Travel Snack Prep

 

It's getting close to travel season and with traveling comes trying to keep the kids happy while you or your spouse is driving.  One way to help keep them happy is to keep them fed.  Let's be honest a fed kiddo is a happy kiddo.  

We went on a long trip this summer to see family in Indiana, for the most part my girls travel well, they've just always had to travel so that helps, but this was going to be a long trip.  So I prepared snack bags for the trip to and from (honestly, who wants to pack snack bags leaving your trip).  That was my best decision, it made packing to come home so much easier! So anyways, here is my how-to on prepping snacks for a long trip or any trip for that matter!

1. Make a schedule - 

Below are my schedules for there and home of our trip this summer.  These are the real scratch lists. They don't need to be pretty, just something that you can reference as you go.  Those longer trips can be harder to keep track of what everyone ate when, this really helped me.  Now, honestly did I follow this schedule like it was set in stone, did we not buy Cheetos at the gas station at one point, no.  Things changed, we had lots of rain, the schedule got bumped up a bit here and there, BUT, I was able to have a guideline to follow, I had a roadmap per say to help me. It was nice to have a reference of what we'd had or had available as we went.  

2. Make a list of snack options - 

I wanted to make sure that even though we were traveling, we were able to get some healthy snacks in along with some treats.  While treats are fun and exciting, it's those healthy snacks that keep everyone sane as well.  Snack ideas: cheese sticks, carrots, applesauce pouches, various cracker snacks, fruit strips, fruit snacks and raisins.

Repacking your own snacks is where you can save some money. Cheese sticks, raisins, and any of the cracker snacks are really easy to prepackage yourself instead of paying for them to be prepackaged.  

• Cheese sticks: you can easily buy a large block of cheese and cut your own, throw in a cooler bag and voila your own cheese sticks for cheaper.  Check out my post here: Cheese Sticks for more details. 
• Raisins: Yes it's fun to have your own individual box, but if you buy the large container you can pour your own individual baggies full.  You can also mix in some peanuts or cashews too if you are able. 
• Cracker snacks: So first of all our youngest is gluten free, so she needs her own individual cracker snacks.  Also, if your house is anything like mine, no one likes the same snacks, so I just grab a few larger containers of the snacks we usually eat and divide up smaller baggies of them for each kiddo.  It beats spending more for the prepackaged + spending even more, because we all want different prepackaged snack bags. 

3. Purchase the items needed 

Now that you know what all you want, it's easier to buy your snacks. It's really easy to go shopping and then get a bunch of items because you didn't plan ahead and end up with more than you need or items you weren't planning on.  Also, now that you know what snacks you are planning on saving with making your own, you can pick a few fun items too.  For example, yes it would be cheaper to buy applesauce and use my reusable pouches; however for the 12 hour drive it was not feasible to try and do, and honestly I didn't want to balance that.  So for this trip I saved on the cracker snacks and bought applesauce pouches.  We also bought fruit snacks and fruit strips as a fun treat. Things we don't have often, so it makes it fun.  You'll also note I had cereal listed as the first snack.  For this particular trip we took off early, so I let my girls pick ONE special box of cereal to share.  I then poured it into baggies for them.  Again a special treat, but we limited that one to one option and they only got the one bag full.  

4. Gather all your supplies, label and start packing 

Now, with all these different snacks I'm collecting, I do use our reusable baggies as much as possible.  I don't have any fancy ones we got ours from Walmart.  They work well, except the zipper sticks after I use them in the freezer, so if you are in the market for them make sure they are freezer safe.

Anyways, back to gathering your supplies.  I did use regular ziplock bags to hold all the snacks, because I wanted to write on them with Sharpie each kiddos name and either "THERE" or "HOME",  so I knew what bags were for when.  

Then I loaded each bag up.  I started with my schedule and figured out how many fruit strips I'd need for there, then put them in each kiddo's larger bag, then I did the same for the fruit snacks, applesauce pouches and raisins.  Then I took the cracker snacks and decided how many times we'd need a cracker snack and made up their individual bags of their cracker snacks choices and put those in their larger bag.  Then I repeated the process for the the trip home.  Again, seriously, this was my best decision, BECAUSE, I was having too much fun hanging out to want to pack like this while there the night before we came home.  And that worked out great, because it was already done.  

The cooler items, like the carrots, cheese sticks or other veggies I packed the morning of. I got them ready, carrots in one bag, cheese sticks in another, etc.  But, then packed them in the cooler in the morning.  

