Thursday, August 4, 2016

Cream sauce mix.

Cream of xxx soup is expensive and has ingredients you can't pronounce. An easy alternative can be found on the Internet.

Soup base for small family.   This has to be kept cold, like on a fridge or freezer.   Since, I have a very small family, freezer, and fridge I cut the recipe down to a manageable size.   It had flour, milk and butter, basicly  a white Sauce.   

I have made a white sauce mix from taste of home before. It uses milk, a dried stock, and cornstarch. Some people do not like the idea of cornstarch.   This version, however is low in fat because of the dry milk, and low in sodium because you use low sodium stock.   Just add water.   !

It would be interesting to calculate how much fat is in a recipe ( equate lent to 1 can) vs the actual can.  I did the math.  The can has considerably less fat, but more preservatives.   Taste of home is less fat, but corn starch.  The fat version isn't much cheaper than getting the canned soup on sale at thanksgiving time.  I paid .39.   


Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a different perspectives. 

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food  for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you  use  on a weekly basis. 

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week. 
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level. 

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food.   This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget.   You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently. 

 Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck. 

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