Several months ago I wrote about how we have tried over the years to make a few things from scratch versus buying premade (see my posts “Making your own challah” and “(More) Make your own”). Keeping kosher already encourages us to do this since sometimes there is not a store-bought version available or it is very expensive. This has not become an everyday habit for us, but there are some things we do make on a regular basis:
∞ Birthday cakes and cupcakes – No store-bought sheet cakes for us; this way is cheaper and we can personalize the treat more to the honoree.
∞ Bread crumbs – My husband saves the leftover bread from Shabbos and it gets ground into bread crumbs to use later in recipes. See my post “Recipe favorites: Crumb chicken” for one way we use bread crumbs.
∞ Canning – I would love to try more canning as well, because although it is time-consuming, you do get a lot and save so much! Check out our first attempt in my post “First canning experiment: Apple butter.”
∞ Croutons and Caesar dressing (as I have mentioned in my post “Stretching your dinner dime… dollar”) – This is one of our favorite meals and much easier and cheaper than finding a kosher store-bought version.
∞ Desserts – Especially for Shabbos, unless we have a cheap boxed cake mix.
∞ Refried beans – We love these and eat them often. The recipe makes a big batch, so we freeze it and it is good for several meals (burritos or enchiladas). See my husband’s recipe here: Refried Beans recipe.
∞ Salad dressing – We love the Good Seasons packets, but occasionally branch out into homemade recipes.
∞ Salsa, pico de gallo, and guacamole – Mexican is one of our favorite cuisine types and we eat it at least once a week. My husband has become a master at creating his own dips that the family loves! I had never liked guacamole before trying his!
∞ Taco seasoning – Until we found taco-flavored soy meat and later a taco seasoning mix at Sam’s Club, we used to always make our own taco seasoning. It was easy and could be stored along with our other spices.
Next year, when all our boys will be at elementary school, we are definitely going to start making our own bread. We will easily go through a loaf in two days with packing lunches!
As part of my quest to find new things to make homemade, here are some resources I found today:
Please share your homemade experiments with us all in the Comments Section!
Surviving on a tight budget 
I have been branching out and making my own bean dip/”refried” beans in the crock pot for our taco Tuesdays. I get the big bag of pinto beans and put taco seasoning(homemade;) some garlic and put it on low overnight. Let it cool then puree through the blender, or hand blender. It lasts us a month and It’s less than $2 to make.
I 100% agree that homemade croutons and breadcrumbs are better than store bought.
That is a great idea to do it in the crock pot. We have never done that because we only have the one crock pot and it is fleishig, so we wouldn’t be able to put cheese on the beans. Maybe we will have to put that on our wish list! Thanks for reading and commenting!
Could you please share your taco seasoning recipe?
Also, I have been making my own salad dressing for decades! Tastes much better than store bought and I can control how much salt and fat I put in!
Great idea! I will share them today!