When I loaded our larger snack bag, I made sure the "HOME" bags were on the bottom and the "THERE" bags were on top. Then I didn't have to dig so much.  

5. Tips & Tricks I learned after 14 hours on the road: 

1. Pack few extra snacks - you never know what might happen, pouring rain FOREVER or just extra hungry i.e. bored kiddos. I had a bag at the bottom that was leftover items we got; applesauce pouches, fruit snacks, fruit strips and we used a few of them. 
2. Snack/hour - really even if you don't end up having a snack that often, if you are going for a longer trip plan snack/hour. 
3. Have those fun snacks intermixed. Whatever is a fun snack for your household, us it's the fruit snacks and fruit strips.  I made sure to have those a few times for our long trip.

So if you are traveling for 5 hours or 20, I hope you find something here that you can use to help make that trip a little less costly, but still being able to have some good snacks along the way.   

Blessings on your upcoming travels 

Breadcrumbs Re-visited

Way back I wrote about how I use breadcrumbs.  If you didn't see it you can check out that post here: Bread Crumbs. A pretty simple concept, but a process that can save you money over time.  If you've already started saving those bread crumbs from your toaster drawer, then this won't be a huge change as well. 

If you're like our house your kiddos don't eat their crust very often.  Most days, I will eat their crust, but there are days I just don't want to.  I started adding the crust pieces to my bread crumb jar.  I keep my bread crumb jar in the freezer so after a few days the crust pieces are easy to break down and crumble.  

This is just one more way you can get bread crumbs.  This has been really helpful with our family's recent shift in being more gluten free.  We don't all need to be gluten free, but my youngest has done better when she's not eating gluten.  With that, she also doesn't like the crust.  We now have a bread crumb jar and a GF bread crumb jar in our freezer.  Instead of having to buy GF bread crumbs, we were able to make our own without spending any extra money.  That is huge when GF food is just so much more pricey. 

Hope this helps you save a little 

Blessings, 

Potato Soup with Sausage

    As I said in my previous soup post, it's soup season!  Being one who really likes soup, IF I had my way, we'd have soup 2-3 times a week during this time.  But, alas I have children and so we have soup twice a month at most. If you missed my last post on how to make your garden produce go farther by making soup you can check it out here: Soup.  Potato soup is my favorite soup.  I have different versions of potato soup that I make, but one way the whole family enjoys is adding sausage. 

We have made potato soup based on recipe I found years ago that added andouille sausage.  It's really good.  But, I wanted to make it cheaper.  So one day I bought a summer sausage.  Now, summer sausage is a little more, but I halved it and only added half the sausage in the potato soup and then froze the other half for another time.  You can do this with the andouille sausage as well, but there's just a little more sausage to the summer sausage roll so I found it works a little better.  Also, if you have a SAMS' CLUB or COSTCO membership, you usually can get them even cheaper in bulk. 

Another way, I've cut back on the expense of sausage in our potato soup is by using pork sausage.  Pork sausage is even less expensive than summer or andouille sausage.  If you can handle the more ground beef texture in your potato soup then this would work great. I accidentally stumbled upon this one time when I was cleaning out the fridge.  We had a little pork sausage and potato soup leftover, I decided to just combine them and see.  I actually really like it this way; however my family does not agree, so we stick to the summer sausage, but only use half the roll each time.  

Andouille sausage: $4.69/lb

Summer sausage: $4.74/lb

pork sausage: $2.32/lb 

Soup

As we near Fall, we near soup season.  Although, I'm one that can eat soup all year long, but that's not the case with everyone else in my family.  So, I save soup for the Fall and Winter seasons.  I really enjoy making homemade soup and one thing that works great is to use up all those vegetables that you haven't used from your garden to make your soup.  Then you can store the soup in smaller containers and freeze for when you need them.  

This is great for those busy school nights, just pop a container or two out of the freezer and put in your fridge in the morning.  Then around supper, all you need to do is reheat it.  Quick, easy and you saved money by using produce from your garden.  

Garden Produce

Here are some garden produce that are great to add to soups:  

• squash
• peppers - ours had a woody taste this year,  (that's the best way to describe it) but cooked in a soup, you can't tell. 
• tomatoes - all tomatoes work well in soup.  I accidentally planted multiple cherry tomatoes this year and we don't like tomatoes.  I usually use them to make sauce.  So I found myself with a lot of cherry tomatoes to use up.  I gave away a bunch and then added the rest to my soup. Also froze them before hand so I could wait to make my soup when I had the time. 
• cabbage 
• sweet potato 
• carrots 

Those are just a few, there's so many more veggies from the grand that are great to use in soups! 

