I've been waiting a month to say number two and FARTS in the same sentence! Sorry fuddy duddy who commented on my last FARTS post.
F.A.R.T.S stands for Frugal Actions Related to Sustainability, i.e., little things you can do to live a more sustainable lifestyle that are also at a low price-point.
I'm sure you all know about the drought that hit the Midwest, and the East Coast, and oh, everywhere but Washington this summer. With the drought came dying cereal crops (wheat, corn, soy, etc.) which happen to be use in a lot of processed foods. Now we all know that processed foods aren't good for us, but they're oh so tempting, and convenient, and "cheap". With the drought this summer, those items are likely going to cost more at the grocery stores in just a few months.
I say cheap in quotes because the low upfront cost of the items end up costing you in the long run with crappy health side effects. Now, don't think I'm sitting here in judgement. At this moment, I'm eating licorice from Costco that is not only dessert, but also dinner. Hey, I worked a 12 hour day, then came home and canned 5 quarts of tomato soup.
I like to eat healthy, but I still buy certain processed items, and I don't feel bad about it. Overall, we eat pretty cleanly and call it good. I've replaced tons of store-bought items with homemade stuff, and yes, it takes more time, but in the end it is also so very much cheaper and tastier.
This month's FARTS challenge is for you to try you hand at one, just one homemade replacement for a processed item that your family enjoys. You might find that you love your version, or meh, maybe it wasn't the recipe for you. Start with a small thing; spending a lot of time on this won't endear you to homemade from-scratch cooking, and I don't want you cursing my name after you've been spending 3 hours on homemade crackers.
A few suggestions: ranch, hot cocoa mix, hummus, ricotta, or be daring and try marshmallows or graham crackers. One of my favorite cookbooks is The Homemade Pantry; check it out from your library and try a few recipes!
So, what do you say? You in? Have any items you want to try out? Let me know and I might have a recipe for you!
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This sounds like a great challenge, and one that I usually do regularly but lately it's been hard to cook for just me and a baby so I resort to easy foods just because I hate taking the time to make something. It's a good challenge, I'll see what I can do. It might just be cookies though! The weather is finally cooling down so it's more motivation for me to use my oven. Thanks for trying to motivate me, I need it!
ReplyDeleteSalad dressing. I hate spending that $3 to $5 on salad dressing that only last for two salads so I have come up with a recipe for ceasar, garden french, honey mustard, and of course thousand island, the no brainier. I am going to try Mayonnaise here soon.
ReplyDeleteTry this - great on greens - 1/3 cup Grapeseed oil, 1/3 cup olive oil, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 3 tablespoons mirin (look in the Japanese section), 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, and if you want, 1/2 teaspoon finely minced garlic (or just slice it and pick it out if you don't want to eat it). Pop all ingredients in a jar and shake. It turns into a luscious brown dressing that is delicious!
DeleteI tried homemade marshmallows (Ina Garten's recipe) when I bought my first stand mixer about 6 years ago - haven't bought any to eat since! (We still buy the mini ones for the marshmallow guns). I give away frozen cookie dough, already portioned out, for Christmas and birthdays. I really want to try ricotta and salad dressing, and get better at freezing meals.
ReplyDeleteOoooh! Can you post your marshmallow recipe? That might be my one thing.
DeleteChristine, mine uses honey and is linked in the original post. Not sure about Kim's though!
DeleteGreat challenge. I'm going to be doing your hummus recipe this next week, along with homemade marinara since we've been using jars of the stuff. The crazy thing is, some of these things are so easy, just a little extra time on my part. I just can't seem to get the energy I need to do some "extra" cooking/prepping.
ReplyDeleteAlso, FARTS is an awesome acronym.
You can make marinara in the crockpot which takes ZERO work. I've found that if I do it on low overnight, in the morning it's so rich and delicious.
Deletehttp://beingfrugalbychoice.blogspot.com/2011/08/my-crockpot-spaghetti-sauce.html
We make our own taco seasoning and hot cocoa mix and yes we LOVE them more than the store bought version. I am working my way up to tackling Gluten Free Tortillas :)
ReplyDeleteGluten Free Tortillas are super easy! All you hae to do is switch out the flour. I like to make them with butter flavored Crisco, then they are really good for breakfast too. I have also made homemade corn tortillas too but mine seem to be very tender. I'm quite sure I just haven't quite hit upon the right mixture.
