It is undeniable that grocery shopping stores offer convenience when it comes to purchasing food. But many ready-made foods can be prepared better, cheaper, and healthier at home. So next time you’re writing down your shopping list, check out our handy make-it-and-do-buy-it list to skip the products in-store.
Tomato sauce
You can find shop-bought pasta sauces and tomato sauces that contain a lot of sugar and salt to regulate acidity. But it’s much easier to make your own. The secret of the perfect sauce lies in a long, slow simmer that allows herbs and flavors to permeate the tomatoes with natural acidity and soften everything. All you have to do is add a tiny pinch of sugar.
Vegetable stock
An excellent way to reduce food waste is to avoid buying salty bouillon cubes using vegetable leftovers instead of broth. Use an ice cube dish to freeze the broth ready to be added to a sauce such as risottos, or freeze a large batch to use as the basis for a nourishing homemade broth. Once it is frozen, you always have fresh tomato sauce at hand.
Baked beans
Baked beans are the love of the world, but canned beans are practical and loaded with salt and sugar. Make your dish, and you will have a tasty dish with more complex flavors such as puff vinegar and the rich sweetness of brown sugar heated with mustard. You can also use this recipe for cooking barbecue or cowboy beans.
Chilli oil
Everyone has a beautiful drizzle of pizza, pasta, salad, or chili oil in their kitchen cupboard. The variety of infusion oils sold in supermarkets is vast, so make your own to meet and give away your taste. Store-bought cereal can be sugary, even if it is a brand name as a healthy breakfast option. It is much easier to make your cereal at home because you control what goes into the mixture.
Granola
Roast oatmeal, nuts, seeds, coconut flakes, coconut oil, drizzle with honey, maple syrup, or cinnamon, and combine with your favorite dried fruits.
If stored in an airtight container at room temperature or overnight in a freezer bag, it will last up to a month.
Energy bars
You can easily customize this recipe to add your favorite dried fruits, nuts, and seeds, or you can add a drop of melted dark chocolate yogurt. You better bake in batches like cereal, which is a basket full of energy bars and sugar.
Salad croutons
Preparing homemade salad croutons is a lovely, tasty, and easy preparation alternative for those who need to get rid of stale bread. Homemade croutons are softer than shop-bought croutons and are great for adding flavor to salad dressings. To control the aroma and salt content, season the chopped pieces of bread yourself and roast them lightly in a dry pan in the oven before adding them to the salad.
Garlic bread
It’s hard to resist warm, buttery garlic bread, and we think it has a bit of home magic. Make sure you add just enough garlic and a generous pinch of salt to your butter, and be courteous when butchering the baguette. When ready, bake at 400oF / 200oC (gas mark 6) for 15 minutes until crust is crispy and the butter has melted and lost its suckling into bread from grocery shopping.
Caramel sauce
It may seem like a scary recipe, but you can do it at any cooking level. Skip the preservative-laden caramel sauce from the supermarket and do it yourself, and it’s guaranteed to taste even better.
Salad dressing
Make sure you do not leave the pot unattended, as the sugar bubbles as soon as it reaches the perfect golden color and does not burn. Preparing your salad dressing takes no longer than a few minutes and tastes better than preparing an alternative filled with additives and stabilizers.