this is the second biggest portion of food costs next to meat and for some families might even exceed what is spent on meats.  Ideally, divert away from commercially prepared snacks if favour of healthier choices like fruits, nuts, vegetables and popcorn.  It takes less than 10 minutes to pop a huge batch of popcorn at home which is a healthier choice than potato chips and coated popcorn treats.  Most cookies and cakes freeze nicely.  Some pies freeze nicely as does individual fruit pies (eg. turnovers). 

Frugal Kitchens 101 - Homemade Convenience (1)

We live in a very busy world with a lot of demands coming at us from every direction.  The food industry recognized this problem back during WWII when many women went into the workforce.  They began perpetuating the myth that convenience foods like commercially canned foods and tv dinners saved the busy homemaker time because these foods eliminated the prep time necessary for home cooked.  About the same time the budding fast food industry came on to the scene further perpetuating the myth of convenience.  What neither the food or fast food industry told the consumer is their convenience foods were chuck full of artificial food additives, sugar, salt and fat.  In addition to being unhealthy or at best borderline unhealthy, these foods were expensive and yet the consumer bought in to the myth thanks to the every growing bombardment of advertising.   There is absolutely no reason why you cannot make your own homemade convenience and guaranteed it will be at a fraction of the cost of store bought.  The reason you save a considerable amount of money is because you are using the raw ingredients then assembling yourself.

Equipment Needed:

• freezer containers - Aluminum trays (Sam's Club or dollar store) are ideal for freezing casseroles and side dishes.   Plastic freezer containers are quite inexpensive ranging from the Ziploc style containers to stronger Rubbermaid containers.  Zipper style freezer bags are cheapest when bought in bulk at Sam's Club - 8¢ per bag compared to 40¢ in the grocery stores and 30¢ per bag for vacuum seal bags.
• mason jars/glass jars - Mason jars can be bought new or found for free through your local Freecycle or Craig's list.  Glass jars can be recycled from any food you buy in glass jars or put the word out to your family and friends that you need jars with lids.  If you need the larger 1 gallon jars, ask at restaurants.
• plastic bags - By far, vacuum sealing foods for the freezer protects them from freezer burn better than any other sealing system.  The cheapest source for vacuum bags is The Sweet Attack.
• specialty equipment - The following will help you create your homemade convenience:  BWB canner (free - $20), food vacuum sealer ($50 to $100), and food processor or attachment for KitchenAid stand mixer ($20 to $60).  It will help to have larger volume stock pots as well that you can likely find at yard sales or thrift stores for $2 to $5 but you only need one or two.  Ideally, you will buy a pressure canner ($70 to $250) as well BUT many of the foods that are pressure canned can also be froze.

Homemade convenience can be though of essentially duplicating what you are already buying (eg. cake mixes, cookies, canned beans, canned soups, breaded frozen fish sticks or chicken pieces, rice or pasta mixes and frozen dinners.  Take a walk through your grocery store with a set of new eyes knowing most of the foods in the canned, frozen and baking mix sections you can easily make yourself, not only saving money but  the homemade versions are healthier for you because you control the ingredients.  Here are a few of my homemade convenience products and a few tips:

