Which items are/aren't worth making at home?

Bread: ain't nobody got time fo' that!

Bread takes no time at all if you do no-knead or stretch-and-fold, the latter being my method of choice. Most of the time, you are ignoring it.

Homemade broth and soup are definitely worth it. Also draining cheap yogurt to get Greek.

I've tried making thigs like wraps and tortillas. Not worth the time IMO. Lots of stuffing around rolling them thim enough and cooking them one-by-one

I do a lot of baked goods from scratch- bread, pizza, crackers, scones, etc - but specialty things like baguette, croissant, bagels, puff pastry I'll buy. Hamburger buns were a little much. I've made a lot of condiments but mustard never worked out. I haven't attempted butter or yogurt yet. BF used to brew beer but no longer and I'm not interested enough in it myself. I enjoyed making marshmallows, but unless you are doing flavored it seemed more trouble than it's worth. Some candies are worth it though. If something can be made at home without too much special equipment, eventually I'm going to work up enough crazy to attempt it. But sometimes I am lazy.

Key Lime pie and doughnuts... actually they may not be that hard to make, but I can buy and eat just a single serving, if I made it... I'd eat too much. So don't tell me if they're easy.
Actually I used to use the mini graham crusts and put key-lime flavored yogurt in it. Not quite the same thing, but pretty good.
Unfortunately I know how easy fudge is to make. :sad:
Another thing I like to let restaurants fuss with (and shouldn't eat often) is eggs Benedict... some restaurants have slightly healthier versions... they still have the Hollandaise sauce, but salmon instead of ham or spinach garnish... yum!

I've mastered eggs Benedict (and poached eggs in general) because I crave it too often and usually at random times (read: drunk food). It really isn't too hard once you get the hang of it and if you use a sauce mix.

we make bread, yogurt, chutney, pickles, baked goods, dressings, soups, and a lot of other things at home from scratch. it's totally worth it. i'm trying to think of more, but it's 5:30 a.m.

luckily, we have this amazing olive oil and balsamic vinegar store by our house, so the sky's the limit when making salad dressings, roasted veggies in olive oil, etc. i bought a bottle of pre-made salad dressing so i could keep it in the fridge at work, and i thought i was going to vomit when i tasted it. now i just make some dressing for my salad at home and put it in a little container and take that to work with me.

homemade bread is one of the best things ever! we lived in spain for a long time, and, when we got back, one of the many things i missed was my daily trip to the bakery. here, it's inconvenient to go to a (good) bakery every day, so i learned how to make it at home. we bought a bread maker on craigslist for $20, and we have fresh homemade bread all the time. i'm still working on mastering a basic baguette!

Tapioca pudding, I use stevia instead of sugar to keep the carbs lower than the store bought since my honey has diabetes and this is one of the I gotta have it weaknesses. But it is a pain to make so I only make it one in a while.

I work from home so I tend to cook from scratch A LOT. That being said, there are quite a few things I get in packages because they don't taste better enough than packaged to justify the labor involved making them:

-Most pasta. I have a pasta machine that I haven't mastered and it does taste really good, but it's not for every day because it takes up so much space and makes a mess with the flour. The ravioli is unbeatable, though.

-Most bread. Things like banana bread or beer bread are nice and easy, but I don't eat bread enough to justify spending the time needed to knead and let rise. I grew up on terrible bread machine bread so I won't eat it anymore. I have a nice bakery 10 minutes away so I tend to get my bread there if I get it at all.

-Gnocchi. Boy, that takes forever.

-Spaghetti sauce, kinda. I start with a jar and mess with it until it's unrecognizable.

Everything is worth making from scratch, it's just a matter of time. Personally i don't bother making pasta, bread, crackers, tomato sauce etc (plus I'd probably destroy a homemade loaf of bread in 10 minutes and this way I don't have to do math to figure out the calories).

Cut pasta, I'll make sheets no problem, but anything that has to be cut by the pasta roller is out. Took me like 4 hours to deal with a lb of pasta. I can buy fresh pasta for fairly cheap around here. Also anything deep fried. I hate dealing with all the left over oil, I'd rather pay somebody to do it for me. Plus I don't really like my house smelling like a chicken wing for a week after.

I make most things from scratch. Pasta, not so much. I use to, but the machine is a pain to clean. Roasted Red Bell Peppers are definately cheaper to make at home. I buy 5 or 6 large peppers and roast them in the oven. Chop them up, and freeze them in ice cube trays. 1 cube is about 1/2 of a regular size peppers. Store great in the freezer. I have lemon and orange trees. I juice them, and freeze them in ice cube trays. 1 cube is 1/2 lemon. I have juice for healthy marinades all year long. Just opened the last bag from last year. If you do not have trees, buy a large bag of them when they are 10 for a $1. Invest in a food vacuum sealer. I am on my third one in 5 years, and if this one died tomorrow, I would go out and buy a new one. You can save cheese for months. I make very large batches of pasta sauce and use a hand blender on it. Freeze it in various container sizes for pizza sauce or to add to previously cooked ground beef for spagetti sauce. I pop it out of the containers and put it in vacuum bags. No freezer burn. Buy a rib rack, these are the things I buy when I get income tax return, slice them into nice size steaks and vacuum seal. The steaks last for a year with no freezer burn.

I will never for get the day my son came home from school and came running into the house totally excited. He was about 7. I asked him was was wrong. He said, "Dad, did you know they have mashed potatoes in a box?" I could not help but laugh. He was amazed. I always made them from scratch. I also made all of their baby foods until they were 6 months old. It was easy at that point. That is when you are giving them carrots everyday, then squatch, etc. to check for allergies before moving to something else.

My Chuy's knock-off creamy jalapeno ranch dip. It's awesome, but it makes a huge batch which is way more dip than I need to be eating before it goes bad. Plus, I can drive ten minutes and buy an 8 ounce container with a bag of chips for just a couple of dollars. Well worth the trip.

Can you share this recipe? I've been trying to find one. Unfortunately I live a few states away from the nearest Chuy's so I need to find a homemade alternative...

Just bumping this to remind myself of all the great stuff that I should make. :drinker:

Bread: ain't nobody got time fo' that!

WOW!!! THIS is one of the Most Important things a HEALTHY person should make at home. Buy a Bread Maker, you will soon learn that (1) There are ONLY 6 Ingredients to make Bread (NOT the 15+ in store bought), (2) Real Bread tastes different, it is NOT that chemical laden cotton ball that you buy in those bags. :noway:

Where are you buying bread? Plenty of purchased choices out there these days without preservatives, etc. Not that I care about how many ingredients are in the food myself, but if that's what you want, you can find it.

Let me modify what I would have said.

Nobody who works has time to make the bread and pizza dough that I would want to eat. Oh, and I don't have the right oven, either. I'm not talking quick breads, those I'll make.

When I want bread, I want crusty baguettes, authentic sourdoughs, ryes, etc. Yes, I am a huge bread snob. You're not making those in any bread machine and have them turn out right. I've made baguettes, and while I can get the flavor right, even with baking stones and steam the texture just isn't the same. Close, but for $3-5 I can get even closer to exact at the market 10min away.

And the pizza dough is a no-brainer. People spend years developing their own recipes for the pizza doughs I like and need a wood or coal fired oven to bake them right, anyway. For those, I go to the restaurant.