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These foods are simple to make. For the most part, they require very basic ingredients that you likely have in your fridge and pantry. Keep reading to check out my reasoning for making these foods from scratch.
Five easy foods you should make from scratch include:
Pancakes
Waffles
Cookies
Cakes
Brownies
Bonus
Baby food
My bonus food is baby food because not everyone is in the phase of life to be making baby food. If you are though I challenge you to make it yourself, rather than purchasing from the store.
Check out my article about How to Save Money by Making Your Own Baby Food.
Challenge
Bread Rolls
My challenge food is homemade bread rolls. This one I simply cannot call easy. It takes time and can easily go wrong. I have had a few failed attempts myself.
If you are brave and have time to invest making homemade rolls will make you feel like a total champ.
These are foods I have started making from scratch. I quit buying boxes, tubes, frozen, and premade. For these foods, I have ingredients that I mix and measure myself.
Why Make From Scratch
There are so many reasons why you should make these simple food by scratch rather than using anything pre-made. Check out some of these advantages to making food from scratch.
Dishes
I bet you all thought money and the savings you can experience would be my first point.
Wrong!
It is second!
My first point for making food from scratch is you aren’t necessarily saving yourself from doing many dishes.
Now I suppose if you purchase cookie dough and just have to plop it on the cookie sheet you don’t have to wash a mixing bowl or any measuring cups. You got me on that one.
Items like waffles and pancakes though that come as a dry mix will still need to be mixed in a bowl with wet ingredients.
So you are basically doing half the work. You don’t have to measure out the dry goods, but you measure the wet goods. Why not just do all the work.
Quit buying Bisquick and just make them from scratch. Boom you just eliminated an item from your pantry and shopping list.
If a few extra dishes are the reason you don’t make food from scratch you need to get over it.
Money/Savings
Ok, I don’t know how far you want me to take this but making food from scratch is an absolute money saver!
Right? I mean one would think so.
Look out for my upcoming article about if making food from scratch does in fact save you money.
You can take this even further by purchasing your baking goods and like items in bulk. Now be careful that you use them up in enough time if they are perishable.
Convenience
Making your food from scratch can be MORE convenient. Say what?!?
But premade, prepackaged, all that is for our convenience right?
Well, look at it this way. A random backyard party pops onto your schedule last minute. Would it be better for you to run to the store to buy a frozen pack of cookie dough or just simply whip some up at home?
I guess it depends on how close to the store you are. Is it raining? Do you have a million children to buckle into car seats?
Other option.
You also have cookie dough and every other item you may even need to be purchased ahead. Ok, so I guess you are ok with no fridge or pantry space. Not to mention the fact things go bad!
I keep ingredients in my home to make all of these foods at any given time. Most of the ingredients have a long shelf life or are frequent purchases like milk and eggs.
Pride
Call me stupid but I do take pride in mixing up my own cookie dough rather than squeezing it out of a tube or breaking up frozen chunks of dough.
This may be conceited but sometimes as a mom, you don’t have as much time to take pride in things. You are rushed. You go with the simplest option. Something about making my own brownies or cookies gives me that extra bit of pride that I really could use.
Flexible & Adaptable
By using multipurpose items such as flour and sugar you have the flexibility to make whatever you want. You can even mix and match things. You can slightly alter a recipe. Say one kid likes chocolate chip cookies but the other would prefer M&M. That is an easy modification to make.
A lot of these items like four, sugar, and vanilla you have on hand anyway. Why not use what you have?
Another part of flexibility is being able to make foods for those with allergies. You can find a brownie recipe that omits eggs if needed. Most box mixes will require that you add in eggs.
Allergies definitely require flexibility and adaptation.
If you are experiencing food allergies in your home check out my articles How To Figure Out if my Baby has Allergies and Fear, Future, and Failure that Come with Your Child’s Food Allergies.
Involve your Children
Slow down and make food from scratch. Just do it.
It is a great opportunity to let your kiddos help in the kitchen! If you buy cookie dough in a tube you lose the opportunity to teach your child how to measure and pour ingredients.
Throughout your child’s development, they will get better at helping and be able to take on more tasks. They may start out by dumping ingredients you measured for them, but eventually, you will be testing them on what amounts are necessary to double a recipe.
This is a great opportunity for motor skills when they are young and math skills when they are older.
As parents, we spend so much time trying to distract our children or keep them busy while we are trying to get stuff done. Sometimes the better answer is to involve and include them in the process.
Conclusion
Just give it a try. Make something from scratch. The most basic thing is probably chocolate cookies. Once you make one thing you will realize that sometimes it is worth taking a little extra time for the benefit of making food from scratch.
Check Out My Articles
The Ultimate Guide to a Clean and Tidy Home: 4 Simple and Effective Ways
How to Save Money by Making Your Own Baby Food
Save Money and Enjoy Life as a Stay-at-Home Mom with These 8 Tips
How Much Money Do You Save By Making Foods from Scratch?
How to Put Your Money to the Best Use to Benefit Your Family Financially