• inspiration - The biggest inspiration is knowing I'm saving money yet getting a healthier product.
• recipes - You don't need a lot of fancy recipes.  Refer to blogs like this one or Google for 'bulk cooking' or 'Once a Month Cooking' or 'OAMC'.  There are oodles of tried and tested recipes out there and don't forget many of your family favourites can easily be frozen.
• meal quick starts - When starting out with homemade convenience, focus on meal quick starts.  This will be family specific but some of mine are cooked meat or poultry in gravy, seasoned ground beef or pork, taco meat, chopped onions, chopped green peppers, breaded or coated anything (eg. vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, mushrooms, cheese),  side dishes, meatballs and that type of think.  While some of my meal quick starts are home canned the majority are frozen.
• mixes - Oh my gosh the food industry really charges through the nose for mixes.  In reality you are buying into the myth and paying for the packaging.  A cake mix that costs 99¢ contains about 10¢ worth of ingredients and you still have to add oil, water or milk and an egg or two.  In less than 15 minutes time you can easily put the ingredients for 10 cake mixes together at a cost of $1 or 1/10th the price of store bought.  The same can be said for homemade shake & bake coating, many seasonings like poultry seasoning and taco seasoning, as well as mixes like stove-top stuffing and rice-a-roni.  The beauty with most mixes is they can assembled so quickly so it is quite easy to have 10 cake mixes or 10 bread mixes sitting in your pantry in about 10 minutes time.
• cookies - The dry ingredients for cookies can be assembled as a mix or you can make refrigerator cookies.  These are similar to the store bought cookie tubes in the refrigerator sector but at a fraction of the price.
• sauces - Many store bought sauces can easily be made at home at a fraction of the cost of store bought.  A jar of my roasted tomato sauce costs about 20¢ compared to store bought at $3.99 and while I love the convenience of having it ready to use in the jar because I home can it, most tomato sauces freeze quite nicely if you don't want to can them.
• soups - I buy most soups to use as a sauce and by far the most purchased is cream of mushroom soup.  Aside of cream soups, homemade soups can be home canned (an easy and less expensive alternative to store bought) or they can be frozen.
• casseroles and ready meals - Many casseroles freeze nicely in aluminum trays for freezer to oven convenience.  Most quiche freeze nicely as does homemade tv-style dinners.  The beauty of making your own tv-style dinners is they are geared to your tastes and are considerably lower in sugar and sodium than most store bought tv-dinners.  
• rice, potatoes, beans -  All of these starches can be cooked in advanced then froze for later use.  Potatoes and beans can be home canned for dump and pour convenience.  A 2 lb bag of frozen french fries will cost you about $1.50 or 75¢ per lb but a 10 lb bag of fresh potatoes costs at it's highest price here $3.99 or 40¢ per lb.  Using a French fry cutter, that 10 lb bag of potatoes can easily be turned into ready to cook French fries for your freezer in about 15 minutes.  Freeze rice and beans in meal or recipe sized portions.
• snacks - Store bought snacks are expensive!  One of the best ways to avoid the expense is to switch to fruits with their own protective packaging.  Prepare carrot sticks, celery sticks, pepper slices and cucumber slices in advance then keep them in the refrigerator for a quick, yet healthy snack.  Homemade popcorn is always inexpensive and easy to make fresh but you can make it ahead then seal tightly for later use if desired.  You can do the same with oven baked potato chips.  Dehydrate fruit purée for fruit leather, and vegetables like zucchini for healthy vegetable chips.  Buy fruit on sale or grow your own then dehydrate to make your own trail mixes or granola.

M & M Meat Shops Hot Dipz

M & M Meat Shops is a Canadian specialty frozen food store that I have mentioned before on this blog.  One of our friends owns a franchise so I do shop there from time to time but not on a larger scale basis.    The store is focused on foods for entertaining as well as individual serving sizes.  My three main purchases there are Atlantic wild salmon steaks, an oriental party appetizer mix and Asian style vegetables although from time to time I will try a different product for entertaining.  I doubt I spend much more than $150 a year there but what I do spend helps to support our friend.

During the holiday season my husband picked up two of the Hot Dipz.  One was spinach, artichoke and cheese dip while the other was roasted garlic cheese dip.  The 8.8 oz dip comes frozen in a vacuum sealed pouch inside a small box.  Each dip costs $3.79 regular price but it does go on sale fairly often.

To warm the dip, you remove it from the pouch and place in a heat proof dish.  For this particular dip the instructions said to microwave on high for 2 minutes, stir then microwave on high for another two minutes.

I make the vast majority of snack type dips from scratch but I have also buy a snack dip here and there.  As pre-made dips go, the M & M Hot Dipz are more than reasonably priced if not a bit lower in price than some dips in the dairy section.  The flavour of the spinach, artichoke and cheese dip was quite nice and it did get several compliments.  I served the dip with Tostitos Scoops, one of my favourite chips for dip.  The hot dip would have gone equally as well with pita bread wedges. 

All in all, I was quite pleased with the M & M Hot Dipz.  As a convenience product, the quality was quite good but then that is something I have come to expect from M&M Meat Shops.  Even though the price of food is a bit higher at M & M, the quality of the food is superior to most grocery store frozen foods focusing on entertaining or single serving size.  The Hot Dipz will be a product I keep a couple of packages on hand as something a bit different for entertaining.  I may even try experimenting with a homemade, freezable clone recipe.

Peeled Garlic Cloves

It is quite surprising what you can find pre-prepped in the produce section.  In most cases these items are more expensive because of their convenience.  Some items like baby carrots (really formed from larger carrots) the nutritional content is lowered somewhat.  Pre-cut fruits like apples have preservative to prevent oxidation that you won't get when using whole apples.  I very seldom use pre-prepared fruits or vegetables at home.  When I do, it is usually baby carrots for the eye appeal. 

