Homemade vs Store Bought

How to make your own homemade vanilla extract

Posted by on March 26, 2011 at 11:00 pm

Every time I buy vanilla I always have to stare at the bottles for a few minute contemplating if I should pay the extra cost for “Pure Vanilla” versus the imitation stuff.  Provided the real stuff costs 15 times more than the fake stuff when I walk away with my little eye dropper worth of [...]

Cheesy Macaroni and Cheese – Store versus Homemade

Posted by on January 15, 2010 at 5:23 am

To teach my kids that  macaroni and cheese doesn’t always have to come from a box I decided to make some from scratch.  Here is the recipe I went with. Creamy Macaroni and Cheese Recipe Ingredients 2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni 4 tablespoons butter 4 tablespoons flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper 2 cups [...]

Buttermilk Pancakes Recipe – Store versus Homemade

Posted by on January 14, 2010 at 5:22 pm

I mentioned it in my frozen mini pancakes post that I would need to try making pancakes from scratch.  Though I had to pick up some buttermilk I had all the other ingredients in my cupboards.  Here is the recipe I went with:   Buttermilk Pancakes Recipe Ingredients 1 cup flour 1 tablespoon white sugar [...]

Homemade Pizza Lunchables – Store versus Homemade

Posted by on December 28, 2009 at 1:58 am

My youngest daughter loves her Pizza Lunchables, she would eat them for every meal if we would let her.  I am not sure if it is the taste or just the fact she gets to construct her lunch.  Being out of them we decided to make our own. As many discoveries are found by mistake, [...]

Chocolate cake recipe – Store versus homemade

Posted by on December 18, 2009 at 5:51 am

My wife made the mistake of mentioning that my daughter and I should bake something for some company that would be coming over in a little over an hour.  Not knowing what to bake I passed the decision to my 5 year old who immediately proclaimed we should make chocolate cake.  Not having any chocolate [...]

Frozen mini pancakes – Store versus homemade

Posted by on December 16, 2009 at 3:23 am

My kids love pancakes, I am more than happy to make them from scratch on the weekends but on the busy school mornings the frozen variety is our only option.  This past weekend, we had quite a bit of extra pancake batter so decided to take a stab at making some of my own frozen [...]

Flour Fajita/Taco/Gordita Tortilla Recipe: Store versus Homemade

Posted by on December 6, 2009 at 5:44 am

  Our family was feeling like some tacos and decided to take my first attempt at making these from scratch, but figured it would be a good opportunity to going a little more homemade. The Contender – Store Bought The competition: Mission 6 inch Flour Tortilla, $3.39 for 8 tortillas Ingredients: Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour [...]

Basic White Bread: Store versus Homemade

Posted by on December 2, 2009 at 5:14 pm

In the last post, we proved that it is cheaper to make you own bread dough versus using frozen bread dough though a big question still remains, how much cost does the baking cost add to the overall cost.  The Contender – Store Bought The competition: Safeway Butter Top White Bread, $1.50 per loaf Ingredients: [...]

Basic White Bread Dough Recipe: Store versus Homemade

Posted by on December 2, 2009 at 5:09 pm

My youngest daughter (5 years old) loves to bake and one of our favorite things to bake on Sundays is fresh baked bread.  Now I doubt there are not too many people that could argue that fresh baked bread/rolls from your oven beats store bought bread, though I was curious if I am actually saving [...]