Part of being self-sufficient is learning to do without things. Doing without the store. Go without the Amazon subscription and two-day shipping.
Another part is eliminating all the extra things in our daily lives. And a big part of that is extra things in food. Our food is just covered in tons of artificial ingredients.
I mean why does ice cream need a list of 25 ingredients? Shouldn’t it just be something simple like real cream and maybe some chocolate?
Besides, if we are stocking and using our food storage most efficiently, shouldn’t we stock core ingredients over specific items? For example, instead of stocking cans of pre-made soups, could we instead stock the ingredients to make soups such as chicken, beans, flour, etc.?
Our family has been working hard on reorganizing and stocking core ingredients over lots of processed things. And in that process, we have been learning to make more than just bread. Things like homemade crackers, sourdough discard tortilla shells, and from scratch soups.
It’s truly amazing what you can do with so little when you focus on clean, simple ingredients.
Sure, from scratch cooking takes more time. But it tastes so darn good. And guess what, you don’t need flavor enhancers and other junk.
Even if you don’t have time during the week, take a few hours over the weekend and try to create something from scratch. Then, next week, make something different. And so on. Eventually more and more of your daily meals will come from scratch.
A pantry full of from-scratch staples is a great place to start and build meals around your core ingredients. And it helps you save money too!
If you can’t start everything from scratch, at least work on getting cleaner ingredients and foods in your home.