There are times that these types of pre-prepared fruits and vegetables can be quite convenient.  The first one that comes to mind is longer road trips with children, especially if crossing from Canada into the US or visa versa where some produce is prohibited from entering.  A quick stop at a grocery store after clearing customs and you can have the cooler filled with healthy snacks for the drive.

Pre-prepared fruits and vegetables can be quite convenient when doing a bulk cooking session or canning.  Normally I would not consider buying peeled garlic.  It is a new product in a couple of the grocery stores here.  I was canning last week on a very tight schedule for packing, trying to do too much while both sick and tired.  That's not a good combination!  Walmart had 250 g bags of peeled garlic flagged as a new product on sale for $1.  I bought a bag to use in my canning sessions for the week.  This saved me a fair amount of time in peeling garlic and the results were the same.  The only thing I wasn't impressed with is the garlic is from China.   I'd rather buy locally if possible and garlic grown in Ontario is available so will be looking for local peeled garlic.  Garlic is planted in the fall so will plant some this year at our new house. 

Frugal Kitchens 101 - The Price of Convenience

The grocery stores are filled with all types of convenience foods meant to save you time but they certainly don't save you money!  My gosh, I was thumbing through the grocery store flyers and noticed a ready made, uncooked 1 kg tray of home style meatloaf for $7.99.  Have we really become so pressed for time that the 5 minutes it takes to combine the ingredients for meatloaf can't be spared?  Honestly, that same week extra lean ground beef was on for $3.28 per kg.  The extra ingredients added to meat loaf certainly would not come to $4.71 and it is very doubtful the pre-made uncooked meatloaf would have been made with extra lean ground beef.  So the price of convenience essentially cost $4.71 for someone to mix up meatloaf to be taken home and cooked.   For close to the same price you could by 2 kg of lean ground beef, make two meatloafs (one for that night, one for the freezer) and still saved money plus you would have a ready meal in the freezer.  I find it unbelievable that some folks will pay this price for convenience and yet if the grocery stores are any indication, they do!  This week's Frugal Kitchens 101 discusses the price of convenience.

There are really two types of convenience foods.  The first category is the frugal take-out, pre-made from the deli or freezer section and the other really isn't frugal at all.  Shopping smart and stretching your food dollar means not paying for someone to do what you can do yourself.  Here are a few types of convenience foods that really are not frugal:

• pre-made fresh foods - These include: vegetable trays, salads, meat mixtures (eg. meatloaf),  fruit and dip trays, and that type of thing.  These really are not a frugal choice but in all cases you will pay a higher price for them than if you made them yourself.  You really are paying for someone to do the work for you.  In addition to paying extra you are exposing yourself to a higher risk for contamination that can cause food borne illness.
• pre-made cooked foods - In some cases deli foods like rotisserie chicken is less expensive than buying a whole chicken and cooking it yourself.  This does not happen very often and in fact the deli rotisserie chicken has been one exception to the rule that homemade is cheaper.
• pre-made freezer doughs and pastry crusts - In most cases homemade is cheaper.  The two exceptions are phyllo dough and puff pastry.  However, a homemade short version of puff pastry is less expensive to make than store bought and just as good.  You can easily make a large batch of bread, pastry or cookie dough then freeze it for later use at a fraction of the cost of store bought.
• artisan breads - A loaf of bakery artisan bread can go as high as $6 per loaf.  These types of breads with a little practice can easily be made at home for under a $1 per loaf.

The Rising Cost of Food - An Analysis of Pre-made Hashbrowns

Last week, George Weston Ltd. owner of Weston Foods (bakery) and Loblaw (retail) announced that they will be increasing prices by 5% effective April 1, 2011 to offset the rising commodity prices.  Weston Foods provides a substantial amount of baked goods (eg. breads, buns, etc.) while Loblaw Companies Limited is the parent company to several grocery store chains (eg. No Frills, Real Canadian Super Store, Loblaws, and several others across Canada).  We all have heard rumours of increasing food costs so this announcement comes as no surprise.  Ralph Robinson, president of Weston Foods Canada indicated in the announcement that this is only the beginning of rising food costs.  What many fail to realize though is inflation will hit the convenience and packaged foods the hardest.  While raw and whole foods will seen price increases the greatest price increases will be seen in foods like mixes, canned foods, freezer meals, cookies, dry cereals, boxed foods and those types of things.