My favorite soups

Potato Soup  

This recipe is one that I start with, but have changed a few things.  Instead of bacon, I use sausage.  Instead of the green onions, I use our onions & peppers from the garden, you could keep the green onions too. 

Cabbage Soup

This one is a great recipe to use up that cabbage, it uses 1/2 a cabbage head!  It also uses up carrots &  potatoes.  Plus, you could cut the sausage in half you used for the potato soup and add the other half to this soup.  We tried this one this late summer and I froze it.  It froze and thawed well (I only had it from for about a month).  Also a great add in after you thaw it, make some white rice and toss it in.   

Autumn Squash & Sweet Potato Soup 

This soup uses squash, sweet potatoes and tomatoes. 

Saving on fruit

So you're in the store and you ask your kiddos, "what fruit do you want this week? Apples, bananas, grapes etc?"  They say bananas so you buy bananas and then later that week you see that the bananas are already turning. 

Happens to me so many times! And lately, I feel the bananas are turning faster.  Fresh produce just isn't as good as it was.  I think we're still catching up from COVID and things being shut down, the produce just takes longer to get here and while it's been waiting it's starting to ripen sooner.  But, that's my short opinion.  

Anyways, I've learned over the years that I could freeze them and keep them to make banana bread later.  That has worked well for us.  We like a good banana bread for breakfast in the fall and winter.  But, I wanted to help them last a little longer on the shelf or something. 

Thanks to The Cross Legacy I have! She has so many great ideas on helping keep your produce last longer. I've recommended her blog before, but I wanted to do so again.  This time of year we try not to go to the store as often, just because life gets busier with school and sometimes the weather isn't nice.  Currently our local grocery store is about 15min away in another town.  So, finding ways to help make less trips to the store has been very helpful.  

Amy Cross has many tips on how to keep lots of produce fresh longer than what you'd normally be able to keep it.  Check out her blog for more info!  

School lunches

Let's talk school lunches.  While sometimes purchasing hot lunches are more convenient they can add up. We've done both hot and cold lunches over the years.  I am not against hot lunches, if you are able to do them go for it.  Or if you qualify for free/reduced lunch then that is more affordable.  However, if you are the in-between and are paying for hot lunches at full price, but want to try and save a little this post is for you. 

     This post includes affiliate links, which means if you click on the link I get a portion of any sales at NO COST to you.  See my disclosure page for more details. 

Recently, we've tried to budget our lunches more and therefore have limited our girls' hot lunches.  So of course, that means that I needed to start thinking about cold lunch ideas.  With subbing, I wanted ones that are quick and easy to make, preferably the night before and with one kiddo gluten free, I needed to make sure that was considered as well.  

Now, I will say, as I stated in the beginning, getting hot lunch is a convenience you pay for, so the times I am subbing long term, we may let there be more hot lunch options.  But otherwise, we will do cold as much as possible. Here are a list of some of our favorite cold meal options that do save money. 

There are a lot of different options when it comes to fruit and veggies.  I do try and use the fruits and veggies that are in season because they are more affordable. 

Fruits: apple slices, applesauce, grapes or mandarin oranges 

Veggies: carrots, celery, frozen peas, green beans (from the garden) or cucumbers 

*Also, for the cheese sticks we don't buy prepackaged cheese sticks, but instead we buy a large block of cheese and cut it up into smaller cheese sticks.  You can check out that post her: Homemade Cheese Sticks. 

1. boiled eggs  + cheese stick* + veggie + fruit 
2. tuna salad on crackers + veggie + fruit 
3. peanut butter cracker sandwiches+ cheese stick* + fruit + veggie 
4. peanut butter on celery + cheese stick* + fruit 
5. peanut butter + jelly sandwich + veggies + cheese stick 

How do I know these are not as expensive as a hot lunch.  Well let's break it down. Bare with me we are going to do some math.  Our current school lunches are around $2.50 so let's see what each cold lunch I've planned adds up to.  Now, I will say prices can vary, especially with the fruits and veggies, but if you shop the sales + what's in season that makes a big difference. The following are Walmart prices because that's what we have close at the moment.  Another way to save, would be if you have a Sams Club or Costco nearby, because some of the things you can get in bulk and then it's cheaper. 

