Making homemade versions of store bought food

stealthq

BrianSharpe wrote: »

HeidiCooksSupper wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

What would be the point in doing this? Calories are likely to be the same and stores spend millions developing their products so the chances are they taste good for a reason.

And what they have found is that upping salt and sugar is an excellently cheap way to make inferior ingredients taste such that we crave more of them.

Beat me to it.....

OP the only compelling reason I can think of for making some of these staples from scratch (assuming you have the time and inclination, don't expect to save much money or reduce calories significantly) is that you can control the ingredients. For example...... I have mild well controlled hypertension and watch my sodium intake. By using fresh tomatoes (in season) or no salt added canned ones to make my own spaghetti sauce I can easily stay within my targets, commercially prepared stuff is loaded with salt (it's cheaper than spices and our brains are hard wired to crave it)

I don't subscribe to pseudo-scientific scare mongering but you have to wonder what's in that loaf of bread if it's still fresh after a week....

I don't. If my homemade bread makes it past a week, it's still fresh. The crust won't be as crisp. That's what the toaster oven is for

But then, I keep all bread in the fridge - all of my bread molds in days if left out and it doesn't matter if it's Peppridge Farm or bakery made that morning.

Plus, there's the dog and his new habit of stealing things off of the counter to consider.

Vailara

I would say "no", it doesn't help with weight loss. I got fat eating homecooked food. I used to make my own bread, yoghurt, etc. The truth is, I'd probably eat more of the homemade version than the storebought version.

For instance, an individual portion of hummus from the shop is 70g. If I made it myself, I'd end up making much more of it. Which I would then eat. Homemade bread is at it's best on the day of baking, so it seems a waste to just have one slice that day. If I ever made fresh mayonnaise (rarely), I'd use a whole egg, which would make a lot of mayonnaise, which would have to be eaten in a couple of days. I have tried making things in smaller portions, but it's fiddly, and I still seem to make more than I should be eating.

I rarely eat bread now, but when I do, I tend to buy something delicious from an artisan baker, slice it up and put it in the freezer so that I'm not tempted.

angelexperiment

I found making itat home is less calories, sodium, cheaper, tastier, and free of preservatives and big words I don't know what they are! I feel like I get more energy from them as well fresher ingredients fruit and veg. Plus it's fun!

angelexperiment

mjbnj0001 wrote: »

mjbnj0001 wrote: »

Tomorrow's menu inclusion: potato-leek soup from scratch (not that difficult). And only a few ingredients plus time. With leftover chicken and sides from today. Make everything count is our watchword.

In the interest of full disclosure, as it turns out, I went to Plan 'B' regarding the soup this evening. Wife and daughter developed bronchitis overnight, didn't want the potato-leek. Went for an "English Onion Soup" (per Jamie Oliver's recipe: leeks, mix of onions, shallots) to salvage the on-hand leeks before they got too old. Very satisfying.

Here's a quite excellent soup or broth:

4 cloves garlic
2 stalks celery
2 carrots
Half onion
1 small pc ginger fine chopped
1 small turmeric
Parsley to taste or half bunch
I added a bit of salt and cumin to taste
And about 5 cups water u can add any veggies you like too

It's great for bronchitis or pneumonia, drink the broth through the day

Francl27

I'm in the 'depends what' camp. I don't buy pre-packaged bread anymore, I just make my own or stop by the bakery when it's convenient. I can't stand canned soup anymore so I make my own too.

But things like condiments, pasta, tortillas etc, nope, not making that (same with tomato sauce - just cheaper to buy a jar!).

canadianlbs

trigden1991 wrote: »

What would be the point in doing this? Calories are likely to be the same and stores spend millions developing their products so the chances are they taste good for a reason.

we-e-e-ll . . . maybe depending on the product type. i just checked the details on a package of knorr cream of something-something soup and the only nutrient that's in the double digits is salt. 6% vitamin a, 4% calcium, 2% vitamin c, 0 iron. ONE gramme of protein. i mean, that's just a nutritional null. i could probably get roughly the same kind of thing from a box of smarties.

so that's an example of where i'd just make it myself. i still don't think that i'm doctrinaire, but i just don't see the point of wasting a 'meal' on such total nothing.

SusanMFindlay

trigden1991 wrote: »

What would be the point in doing this? Calories are likely to be the same and stores spend millions developing their products so the chances are they taste good for a reason.

The point is that (to my palate), homemade usually tastes better. The tradeoff is that it takes time, and we don't always have time to make everything from scratch. Stores spend millions developing their products to meet a number of criteria (shelf life, convenience, marketability, etc.); taste is rarely top priority (though, obviously, the taste has to be good enough for people to buy it again).

lemurcat12

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

What would be the point in doing this? Calories are likely to be the same and stores spend millions developing their products so the chances are they taste good for a reason.

