The cost of convenience.

We have all been schooled on how to save money at the grocery store such as buy on sale, cut coupons and carry a price book but what about convenience food, all or most can be made for a fraction of the cost even with sales and coupons.

We take alot of things for granted. One of the things we take for granted are many of our foods we buy. Alot of these foods are really convenience items, but over time we have lost the concept of what "convenience" is.

It may not make any sense to cut out all of these items, consider your life circumstances and there is some conveniences that are worth paying for. Many of these items if they are home made will reduce your grocery bill by half or more.

Here are some of the conveniece foods we now see as staples:

• Bread
• Pop/Juice (drinks in general)
• cereal
• boxed meals
• canned soups
• frozen dinners(pizza/tv dinners ect..)
  

Many of these items can be home made with a little extra time on the weekends. You can Google "home made mixes" and find everything from cake mixes to gravy mixes, and flavored rice mixes. By making batches of these you can cut your grocery bill significantly.

Zucchini Relish

You heard right Zucchini relish, I made this last summer with some Zucchini that got away. Peel and take out the seeds and shred them. My daughter loved it and could not tell the difference between this and the relish that I had bought in the store. This recipe has to sit over night so allow time accordingly.

• 11 cups zucchini
• 4 cups onions
• 2 green peppers
• 2 red peppers
• 1/2 cup canning salt
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 teaspoon celery salt(I have just used seed)
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
• 4 cups sugar

Directions

Grind the zucchini, onions, and the peppers; mix with the canning salt.

1. Let stand overnight.
2. Drain and rinse in cold water, drain and rinse again, and drain again.
3. Mix 1 teaspoon of turmeric and 1 teaspoon of nutmeg and add the flour, celery seeds, black pepper, sugar and vinegar.
4. Boil 20-30 minutes and put in clean jars and seal.
   

Gadzooks!! What to do with all that Zucchini!!!

An overabundance of Zucchini, no worry, over the next few days I am going to post some recipes for getting rid of this vegetable! This is one plant that is very versatile, the abundance of Zucchini can be used as a frugal dessert, main course, and even frozen for future use.

Zucchini apples

8 cups of cut up zuchinni(I like to use the really big ones that got away, peel them and take the seeds out and cut up like apple slices, I freeze these in 8 cup portions)
2/3 cup of lemon juice
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp of nutmeg

Cook the zucchini in the lemon juice until tender (about 20 minutes)
add the sugar and spices

You can use this just like you would use apple pie filling, I use it to make pies or apple crisp. It really does taste like tart apples.

Super slick pan coating

Sick of buying those expensive sprays, here is a recipe for making a pan coating that works just as good, maybe even better!

1/2 cup oil(your choice vegetable, olive, canola)

1/2 cup shortening (Crisco or other)

1/2 cup flour

Mix together with mixer until smooth and creamy and store in container on counter or in cooler weather I have stored this in my fridge. I use a silicone brush to spread in pans.

This costs me about 35 cents to make. I would say it lasts about as long as two cans of spray. I have heard others make one with cocoa instead of flower so it does not show up on chocolate recipes.