Here are Chiot’s Run we don’t buy manufactured food. Our pantry is filled with dry goods, home canned items, and spices. We make our own pasta, butter, cheese, bread, granola bars, salad dressings and try to stay away from food that contain long ingredient lists, preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, and any weird unpronounceable ingredients.
We occasionally buy pretzels, those big sourdough niblets that have a short ingredient list; the same things I would use to make them myself (we do make soft pretzles at home, but haven’t mastered the art of crunchy ones yet). Other than this however, our pantry is devoid of boxes and bags of items made in a factory somewhere far far away.
If you’re trying to eat healthfully and avoid preservatives it’s much much cheaper to make things at home than buy them at the health food store. It does take some time to learn to make all the different things you enjoy. Sometimes it takes a palate adjustment to learn to like and prefer a homemade version of a store-bought item (like ketchup).
This is something you probably don’t want to do all at once. A great place to start is by replacing items in your pantry with homemade versions when you run out. This way you don’t waste food you’ve already purchased, and you aren’t overwhelmed by trying to learn to make everything homemade at once. Once you learn and make something a few times it becomes much easier. Start with something simple as well, like homemade salad dressing or made from scratch pancakes, muffins or a cake.
Pretty soon you’ll wonder why you ever bought mixed and pre-made items from the store, especially since you’ll notice the homemade version taste so much better. Not to mention all that extra cash in your wallet!
How much of what you eat is made from scratch at home?
we make pretty much everything, or buy from somewhere that sell things exactly as i would make at home, (farmstands, markets, etc). there is one thing i still by on a regular basis – pasta. i really do need to learn how to make it!
the only problem i run into with making my own everything is time! never enough time when working a more than full time job.
I know what you mean! I have a full-time job and another almost full-time job with our business. It certainly keep me out of trouble and without much free time. But who needs to watch TV anyways! Since I work from home though, I can punch down dough during the day while working and only take a minute or two to do so.
I second the comment by tigress on the time issue–I’m working full time right now too. Thankfully that will be over come May! Anyhoo, I make our bread, salad dressing (most of the time), pesto, soups, granola, most baby food, and all baked goods (muffins, biscuits, etc). Out of the food realm, I’m also starting to replace store-bought cleaners with vinegar, baking soda, essential oil, and castille soap versions. Once summer gets here, I’m hoping to replace salsa as well. I just hate the cost and generic taste of store-bought stuff!
We use vinegar, baking soda & Dr Bronner’s as cleaners as well. Saves money for sure!
If you are having any trouble kicking the processed food habit just move to a foriegn country! Anything imported here costs an arm and a leg, so we make it or do without.
Though they do import some affordable European pasta that is pretty natural, thank goodness never got the pasta thing down.
That’s probably why I got accustomed to things from scratch. I grew up in Colombia and growing up my mom made everything from scratch. I grew up thinking this was the way to do things. Not to mention it tastes so much better as well!! Homemade cake tastes so much better than a box!
It’s quite impressive that you make everything scratch! My family still has the taste for a lot of store-bought items (sandwich bread, condiments, cereal) but I can get by with about anything else homemade. I’ve been canning my tomatoes and chow chow for years now, and have finally gotten the knack for making bread rise. We eat a lot of fresh veggies and those from my garden that I froze. Our yogurt and jams are homemade too. It recently amazed me when I looked in our dry food storage that we had fewer and fewer boxes and cans of pre-fab food. I’ve replaced 75% of our storage with bulk food ingredients to scratch food that is better for us and is almost as convenient once you work out a routine. Not to mention it all tastes better!
I’m trying. I’m hopeful that I’ll be “there” one day, but for now it’s bits and pieces. Pasta sauce, jams & jellies, pickles, etc. I am just learning how to grow food, and my preservation skills will grow with my garden!
I have a “super athlete” kid that requires 5,000 calories a day and it’s really HARD to get to that w/o convenience foods, but still so very important.
If I have more success w/ the garden this year (need to move it to a better spot, I learned), then NEXT year, it’ll go on our back acre (which will require deer fencing, running irrigation, etc.) at which point I will add chickens and bees.
