Pizza Sauce

I like making homemade pizza, but my sauce was always too runny or too thick.  Recently I discovered the perfect consistency and the perfect amount of sauce for my pizza is to combined one can of tomato sauce with one can of tomato paste.

Now if I can just get the seasonings to perfection, then I'd have a full recipe to post on here.

Food Storage

Where I live we have what is called Case Lot Sales.  Around here people love to store food and case lot sales are a way to buy several months worth of canned goods at a discount price.  I love having food on hand, it's great when needing a quick meal, when you can't just run to the store every day (nearest one from me is 20 miles), or for security in an emergency.  When my husband didn't find a permanent job right after graduating college, it was good to know that at least we would not starve.  Between that and a financial reserve we were able to save ourselves a lot of stress and worry.

I realize most places don't have case lots, but canned goods and other frequently used items do go on sale.  I have a list of things we go through quickly- chocolate chips anyone? When they go one sale, we buy. We also store hygiene and other commonly used products.  Seriously, toilet paper is one thing I want to have plenty of!

Whether you buy food storage slowly as things come on sale or stock up at the once or twice a year sales, things we use everyday are always good to have extra of.  I recommend stocking up on at least a three month supply of items you use regularly and rotating your stock so it does not go bad.


What if you don't have the space???

Be creative.  Some people use long term food storage as a base for a bed. I use all my storage, even the wheat, so I keep it in a more accessible place...our closet.  We also have our cupboards full and an extra shelf in our kitchen. I look forward to when baby comes all we'll need to run to the store for is the perishable items- milk, eggs, cheese, fruit/veggies.

Happy Savings!

Syrup

I love my thick buttermilk syrup, but I also wanted something for those morning when I just wanted pancakes from the freezer and no cooking involved.  My problem was my syrup is best fresh and other syrups I've tried have been runny.

Here is a common recipe on the internet

1 cup water
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp maple flavoring.

Boil for 5 mins. Stir constantly

I added about a 1/2 cup corn syrup to make it thicker and boiled it for just a bit longer.  I was satisfied that it was thicker than sugary water and similar to a store bought version. (Although store bought isn't all that good.)

I will be experimenting more with syrups later.  It is always surprising how much sugar (or fat) goes into many of the things we eat without much thought.  Making things from scratch makes you more aware of that- and me more conscious of my syrup consumption.

Confession: I Buy Brand Name Products

There are those brand named foods that until I get around to experimenting with making them myself I will continue to stock up on when they are on sale.  In my opinion, Bull's Eye BBQ sauce is the best and no knock off version has ever come close to its tasty goodness. However, I wait until a sale before stocking up.

My husband likes a certain kind of soap, okay, I'll get it.  Keeping husband happy is way more important than a few pennies saved.

I have also found certain brands just work better than others.  A good brand of dish soap last us much longer than a cheap brand. Ironically, the name brand stuff ends up saving us money in the long run.  Once again sales and coupons can often be found for these products.

Cinnamon And Sugar

I once saw in the spiced section of a store a premixed cinnamon and sugar.  That was almost as laughable to me as jelly and peanut butter in the same jar.

I have heard a ratio of 4:1 sugar to cinnamon but I like a lot of cinnamon.  I probably do 1/4 cup sugar to 1 1/2 TBSP cinnamon.

Simply put the mix a container with lid, cover, and shake.  Tada!