Option 1: boiled eggs + cheese stick + veggie & fruit 

1. eggs = $7.47/60 eggs = .12cents/egg 
2. cheese stick = $7.32/32oz = .25cents/cheese stick 
3. carrots $1.24/1lb bag = .25cents/serving 
4. applesauce $3.52/48oz = .32cents/serving 

SO, if you were to take the first lunch meal your total would be .94 cents.  IF you were to double your egg and cheese stick, it would still only be $1.31. This is also with regular prices of carrots and applesauce, just think if you were to stock up on applesauce when it was on sale. With that, we don't buy the individual applesauce cups/pouches.  Those cost more.  We buy the big applesauce container and pour out in a small cup for the lunch boxes.  You can do this ahead of time the night before, or if you have enough containers and fridge space, you can make ahead what you would need for the week.  Then it's just grab and go in the morning.  Here are some more prices for the rest.  I would encourage you to mix and match your options, but add up the individual prices to make sure.  

1. crackers = $3.88/120 = .03cents/cracker = .26cents/4 sandwiches or .32cents/5 sandwiches 
2. tuna salad = $3.52/4 pack = .44cents/serving (1 day's lunch) 
3. peanut butter = $5.92/40oz = .17cents/serving (1 day's lunch) 
4. bread = $1.78/20 slices = .09cents/slice = .18 cents/sandwich 
5. jelly = $2.92/17oz = .12cents/serving 
6. apple slices = $5.28/3lbs = .66cents/apple = .33cents/serving 
7. grapes = $3.78/bag = .38cents/serving 
8. mandarin oranges 
9. celery = $1.34/stalk (about 8 slices/stalk) = .17cents/slice (2 slices for each serving) 
10. frozen peas $2.28/2lb bag = .21cents/serving 
11. cucumbers $1.97/bag = .28cents/serving 
12. green beans + free from garden 

Using the more expensive fruit and veggie option here are what the totals could be:  

Option 2: tuna on crackers + veggie & fruit 

    

    tuna crackers .76 cents/5 sandwiches + apple slices .33cents + cucumbers .28cents = $1.37 

    tuna crackers .76 cents/5 sandwiches + grapes .38cents + cucumbers .28cents = $1.42 

Option 3: peanut butter on crackers +cheese stick + veggie and fruit 

    peanut butter sandwiches .49cents/5 sandwiches + cheese stick .25cents + grapes .38cents + cucumbers .28cents = $1.40 

Option 4: peanut butter on celery + cheese stick & fruit 

    peanut butter on celery .52cents + cheese stick .25cents + applesauce .32cents = $1.09 

Option 5: peanut butter and jelly sandwich + veggies & cheese stick 

    peanut butter sandwich .47cents + cucumbers .28cents + cheese stick .25cents = $1.00 

Now let's talk drinks.  If you can find a water bottle that will fit in your child's lunch box, that is the best and most affordable option.  However, if you can't there are options for drinks that still will keep your lunch more affordable.  

1. Orange juice packs $4.46/6pk = .74cents/bottle 

2. Apple juice packs $3.96/6pk = .66cents/bottle 

3. Milk at school .35cents 

So one last adding. Again I'm taking the most expensive of each item so there will be times that it will be less.  I also wouldn't plan orange juice for each one, but would rather make sure water or milk were their first options, with the orange juice and apple juice here and there.  But, I wanted to show you how even with the more expensive drinks, the whole lunch is still cheaper.  Some buy 15 cents others more.  

Option 1: boiled egg(2) + cheese stick + veggie + fruit + orange juice = $1.80 

Option 2: tuna on crackers(5 sandwiches) + grapes + cucumbers + orange juice = $2.16

Option 3: peanut butter on crackers + cheese stick + grapes + cucumbers + orange juice = $2.14 

Option 4: peanut butter on celery + cheese stick + applesauce + orange juice = $1.83

Option 5: peanut butter sandwich + cucumbers + cheese stick + orange juice = $1.74 

With that, if you wanted to toss in a homemade cookie here and there, you'd be able to and still stay in budget.  

