Eating Well on a Budget *Bread Edition*

NOTE: If you are in your first apartment/newly single/decided to finally stop eating out all the time and start cooking - I recommend Whittman's How To Cook Everything. It has tons of easy recipes, substitutions, and explanations.

Please note - the picture is a 1 qt pot that I bought for about $5 at Kohl's and is my most used kitchen item. I don't have a microwave so I usually reheat in that. Also pictured is my 2 qt crock pot that's working hard right now and is one of my favorite appliances - it was a gift but I think it costs about $100 on Amazon.

OK, people talk about eating on a restricted budget and quite often I find they are not using budgets nearly as restrictive as I have in the past. I have a little bit of scratch now but I still tend to shop like a poor person and average about $20/week on groceries. Many of the recipes also seem complicated enough to scare the new chef. So, let's start with the list - for clarity, I live in the Mid-Atlantic region of the USA. This post will focus on bread - because that's my favorite.

Milk - $1.50 for a quart
White Vinegar - $7.00 for 32 oz
Olie Oil: $4.50 for 16 0z
Baking Powder - $2.75 for 22oz
Baking Soda - $4.40 for 1 lb
Yeast - $4.50 for 4 oz
Flour - $2.10 for 5 lbs
Sugar - $2.10 for 4 lbs
oregano - $2.00 for .75 oz
parsely - $2.00 for 1 oz
Freezer bags - $11.00 for 30
Sandwich bags - $7.10 for 240 ct
tomato sauce - $1.00
cheese - $2.00
Butter - $2.00

So total: $55.95

I know what you are thinking - you are saying, Ajierene, that is WAY over $20 budget and it doesn't even count other foods! I know, I know but the thing is, these items are not bought ever week so some weeks you spend $40 but then other weeks you spend $5....it's a law of averages. Here is the thing, you can make the following 3 recipes with this money and have ingredients to spare.

First recipe, Irish Soda Bread (from Whittman's How To Cook Everything):
1.5 cups butter milk (use 1.5 TBSP white vinegar and remainder is milk)
4 cups flour
2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 baking powder
(total cost about $2.25 to make the entire recipe)

Mix all the dry ingredients together. mix in wet, so it's all doughy, bake at 375 for 45 minutes.

I have a 2 cup measuring cup and put 2 TBSPs vinegar in, put enough milk in until it it makes 2 cups. The milk will look a little flaky like it's gone bad but that's how it is supposed to look.

I mix all the dry ingredients then start pouring the milk into the bowl of dry ingredients until it is sufficiently doughy without sticking to my fingers to much (between 1.5 and 2 cups of milk). I then break into bun size bits and put each in a sandwich bag and toss in the freezer.

When I want bread with dinner, I take one out, straight into the preheated oven for about 25 minutes. It is important to put the dough in sandwich bags before putting in the freezer bag otherwise they will freeze together. Since the freezer bags don't touch food, I do reuse them. A half recipe makes about 12 fist-sized buns - mine are NEVER uniform in size, which is good because sometimes you want more, sometimes you want less)

Next: Quick Bread (sweeter than the soda bread) (Came from the Darkness of an internet search)

2 ½ C warm water
6 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp yeast
2 Tbsp oil
6 C flour (can use white or wholemeal)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
(total cost about $1.10 for entire recipe)

Stir water, yeast, sugar and oil together. Leave for 5 minutes until it becomes frothy on top. Add flour, salt and baking powder. Mix well. Knead. Roll out if making a pizza base or shape for use as buns / bread / loaf. Paint with oil or milk (if you can be bothered). Bake at 200 degrees Celcius for 10-15 minutes. (400 degrees)

Be careful with the water, overwater and it gets so horribly sticky you can't get it off your fingers - I start with 2 cups of water mixed with sugar, et all then add water as needed. Again....make a bunch of buns (1/2 recipe makes about 12 buns) *repeat caution about sandwich bags/freezer bag/massive bun issue*

Just like with Irish Soda bread, I take out of freezer and right into the oven. I always cook for 20 min when straight out of oven.

PIZZA DOUGH! (Whittman's How to Cook Everything):

Every time I see "simple pizza dough" recipes, I always laugh at how long those things take.

1 tsp Instant or Rapid Rise yeast
3 cups flour
2 tsp salt
1 cup water
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp olive oil
(total cost about $0.60 for entire recipe)

combine water, yeast, 2 tbsp. oil in a boil

combine flour and salt.

pour flour and salt into water mixture slowly, mixing as you go. use dough hooks on beater if available. You can also mix with a spoon/by hand

Knead until smooth (about 10 min).

Put into bowl lined with remaining oil, cover in damp cloth and let rise for 1-2 hours (6-8 hours in fridge).

Bake at 500 degrees for 10-15 min.

Really easy and I mostly follow the directions - I do have dough beaters on a mixer but usually I start with mixing with a spoon and once the dough gets thick enough, I start using my hand. I mix the wet ingredients before I start mixing the dry and that gives the yeast a chance to start activating. I always just let is rise for 1 hour. If it is cooler out and I haven't used my oven, I will put it in my oven to rise. Once it's done (some days it rises better than others), I break it into 4-5 pieces and freeze as above.

I also toss oregano and parsely into the dough because it looks cool and professional that way.

This one I do do the entire recipe.

This, I do have to take out of the freezer about an hour or so before I want to eat (at least - you can take it out in the morning if you know you want it in the afternoon). I CANNOT throw dough so I make mini-pizzas about the size of my hand - just flatten the dough onto a cookie sheet, toss on tomato sauce, cheese, topppings, toss in oven at 500 for 10 minutes and BOOM pizza. I sometimes roll into breadsticks or make mini-calzones or whatever. A chunk about the size of two fists is a good meal for me and makes about 5 hand-sized pizzas.

The flour is the limiting factor and you make make all 3 of these two times over and everything has always frozen well for me for months.

If you like this, I can do more posts and will start including pictures. @Mormegil147