There are so many places you can start when you decide to become more self-sustaining
But homesteading feels far away when you don’t have land
The good news is that you can still get started!
One of the most important parts of homesteading is learning how to cook from scratch
My journey started in the opposite direction though
I started learning to cook more from scratch before getting interested in homesteading
I started because of research connecting developmental delays to preservatives and dyes in our food
Since my kids had a bad developmental delay, I was determined to try cooking from scratch to see if it would help
Beginners learn to cook from scratch by paying attention to what is important to their family and slowly replacing one store-bought food at a time. Taking baby steps makes them less likely to get overwhelmed and quit.
When I started, I looked at the foods that my kids ate the most and replaced that
My kids are extremely picky eaters and had communication levels on 8-month-olds at the time
So their most eaten food was chips… sadly
The first food that I cut out of our grocery lists was potato chips
I learned to make them at home and played with different flavors
After a week or two, I was feeling more confident and was ready to move on
I didn’t move far, but I did expandI learned to make tortilla chips
Then I learned to make the tortillas for the tortilla chipsWhat you choose to start with needs to be something important to your family
If you don’t eat a lot of chips, starting with chips is not a good idea
You need to be excited and motivated
So look at what you are already eating and choose one of those foods to start with
What are the benefits of cooking from scratch?
There are so many benefits of cooking from scratch
Apart from the obvious that it is better for you, cooking from scratch gives you more freedom and control
I can make countless things from basic staples in our home
It is rare when I find something I want to make from scratch and I don’t have an ingredient
If you go back far enough, many things are made from a similar list of ingredients
So as long as I keep the stapes stocked, I can make something
This lowers emergency trips to the store
Another thing that cooking from scratch helps with is our grocery budget
We were easily spending $1100 a month on food before I started my cooking journey
We didn’t eat out a lot so it was less than some, but we bought a lot of frozen convenience meals
Now I can consistently feed us a nice variety of foods and treats for less than $500 a month, and
I can even go down to $400 or less if needed
Combining cooking from scratch with couponing, we lowered our monthly bills a lot
Obviously, the goal is to start growing and raising our food, but that isn’t doable for us until we get our land
So we start where we can start
How does cooking from scratch fit into homesteading?
A large part of homesteading is cooking
We need food, water, shelter, and companionship to survive
Food is where a lot of focus is because it is a never-ending job
We will never get enough food to never need to worry about it again
So we grow, raise, butcher, cook, and preserve food a lot on a homestead
At the time of writing this, we don’t have the land to grow and raise our food
But learning half the process now will make everything easier when we do get our land
For example, I started deconstructing whole chicken instead of getting it done for me
When whole chicken goes on sale, I usually buy 8 of them
Then I deconstruct them when I get home and put them in the freezer
The goal is to raise our own meat birds
But now all I need to learn is how to raise and butch them because I have already mastered deconstructing and preserving them
I already know how I like it done
This will make the learning process easier later because I have done half the work already
And I will not be learning on my home-raised chicken since there were some mistakes at first
This concept works for all from-scratch cooking
I will know what veggies to grow since I already cook every day
I can keep track of how much of everything we use so I can better plan for what I need to grow and raise
What should I start cooking first?
There is no right answer to this question
You need to start cooking something that makes you excited
I started with chips and quickly expanded to cooking all our dinners
What does your family eat a lot?
Bonus points if that food is expensive
Seeing a difference in our grocery bill was exciting for me
When chips are $3-6 a bag, and my kids easily eat 4 bags a week….
The difference added up fast
We still get some favorites sometimes, but only when it is on sale
There are some flavors I haven’t gotten just right yet
I don’t cut something out of the list until I can make it at home without missing the original
Oatmeal creme pies are an example of that
My husband loves those cookies and bought them every time he had a chance
I worked on that recipe for a while and now he doesn’t miss the store-bought ones at all
I didn’t force anything
Look at what you already buy and start learning to make it
Once you get good enough, not wanting the store-bought one becomes natural
What are pantry staples to keep on hand?
The ingredients that you want to keep on hand will vary slightly depending on your family’s diet, but there are some things I recommend always having on hand.
Some things that I keep in the pantry or freezer are:
- Flour
- Sugar
- Molasses
- Instant Yeast
- Honey
- Oats
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Vinegar
- Butter
- Olive oil
- Vegetables (canned or frozen)
- Many different herbs and spices
- Rice
- Beans
- Bone broth
But you don’t need everything all at once
Get the ingredients that you need for the foods that you are cooking now
Pay attention to what you are buying a lot when shopping
I use a lot of flour, so I make sure that I have at least 10 pounds on hand at all times
This is so I can bake most things and feed my sourdough starter without worrying about running out of flour
This is a trial and error thing in my opinion
If you run out of something, look how much you get and get more next time
9 tips when cooking from scratch
There are many things that you can learn to help you cook from scratch, but some of my top tips are:
- Keep the most used ingredients on hand
- Pay attention to things you want to buy
- Make double and freeze when you can
- Meal plan a week or two at a time
- Create a meal master list
- Schedule what you are making each day, but be flexible
- Take baby steps
- Make more than one load of bread and freeze some
- Save your favorite recipes in one place for easy access
- Spend a couple of hours a week on make-ahead meals
- Follow and engage with others on the same journey
Cooking from scratch is a skill
All skills need practice and failure to learn
So don’t get frustrated and quit!
