With food costs rising and threats of hyper-inflation, yet no extra hours in my day, I have been looking for ways to save money on my family’s food while always trying to save time. Store-bought convenience foods are expensive, loaded with extra preservatives, and the packaging is not environmental friendly. The solution: The Make Convenience Food At Home eBook!
Save Money and Time: How To Make Convenience Food At Home
The secret is in the planning.
- Plan a day to prepare foods
- Plan what meals you want to prepare for convenient use
- Plan whether you are preparing for canning or freezing
- Plan to have enough ingredients on hand to prepare the recipes in BULK!
Save Money and Save Time: Canning
Many foods lend themselves well to being canned the old-fashioned way. Make your favorite chili, taco meat or soup in bulk and process in a pressure canner. Quart jars are terrific for family use while pint jars are great for a snack or a light lunch. I have canned meat loaf, taco beans, plain beans, and a variety of vegetables. One time I even canned hard-boiled eggs! (See some recommended canning supplies here.)
Hamburger, sausage, chicken and other plain meats can be canned for convenient use in later recipes. Home-canned meat is significantly cheaper than store-bought canned meat.
Save Money and Save Time: Freezing
Some items are just not suitable for canning, or even for assembly prior to dinner time. Nevertheless, the freezer can be used to store your homemade convenience foods. Doubling up on casseroles, baked goods and bread are ways to utilize the freezer. There are many other reasons to have a freezer.
Cakes, cookies, breads and casseroles fall into this category. Have several disposable foil baking pans on hand and whatever you make for dinner, make two or three more for the freezer. After they are cooked and cooled, place in the freezer for a future busy night. Lasagne, chicken and even breakfast casseroles are very convenient if baked and frozen ahead of time.
Meatballs do not can very well. They smash together in the jars during processing, and you end up with a blob of meat. It works much better to make and bake your meatballs, then freeze them on a cookie sheet. After they are frozen solid, they can then be placed in a freezer container or ziplock bag and taken out as needed.
Anyone living a busy lifestyle needs and wants the convenience of pre-cooked foods. With a bit of effort, strategically timed, convenience food can be made easily, cheaply and healthily! Enjoy all of your spare time!!!!
How do you can hard boiled eggs, and how long do they last?
Deb, thanks for your question. I hard-boil the eggs, peel them and place them in a quart jar. A quart jar will hold 1 dozen eggs!! The next step is to pour your mixture over the eggs. That mixture simply depends on the recipe you choose. I have done pickled eggs twice, and my family has not liked either recipe. So do some researching on that on your own. Process the eggs as directed. Here is a link that will get you started. http://kuntzfamily.com/recipes/pickled_eggs.shtml I pressure-canned mine. Does this help point you in the right direction? Contact me again if you’d like some more guidance. Robin – knittin5kids@yahoo.com