DeleteHaving a yeast allergy and being gluten intolerant, I make everything!
glutenfreesouthern.blogspot.com
Love the challenge! I am going to replace the bottled coffee creamers with homemade creamers, and I know they will have to be soooo much better for us!
ReplyDeleteThanks as always for the inspiration. I'm going to try homemade coffee creamer. Flavored, and really bad for you those expensive creamers are my vise.
ReplyDeleteI "weaned" my husband off the flavored creamers by substituting half and half - or 2% milk with a bit of brown sugar added - could add vanilla also if that's your choice.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic idea. I'm trying to think of something that I buy that is processed that I don't already make. The only thing coming to mind at this moment is cream of mushroom soup. If you (or anyone else) has a substitute for that I would appreciate it. Other than that I think the thing that I buy the most in a store is lunch meat LOL. I will think more on it and read what the others have to say and maybe that will help job my brain. Thank you again for pushing this challenge!!!
ReplyDeleteI think anything containing mushroom is awful, but I make a "cream of x" soup for a few recipes. Directions here: http://beingfrugalbychoice.blogspot.com/2010/11/stop-reading-this-blog.html
DeleteThank you so much for the link for the "cream of x" soup Sarah!!!! Will be whipping this up today.
Deletewhen the whole boneless hams are on sale I buy one and split it with my Mom and daughter ..then we all have "lunchmeat" for at least a week - I only slice enough for each lunch - stays fresh longer if it's not sliced....my lunch is always a pnut butter and sliced apple sandwich with cinnamon - the meat is for the "man" /husband
DeleteI'm in. So much better if we all FARTS together! :) (Mostly I'm on board just so I could type that. Funny what motivates...)
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try and make my own cereal bars... An overpriced, full of bad stuff product if I ever saw one.
ReplyDeleteThese are delicious and take 5 minutes. Downside, you have to refrigerate them. http://www.fannetasticfood.com/recipes/no-bake-peanut-butter-granola-bars/
DeleteHere they are! http://instagram.com/p/RBFBDSuJjJ/
DeleteWhen I read your comment I had just come back from the supermarket with my own supplies from another recipe, so I'll try yours the next time!
I made a dozen "soft" cereal bars (I can't eat crunchy ones). With oats, wheat germs, chopped almonds, almond powder, chocolate chips (+ hazelnut honey, flour, 1 egg, vanilla extract, brown sugar...)
They are very good, but I almost burnt them (I divided the ingredients by 2 because there's no way I'm eating 18 bars in a week by myself) so they were thinner than expected + I have this mini-oven thingy that always burns everything anyway (there's no room in my joke of a kitchen for a normal oven), so even by reducing cooking time by half I reckon I rescued them 1 to 2 minutes too late. But they're still good and will be a treasure at work.
The recipe I "used" is here (but it's in French): http://cuisine.journaldesfemmes.com/recette/350779-barres-de-cereales-moelleuses
I could translate it if you'd like?
Thanks for the motivational post anyway :)
I am going to try some kind of nut butter, and some cereal/granola bars. I have made granola bars before, but not for a long time. Perhaps some shower cleaner too- it has been on my "to make" list for a while. It appears I will be busy this weekend!
ReplyDeleteShower cleaner - squirt some dish soap around, sprinkle baking soda, and scrub with a rag or sponge. It's like DIY soft scrub!
DeleteI've been attempting to little things like this since discovering your blog a few months ago. The biggest change has been making homemade soups, I've been making a batch of the roasted red pepper & tomato every Sunday for a few weeks now. Amazing the difference fresh vs. processed, thanks to oral surgery I've had to rely on some canned soups this past week and I'm still hungry after eating those. But half the amount of homemade and I'm full, just what ARE they putting in there! Thanks for all the great ideas, keep them coming!
ReplyDeleteYUM! I love tripling batches of soup to freeze; it's what I call "fast food".
DeleteHmm now that I think about it I guess I havent been eating a lot of processed food for meal times, but snacks are another story...Im going to replace my snack cakes/chocolate with fruit or at least a homemade dessert...that should slow me down,lol
ReplyDeleteBtw, a just so you know since I saw your lotion bars a few months ago I have been on a diy kick and have made the lotion bars, shower discs, and even laundry detergent. Next I'm making diaper cream this weekend! I really appreciate you! Thanks!
Love the FARTS! LOL! I have always wanted to try to make fruit roll-ups. My order of the flat sheets for my dehydrator have been sitting on my shelf for about 2 weeks, but I have no idea what to do. They provided a recipe, but I want a recipe that I *know* someone has tried and that works. Do you have one? Any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteI wanted to let you know that after your last post, I got out the fabric napkins! It works some of the time, but I'm a bit of an ironer, so it's added to my load in that department!
