Spill the beans... what's better when homemade

pinkjo

Many years ago I bought some ground up aduki beans from the body shop as an "exfoliating facial scrub". I ran out, and they didn't make them any more. So I bought a pack of dried aduki beans for less than £1 from my local health food shop (or can get them from supermarket), put them in the grinder and ground them to the consistency of sand (some fine, some grains about 2-5mm across). A pinch in the palm of my hand, mixed to a paste with warm water, and there is my facial scrub. It leaves my skin feeling so very very soft. And the pack of beans is enough for more than a year's worth of scrub! Fantastic!

Taadaa

I agree with the food comments. Everything is better home cooked or baked, from biscuits to soup. The only reason I ever buy ready made is for convenience, and that isn't often.

I tried to make shampoo once. Emphasis on once.

I prefer to make my own clothes, or buy things from charity shops and modify them to fit. Takes a lot of time and patience though.

However household things, like curtains, cushions, tea towels, bunting can be made quickly and without fuss for a fraction of the shop bought cost. And you get to pick the perfect fabric to compliment your room!

UnluckyT

more often than not i find most food thats home made tends to be better.
plus most other things too. had home made rabbit hutches/pens in the past, much cheaper than shop bought and a bit sturdier.
im still learning to cook from scratch and bit of a newbie to it but hopefully with practice and getting some practical cookery books from charity shops i should get their.

Nik777

vcb1981 wrote: »

My big one is classic Italian sauces for lasagne, bolognaise, etc. So so so simple, cheaper and taste a million times better than the jars! The jar sauces always taste of sugar and just generally rubbish and i dont care what the adverts say, that is not classed as home made! lol, rant over :rotfl:

Making own pasta is a bit more tricky but once you have the hang of it, easy peasy!

I would be interested to see if anyone has any ideas about removing cat hair from clothes when washed???

Also agree with soups, curries, pizza etc - so much healthier too.

Lol, reminds me of when I tried to teach a friend how to make lasagne. I said "then you make the white sauce" she said "no - you BUY the white sauce"...

Bought white sauce tastes yuck, and that goes for most cauliflower cheeses too, always better homemade.

nmmerri

vcb1981 wrote: »

My big one is classic Italian sauces for lasagne, bolognaise, etc. So so so simple, cheaper and taste a million times better than the jars! The jar sauces always taste of sugar and just generally rubbish and i dont care what the adverts say, that is not classed as home made! lol, rant over :rotfl:

Making own pasta is a bit more tricky but once you have the hang of it, easy peasy!

I would be interested to see if anyone has any ideas about removing cat hair from clothes when washed???

Also agree with soups, curries, pizza etc - so much healthier too.

Kim and Aggie advise rubbing with damp washing up gloves to remove pet hairs from upholstery so you could try that. They used a bucket of soapy water to rinse the hairs off after each pass/wipe.

bossbee

I do home made biscuits - so easy, just a few basic, cheap ingredients, and you get about 40 biscuits in no time. Also flapjack is a doddle! Tastes so much better than the over-sweet stuff in the shops.

LameWolf

Absolutely, as much food as possible is HM - pizzas, jams, cakes, biscuits (or bikkits as we call them). My DH loves my HM banana ice cream - a cup each of cream and yogurt, two ripe 'nanas mashed up, bung in the ice cream maker (ours is a little one that just does three quarters of a litre but you could make more at a time, just keep the proportions of the ingredients the same) and you have delicious ice cream. For a change, throw in a little desecrated (!) coconut before starting the ice-cream maker going. If you like your ice cream sweeter, you can add a little sugar, but I don't bother.

turbokez

Beer!!!

40 pints for £15 is great value - and very easy to make.

I know that the supermarkets do great deals, but homemade tastes much better (because you choose the recipe), and very satisfying.

BitterAndTwisted

giarora wrote: »

Homemade yoghurt.. spend one-off on a yoghurt maker (costs max £20) and have lovely and healthy yoghurt all the time, any time!

Even cheaper with a pot of proper live yoghurt and a thermos flask for your first batch. Thereafter the remainder of the last batch becomes your starter for the next and so on.

It would be easier for me to list the things that are not better home-made. Most of the things I make are equally as good, like laundry soap. But a tenth of the price, so that's good enough for me.

I CBA to make pesto or mayonnaise, so I buy those and I don't cook curry/Indian type dishes often enough to make it worth buying individual spices before they go stale

lostinrates

I am tryng hard to think of something to eat that is not better when home made......i haven't thought of anything yet.

What i would say is i think some things, though very few are not cheaper to home make.