The point is that (to my palate), homemade usually tastes better. The tradeoff is that it takes time, and we don't always have time to make everything from scratch. Stores spend millions developing their products to meet a number of criteria (shelf life, convenience, marketability, etc.); taste is rarely top priority (though, obviously, the taste has to be good enough for people to buy it again).

This is true for me.

I also think that in order to have a product that tastes good, is inexpensive (yet profitable), and can be packaged and sold and kept for the time that most storebought things are, many sorts of products need to use greater amounts of some ingredients (fat, salt, sugar) than you need to make them taste good at home. So I do think it's often possible to make a tastier homemade product for fewer calories.

For items where the at home version is probably not lower cal (stuff like sweet baked goods), I think the at home version is especially likely to be vastly more delicious, but this could be my taste. Limiting consumption of these to homemade still could serve a purpose -- being selective in what you eat so it's only what you find truly delicious, homemade is likely to be available less (and will require more work). But I don't fool myself this is about health or nutrition, of course.

mjbnj0001

angelexperiment wrote: »

mjbnj0001 wrote: »

mjbnj0001 wrote: »

Tomorrow's menu inclusion: potato-leek soup from scratch (not that difficult). And only a few ingredients plus time. With leftover chicken and sides from today. Make everything count is our watchword.

In the interest of full disclosure, as it turns out, I went to Plan 'B' regarding the soup this evening. Wife and daughter developed bronchitis overnight, didn't want the potato-leek. Went for an "English Onion Soup" (per Jamie Oliver's recipe: leeks, mix of onions, shallots) to salvage the on-hand leeks before they got too old. Very satisfying.

Here's a quite excellent soup or broth:

4 cloves garlic
2 stalks celery
2 carrots
Half onion
1 small pc ginger fine chopped
1 small turmeric
Parsley to taste or half bunch
I added a bit of salt and cumin to taste
And about 5 cups water u can add any veggies you like too

It's great for bronchitis or pneumonia, drink the broth through the day

Thanks. I've copied to my Notes files to try. My daughter suggested trying something with turmeric.

mjbnj0001

With Friday night approaching, let me summarize this week's worth (Sun-Fri) of homemade-rather-than-store items:

Onion-Leek Soup (2 nights) - rather than commercial soups.
Puttanesca-style tomato sauce (2 nights) - rather than jarred sauce.
Homemade Wheat Bread (blend of WW and unbleached flours, with added wheat germ) - rather than commercial.
Chicken Salad (from leftover baked chicken breasts - counts in this equation since it kept family from buying lunches while out at work; also, going back to OP, made with Greek yogurt rather than mayo).

Plus, of course, all the mains and sides for a complete lunch and dinner menu (breakfasts typically are oatmeal, eggs, cereals). Three nights of turkey meatloaf (original plus two leftover nights, plus at-work lunches). Roasted autumnal root vegetables. Chopped tomato/cucumber salads (oil/vinegar and oil/lemon juice dressings).

Tonight: more baked chicken (the family is minimizing red meat), sides (TBD).

This week, I am happy to have avoided mayo, HFCS, tons of added salt/sugar/additives, etc. while eating many fresh veggies and such.

Did we save on calories/etc.? A bit. Probably marginal at best, as fresh cooking encourages eating and the menu this week wasn't explicitly spare in weight-loss terms. But we all stayed even or dropped 1-2 lbs this week, well within the margin of error, esp. as regards potential water retention. By the way, if you're menu planning for leftovers, at least in the main entree (as we did this week with the turkey meatloaf), a steady stream of fresh sides each day "keeps it fresh," for more food enjoyment. Even dieting, you should enjoy your food.

Did we save on money? Maybe, a little, about $20 is a good guess (gives credit to brown bag lunches versus purchased). But, $20 weekly adds to $1000 over the year, so it's something.

We're eating out tomorrow with friends, so I can feel all the kitchen time I expended and $$ savings "paid" for my meal. Somewhat. I'll indulge in beef or seafood depending on where we wind up, LOL.

As many people have said in this thread, if you've got the time, and build the ability/repertoire, you can gradually displace some commercial foods with home cooking for better quality eating and some marginal weight/cost savings, but it's a steady process. I can't see myself making pasta, for instance (except maybe spaetzle/etc.), even though it's relatively easy. I used to make yogurt, now I just buy the large, plain containers. In the summer (our grilling-and-salad "near paleo" season), I never quite got the same results for the "crunchy vegetable salad" the family likes from the deli, which, at about $7/lb., gripes me to spend. The end result? This isn't the 1700s, we all buy commercially-prepared foods. There's a YouTube channel (*very* interesting, search "Townsend" to find) on 1700s cooking which will remind you of this fact just by seeing what they went through.

