A gallon of milk around here is over $4 these days. I save a lot of money by always storing a big bag of dry milk powder in the pantry. When I make my homemade yogurt, or a muffin recipe calls for a cup of milk, I don't even have to open the refrigerator. I simply add water to the milk powder in whatever amount I need. When a recipe calls for buttermilk, I can add a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice and let it sit for five minutes.
A tablespoon each of soy flour and water can substitute for an egg in most baking recipes. I don't usually make this subsitution, but it's a good one to have up my sleeve, if I've run out of eggs or I'm really trying to stretch the budget.
Instead of buying a specific pumpkin pie spice, you can use cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg to flavor your pies. It's easy to mix up your own seasoning salt, herbes de provence, and Mexican seasoning as well.
Many cookbooks and websites have great ideas of what foods can be substituted for each other. We can learn to substitute the herbs and vegetables that are in season for those that aren't. Rather than run out to the store for the unsweetened chocolate we thought we had on hand, we can use cocoa powder and some butter in our cake recipe instead. Out of brown sugar? You can stir molasses into white sugar and use that in your recipe. Any ideas to share on substitutions that save you money?
3 comments:
With two grown men in my household (husband and his cousin), we go through milk at an alarming rate. I hardly ever drink it myself, so that's what makes the consumption seem particularly alarming. But I do use it for cooking, so your powdered milk idea is brilliant!
On Monday morning I noticed we were almost out of milk and, since that's all I needed, I just picked up a gallon at the nearby 7-11. $6.00! But it was a one-off purchase, so I justified it.
Well, yesterday evening my husband wanted a dessert, so I made tapioca. I hesitated before using almost all of the milk. This morning I awoke to an empty jug on the counter: the cousin like midnight cereal, so I'm making him pick up TWO jugs today ... and advising him NOT to go to 7-11!
He's picking up the milk for drinking and cereal, but powdered milk is going on my grocery list!
I hope it saves you money! In the Tighwad Gazette, she talks about running out of regular milk one night, and serving reconstituted dried milk to her kids. They didn't notice! Another option she mentions is mixing half of each. Personally, I am not a fan of the taste of dried milk, but some people don't mind. I know, convenience store prices are crazy! But sometimes I do the same--pay for it at the Husky rather than spend $5 in gas driving to Moose Jaw.
Very nice, thanks for the information.
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