That was a lot, I hope it gives you some help if you are trying to save some money this school year.  It's definitely something that takes a lot of time to organize, but if you get most of the items ready ahead of time, it won't take long afterwards.  For example with the cheese sticks, we've made them so much now I'm in a rhythm of cutting up the block within the first day or two of buying it from the store.  Then I freeze most of them and have them ready when needed. Pick a couple things to start and do a couple cold lunches if you can, then add more in as you're able. 

Also, don't forget, even if you do hot lunch here and there, the times you are making cold lunches saves you and that adds up over time.  

One more thing before I finish.  Anything you can do ahead of time to help the morning be more efficient the better.  As I said with the apple sauce, if you can make them ahead for the week, then you or your kiddo can just grab one and go. Check out the amazon link below with great options.  

You can also do this with the cheese sticks, throw in what you'll need for the week in the fridge and then they can grab in the morning.  Make a menu for the cold lunches for the week so everyone knows what they are having.  The veggies, fruit, eggs and cheese sticks can all be ready to go for the week.  A little bit more time in prepping saves those busy mornings. 

Don't forget to check out the links below: 

1. The first link are the cups we have and I really like them. We had bought the lunch box containers that they came with and so  they fit in our lunch box well. 

2. The 2nd option I haven't tried yet, but when I was looking at buying more containers this one stood out. I like how they are stackable.  I also like how I could get three different colors, so each of my girls could have a color and know what one to grab in the morning. AND, I could use them for fruit, veggies, the boiled egg and maybe even the crackers with pb.  

3. This option would be nice to pair with one of the other two above options.  Then you have a space for the large meal (sandwich, crackers, etc) and two smaller containers for the veggies, cheese stick or eggs. 

 

January Spending Freeze

    

This post includes affiliate links, which means if you click on the link I get a portion of any sales at NO COST to you.  See my disclosure page for more details. 

    January calls for a spending freeze in our house. What's a spending freeze you ask?  Well you really can make it work how you want, but the basic idea is it helps you to spend less in the month of January, and even February or as long as you choose to follow it. In our house my goal is Jan-Feb., after that I'm usually ready to stop, but that's just my preference.  However; let me explain to you what all a spending freeze is plus ways you can incorporate it and then you can decide how you want to go about it. Let's get started!

First of all, as I stated above a spending freeze is a way to save.  Basically, it's giving you permission to not spend. Sometimes we need that don't we?  Even though we know we shouldn't spend, it's nice to have a way to say, "sorry I can't".  So that's what a spending freeze in short is. 

Secondly, there are many ways to have a spending freeze. Here are the questions to ask when starting your spending freeze. 

1. What do I WANT to spend my money on this month? 

    For example, we usually say only the basics:  Groceries, gas, house payment, heat, phones, giving etc. 

2. What do I NOT WANT to spend my money on this month? 

    For example, eating out, getting coffee, buying those small items that don't feel they add up, but they do, EVEN IF it's a good sale.  Really, this is where you can make your list big or small.  Do you participate in a get together each month and go for coffee, would you want to keep that or not, you're choice. This is the part where you can make your list big or small depending on what you want to cut out. 

    Some things we include for this; extra snacks, clearance rack, eating out, coffee dates etc. 

3. How long do you want to try this? 

    Like I said we aim for 2 months. You could decide you want to for one month and take it month by month.  Again, that's the easiest part you get to pick. 

    That is the basis of a spending freeze in our household.  Now, this idea is not new, there are many other ways to do this.  You can google spending freeze and have lots of blog posts pop up.  So feel free to take this as a start and research other options.  

Also, let me share with you some other ideas that I've heard of as I was planning out this post: 

1. Don't spend your $5.

    This one is based off the idea that you use cash.  You could switch some of your purchases to cash if you wanted for this purpose.  But the plan is you get your cash in $10 & $20 (think Charlie Brown Christmas) anyways, and then don't spend your $5.  For example, say you go shopping for some clothes and you spend $15, you hand the cashier your $20 and get $5 back.  That $5 goes into an envelope or jar somewhere instead of getting to spend it.  So essentially you "spent" $20 on those clothes at that moment.  At the end of the month you see what you've saved.  Add it to your account or use it for something you are saving for.  

2. Save your change, round up 

    This one is similar to the "don't spend your $5" idea. But instead you just save all your change.  When you go to the coffee shop and spend $5.76, you put the 24 cents into a jar or box.  At the end of the month or year, count to see where you are.  Again deposit into your account or use for something you are saving for. 

3. Shop from your freezer and pantry this month: 

    This is a great time to take stock of what you have.  Jordan Page's Shelftember Challenge is a great way to get started with that.   