Many people rely on pre-made, convenience foods for part of a meal or even a whole meal.  So let's do a cost analysis of one common pre-made convenience food that makes it's way onto the table.  The fast food restaurants introduced convenient hashbrown patties as part of their breakfast meals.  Similar style hashbrown patties can now be purchased in the freezer section of most grocery stores.  Pictured are three such patties.  They come in a 10 pk (650 g) for about $1.79.  In comparison to the fast food restaurants that sell them for 99¢, the freezer patties are considerably less expensive at 18¢ each.  Is this a good deal?  My answer is no and I will explain why.

A 10 lb (25 kg or 25000 g) bag of potatoes averages $3.99 during the winter months for a cost of 0.00015¢ per gram.  The ready made hash browns come in at 0.003¢ per gram so right away it is easy to see they are more expensive than raw potatoes.  The ingredient in raw potatoes is potato.  The ingredients in the pre-made hash browns are potatoes, vegetable oil, salt, corn starch, dextrose (a sugar) and sodium phosphate (a preservation and another source of salt).  Nutritionally, the pre-made hash browns are a nightmare and even worse if you sprinkle with salt the way the fast food restaurants do.  In terms of convenience, raw potatoes need to be shredded then pan fried.  From start to finish homemade hash browns will take about 15 minutes.  The pre-made hash brown patties can be oven baked, heated in the microwave or deep fried.  In my taste test experiment with this product, I got the best results deep frying but how many people want to set up their deep fryer for breakfast?  In terms of taste the best hash browns were homemade from scratch.  Clearly the winner in this experiment was the homemade hash browns made with raw potatoes.

If you really want to save money on your food dollars and minimize the impact of the rising costs of food, you have to think along these lines.  Each and every time you eliminate a convenience food or replace it with a homemade version, so will not only be saving money but you will be getting a nutritionally superior food.  The homemade version will be free of excess salt, sugar and preservatives.  More importantly it is less expensive.  You will find this to be true for the majority of store bought convenience foods as well.

Basic Refrigerator Cookies

Refrigerator cookies have become popular in the grocery stores because all you have to do is open the package, slice the dough and bake for yummy, hot cookies.  The problems with the store bought refrigerator cookie dough aside of the price is the packaging and preservatives.  Refrigerator cookie dough takes about 5 minutes to make.  Once made keep two or three rolls of the dough in the refrigerator for homemade convenience.

Awhile back I was asked if I had any refrigerator cookie recipes.  Well as life goes I forgot to post about refrigerator cookies.  Here is a basic refrigerator cookie recipe that can be modified to make a few other cookies.  I will post those modifications as I make them various cookies using the basic refrigerator cookie recipe.

Refrigerator cookies are very easy to make.  Mix the dough (1).  The dough will be soft and sticky.  Scrape the dough onto wax paper (2) and form into a log shape.  Wrap the wax paper around the dough log and twist the ends to seal (3).  Refrigerate the dough for several hours.  Remove from refrigerator and slice for baking (4). 

The ingredients for this batch of basic refrigerator cookies cost about $1.20 in comparison to store bought refrigerator dough that costs about $2.49.  The homemade version makes 3 dozen large cookies or 90 - 1" diameter cookies whereas the store bought dough makes 2 dozen medium sized.  The homemade version can be frozen as well.  Within a short span of about 15 minutes you could easily make several rolls to enjoy hot cookies fresh from the oven any time you want them. 

These cookies have a wonderful, sugary vanilla flavour.  They are soft in the middle with just a bit of crunch on the edges.  The dough does spread considerably when baking so next time I will make the log a bit smaller in diameter.

Basic Refrigerator Cookies
source: Kate Aitken's Canadian Cook Book, 1965. Pp. 123

⅔ c softened butter
1 c granulated sugar
1 egg, well beaten
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1¾ c unbleached flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp sea salt

Cream the butter and sugar together in bowl of stand mixer.  Add egg and blend until creamy.  Mix in vanilla.  In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda and salt together.  Turn mixer on and slowly mix in dry ingredients to the butter mixture.  Scrap the dough onto waxed paper.  The dough will be soft and sticky.  Form into a log.  Wrap with the waxed paper securing the ends.  Place in the refrigerator for 24 hours.  Slice the chilled log to form cookies.  Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 375ºF until firm an golden brown.

