To save money, you often have to put in the time, a.k.a., sweat equity. It’s no different than going to the gym to get in shape or lose weight.
You have to make the effort.
Once a month, I’ll schedule a marathon kitchen effort, usually a Sunday morning right after I’ve made breakfast for my pit bull Annabelle and my partner Bob (yes, in that order, the dog rules in our house). This last kitchen effort included:
Zesting oranges for cardamon/orange yeast bread (oranges had seen better days so I froze them for about 30 minutes to make zesting easier)
Roasting a whole chicken
Making homemade yogurt in my Insta pot (recipe to follow)
Cutting veggies for a weekday salad
Making a fresh batch of pico de gallo (absurdly easy, recipe to follow)
Making two types of hummus; beet and carrot (veggies were already roasted so this only entailed a blender and some basic hummus ingredients; recipe to follow)
Zesting giant limes for zest only because my lemon tree sometimes will grow some giant limes as well and while they never have juice, the zest is useful in baking
Caramelizing onions for the holidays to come
Roasting pumpkin wedges and freezing
My point to all this is that I allow the tasks to accumulate until I have enough to do for 2-3 hours. Because I have to tend caramelizing onions, it makes being the kitchen long enough to finish my other tasks easy.
How to make homemade yogurt: I usually buy a half gallon of milk on special at the discount grocery store for this. I heat the milk to 180F- degrees being careful to not boil. Then I wait until the milk has cooled to 110-115F-degrees. I pour it into my Insta pot and whisk in some yogurt starter which is just yogurt I have already made. I keep a couple of tablespoons for the next batch. You can buy yogurt with active culture at the grocery store, just read the label. I think I spent 0.49 cents on my original cup of yogurt with active starter and have been making my own for a number of years ever since. Once you whisk in the starter, put the lid on, push the ‘yogurt’ button and let it go for 12 hours. I usually will drain the resulting yogurt because I like mine thick like Greek yogurt but it is also fine as it is once your Insta Pot beeps ‘done’. Easiest recipe ever.
How to make Pico: Dice up three or four small tomatoes. Dice half a purple onion (white or yellow works well too). Toss in a small container of drained pineapple bits, chopped (optional for those of you who don’t like pineapple). Mince a bunch of herbs of your choice, about 1/2 cup. You can just use cilantro as well. Mix everything together and season with salt and pepper. That’s pico. Takes no time at all and is better than any store-bought version.
Hummus multiple ways: Make the base in a food processor with 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas. You can use a small container of store-bought hummus in a pinch, but plain cooked chickpeas are better. Add the juice of one lemon and toss in 2-3 cloves of garlic. Spoon in about 1/2 cup Tatini (sesame paste) and a splash of olive oil. Blend, adding about 1/3-1/2 cup very cold water to loosen up the mix. That’s your base. To make more magic, divide into two batches and blend 2-3 roasted beets into one batch and 2 cups of roasted carrots into the other. You will have to add a little more water and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. I’ve been known to throw in a hot pepper from my garden. The beet flavored version will be a stunning shade of magenta and one of the few ways my family will eat beets, they love hummus this way. I make the carrot variety to use up roasted carrots from the weekend roasts I make for my partner.
No good vegetable should ever go to waste.
So, schedule a marathon kitchen session sometime soon. You can roast and chop veggies for the week to come, whip up a batch of soul-warming soup, cruise through your pantry and figure out ways to use up the canned goods that somehow got shoved to the back of the top shelf, the possibilities are endless and the savings certain.
the house behind 