15 supermarket products you can also make yourself really well
Rather lazy than tired? Believe me, you’re not the only one. In the kitchen too, we like to go for quick and easy—perhaps more often than we’ll ever admit. The result: we buy a lot of things ready-made rather than making them ourselves. But still… Is there anything better than a homemade Bossche bol, homemade garlic butter or shrimp croquettes made by your own hand?
Making your own food isn’t just much tastier. If you do it smartly, you’ll often save quite a bit of money too. Buy the ingredients once and you can then build up an entire stock. Another nice bonus: it saves a lot of packaging. Very environmentally friendly and therefore completely on-trend. Did you know there are plenty of supermarket products you’re much better off making yourself? Just check out the list below.
Powdered sugar
Sweet-toothed people, this one’s for you. Are you a heavy user of powdered sugar? Stop stocking up on those expensive tubs and make it yourself. How? Simple: grind granulated sugar in a food chopper or coffee grinder until it becomes a very fine white powder. This trick will save you a lot of money. For comparison: a 250-gram tub of powdered sugar costs €1.25, while you pay €1.29 for a kilo. Do the math!
Oat flour
Anyone who bakes has undoubtedly worked with oat flour at some point. Or maybe not, because it’s ridiculously expensive. You’ll quickly pay €3 for 500 grams of oat flour. Did you know you can get it much more cheaply? All you need is a pack of rolled oats and a food processor. Grind the oats finely in the food processor and you’ll have a perfectly good supply of homemade oat flour. That saves you more than €2, since a pack of rolled oats costs only 85 cents.
Grated cheese
No pasta without grated cheese. How awful is it that you pay so much (read: €3) for a 200-gram bag? No way—that can be much cheaper. Buy a one-kilo block of cheese and grate it yourself. It takes some work—and yes, it’s also just a crappy chore—but then you’ll have a large, inexpensive supply of grated cheese. A one-kilo block costs just over €9. Work out for yourself how much that saves compared with ready-made grated cheese. Tip: you can simply freeze any excess homemade grated cheese. I get that you can’t always eat a kilo of cheese in one go.
Fries
We warned you about it at the end of last year: fries are getting more and more expensive. A disaster. But wait, before panic breaks out: you can solve the problem. By making your own fries more often, that is. A large bag of potatoes is still fairly affordable, and you can cut excellent fries from it. Yes, I know Jan, the fry guy from snack bar ‘t Smikkelhoekje, has a special place in your heart. But just between us: aren’t homemade fries simply the most delicious thing there is?
Self-raising flour
Self-raising flour is, sorry to say, a bullshit product. Did you know you can simply make it yourself from flour and baking powder? So you don’t need to buy it separately at all.
Salad dressing
For anyone who can’t just get through a bowl of greens, dressing is often the solution. It gives your salad just that little bit of extra flavor. But why do we like it so much? Because it’s packed with sugar and additives. Supermarket salad dressing isn’t healthy, then. Homemade dressing, based on olive oil, lemon juice and herbs, is. And it’s delicious too. You may even have an ingredient in your kitchen cupboard that makes your dressing even better. It can be that simple.
Nut bars
Are nut bars your favorite snacks? Then you’ve probably had to raid your savings account regularly to stock up on them. Man, they’re expensive. Make a virtue of the nut and get to work making homemade nut bars. Yes, it costs something to stock up on nuts, dates, grains and seeds, but then you’ll immediately have enough at home to make a whole supply. And that will ultimately save you an insane amount of money.
Plant-based milk
For Team Oat Cappuccino and all other plant-based milk lovers: you can very easily make your beloved oat milk or almond milk yourself. It’ll save you another panic attack when you run out of oat milk, for example. And it’s also super fun to do. You need nothing more than oat bran or almonds, water, salt and sweetener. Oh, and a milk maker. We’re fans of this vegan milker from Aldi. Believe us, plant-based milk makers can’t do without one.
Vegetable pasta and rice
It’s been incredibly trendy for a while now: pasta and rice made from vegetables. Courgette spaghetti, for example, and cauliflower rice. Super tasty and insanely healthy. And expensive. Very expensive. It can be cheaper. So stock up on courgettes, cauliflower, broccoli or whatever vegetable you like and get to work yourself. Grind cauliflower and broccoli in your food processor until they resemble rice, and grate courgettes into spaghetti ribbons yourself. Even a child could do it!
Garlic sauce
Garlic sauce is amazing, but it’s not exactly healthy. Especially when you buy it at the supermarket—just check the ingredients list on the package. Don’t worry, you don’t have to say goodbye to your favorite sauce. Mix yogurt, low-fat mayonnaise and garlic together, and you’ll have an incredibly tasty, healthier garlic sauce on the table in no time.
Iced tea
We drink liters of it in summer: iced tea. And so we throw away countless cartons too. Mother Earth isn’t very happy about that. The solution: make your own iced tea. You don’t need much more than ice-cold water and flavorings of your choice, such as honey, lemon or berries. Sweet sinners add sugar; health freaks don’t. And that way, everyone’s happy again.
Herb butter
If you can make your own garlic butter, the same naturally goes for herb butter. It’s especially economical if you had fresh herbs left over from a recipe. So don’t throw them away! All you need to do is soften the butter, finely chop the herbs and mix them together. Little effort, yet super tasty.
Vanilla sugar
Is your baking shelf always covered with half-used, torn-open packets of vanilla sugar? Leave those days behind. Making your own vanilla sugar is the solution. Fill a preserving jar with granulated sugar and add a few vanilla pods from which you’ve scraped out the seeds for other bakes. The vanilla flavor will infuse the sugar and voilà, you have your own homemade vanilla sugar. Super tasty! And hey, a preserving jar looks nice on your kitchen shelf too.
Applesauce
I don’t eat applesauce often, but when I do, it’s with a croquette. Because it’s delicious and because it cools down my croquette. Anyone else do this? Anyway, applesauce is definitely on my list of “Much better when you make it yourself.” In the top three, even. Does your mother/mother-in-law/grandmother/aunt have an apple tree in the garden? Then be sure to visit a few times to stock up on a generous supply for homemade applesauce. Thank me later.
Grilled cheese sandwich
For some of you, I’m now stating the incredibly obvious, but so be it. There are ready-made grilled cheese sandwiches in the supermarket’s refrigerated section, so apparently some people find it too much effort to make their own. Are you part of that group? Cancel your membership. Buy a bag of bread, a large pack of cheese and your favorite ketchup, and you can eat grilled cheese sandwiches every day for weeks. The amount of money you’ll have left over is mind-blowing, I promise you.
Read also:
- 10x the best tips and tricks for saving money on food
- Make it yourself: spicy nut mix
- Homemade pasta: the best recipe and essential equipment
Source: minderismeer.nl