Expect and allow yourself to fail
Then learn from those failures
I went from mainly cooking premade meals to making almost all our food from scratch in one year
It goes fast when you just focus on learning and improving a little every week
Keep the most used ingredients on hand
I live 30 minutes from the closest grocery store, so this is very important for me
But your budget will thank you if you go to the store less even if you live close
I don’t know about you, but something extra always ends up in the cart when I go shopping
If I can go shopping twice a month, I spend a lot less money than I do if I go shopping twice a week
This also allows you to get inspiration in a moment and act on it
I can see a video of cinnamon rolls on TikTok and instantly go make some because I keep the staples in the pantry
Pay attention to things you want to buy
Knowing where to start or what to do next is a common struggle
But you already have that information!
Look at what you want to buy when you go to the store
Are you buying frozen cookie dough?
You can make that!
Do you go through a lot of tortillas?
I never buy them anymore because I LOVE my sourdough tortillas
You don’t have to guess
I know that I like to have frozen convenience meals
I am tempted to buy frozen meals every time I go to the store
So I into the habit of making my own convenience meals
Make double and freeze when you can
One way that I help myself avoid temptation is to make freezer meals
I don’t even use a lot of extra time to do it
When I make pot pies, I make two
One for dinner and one for the freezer
If I am having a night when I just don’t feel like cooking, I can put that frozen pot pie in the oven for a couple of hours and still have a homemade meal
It isn’t that much more work to just double a recipe
And there are A LOT of recipes you can double and freeze
Just make sure that you separate it and freeze half before serving dinner
if you have a family that will eat double if they see double the food!
Meal plan a week or two at a time
Meal planning has made my life way easier
I don’t have to make decisions every day when it is time to cook
I can make sure that I have everything I need during one shopping trip so I spend less money
And I can start shopping for deals easier
I look at our local grocery ads to see what is on sale and then make a meal plan based on that
If I find an unexpected deal, I can buy it and add it to the next meal plan
Create a meal master list
When I started meal planning and cooking all our meals, I ran into a big problem
I can barely think about what I want for dinner tonight
Now I need to come up with 14 dinners plus breakfast, lunch, snacks, and treats?!
My solution has been creating a master list
Every time we have a meal that we like, I add it to the list
Then I can just look at the list when I am planning meals
This reduces stress and helps avoid the struggle to think of meals
Schedule what you are making each day, but be flexible
When I am making a meal plan, I schedule what I am making each day
Most of the time it makes everything easier since I don’t have to make any decisions
But there are times when the plan just doesn’t sound good
When this happens, I just switch days
As long as I have time to defrost the meat, there is no harm done
Take baby steps
Taking baby steps when learning to cook from scratch is super important
This journey can get overwhelming FAST
But if you just choose one thing to focus on at a time, that stress is taken away
If you don’t cook at all, choose one day a week to start cooking dinner
Or you can start making a snack instead of buying it
Pay attention to what makes you excited and start there
Then expand a little next week
Or in two weeks if you are still struggling with your current goals
Don’t try to change a bunch at once or you will burn out or get discouraged
It doesn’t feel like you have done much when you are taking baby steps, but you’ll be amazed at how much you’ve learned in six months
Make more than one loaf of bread and freeze some
I love making more than I need so I can preserve some
That can be through canning or freezingI am moving into freeze-drying too
But if you are just starting, I recommend freezing food at first
Bread is an easy place to start
It freezes great and defrosts fast
I make sandwich bread, bagels, English muffins, and more so I can freeze most of it
Instead of trying to make bread every time you need it, make more than enough and freeze some so you have it on hand next time you need it without needing to make it
Save your favorite recipes in one place for easy access
This goes along with creating a master list
When I find or make recipes that I like, I print them and add them to a binder
It is my own “cookbook”
That way I don’t have to look up recipes every time and hope that we like them
If I want to make pizza, I just grab my binder and make the pizza dough recipe that I have saved
The less brain work that you need for simple things every day, the less overwhelmed this lifestyle will make you
Spend a couple of hours a week on make-ahead meals
One thing that helped me a lot when making the switch to homemade meals is planning time to cook make-ahead meals
My husband loves the Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches
So I started making them and freezing them
I scheduled a couple of hours a week to get those meals made and in the freezer
And it works great!
The breakfast sandwiches I make are bigger, healthier, and way cheaper
Batching makes it possible for me
I prepped a lot of ground pork into patties, made a lot of English muffins, and then I put all the sandwiches together
By doing more of one thing, I save a lot of time even if the whole process takes a couple of days
But when I am done, we have a few weeks of that food available for use
Follow and engage with others on the same journey
Making friends with the same goals can make or break your goals
This could be real-life friends, people on TikTok, Facebook groups, etc
But don’t try to do it on your own
Engage with others on the same journey that will understand the excitement of your successes
This can help you learn and motivate you at the same time
