Another day without spending a dime. DH eats with the team on Thursdays (dinner is made by FB moms at different churches) and when I couldn't think of what to make at 7:30 tonight, I though to myself "What did I do in college when I did not feel like cooking and had very few ingredients?" Answer: I hauled out the snack-master, a contraption I inherited from my mom, for a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich pressed between the near-end of the store-bought wheat bread. I practically lived on these sandwiches in college! I clearly needed more bread, so I put the ingredients for a whole wheat loaf in the bread maker and set the delay timer so it will be hot and fresh at 6:00am tomorrow!Investment: A bread maker is a wonderful invention that surprisingly many people own, but few actually use. Mine was a wedding gift, but instead of buying one new, I'd check with friends or family who may never use theirs, or check garage sales. My sister picked one up last weekend for only $5. I'm currently in the bread-making routine, have tried many recipes (including the Parmesan Pepper Bread mentioned earlier this week and DH's favorite Onion Bread), and hope to explore some more cost savings by buying my ingredients -especially yeast- in larger quantities so I can drive down the cost of homemade bread. For now, I estimate the cost of my ingredients at around $1.50/loaf for a plain 2lb. loaf.
Instead of: Buying bread at the grocery store. My old staple was 12-grain Amana bread for $2.19 at Hy-Vee (plus an extra stop at Hy-Vee since Fareway doesn't carry it.)
Savings: $.69
Bonus: Homemade bread tastes great, is more filling, and makes perfect open-face egg white and ham sandwiches for breakfast!
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Thanks for the recipes! I'm not the hugest onion fan, but I'll have to definitely try the PP Bread after hearing you talk about it so much. How do I get freshly ground peppercorns? I think I have whole ones in my spice drawer, but I don't have a grinder. I guess I'm not a proper member of the family if I don't have an obsession with pepper. ;o)
I didn't realize how expensive bread makers were. Now I'm even more excited about my good deal! I haven't been able to get the blade out to clean, but it seems to clean up just fine, so I'm not too worried.
My friend Julie said if you use basic bread recipes (not too many extra fancy ingredients) you can make it work. I haven't sat down and done a cost analysis yet. I got a jar of yeast at Wal-mart for almost the same price I had to pay at Bender's for a 3-packet. :op I'll still definitely be buying the $1.19 honey wheat bread at Quik Star for sandwiches and toast, though.
So far I've made 2 loaves of bread and a cinnamon roll dough for MMO this morning. I've been slightly disappointed, though. The first was okay, but fell in and got dry really fast. The second "sweet loaf" got overbaked and I had to shave off the crusts. The recipe didn't call for any salt, but I think it needed it b/c it was really bland. I rescued it with a LOT of homemade peach jam from Austin's Grandma Freking. I thought the cinnamon rolls were a bit dry, but I made them the day before. However, a couple other moms raved about them, so they must have been good. I'll email you the recipe.
Even though I've had slightly disappointing results so far I can never wait to try the next one. Feel free to pass along any additional recipes!
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