As much as possible I make or bake food from scratch. Often you use nutritious, cleaner ingredients costing less and tasting better. There are a few items I can't make more supreme for less money than the retailer. Here are 10 foods (most of them staples in my home) I throw in the towel to buy:
1) Hummus - The ingredients to make it myself cost more than the hummus. Plus I can't make it better.
2) Rye or Pumpernickel breads - I bake plenty bread at home, but rye or pumpernickel grains aren't carried as often at supermarkets. I can't buy rye flours in 5 pound bags.
3) Cheese - I can eat cheese until it comes out of my ears, yet I have never tried to make any variety of it. The time and conditions it would take for the milk to turn into aged cheeses, I can't set up in a Manhattan apartment. I'd love to tour a cheese factory one day!
4) Pesto - I couldn't grow enough or procure enough fresh basil to offset the cost of buying pesto from a good Italian deli. But. If you can in your town, making fresh pesto is easy and delicious. The aroma is spectacular!
5) Tomato sauce - Not altogether true, yet with this one I split hairs. Yes, I can make a delicious sauce from cans of crushed tomatoes, yet I still like some of the supermarket brands a tab better, and they go on sale so frequently, I can easily grab a jar to make pizza from scratch or spaghetti with meat sauce. (Nope, I don't make meatballs ... but if you come to my home for dinner I'll let you. I don't like meatballs more than meat sauce, so I follow the path of less work.🙂)
6) Sausage - Don't even suggest it. As a child, I once watched my mother use a meat grinder somebody gave her, mixing lean meat and seasonings. Before she finished, I knew she'd never make it again. We're not butches or foodies, and we don't care enough. Plus I eat less meat nowadays. As does my Mama.
6) Pasta - I like making fresh pasta from eggs and flour. It's not that time consuming, and yet I still don't want to spend the extra time in the kitchen. Pasta is another dirt cheap item for a tasty staple available at the supermarket.
7) Mexican food - One of my favorite cuisines, it's so delicious because fresh ingredients are roasted, toasted, marinated and grilled before you get started. Usually there are steps upon steps to prepare the ingredients before they go into a recipe to make the dish. I have the best of intentions but honestly at home, I stop at making burritos enchiladas style.
8) Applesauce - I like making homemade applesauce, but pounds of apples are needed, and I can't buy enough apples for the cost to make sense. I tend to buy apple butter more often than applesauce and eat it with a spoon, sometimes with peanut butter. Walmart carries a delicious cinnamon flavored apple butter that's inexpensive.
9) Nut butters - I can't make them for less if buying the nuts. At the health food store, technically I do make it! I turn the grinding machine on to fill up a plastic container.
10) Salsa - Just like basil for pesto and apples for applesauce, I can't buy enough tomatoes to make cost-effective salsa any tastier than I can buy it in a jar. Target sells their own brand, Good & Gather, which is delicious, cheap ($1.69 for 24 ounces), with few ingredients listed. Sold!
My rule of thumb is: If I can't make a food or dish cheaper, better or more nutritious, I buy it ready-made. Time is money! It's ok to select convenience sometimes when it makes more sense!
Do you buy a food or dish over making it because on balance, it's worth it?
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