Holy Cheapness!
So, this is a preliminary post for what I am sure will be the nerdiest, most mathematical post I have ever done.
My new make-ahead kick are pockets. Pizza pockets, bbq pockets, breakfast egg pockets... you name it, I think I can wrap it in bread and call it a pocket.
My mom used to make them with onion, hamburger and seasonings. Growing up, we called them meat turnovers. They were the best. They are especially great right now because we eat them on the go, when we are running out the door in the morning, sitting at a football game or practice, or rushing to an evening activity. They freeze exceptionally well and thaw into a perfect handheld meal.
On a weekend day, I throw a batch of dough in the bread machine, make the filling, and do up 3 or 4 batches. Each batch of dough makes 12 pockets. I could probably stretch it into a little more, but I like the extra crust around the outside. Guilty smile.
This weekend I made 36 ham and egg pockets. I am avoiding cheese because of Grady's unidentified dairy intolerance. Plus cheese gets too greasy and separates when it melts, leaving a oily mess on the bottom of the cooking sheet and ruining the fluffy french bread crust.
The ham was from "clearance" lunch meat packs I bought at Grocery Outlet and just pulled out of the freezer. They were marked down to .50 because they were expiring the next day. I brought them home and threw them in the freezer. After I thawed them out, I chopped the ham up really small and fried it with chives for extra flavor
Jason and I were hanging out tonight after the kids went to bed. I was waiting for the last batch to finish cooking, and we started talking about how much we'd gotten done and how nice it would be to have pockets and muffins for breakfast the next few weeks (I also made two different batches of muffins). The talk morphed into wondering how much we were saving by making bread and pockets instead of buying something like Hot Pockets. Soon we were on the Costco website with a calculator and a recipe figuring out how much each pocket cost.
It was awesome. Basically, with clearance ham and Costco prices on almost everything else, we figured that these pockets cost about .27 cents each to make. Not counting my time (if that's worth anything) and the propane and electricity.
An ex-large batch of french bread costs $1.16 to make at home. That's my healthy version with flaxseed instead of butter.
I am geeking out. Not only do we know exactly what is going into our pockets (with the exception of the expired, probably pink slimed, outlet ham), we are having less go out of our pockets too!! (I am hysterical right now. I totally just thought of that, and Jason is going to die of eye-rolling when I tell him this pun tomorrow morning!)
My new make-ahead kick are pockets. Pizza pockets, bbq pockets, breakfast egg pockets... you name it, I think I can wrap it in bread and call it a pocket.
My mom used to make them with onion, hamburger and seasonings. Growing up, we called them meat turnovers. They were the best. They are especially great right now because we eat them on the go, when we are running out the door in the morning, sitting at a football game or practice, or rushing to an evening activity. They freeze exceptionally well and thaw into a perfect handheld meal.
On a weekend day, I throw a batch of dough in the bread machine, make the filling, and do up 3 or 4 batches. Each batch of dough makes 12 pockets. I could probably stretch it into a little more, but I like the extra crust around the outside. Guilty smile.
This weekend I made 36 ham and egg pockets. I am avoiding cheese because of Grady's unidentified dairy intolerance. Plus cheese gets too greasy and separates when it melts, leaving a oily mess on the bottom of the cooking sheet and ruining the fluffy french bread crust.
The ham was from "clearance" lunch meat packs I bought at Grocery Outlet and just pulled out of the freezer. They were marked down to .50 because they were expiring the next day. I brought them home and threw them in the freezer. After I thawed them out, I chopped the ham up really small and fried it with chives for extra flavor
Jason and I were hanging out tonight after the kids went to bed. I was waiting for the last batch to finish cooking, and we started talking about how much we'd gotten done and how nice it would be to have pockets and muffins for breakfast the next few weeks (I also made two different batches of muffins). The talk morphed into wondering how much we were saving by making bread and pockets instead of buying something like Hot Pockets. Soon we were on the Costco website with a calculator and a recipe figuring out how much each pocket cost.
It was awesome. Basically, with clearance ham and Costco prices on almost everything else, we figured that these pockets cost about .27 cents each to make. Not counting my time (if that's worth anything) and the propane and electricity.
An ex-large batch of french bread costs $1.16 to make at home. That's my healthy version with flaxseed instead of butter.
I am geeking out. Not only do we know exactly what is going into our pockets (with the exception of the expired, probably pink slimed, outlet ham), we are having less go out of our pockets too!! (I am hysterical right now. I totally just thought of that, and Jason is going to die of eye-rolling when I tell him this pun tomorrow morning!)
Well, for what it's worth, I love your pun.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I can't hear "Hot Pockets" in any context without thinking of the Jim Gaffigan routine about them. Have you ever seen it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-i9GXbptog
One last thing: the line about "not counting my time (if that's worth anything)"--I generally tend to think of time as pretty valuable. I most recently used the "value" of my time as an excuse not to can tomatoes, because if you calculated in the time, store-bought canned tomatoes are actually cheaper. (Never mind the fact that home-canned tomatoes are superior in almost every way...) ;)
Thanks for the Youtube link! I hadn't seen that. Funny - I know my time must be worth something... but I usually justify all the time I spend on food prep because I know it tastes better and it is so much healthier. I'm starting to turn more and more granola... and someday I'll probably be making that at home too... :)
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