Category Archives: Uncategorized

Nix those suspicions that good, homemade food comes with an exorbitant price tag. We found exactly the opposite, actually. If we roll up our sleeves and make homemade pasta, cookies, or just about any other food, it costs a whole lot less than buying the pre-made versions. Not to mention the pride of putting a from-scratch meal on the table.

Breakfast

1. Granola bars
$0.48 each for homemade  | $0.69 each for Kashi brand
Who doesn’t love a crunchy, chewy grab-and-go snack? But there’s no need to shell out big bucks or entrust our health to unpronounceable ingredients. Oats, nuts, berries, and honey star in this recipe and significantly cut back on costs.

2. Granola/Breakfast cereal
$0.37 per ½ cup homemade | $0.41 for Arrowhead Mills brand
Skip the boxed stuff and DIY it for a personalized cereal. These homemade bran flakes rival the…

For much of my childhood I was a latchkey kid. Both parents worked, and several times every week I would come home to a note that read:

Crock Pot is in the fridge. Plug in on high. Love, Mom.

We used our slow cooker a significant amount. Chicken or beef. I don’t really remember anything thing else, but we had a variety of recipes with chicken or beef. By the time my parents came in the door from a long day of work, the smell of the slow cooking creation had permeated the house (and driven the dogs crazy with hunger).

A favorite of ours (and many slow cooker chefs) was Beef Burgundy. Not beef bourguignon, or Boeuf à la Bourguignonne. That sounded too fancy for our slow cooker, so we just called it Beef Burgundy.

Such a rich, meaty dish.

I purchased stroganoff cut beef and sliced it into…

What do you want to do for dinner for tonight? A question which is common to too many households. Let me tell you that if you are asking that question after a long day at work, you are just as likely to order in a pizza as you are to making anything good.

A number of years ago, I was at the end of a work week and my wife and I looked back at our meals: three nights with a frozen dinner, one dinner that ended with the word “Helper” and a delivery pizza. We decided we wanted to make a change and that is when we began to menu plan in earnest. Typically on a Friday evening (if not busy) or Saturday, I will sit down and plan a menu for the week. This includes dinners for all seven days and weekend lunches. The next critical step is I…

This popular-through-the-ages French dish is pure genius in its simplicity: chicken thighs and shallots braised in wine, chicken stock and cider vinegar. That’s it. No obscure or exotic ingredients or off-the-wall cooking methods. And the ratio of flavor to effort is phenomenal—I was pretty surprised the first time I made it. You mean I can just throw a handful of ingredients together, bake them in a skillet, and have it taste that good, for under $2 a serving? Mais oui!