Canadian Seniors Save Money Making Their Own Groceries - Can You?

How Canadian Seniors Save Money By Making Their Groceries

Do you need to cut your grocery budget? This post has a few recipes that you can easily make at home instead of buying the store-bought versions. Not only will you save on your grocery purchases, but you may find you will be healthier  not eating foods filled with preservatives. This post has a few recipes for groceries people usually buy at the store. If you start with one or two of these you may be surprised at how easy making your own groceries can be!

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3 Ways Canadian Seniors Save by Making Their Own Groceries

When we make our own groceries it can add up to big savings over time in three different ways:

1. Savings over the cost of prepared foods. When we make our groceries at home, it is surprising how much money  we can save on prepared foods. Eating the things we take out of our refrigerators is usually a lot cheaper than eating takeout from a restaurant too. 
2. Savings on over-the-counter medications. Many people are negatively affected by eating foods with additives that are in commercially prepared foods. Wouldn't you like to have less edema, fewer headaches, better blood pressure levels, better blood sugar levels, and less arthritic pain? 
3. Transportation savings. How much does it cost to go to the store and back? Being able to make our own groceries from ingredients at home saves those last-minute runs to the store to pick up prepared foods.

Three Easy Money Saving Grocery Recipes

There are many healthy money-saving grocery recipes that we can easily make in the comfort of our own homes. Here are a few recipes you might like to try at home:

1. Yogurt

Making your own yogurt at home is quite easy and healthier for you too. Have you ever really read the labels on the commercially made yogurts that you buy in the store?

Here is my comparison video of Iogo and Danone Yogurt. I was shocked when I read the Iogo label!

You could purchase a yogurt maker and a yogurt making kit with yogurt starter, but you can also make homemade yogurt without any fancy apparatus. I have made homemade yogurt in a toaster oven , or simply by putting the yogurt mixture beside my crockpot and turning the jars occasionally. 

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons plain yogurt preferably without any fillers or additives.
• Milk - up to 4 Cups (I use powder skim milk and distilled water.)

Method

1. Warm the yogurt and milk to room temperature.
2. Gently stir yogurt and milk together in a sterilized container using a sterilized utensil.
3. Pour yogurt mixture into smaller sterilized containers.
4. Cover your containers with lids and  and place in a warm place to incubate for about 12 hours. 
5. Yogurt is ready for refrigeration when it is thick.

If you want fruit bottom yogurt put fruit in the bottom of a bowl and top with yogurt. The fruit bottom yogurt you buy is more like jam bottom yogurt - if you want jam bottom yogurt, you can make that at home too.

2. Homemade Tzatziki

Homemade Tatziki

Do you love tzatziki? Tzatziki is very easy to make at home on your own. This recipe uses three ingredients and is easy peasy to make. Some people use additional ingredients, but I find this simplified version works well for me.

Freshly Crushed Garlic and English Cucumbers

Tzatziki Ingredients

• Cucumber - I use English cucumber. I prefer to buy vegetables that have been less exposed to everyone's needs and wheezing in the store. I recently purchased a bag of 4 at No Frills for $6. 

  

   Crushed Garlic and Cucumber Drained

  
  
• Garlic- I used to buy pre-crushed garlic at the local Dollarama, but then I read the ingredient list and discovered it was full of sugar! I bought this dry pack of fresh garlic and froze half the bag and this has been keeping quite well in the refrigerator.

  

  Big Bag of Fresh Garlic

  
  
• Plain yogurt or yogurt cheese - Making yogurt cheese is quite easy. I just add dry skim milk powder to plain yogurt and let it sit overnight in a warm spot - beside my boiling crockpot seems to work quite well.

  

  Homemade Yogurt Cheese

  
  

Method

1. Remove English cucumber from plastic, chop in small pieces that will fit in your garlic crusher.
2. Crush English cucumber pieces and fresh garlic. Use 6 to 10 parts cucumber to 1 part garlic.
3. Drain. Reserve juice to add to stews.
4. Stir in thick yogurt or yogurt cheese until you have your desired consistency. Enjoy!

You can see my Tatziki recipe video here on Rumble.

3. Homemade Healthy Mushroom Gravy

Homemade Healthy Lentil Mushroom Gravy

Since having to switch to a new diet, I have been lead to make some delicious new recipes including this mushroom gravy that is much healthier than the kind you buy in a tin. The red lentils in this recipe really add a big health boost to this gravy.

Ingredients

• 1 Cup red lentils thoroughly rinsed and soaked overnight in 1 Cup water
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 Cup diced red onions
• 1 can mushroom slices - 10 ounces - fresh or dried mushrooms would make this recipe even healthier.
• Extra water as needed - I used bottled Canadian Spring Water for this recipe.

Method

1. Soak 1 Cup red lentils overnight in 1 Cup of water in the refrigerator. Be sure to keep them tightly covered to keep them from absorbing other flavours.You might wish to use bottled water, as the water you use can change the flavour of your recipe.
2. Turn crockpot on high with about 2 Tablespons of water in it.
3. When there is steam on the crockpot lid add finely chopped red onion and braise until transluscent , adding a bit more water if needed.
4. When onion is transluscent, ad pre-soaked red lentils with the water.
5. Cook ingredients together on low all day, or until the lentils become a smooth mush like porridge when stirred.
6. Stir in cinnamon and sliced mushrooms.You might want to add more water at this point as well.
7. Cook until gravy is reduced to the thickness you desired.

Enjoy! You can use this mushroom gravy on potatoes or even serve it on toast.

4. Home Made Pancake Mix

Heidi over at the Frugal Gals Website has lots of great make-your-own groceries recipes including this easy recipe to make your pancake mix. Heidi has posted a few different versions of things you can add to your pancake mix for variety - a couple of which are quite surprising!

Pop over and check  out this Homemade Pancake Mix recipe here on the FrugalGals website.

Pancake Mix by Heidi at Frugal Gals

About This Author

Sister Su is grateful to God for keeping her alive. She is a Trent/Queen's Concurrent Education graduate with over 20 years of teaching experience. She  is most easily reached through X /Twitter @Sister_Su. See her link tree for more details:@Sister_Su | Linktree

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