"Stock-Up Saturdays"

I thought I'd share with you a new venture of mine: "Stock-Up Saturdays." Because homemade things are so much healthier and cheaper but not as easy to have in a pinch, I made a list of those foods to make in bulk on Saturdays. Things like homemade whole wheat tortillas, cinnamon raisin bread, dough for pot pies and quiches, cooked beans (from dried), hummus, burger buns, dinner rolls, and these types of items that I would love to just open up and find on hand in my freezer! So for the first Saturday, we went with tortillas. Conventional whole wheat tortillas at standard grocers have things like high-fructose corn syrup and/or hydrogenated oils in them and the ones at the natural foods store are over $3 for 10. So for a third of the cost, we made a few dozen to freeze. We don't have a tortilla press or anything professional, but if we went out and bought that we wouldn't really be saving money anyway, right?! If you would like the recipe, the link I used is here:

http://chezannies.blogspot.com/2008/07/ho-made-whole-wheat-tortillas-its.html

It has a video with great tips for rolling out the tortillas without a press. If you're going to try this yourself, I will warn you that when you do a bulk attempt, it is very time consuming the first time around. I think next time, with Vince's help again, we'll have it done in half the time. I will definitely be doing it again!


For dinner that evening, we used a pound of dried pinto beans (under $1) to make homemade refried beans. (Of course, those did take some prep ahead of time.) With about $1.50 worth of homemade tortillas and some toppings, our family of six had a taco dinner for under $6. (And there is a small bowl of leftovers in the fridge!) I've created an entire list of dinners for a family of 6 for $6 or less that I'll share on this blog in the future. Stay tuned. . .