What things do you make from scratch, to be more wholesome for you and your family?

missymoo81 · 4 May 2015 at 12:18PM

I've had a bit of a light bulb moment over the last few days, and am appalled by what I have found out to be in my food and the amount of waste i throw out, both food and packaging. I hate the fact I'm giving my money to Mr T£esco, and mindlessly buying and eating things. I have 2 young children and want them to taste good wholesome food and not to live in a world filled with rubbish. Yes I can go and buy organic food from Mr T£eco, but I can't afford to keep lining his pockets, I need a simpler way off life I think, for me and my family. To simplify the whole from farm to fork type process.

So I'm doing some research and changing my ways, and wondered if anyone else is doing this and to ask what have you changed and what are you doing, to take stuff back to the good old days of more simpler living?

I've taken matters into my own hands this morning, my toddlers refuse to drink water and will only drink squash, now IMO there are lots of horrid things in squash, so, light bulb moment, i realised I had loads of clementines that I'd bought really that would be going out of date soon. So I thought I'd juice them, I found an electric juicer thing I have never used and don't even know where it came from, so whilst the solar panels are giving me energy, I thought I would give it a go, so I have juiced a bag of these little clementines, I could about 300ml of juice which i have watered down for them.

I am in the process of making oat milk, I have never done or tasted this before but I thought I would give it a whirl. Its a deliciously ella recipe, where you soak the oats for 30 mins, add water and blitz!:T oats are soaking at present.

Now I've got to thinking about fruit and veg. My kids eat these in bagfuls. I've looked into an organic veg box scheme, which is great but def not very MSE, so how can I tackle this. I have a very overgrown veg patch, so its time for me to start planting, job for this afternoon, that way I can get the littlies involved and show them where their food comes from.

Another thing that struck me today was my Washing machine, oh my goodness, it was gunked up to the hilt with, what I can only call sludge really, then when i took the drawer out, moldy sludge!!!:eek: I am horrified, and I'm pretty sure my Dishwasher will not be any better!! So i have put them on a hot wash with nothing in to clean them, again making the most of the solar panels. But the reason they are like this well the WM for definite, is the washing powder etc, there must be a simpler more old style detergent type thing to get your clothes clean, that is more natural and won't grow mold!!!!!

ETA: Come to think of itI use about 100 flash wipes a week, which is ludicrous!!! I'm thinking of maybe making some sort of cleaner, maybe lemon, and vinegar and water??? any ideas?

So what do you do and what advice would you give someone like me trying to live a better, simpler,old style life, for me and my family?

If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply!

[threadbanner]box[/threadbanner]

WantToBeSE · 4 May 2015 at 12:28PM

I used to make loads of stuff from scratch to be healthier and cheaper. I really MUST start doing it again, you have inspired me

Some examples are:

Oat milk, Almond milk, Almond and Nut butters, falafel, hummus, burgers, all bread things such as bread (duh!), flatbreads, nann bread, pitta, scotch pancakes etc.

My advice would be dont try to tackle everything at once, it will become overwhelming and you are likely to give up.

I would concentrate on the food side of things first, before you tackle the juice etc. Find what you eat most of that you can make yourself (mine are the items i have mentioned above) and start from there.

Also, in regards to F&V, i dont buy from a supermarket, i buy from the local fruitier. Not all that much cheaper, but the F&V are much bigger in size.

Good luck!

missymoo81 · 4 May 2015 at 12:46PM

Hi WanttobeSE, I think that's really good advice, starting from scratch on the things we actually eat, rather than getting caught up with 'everything'. I actually have a bread maker which needs dusting off. Hmmm flour, of the wholemeal organic type variety, I wonder if there are any mills nearby that would sell it direct, mind you would probably be in huuuge quantities..... need to have a think, but in the mean time, I do have plenty of flour etc, so will put that on now, thank you!

Going to make a menu plan in a mo and see what we normally eat and what we will eat this week, and see what I can make from scratch. Will be back with list later.

worn_out_mum · 4 May 2015 at 12:47PM

I think I'm similar to you, I had my lightbulb moment about 4 years ago, my kids are 7, 4 and nearly 9 months. I make bread, yoghurt, jam, chutneys, I bake for lunchboxes and have an allotment and a v
veggie patch at home. Dh and I also brew beer and wine and make our own cleaners too. I can't say it's easy but it can be done.
I can't kick my kids juice habit either but they alternate with water now. Mr T's high juice is 50% juice and I only buy the sugar variety as sweeteners send tge older two loopy.
Hth

missymoo81 · 4 May 2015 at 12:58PM

Hi worn out mum! wow I want to be like you

They're things we eat on a daily basis, so I can make bread, oooh yoghurt, but it would definitely be worth a go, mine eat so much of it. I did it once in a flask and it was ok, but that was with using milk powder and UHT milk. How do you make yours, I'm wanting to make it with more wholesome products, I've got the Hemsley and Hemsley book, they mention something about kefir and yoghurt, may have to read more into it. Jam! I used to make this all the time. I've read you can make jam with honey and chia seeds and fruit, to make it a lot healthier... I'll look into that recipe too and post if I can find it.

Biscuits, I am just so lazy with, rich tea are so cheap, but alas filled with rubbish. What sort of biscuits do you make?

Do you manage to grow most of your own veg worn out mum?

thriftwizard · 4 May 2015 at 12:59PM

Squash is indeed full of nasties, and even watered-down juice isn't ideal; too much sugar without the accompanying fibre to even out the sugar rush! That said, mine grew up on watered-down juice & seem to be OK, and still have all their teeth, virtually all intact.

