The Cost of Homemade

This morning was spent cooking instead of quilting. If you do not like to cook or if you truly do not have time to cook, and I know some of you do not, then this whole entry will probably not interest you. I'm really not cheap but I hate wasting money. Before you ask, buying fabric - even fabric I'll never use is not wasting money. I've already settled that in my own head. We rarely go out to eat and it's simply because we don't really enjoy eating out. I'm not knocking going out for dinner and when we travel, we eat out and enjoy it. I think it has something to do with fact that I usually have to get dressed because a T-shirt with holes in it from the pins on the longarm, no bra, ragged jeans and lime green Crocs aren't appropriate for leaving home. So, by the time I shower, put on makeup, get dressed . . it would take less time and hassle to cook in my own kitchen with my holey T-shirt, ragged jeans and lime green Crocs, right? It is dang expensive to eat out. We ate at O'Charley's for my birthday Monday and for two of us with one appetizer, two entrees, two soft drinks and the tip was over $40. This translates to about 5 yards of fabric in my brain. One morning last weekend, we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel. With drinks and tip, it was over $30. That would buy a little over 3 yards of fabric. Think about it . . would you rather eat out twice or buy 8 yards of fabric? I know exactly what I'd rather do. Then I began to think about how much it costs to cook at home. My goodness! Almost nothing!! Have you ever figured it out? I'm amazed. If I'm careful and watch the sales, I can cook really good meals for less than $10 for 3 of us. If I do just a little planning, I can cut my kitchen time in half too. When I was living at home (as opposed to living at the house in town . . I am not homeless), for many years I would do all my cooking on Monday for the entire week and I would make extras so that on the 4th week, I didn't have to cook at all. I'll go back to doing that when I get back to my larger kitchen and freezer space. Here are some examples of my cheap meals at home. Kroger has green peppers on sale this week for 3/$1.00. This morning I made stuffed peppers. I made 14 but I ate one for lunch so you only see 13 in the picture. Here's what it cost: 14 peppers - $4.63 2 pounds ground meat - $7.20 2 cans tomatoes - $1.40 1 cup raw rice - .10 seasoning - .10 onion & garlic - .25 cheese - $1.00 Tomato soup - $2.00 (Wal-Mart brand is .48) Total cost - $16.68. That comes to $1.19 per pepper! I'll freeze them on the cookie sheet and then put them in individual ziplock bags, then put them in a big freezer bag and just take them out one at a time as I need them, let them thaw, put the cheese on top, pour tomato soup around them and bake them. One dish to wash and no hassle to have dinner on the table . . and a very good dinner! I love stuffed peppers. Figure I add a salad which could easily cost upwards of $4 if I'm buying tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, black olives, radishes, etc., a can of green beans and two of us could eat for less than $8. Tonight we're having smoked chicken. I'm smoking two chickens and the total cost was $7.10. Chad will eat one breast and I'll eat two wings and maybe part of a breast so we'll have one whole chicken and 2/3 of another one left over. The cost for tonight's chicken is probably less than $2. We'll have some kind of frozen veggie (they're on sale for $1/bag at Kroger this week), eggplant/tomato salad which probably costs about $3 to make but it will be enough for at least two meals. Maybe I'll fix beanie weenie for Chad and that might cost .75. We have a Cookshack smoker and we love it! I smoked a brisket when mom and dad were here and they loved it so much, they went home and ordered themselves one. I think they smoked chickens yesterday. It's so easy to use. I used a rub on the chickens yesterday, let them sit in a Ziplock bag in the fridge overnight. Stuck them in the smoker this morning about 8 with 2 oz. of apple wood and they were done at 1:00 p.m. The skin doesn't get crispy in the smoker so I'll stick one of them in the convection oven for a few minutes before dinner. The smoked chicken is great for other recipes. I'll take the leftover chicken off the bone and divide it into about 1-1/2 cup sizes and freeze it for chicken enchiladas, chicken salad or King Ranch casserole. I have rolls rising that probably cost less than .50 to make so tonight's whole meal will probably cost less than $6. These rolls are great. They're called Jailhouse Rolls and the dough keeps in the fridge for at least 10 days so once it's made up, all I have to do is roll them out and let them rise. I've made these rolls for years. They were something we always had at family night dinners at church. Here's another one . . a bit more expensive but still a great meal. Tomorrow night we are having flank steak. The marinade (fresh ginger, honey, soy sauce, olive oil, cider vinegar) probably cost about $1.50. I paid $13 for the steak, $1.25 for the potatoes for baking. Add another $1.50 for potato toppings. Chad doesn't eat salad so I'll slice a tomato for me so that's another $1 and we'll have rolls again, which adds another .50 to make so there's a great meal for $17.75 and because the potatoes are huge and the steak is more than we can eat at one meal, I'll have leftovers for my lunch the next day so the meal really is less than $17.75. Yes, yes .. it does cost some amount to prepare the food at home, whether I'm using the smoker outside, the gas grill, or the stove inside. But, I'm betting it costs less in energy costs to cook the food, and clean up the kitchen than it does in gas to get to the restaurant and back! Looks I like just earned myself a trip to the quilt shop! :) Judy L.