4. Use up what you have before you try something new: 

    We've all been there. That new lotion comes out and you want to try it.  But then your old lotion sits on your shelf not being used.  Just like throwing out money.  So, as you are done taking stock of your pantry above, do the same with your toiletries and such.  Don't plan to buy something new until you have used up what you have.  

5. Cross legacy's ways to save on produce: 

    Another great blog to follow is Amy Cross's A Cross Legacy.  She has so many tips on ways to save on groceries throughout the year.  But, she has some great tips on how to use up what you already have too.  PLUS with her process you don't have to go shopping as often which means spending less because we all know we spend more when we go more! 

Plus check out a few different books linked at the bottom that I have found helpful as well. 

But remember, just like all New Year's resolutions, give yourself grace.  This is not as easy as it sounds. especially when you are in the grocery store with your kiddo who just really want that snack that you said you weren't going to get his month. Really, give yourself grace if you spend when you really had planned not to.  It's a process, just a destination.  Every little bit is going to help.  

Cereal Crumbs for Muffins

 Let's talk how to save on flour. Did you know you could save on flour by replacing it with cereal crumbs?  I've mentioned the Tightwad Gazette before on my blog.  In her book, she talks about making muffins with crumbs of any sort to help cut down on flour.  

*Check out her book linked at the bottom of this post for her muffin recipe.* 

Well, we eat cereal in our household and there's always the crumbs that no one wants in the bowl, but instead of throwing them out you can save them to use as flour! 

This post includes affiliate links, which means if you click on the link I get a portion of any sales at NO COST to you.  See my disclosure page for more details. 

After reading this idea in the Tightwad Gazette, I started attempting it. While I found it worked, I was needing to store the crumbs until I needed them.  So, I have a pint sized jar in my freezer.  Anytime we finish a box of cereal, or crackers I take the crumbs and pour them into the pint sized jar. As the jar gets filled I know I can start making muffins soon.  Before I make the muffins, I take out the crumbs from the jar and blend them up until they are smooth. This helps the flavors blend together better.  Sometimes, if my jar is full of chunks of crackers and cereal, I'll blend it up to see if I can get more in. 

You can use this to make all kinds of muffins.  

We like to add cocoa and make chocolate ones sometimes too!

Also, check out these awesome reusable canning lids! I use them anytime I use a mason jar, but don't need to water bath or pressure can it.  They are super easy to use and are freezer safe! 

Homemade Brown Sugar

Dark: molasses, Light: sorghum

This post includes affiliate links, which means if you click on the link I get a portion of any sales at NO COST to you.  See my disclosure page for more details. 

Making homemade brown sugar helps in many ways.  One, it's just helpful to know.  There have been many times I've gone to get brown sugar and realized I didn't have any.  Being able to make my own in the spur of the moment has been so helpful. 

Two, you can gear it toward your family's taste buds. If you look up homemade brown sugar you're going to find the same ratio on almost any blog. 1 TBSP molasses to 1 cup of sugar. Pretty basic. But, you may find that doesn't match the store bought as well. At least, my family did. We use brown sugar when we eat oatmeal.  I put a little in and mix it and then I sprinkle a little on top just for fun.  Well, one of my girls noticed that the homemade brown sugar did not taste the same. However; I just learned how to make brown sugar homemade and I don't want to have to buy it anymore, plus if I make it homemade it's one less plastic bag item I'm purchasing. So I did some experimenting.

I use 1 1/4 cup of sugar to 1 TBSP of molasses.  Molasses does have a strong flavor and that extra 1/4 cup just helped take the edge off.  Plus, you make a little more which means your molasses bottle stretches a little further.

Now, while I was experimenting, I found out that some people use sorghum in place of molasses. While, sorghum is similar; here's what I found on google: molasses is made from sugar cane, sorghum is made from the sorghum plant.  They crush the sorghum stalks, then heat them, steam off the excess water and the sorghum syrup is what's left. Because of this, sorghum is sweeter than molasses. So I did some experimenting with sorghum instead of molasses to make brown sugar. 

Prior to inflation, sorghum was actually cheaper than molasses, making it a better use for homemade brown sugar. However; recently it's prices have increased quite a bit, I 'll break down both options later and you can decide which works for your family best.  Also, if prices ever go back to normal you have this guideline to help you determine which is cheaper.  