Home Canned Convenience

When I tell people that I do a lot of canning many of them think of jams, peaches, and pickles.  Then if I mention we buy very little in the way of commercially canned or jarred foods there is the assumption that we don't use convenience foods.  That is the furthest from the reality of canning here.  I can everything from meats, soups, stews, fruits, vegetables, beans (eg. navy, kidney, etc) and so much more.  Canning is a year round activity with the canners running three or more times a day during the peak canning period and about once a week during the off-peak canning season.  There are many home canned products I make that I would consider convenience products.  One of those is home canned spaghetti meat sauce.

I make a lot of home made pasta sauces both for fresh using and for home canning.  Most of the tomato based sauces I make have longer cooking times that develops the flavour.  Home canned pasta sauces are convenience products in the pantry because they are ready to open and reheat without the long cooking times.  A few year ago I started canning some of my home made spaghetti meat sauce.  I usually can a half canner load (7 - 500 ml jars) with the remaining sauce used for fresh eating.

I can remember when I first considered canning this gorgeous meat sauce.  I was concerned that it would change the texture of the meat.  However the end results were quite good so now I keep a few jars in the pantry as a convenience product.  Pictured is the quick spaghetti with meat sauce meal I made recently.  I had been canning peaches that day but still wanted a home cooked meal without the work.  Spaghetti with meat sauce garnished with fresh grated parmesan cheese and Thai basil fit just that criteria.  The sauce tasted just like fresh made!

In terms of price the home canned comes in at about $1.90 per 500 ml jar including the electricity to cook and can the sauce.  While this sounds on the high side in comparison to store bought plain pasta sauce it is less expensive than store bought gourmet versions of pasta sauces.  This pasta sauce is definitely on the gourmet side of the scale when it comes to pasta sauces.  It's a nice, chunky and meaty sauce with full flavour that cans well.

Quesadillas

Left-overs can present a problem as far as using them up which is why sometimes you just have to get creative. Several years ago we were introduced to quesadillas. Now essentially a quesadilla is a filling usually ground meat and cheese sandwiched between two tortilla shells then baked in the oven until just turning golden brown and a bit crispy with nicely melted cheese. Served with a dip of choice usually homemade salsa makes for a perfect snack or light meal.

Quesadillas

We have taken quesadillas to a new level using the basic technique as one of our favourite ways to use up left-overs. We still make quesadillas with ground beef and cheese filling served with homemade salsa. Sometimes we add black beans along with jalapeno peppers, chopped onions and tomato pieces. What we discovered is almost any left-over meat can be used in quesadillas.

We had left-over braised outside round roast so I decided to make quesadillas for lunch. The filling consisted of cubed outside round round roast, cheddar cheese, chopped tomatoes and chopped onions. It was nothing fancy or complicated just an easy way to use up a few left-overs yet is was quite tasty.

Frugal Kitchens 101 - Mixes

The results of the last poll were rather surprising. Of the 61 voters 67% used no mixes while 31% used 1 - 3 mixes per week. Only 1% used more than 6 mixes per week. So you really need to give yourselves a well deserved pat on the back! Congratulations on not using a lot of commercially prepared mixes.

The average commecial cake mix contains about 30¢ of ingredients and you still have to add oil, water and eggs. The bake time is the same as homemade so essentially you are paying three times or more as much as what you could put together yourself. The same thing can be said for muffin mixes, any baking mixes, hamburger stretcher mixes, pasta/rice mixes, salad mixes and basically any mix you can find in your grocery store. You seriously do not need to buy a mix to make a vinegarette or salad dressing or a dip. Virtually any mix can easily be made at home with ingredients you already have on hand and homemade is always cheaper especially when it comes to mixes.

What you are buying is the convenience of mixes combined with the packaging. Eliminate the packaging and make your own mixes. In areas where packaging is not recyclable you prevent the packaging from going to a landfill as well. That way you have the convenience of a mix without the packaging so you are reducing your carbon footprint while you are saving money. At the same time you are putting homemade convenience products in your pantry for use when you don't feel like doing a lot of measuring. If you take 20 minutes on a Saturday and make up say 10 jars of a white cake mix, look at how much you will be saving and you are getting a healthier product with less salt, sugar and preservatives!

There are a lot of online resources for making your own mixes. Click here for a recent Google search then explore some of these mixes. There's everything from cookies to cakes to pasta and so much more. Make up one or two jars of whatever strikes your fancy, try it out then if you like it make several jars. Most homemade mixes will keep 1 - 2 years in your pantry providing it is cool and dark.