Cooking From Scratch Success

[CrazyHomemaker]

Nicole, Mine, too. "You turned out just fine" is a favorite around here. Jello pudding is my mom's favorite, and she buys it - then sneaks it to the kids. Then she can't figure out why they are all rowdy and out of control. and I am IBS fine, and she is Lupus fine. And my sister is colitis fine. And my dad is morbidly obese fine.

Yeah. I've heard that, too. When I think of it, we had the latest box mixes and treats that Mom decided were tasty. And, we had 'real' food from scratch. If Mom fried meat, then we had boxed sides. If Mom cooked, the veggies and starches were usually in the cooking.

To this day, Mom refuses to acknowledge that she eats too much crap. She's 80. She believes the pills she takes are what's keeping her alive. Sad!

Mom is diabetic, high blood-pressure, high cholesterol, pre-kidney failure and pop 15 pills a day and insulin dependent fine.

Dad, God rest his soul, was a bit overweight, high blood-pressure, high cholesterol, heart surgery, carotid surgery, restless leg syndrome, pre-diabetic, pop 8 pills a day fine.

Brother is short tempered, high blood-pressure, looks older than me fine.

I am pre-menopausal, heart problem, no meds fine.

I got some of the health problems from the bad cooking and cigarette smoking while pregnant, but I think I came out pretty good...considering.

Crap-in-the-box has been out of my kitchen for 5 years, now.

Feels good to vent.

Take care, all of you.

[Ramona]

Congratulations on your first white sauce .

You're right about the awful ingredients in commercial mixes. The last time I made brownies and cookies from a mix, I realized that they were much too sweet and had a strange metallic aftertaste.

I'd copied some good recipes for desserts from the internet, now I just have to find the time and motivation to make them.

[shp1055]

Scratch is just too easy.
Growing up, we were lucky, Mama cooked almost everything from scratch. Biscuits, cornbread, pies, cakes, cookies, main dishes. I can still remember being small & her purchasing her first boxed cake mix. I read the instructions on the box to her. We went back to scratch. Her chicken & dumplings, banana pudding, pineapple upside down cake were requested anytime there was a church meal, family reunion and those are just a few. I rarely ever buy anything in a box, or frozen "entrees".
Learned at the knee of a master.

[pollypurebred39]

Lots of my friends just love the Bear Creek soup mixes..........that sell for about $3.50 a package.........and have MSG in everyone of them.........and I can't understand it..........as most are BLAND and some are, to me, even tasteless!

The same goes for any 'helper'......(hamburger, tuna, etc.).....almost all have MSG.........though I DID find out that is now whole wheat and no MSG...........maybe the companies are FINALLY getting wise.

Always better when homemade.........and 'hold the chemicals'!!

ANY soup tastes better homemade........and is soooo easy!!

See that's just it, all that stuff is loaded with garbage. If you want a good meal without all those chemicals just start with a nice cut of steak, or maybe pork and pan fry. Rarely is any oil needed if it's a nice cut. (if you do add oil, make it just enough to coat the pan, no more) Brown the meat, giving it a bit of a crisp. (don't keep turning, just put the meat in and let it get good and crisp before turning) The pan with get crusty and golden on the bottom, threatening to burn. Don't worry, this adds lots of flavor to the sauce. Remove the meat and immediately pour in a cup of red wine, or two if you wish. bring to a simmer, and scrape up the golden bits stuck to the pan. Keep over heat until the wine has reduced to about a 1/3. It should have a lot of body, and be a bit on the thick side. (not soupy) Take off heat and add a tablespoon or two of butter, whisk in. Serve over the pan fried meat.

This can be done with white wine for fish, or with chicken stock and chicken. It is extremely easy, and very, very good.

Or blender Hollandaise, takes a whole 5 minutes!

Ingredients
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 pinch cayenne
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
Directions
Place egg yolks, lemon juice, cayenne and salt in a blender; heat butter until bubbling but do not brown.
Cover blender container and turn on motor to high; blend for 3 seconds; with motor running, remove lid, and add butter slowly, in a steady stream, taking 30 seconds to pour the butter in.
Serve immediately or keep sauce warm by placing blender container in warm water.

[MsMarieH]

For those that want the best of both worlds (home cooking AND hamburger helper), here's a nice blog posting I came across a while back that shows how to put together your own "kits".

How to Make Homemade Hamburger Helper | Chickens in the Road

[Shelli_wnj]

Marie, being a "boxed convert," I rely on these "mix kits" some days to get my family into the scratch thing We haven't been doing it that long, and my husband still asks for stuff like "the thing you make that tastes like rice a roni" or "the hamburger helper knockoff". My son says "can you put my pudding in a snack pack cup?" I think it's comforting to them that it still looks the same, you know? And I know it's better for them.

[MsMarieH]

Sometimes it's just really nice to have something fast and "mindless" to make when time is short and you're tired after working all day. I have a list of about 5 recipes that I can make with no advanced prep (like thawing meat) needed. Can really make a difference somedays when the instinct is to just do takeout.