With sorghum being sweeter I did only used 1 cup of sugar to 1 TBSP of sorghum.  I found that the brown sugar I made from sorghum was lighter than the molasses brown sugar.  It would depend on if you prefer dark or light brown sugar, but if you prefer dark then you'd need to double the sorghum, keeping the sugar the same.

My how-to: 

1. Add the sugar (I always started with 1 cup before I strayed from the normal ratio)

2. Add the molasses or sorghum (1 TBSP or 2 if using sorghum and want it darker)

3. Mix on level 2 until the consistency is to your preference. I did have to stop it and scrap the bowl a bit and stir a little longer. 

4. Store in a mason glass jar. If you use 1 1/4 cup of sugar you can fit it in a pint size jar. If you double it you will need to use a quart sized jar.  

Now let's break down the prices shall we.  Using the recipe above for the molasses; 1 1/4 cup sugar to 1 TBSP molasses, and keeping everything measured by cups and TBSPs here's what I gathered: 

***Prices will vary depending on where you go and where you are located.***

Molasses:

1 bag of brown sugar costs between $1.70 - $2.29/32oz

    Using the $2.29 cost, this equals about .70cents per recipe or 1 1/4 cup of brown sugar. 

Molasses: $3.48 - $4.49/12oz = This will yield about 24 Tbsps or 24 recipes of brown sugar.  That's .19cents per 1 1/4 cup recipe. 

Sugar: $2.83/4lb = This will yield about 9 cups of sugar or 7 recipes of brown sugar. That's .31cents per cup of sugar + .08cents per 1/4 cup. 

    Using the $4.49 cost of molasses + the $2.83 cost for sugar, this equals about .58cents per recipe or 1 1/4 cup homemade brown sugar.  

As you can see you are saving around .12cents per recipe using molasses. 

Sorghum:

Remember for sorghum I only used 1 cup of sugar to 1/2 TBSPs of sorghum 

Sorghum: $16.99/16oz = This will yield 32 TBSP or 32 recipes of light brown sugar/16 recipes of darker brown sugar. 

Light brown Sugar: One recipe cost would be .84cents 

    Using your .31cents per 1 cup sugar + .53cents per TBSP of sorghum 

Dark brown Sugar: One recipe cost would be $1.37 

    Using your .31cents per 1 cup sugar + $1.06 per TBSP of sorghum 

As you can see right now, you would be paying around .14-.36cents more per recipe using sorghum vs. buying brown sugar. 

So depending on taste will determine if you'd rather use molasses or sorghum.  Luckily, my kiddos prefer the molasses to the sorghum as it's cheaper to make currently.  While sorghum has a sweeter flavor, personally I also feel the molasses tastes the most like the brown sugar in the store.  However, I will be watching those prices of sorghum to see if they go back down below molasses and we will just make another switch if they do! 

Remember it's the small savings that add up.  Plus, you are saving the planet by not buying another item in plastic. Molasses and sorghum both come in a glass jar and sugar in a paper bag.  No more need to buy the plastic wrapped brown sugar.  Save money and the planet!! 

I hope this helps you! 

Burritos

 Homemade burritos 

**Best little burrito helper out there**

Homemade burritos are a great way to get a quick healthy lunch in during a busy work day.  I like them for days that I sub, they are a quick grab to put in my lunchbag.  They are perfect to take out of the freezer and microwave real fast.

What you will need: 

• tacos shells ( I like to use whole wheat) 

For the filling there are lots of options.  The below recipe is what I recently used. 

Filling ingredients: 

• refried beans
• sweet potatoes 
• peppers
• black beans 

Other options to add: scrambled eggs, yogurt, meat 

First: Cut the veggies

  

Second: Cook the sweet potatoes, make sure they are tender 

 

Third: Add any other vegetables to cook together: 

Fourth:  Add the refried beans or any other filling you are using. 

Making the burritos

First: Lay out your saran wrap or wax paper.  

This mix will make about 10 tacos.  If you have room lay out a few shells at a time.  We used our bar and so made about 6 at a time.  

Second: Add a small amount of the filling to the middle of your taco shell. 

Third: Fold up the burrito.  

Fold in both sides, then fold the the bottom up and roll the burrito.

                                                                                      

And there you have it!  Then wrap each burrito in Saran Wrap or wax paper and place in a ziplock bag and into your freezer.  Then you have at least 10 burritos in the freezer ready to grab when you need them.