To really drop weight, you need to up the game even more with proper food selections, portion control and activity. It's not easy. My at-home 20-something daughter is at the gym 2 nights/week, plus active life. I'm over 60, and do what I can with gym/activity, but I'm fighting the clock as well. My wife made a determined, dedicated "lose 20+ lb." effort this year, succeeded, and now we're working this into a sustainable lifestyle.

Sorry for rambling on. I usually try to make shorter posts. Good luck.

kommodevaran

I like to make my own food, to some extent. It makes me feel a bit like Superwoman.

I haven't made my own mayo, but I have made nut butters; never crispbread, but I've baked bread and biscuits; I recently made liver paté, and I make pasta sauce from canned tomatoes. I have made sweet&sour sauce with vinegar and corn starch, but never ketchup; I make my own pancakes, but I buy frozen pizza. We made butter once in school, I have never tried making yogurt, but I think my mother did once (that or kefir).

For weight loss, calories is what matters. You can eat too much of anything. But it's harder to overeat - or easier to not overeat, I'm not completely sure here - when you eat a nutritious diet. This is where "whole foods" come in - home cooked foods are made from real food ingredients and have naturally occurring nutrients. If you do it properly, the finished product will also be nutritious. There will be a range of nutrients and a rich palette of flavors. Fresh food and homecooked food will spoil quickly because it's packed with organic compounds that are attractive, not only to humans or any dogs or cats in the household, but to microorganisms too.

Readymade food tastes good because it just has to taste good and have a long shelf life. Simple, strong flavors are easy to get used to, and repeat customers are guaranteed.

"Organic" on the label is just to justify a higher price.

illusion2269

The things I make from scratch at home I do because of cost honestly. I picked up an electric pressure cooker and a bread machine on sale, and have been making my own multigrain bread loaves and homemade yogurt for quite a few months now. The bread is slightly higher calorie per slice but I need less of it to feel full (and the flavor is outstanding) and fresh homemade yogurt is so good in so many things. I can make the yogurt for under $1.50 per half gallon, and the bread is under a buck per 1.5lb loaf.

canadianlbs

i think you're putting a bit of a halo around the idea of making your own. maybe the halo is justified by special factors in how you do it, but you're over-generalizing and making some rather odd claims. for one thing, you seem to be using the word 'organic' far more casually than would be applicable where i live.

Fresh food and homecooked food [...] packed with organic compounds

uh, no. if i buy cheapo non-organic produce and bring it home, it doesn't magically become infused with 'organic compounds' just because i make a soup out of it.

"Organic" on the label is just to justify a higher price.

around here anything labelled that way better be organic or some kind of licensing board would start getting involved. it refers to concrete differences in the means of production. and mostly i think it's meant to imply an absence of something, aka pesticides and chemicals.

i've also made some food of my own that was feckin' awful, just ftr

kommodevaran

canadianlbs wrote: »

i think you're putting a bit of a halo around the idea of making your own. maybe the halo is justified by special factors in how you do it, but you're over-generalizing and making some rather odd claims. for one thing, you seem to be using the word 'organic' far more casually than would be applicable where i live.

Fresh food and homecooked food [...] packed with organic compounds

uh, no. if i buy cheapo non-organic produce and bring it home, it doesn't magically become infused with 'organic compounds' just because i make a soup out of it.

"Organic" on the label is just to justify a higher price.

around here anything labelled that way better be organic or some kind of licensing board would start getting involved. it refers to concrete differences in the means of production. and mostly i think it's meant to imply an absence of something, aka pesticides and chemicals.

i've also made some food of my own that was feckin' awful, just ftr

Yeah, I think it's fun and surprisingly easy to make the things I make, that's possibly some kind of halo.

"Organic" has at least two different meanings. (I live in Norway, but I think the "organic" label denotes the same all over the world.) One is what certain foods that are grown without use of certain pesticides and fertilizers, are legally allowed to be called/labeled. They are not any more nutritious than their "non-organic" counterparts. (All foods are made up of chemicals, by the way. Nutrients are indeed chemicals.) The other is "living", which means that the nutrients in the food are present and can be utilized by the animal that eats it. This availability can be enhanced by cooking (potatoes, meat) or the nutrients are available also in the raw food (apples, nuts).

I'm not making this up. I recommend reading Michael Pollan and Mark Schatzker, they are probably better at explaining this than I am.

canadianlbs

kommodevaran wrote: »

I'm not making this up.

i'll take your word about it. haven't heard of that second usage being common in canada. there's all kinds of soft claims that are made, of course. but afaik the formally-regulated 'official' label here only refers to production methods.