ReplyDeleteSince I have started reading your blog a few months back I have already done so much DIY and homemade stuff! I have made: dryer sheets, lavender oil, lavender salt, vanilla extract(still in the process), diaper pail cakes, breads of all shapes and flavors, hummus(with homemade tahini), and I am probably missing some things bc I have been a busy busy bee(oh I made beeswax candles!). I am looking forward to the holidays so I can pass out frozen pre-portioned cookie dough to all my friends. One big thing I could not do this year was canning and I wish I had devoted more time so I could do that. Next year I have already warned my husband that I will be canning EVERYTHING so we can stop spending so much at the store(he loves my homemade goodies :).) I look forward to checking out the new posts and I am so happy that I found your blog. It has really given me motivation being a stay at home mom to actually do all the things I have wanted to do for years but was reluctant to try. Thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteI have recently tried the homemade creamer, but was not a fan. I tried homemade granola, only to realize that I don't really like walnuts very much (which was the unfortunate choice of nuts that I had on hand that day)...in about 4 more cups of granola, I'll try that again.
ReplyDeleteI think my F.A.R.T.S. challenge will be to revisit homemade tortillas now that I have my grandmother's awesome marble rolling pin. Maybe I can get them to not resemble pitas quite so much this time.......
I have replaced chips or pretzels in my lunch with raw broccoli dipped (well, really soaked is more accurate) in Newman's Own oil and vinegar dressing. Probably that is not hard to make.
ReplyDeleteI am finally (mostly) retired from a very stressful and time consuming, national business AND we are finally enjoying an empty nest! I'm very busy these days dragging my household into the organic, good steward era. The concept of F A R T S is excellent and the name gives me a good chuckle. "FARTS Number 2" makes me laugh out loud. Over the past few days, I made dairy-free, organic coffee creamers in 2 flavors, Pumpkin Spice and Hazelnut, that I found by Bing'ing. In our house, we need to be as dairy-free as possible AND (I) love the creamy sweetness of those bad-for-you, grocery store, plastic bottles of chemicals in fat. It's been getting hard not to think about it when I'm sipping my coffee in the morning. So I hunted these down and they're fabulous! Made with coconut milk, sweetened with date syrup, flavored with real stuff, including my homemade vanilla extract (thanks to you, Sarah!). So easy to make, Much Healthier and lovely, lovely. Love your blog, Sarah, and look forward to it every day! xo
ReplyDeleteHummus! I just combed the grocery store trying to find tahini, and my hubby's eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw the price, but I assured him I will be making LOTS of hummus with it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the FARTS ideas! Lol
Another thin I plan on doing is making my own baby wipes. Don't remember if I got the idea from you or Pinterest somewhere.
If you want to save yourself the trouble of making the baby wipes, you can use our "janky" baby wipes. Go to the baby section at Target, and buy a few of their 6 packages of Circo baby wipes.
DeleteFor the solution, I used Baby Bits soap (you can buy this on Jilliansdrawers.com. They're $11 for at least enough bits to last you until potty training) dissolved in a spray bottle.
We'd simply spray a few wipes before the diaper change. Jack never once had diaper rash. A friend of mine who had kiddos with sensitive skin switched to these, and within a few days, the rashes were gone!
I started following your blog recently and I just love all your posts :-) I've been trying to do Peanut butter at home and your FARTS number 2 was a big inspiration. I tried it last weekend and I'm not going to buy peanut butter from store again! Ever! It was not only easy but also more delicious (that too when you can taste it right out of the Food processor :-D) I started doing meal planning as well, but for some reason not been following that consitently :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm a magnet for food poisoning, so I have to make almost everything we eat. I make homemade peanut butter, taco mixes, queso and guacamole; if we want restaurant food, I figure out how to cook it myself. I make the boyfriend authentic Philly cheesesteak, and restaurant style Reubens, and I cook a mean tofu fried rice. I also make my own cleaners with GSE, and make all of my own lotions and body products (lip balms, body wash, shampoo and conditioner). It creeps me out to think of all of the chemicals that go into the products for our bodies and our skin. I just found your blog today and I love it! I'll keep FARTing right along with you. ;)
ReplyDeleteLord, I love your blog, Sarah! FARTS #2...as we say in Texas...'Bless your heart, girl... you just ain't right in the head!' :):)
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas! Can't wait to get busy on some of these!!