Convenience Foods

In an earlier post, I mentioned that one of the things I was going to do was home-make instead of buy convenience foods.

Convenience foods are called that for a reason, they're convenient. For working people, people with not a lot of time, etc. it's easy to grab a box of this or jar of that and whip up a quick meal or snack.

I don't work outside the home, and I have plenty of time to do whatever I decide to do, so I don't really have an excuse for not home-making more of our food products.

One thing I have started home-making regularly is pie crust shells.

Frozen pie crusts are so expensive compared to the ingredients in them - ingredients which I already have at home anyway, so buying pre-made pie shells is like renting a car to drive while the one I own sits in my driveway.

I also make my own bread crumbs and Shake 'n Bake, dehydrated onions and onion rings, hashbrowns, plus I do a lot of canning and freezing when I get a good supply of something like potatoes or apples.

The newest DIY I've added to my repertoire is homemade Chocolate Milk Syrup.
(Scroll to the end of this post for a printable recipe.)

The only ingredients are ones pretty much everyone probably already has in their kitchen - water, powdered cocoa, sugar, vanilla extract, and salt.

That's it. No high fructose corn syrup, glycerides, sorbates, artificial flavorings, perseratives, etc.  

I whisked the powdered cocoa, sugar, water, and salt in a larger sized pot and heated it over medium heat.
(If you're using a non-stick pot, use a wooden or plastic spoon.)

I whisked constantly, bringing it to a boil, and let it boil for a minute to two minutes.

Then I removed it from the heat and added the vanilla extract.

After letting it cool down some, I used a funnel to pour it into the empty Aldi brand chocolate syrup container.
You can store in a mason or other glass jar or any empty plastic squeeze bottle you might have on hand.

It turned out delicious, and it was so easy to make, I'd say it was as convenient to make at home as it is to buy it in the store.
(Not to mention, way cheaper.)

The website I got the recipe from says it'll last several weeks in the fridge.
We know it's good for at least 2 weeks, lol.

Printable recipe Via BabySaver$.com