[Ashley01]

I wish my mom had cooked from scratch. I absolutley hate cooking but would love to know how to cook healthy meals so dd could learn. I'm not really sure where to go to start, does anyone have any easy, beginner recipes? It's only me and dd so huge recipes are always to much. But pretty much everything we ate was from a box, jar, or bag. I don't think I've even eaten homemade pasta sause. I don't want dd to grow up thinking the same things.

[Shelli_wnj]

Marie, can you share your go-to recipes? I could really use something quick and easy this week!

[MsMarieH]

Some aren't even recipes really...

1) Pasta (spaghetti/penne/ravioli/etc.) with marinara sauce (either jarred or a quickie recipe with tomatoes, tomato sauce, spices)

2) If morning, frozen pork or beef roast in the crockpot with a cup of beef broth, a packet of dry onion soup mix and a can of cream of mushroom soup.

3) Salmon Noodle Skillet with Broccoli - a recipe from my campbell's soup cookbook. I'll post the recipe. Goes together in just over 30 minutes.

4) If cooked ground beef in freezer (I often have some stored in two cup measures), use that for tacos, chili, etc.

[Spirit Deer]

For white sauce, I often use this recipe:

HOMEMADE CREAM SOUP MIX
2 c. powdered nonfat milk
3/4 c. cornstarch
1/4 c. instant chicken bouillon
2 T. onion powder
1 t. basil leaves
1 t. thyme leaves
1/2 t. pepper
Place all ingredient in jar with tight-fitting lid and shake well to mix. To use in place of canned cream of mushroom or other cream soups, combine 2/3 cup of dry mix with 1 1/4 cups of cold water in a saucepan. Cook and stir until thickened. Use in recipes calling for canned cream soup. For white sauce, use 1/3 c. of mix. It's easy to get whatever consistency you'd like by varying the amount of water.

Some of our kids didn't want to cook when they were kids. Being the meanest mom in the world, I didn't allow them to make that choice. That included the boys. Boys need to eat every day just as girls do, so it's not logical not to teach them to cook. Now as adults, they've thanked me for making them learn to cook even when they pitched a fit about it. Scratch cooking is a survival skill that everyone should learn.

I've banned cake mixes and brownie mixes now. I've never been a fan anyway. I dumped the icky bottled dressings a couple years ago and started making my own. I discovered the holy trinity of equal parts buttermilk, light mayo, and low fat yogurt. Using that as a base, any creamy dressing can easily be made by adding various herbs, mustard, horseradish, cheeses, etc. And I no longer have to put up with that funny stale undertaste from bottled dressings, not to mention the ton of salt they manage to squeeze into every bottle. *blech*

It bugs me that so many recipes in contemporary cookbooks, even church and community cookbooks, start with a mix or processed food of some kind. I've been on a vintage kick lately with regard to other things, and I think that's going to start extending to cookbooks. Vintage cookbooks offer recipes that are truly for scratch cooking, not semi-scratch. Any recipe with a mix or other processed food in the ingredients list is not really a scratch recipe, IMO.

[divinemsn]

A few nights ago, we wanted to have chicken alfredo for dinner.

As the water was boiling to cook our box of Smart Taste pasta ($1 sale), and our pre-seasoned garlic butter chicken breast (purchased on quick sale for $1 a breast), was cooking, I made my very first homemade white sauce.

And you know what....it was easy. Butter, Flour, Milk, salt and pepper and a dash of parmesan. My mom was blabbering about how much easier it was to buy a jar. Yep. Have fun paying for all the nastiness in it as well.

So what have you made from scratch that was surprisingly simpler than you thought?

I made my own white sauce for the first time a few weeks ago and I was so happy. No more expensive jar sauce for me. Whenever I bought it we never went through the whole bottle. Total waste.

[moasmom]

Some of our kids didn't want to cook when they were kids. Being the meanest mom in the world, I didn't allow them to make that choice. That included the boys. Boys need to eat every day just as girls do, so it's not logical not to teach them to cook. Now as adults, they've thanked me for making them learn to cook even when they pitched a fit about it. Scratch cooking is a survival skill that everyone should learn.

Good for you! We all know there are reasons why cooking has always been thought of women's work, but none of those reasons are valid any more, so boys should be taught to cook, same as girls. Like you said, boys need to eat every day, too. Same goes for other housework, but that's a different thread.

As far as teaching children in general to cook, it's certainly a valuable skill, but I don't think adults who didn't learn to cook as children need to dispair. There's nothing mysterious about it that can't be learned at any age. The key is to have the desire to do it and to just get started with simple things.

Kara

[Spirit Deer]

Absolutely! Anyone who can read, and some people who can't, can certainly learn to cook! And it's important to do so.

Obesity is rampant in this country and it's not hard to figure out at least one contributing factor: Processed foods. And IMO, it's nearly impossible to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight without scratch cooking. Everything else, in spite of the lying labels on the front to convince people unhealthy food is actually healthy, has too much fat, salt, sugar, and additives in it. So do scratch meals if people aren't careful, so it's important to learn something about nutrition along the way, too.