Baby steps!
The vast majority of what we eat is from scratch. One thing I’ve found is that I have to keep a lid on it a tad though as if I go on and on about how from scratch our foods are, it gets a bit preachy, and strangely, quite elitist and snobby. I never thought wholesome living could end up snobby, but when you’re too good to eat heinz ketchup, I think you’ve arrived!
True, I don’t think it’s so much that people view you as an elitist or snobby but they feel uncomfortable and threatened by what you do. I get that occasionally.
People are threatened because they fell like you’re making them look bad. They know they should be eating healthier, but they come up with excuses for why they don’t do it. When they’re around someone that manages to do it, they feel like people are comparing the two of you. I know some people that are quite threatened by what we do and others are completely OK with it and their own choices. Some actually appreciate that I make things from scratch and love to come over so they can enjoy it.
I also keep some organic Heinz in the house for when we have guests so I’m not pushing my food agenda on them. Most people could care less and will eat a pastured chicken, but ask them to eat homemade ketchup and it’s like you’re asking them to give up their firstborn.
Funny how things change with the times as well. When I was younger only “less-fortunate” people still canned, grew their own food and ate homemade ketchup. Now it’s an “elitist” thing.
This year my bigger resolution is to make all our own bread. I already make all our baked goods, so it’s not too much of a stretch for me (used to make all my own years ago when I was single). I make our soap (and laundry soap) and use natural products for much of our cleaning (though still use dish detergent and hubby insists on bleached undies). I’ve recently discovered how easy making broth is, so that was an easy switch. Last year we had an overabundance of lettuce in the garden, and silly us bought our dressing and croutons – that’ll change this year, too.
I confess that I buy instant foods for times when I’m sick (frozen pizza, mac’n'cheese, canned soups) and my littles insist on premade crackers (Goldfish are addictive) and chicken nuggets.
If the garden behaves this year (tomato blight last year), we’ll have a lot more raw materials to work with and I can make sauces and ketchup and pickles. Next year (this year will likely be too busy) I may try bees and chickens, but our land is difficult so there’re considerations to take first.
@Chiot: Pasta is one I’m still working on. I received a pasta-maker attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer as a gift, but when I’ve made it, it has come out sticky and been hard to separate the individual strands. I think maybe my recipe is too wet. What do you think?
@Kelly and others: I heartily recommend making your own bread. Even after I started baking and cooking, I was always scared of bread because I had the impression it was difficult. It’s so not. Yes, there are ways to mess it up, but if you can follow directions, you can probably make wonderful homemade bread.
I wrote a post at my blog about making bread that you might find interesting:
http://jackbootedliberal.com/2009/11/i-love-baking-bread/
… and …
http://jackbootedliberal.com/2009/11/more-bread-making-tips-punching-down/
@Ivy Mae: Salsa is a piece of cake, especially if you like the fresh, versus the cooked kind. Now, I have to say that salsa is one place where I am thrilled to have a food processor or a food grinder. If I had to chop up all those veggies by hand, I sure as heck would eat less salsa. But if you have a grinder or food processor, it is so easy to make HUGE batches of salsa, freeze the extra, and never bother with store-bought again. Really, I think salsa has to have one of the biggest pay-off-to-work ratios of any food.
I wrote about my salsa-making experience here, and it includes a recipe.
http://jackbootedliberal.com/2009/12/grinding-up-salsa/
Yes it’s probably too wet. You might try not rolling it as thin as well. It took me a few times making pasta to come up with the best consistency.
Almost all of our food is made from scratch, but we do have some holdouts–canned vegetables, definitely (we’re renting and can’t have a garden), condiments (longer shelf-life is important since we don’t use a ton of them), pasta. I’d like to make our food exclusively from scratch, but with an 8-month-old at home, I’m really trying not to overwhelm myself! Waiting until items run out to start making them from scratch is a good idea–it would probably be easier, especially for someone just starting out, to slide into from-scratch cooking gradually.