Have look into making your own cordials & fizzles (ginger beer, fermented lemonade, elderflower champagne) for treats & special occasions, but get them onto mainly water, even if this means installing a filter tap - S0dastream do a very inexpensive one that works as well as something much more upmarket & doesn't need any complicated plumbing. Makes your tea taste better too!

Yes, grow your own, and consider keeping a handful of chickens, if you have room - they hoover up leftovers (don't tell Defra) & slugs, are rewardingly sociable, and give you lovely big eggs you know the exact provenance of, as well as rocket-fuel compost. But you will need to protect young plants from them as they're partial to what they consider to be a bit of salad too! Concentrate your growing efforts on things that cost the most to buy, as long as they want to grow where you are . Spuds grow almost anywhere, but at the moment I'm paying £3 for a 25Kg sack...

You can make your own washing powder/dishwasher liquid etc. - I'll see if I can hunt up recipes on here, I'm sure there's been a whole thread dedicated to it! - or use soap-nuts, which work pretty well for me, interspersed regularly with inexpensive commercial liquids to prevent a build-up of residues. Vinegar & bicarb will clean almost anything, and Stardrops will clean the rest!

You might also want to consider what you keep foodstuffs in and cook with - I keep as much as possible in glass jars & solid old tins, and cook with stainless steel, cast iron & wood wherever possible, without being neurotic about it. I'm not a huge fan of plastic in general, and certainly not of teflon... but each to their own.

Also think about what your household textiles have been treated with, and what we use on them without thinking twice, or pump into our air supply. Teflon again, and some very powerful chemicals with pretty smells... many houseplants work well to absorb & neutralise these, but with toddlers, you'd need to be aware of which ones might not be safe.

I could go on & on! But none of my young people have ever developed asthma or any major allergy-related problems, which I'm happy about. Not so happy with the delicate aroma of elderly moggy, though!

missymoo81 · 4 May 2015 at 1:14PM

Wow thriftwizard!!! You are amazing!

I am definitely toying with the idea of having chickens, We had some yeats ago, but I worked full time and long days and didn't have the time. But I still have the old henhouse and things! Another thing for me to look into, I think I need to make a list, I love writing lists

I'm starting to think about how things are stored too, I have several glass jars, I switched how a lot were being stored but ran out of jars! So will have to go a begging to my family for some. I have a huge cast iron frying pan thing, and don't really use teflon. I didn't even think about the air and what is in it, that's very interesting to know about the plants. Again more research is needed

Yes I definitely to plant what is expensive to buy. Although OH in his wisdom, spent his money on shed loads of seed potatoes!! But I will plant them as we have them, and clear the rest of the area. And I have tomato seeds etc that I will plant in the greenhouse!

Please do go on, I'm really interested to hear!

Right so best start making my list!

moneyistooshorttomention · 4 May 2015 at 1:27PM

Bread, bread spread, kefir, tahini. Am going to have to take to making (soft) cheese too (must...must...must...have been meaning to for some time....) as the only organic cheese I can buy here pretty much is cheddar at the moment (roll on the 21st century....).....

tessie_bear · 4 May 2015 at 2:42PM

i make;
scones..very easy and few ingredient
fairy cakes
cookies
flapjacks
spag bol sauce
white sauce
quiche
nice to know what is going into your food i would like to make bread and soup but all attempts have been so dire i no longer bother

missymoo81 · 4 May 2015 at 2:53PM

moneyistooshorttomention, are these the things you make? can you please please, give me the recipe for tahini, is it just whizzed up sesame seeds? And the same with kefir and bread spread?

oh thanks tessie bear, I've never tried making scones, might be worth a try. I think I have just got lazy and take everything for granted and when I suddenly realised what was in the food I was eating, I was so shocked.

Ok things we eat on a daily/weekly basis, that I think I can possibly make:

Yoghurt
biscuits
cakes
bread
wraps
jam
chutney
cleaner
ice lollies

things I don't know what to do about
milk
butter
all meat
foreign fruit

things I can definitely grow as have done before:
raspberries
pears
apples
blackberries
plums
cherries
tomatoes
potatoes
radish
spring onions
chillies
peaches we've had a bit of luck with but not a huge harvest of them

things I have not had very much luck with at all!
squash
courgette! which i desperately want to grow
peppers
carrots
aubergine
sweetcorn

I would like to grow onions and celery too as that would be everything I eat. Need to get my thinking cap on

Kantankrus_Mare · 4 May 2015 at 3:36PM

I have had my allotment for nine years and onions and strawberries are my biggest success. I know onions are relatively cheap to buy but a couple of sets in the summer and one overwintering set lasts me forever.

I love the fact I can plait them and hang them in the shed and just nip to bottom of garden when I need one. They dont seem to go off like the supermarket ones do.

Have had good success with courgettes as well.....what problems do you find with them?

Impressed with you trying to go back to basics with two little ones under your feet.
Not sure I would have had the energy when mine were that age.

Over the years though , I have done more and more.

I cant bear the flavour of processed ready meals so try to do most meals from scratch.

I like baking but have to be in the mood.

Would like to give bread making a try next. I make my own pizza dough so it cant be that much more difficult.

Havent got a bread maker though.

Wish you luck and will be following you with interest.

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

What things do you make from scratch, to be more wholesome for you and your family?

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free