@Joshua – I also have had trouble perfecting a pasta recipe for the Kitchen Aid attachment I received for Christmas. It definitely depends on moisture content! A lot of our basic food is from scratch but I still buy too much from the grocery. Part of that is because our garden is a little small, and I am still learning how to grow more in less space, instead of the old-fashioned way of big rows.
I do a lot of cooking from scratch. I’m a huge fan of the Once-A-Month Cooking Method from Beth Lagerborg & Mimi Wilson. I don’t use many of their recipes anymore, but I do a lot of volume cooking so that we have a steady supply of things to eat from the freezer.
My time is also very limited, so I am very prioritized as to cooking from scratch – suppers come first (with enough leftover for lunch), then food preservation. We don’t eat a lot of bread, pasta or condiments, so I do not spend time on those. We eat pasta < once a month, go through a bottle of catchup a year. It's not worth my time.
We really simplified though in order to cook from scratch – stirfrys are great, but baked chicken with a baked potato and steamed veggies is faster. Or burgers with local grass-fed beef and warmed up brown rice with pickles from the garden.
We do some occasional gourmet cooking, but when time is short, simple is best.
My mom used the “Make a Mix” cookbook when I was young. Our pantry was filled with containers full of homemade brownie mix, pancake mix, etc. It was her way to have made from scratch quick food. I prefer to make things individually, we don’t eat pancakes that often or sweets. I assume with a large family this might save a lot of time.
I often make double batches of everything and freezer half of it. This way we have quick meals in the freezer.
What brand is your pasta maker, & is there anything about it that you wish was different? I am looking for a pasta maker & there are so many brands with so many pros & cons.
The brand is “Le Gourmet Chef”, I bought it for $20 at the local cooking store at an outlet mall. I thought about a kitchenaid one, but I read mixed reviews and figured a stand-alone hand crank version was more to my needs (and budget). I find that this one is well-made and very heavy. It works well and I’ve never had issues with it. I’ve been using it for 8 years or so (I make pasta several times a month) and it’s still working perfectly.
Pasta is my next venture, hoping that it will be easy enough to do without a press.
One thing: i just finished a delish egg salad sandwich with homemade mayo and home grown eggs – but i used store bought bread. i like the ‘calorie light’ breads that pepperidge farm makes – homemade bread is delicious and wholesome – but i find it hard to calculate my calorie intake with homemade things. I eat super healthy, lots of hoomegrown, but i’ve gained 20 pounds since my wedding 7 months ago. i’m a bit disturbed! i don’t have a farm to be working on to shed the pounds naturally, so would really appreciate some ‘light’ bread recipes if anyone has some.
@Miranda–check out SparkPeople.com for a tool that you can use to input recipe ingredients, calculate the number of servings per recipe, and then know the calories per serving of your from-scratch foods. It’s a free health site.
I love making this bread (the whole wheat version) because you can whip it up quick and throw it in the fridge instead of waiting for it to rise/punch it down, etc. http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx
I wrote about my experience with it here: http://watsourced.blogspot.com/2010/01/yeast-also-rises.html
We eat mostly from scratch but hubby won’t give up his salt and pepper chips! Pasta is next on my to perfect list.
Great post, Kim
I love salt & pepper chips – MMMMM. I also like the Parmesan garlic ones from target. Our downfall is the sourdough niblets though, we love those. We have friends that occasionally buy some Doritos for Mr Chiots.
To Kelly…re: your children and chicken nuggets. Used to work in a restruant where we made our own chicken strips and nuggets. Recipe? here goes. Chiken pieces, have three bowls ready. One with egg beated with water, equal amounts, one with flour mixed with salt and pepper, one with fine dry breadcrumbs. Tke a piece of chicken, into the egg bath, into the flour bowl, back into the egg bath and then coat with the crumbs. Let dry for about half an hour and then either deep fry or freeze. These are really great and you know what went in!
Fascinating! I come from Suburbia Dallas where my cooking is considered “homemade” because I don’t use hamburger helpers! My friends are amazed when I tell them I don’t make instant rice or mashed potatoes. I do not use box mixes or things that come powdered. I love making pasta from scratch, but I only do it occasionally. I’ve never even thought about making ketchup from scratch!
I often wondered to what level people could take homemade food in this modern life. For instance, I often cook using Chinese ingredients like hoisin sauce and oyster sauce. Would you make those from scratch as well? I don’t think I’d be able to eat it before it went bad. Just thinking outloud here. My mom pointed me to this blog today, I’ll have to thank her for sharing. I have a food blog that I started (www.thefrickinchicken.blogspot.com) but I warn you, it really isn’t homemade compared to you! Thanks for the inspiration though.
I’m sure people used to make their own soy sauce and hoisen, I’m sure they used to be fermented, which would help with the storage issues.
here’s a recipe for hoisen sauce: http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/13249/hoisin-sauce.html
Thanks for stopping by.
Great post, and I especially like the reference to a palate adjustment. Just as our palate was adjusted to eating the foods we eat now, it will adjust to what we eat in the future.
Debi
Thanks, but our biggest problem is they’re weird about textures and don’t like nuggets unless they’re processed meat (vs cut up breasts). I need to find a recipe that either uses ground chicken or cooked breast-meat that’s pureed.
Im a 30 year old black man who grew up in the some of the rougher “hoods” of NYC. On any corner you can find, a liquor store, a Mc Donalds, a Kansas Fried Chicken fast food spot and a “corner store” that makes most of its profit from sodas and juice, as well as cigars used to wrap “blunts” or marijuana cigarettes.
I knew nothing about natural anything. I had no idea what organic was, What buying local meant, or what I would do with the fresh foods I passed at the Union Square farmers market. I never heard of homesteading, or sustainability. All I knew was death through processed foods and hard liquor and slavery to a system that only cares about profiting from us.
I am now aware there is another way and I thirst for it. I am intemmidated by what I have learned. Change can be scary but I thirst for it now. I need to learn more and more.
I really appreciate this blog as well as this post in particular. I’m sorry for the long-winded comment but I am simply excited to be on this journey.
I see a lot of you making comments already make foods from scratch. A lot of you already garden and grow your own organic fruits vegetables and herbs. I also know some of you already know how to, can, bottle and pickle your foods….
….My question is how does someone like myself learn to live this life? Is it a matter of searching one recipe at a time on the internet? Is it a matter of going to a school like http://www.iuhoakland.com/ to learn these skills? What are your suggestions?
Thanks so much for reading & commenting! Those are some great questions, it is very difficult when starting out, especially if you didn’t grow up in this kind of environment. I think your questions warrant a separate post about how to get started down this homemade life. I’ll try to have a post written up answering your questions soon, hopefully a few of the other writers will chime in the comment section and give additional good advice.
I look forward to reading your post once its done. In the mean time I will be back here on No Dabbling often to educate myself, or at the least find out all the things that I dont know. lol
I am so glad to hear you would like to start a healthier lifestyle. For someone like you, container gardening might be the answer. You can grow a tomato or pepper plant in an apartment if you have a sunny window, and some herbs. (I’d try the small cherry or grape tomatoes first.) Even lettuce can be grown in a pot. Then just make a salad. Little changes at a time. Add an apple a day to your lifestyle, or pick one really healthy fruit or veg when in season at your market and eat it as close to raw as you can. And keep reading this blog – it is a great source of info.
I decided Im going to write a list of things that I can do to take small managable steps to living this lifestyle. Thank you Robin for your suggestions, I will keep them in mind while writing my list.
I would love a post on how to get started in a “made from scratch” lifestyle. Like I said before, I consider myself mostly from scratch, well that was until I started learning that there are some people who make EVERYTHING from scratch. Which I totally admire but seems overwhelming. I’m so glad I found this blog!
[...] not buying packaged foods Jump to Comments I started writing this post Jan 22nd, when I saw this post by Chiot’s Run over at NDiN. I chose a title, pasted in the link, then wrote these two notes: “about not buying [...]
[...] really appreciate this blog as well as this post in particular. I’m sorry for the long-winded comment but I am simply excited to be on this [...]