Friday, May 25, 2007

Frugal Friday

My frugal Friday tip is how to save money when using recipes. Sometimes there are ingredients in the recipe that really don't add much to the final product. I made lasagna my own way for years and then found a recipe that was really good, but it did contain some ingredients I hadn't been using that added to the final cost. Last night I decided to make the lasagna recipe, but didn't have any Ricotta Cheese. I made the lasagna anyway and GUESS WHAT? My family liked it much better. I also have discovered that if you add a cup of water to the sauce you don't have to cook the noodles first, they just cook in the pan in the oven. I guess other people already knew that, but I didn't. This in itself saves about 30 minutes of cooking and preparation time and some electricity, too.

I have found this to be true lots of times. Some recipes call for spices that I don't usually have in stock and are quite expensive. I have tried the recipe without them and it turned out great.

Of course, you have to be careful not to leave out something that really does makes a difference. You could experiment to see if those expensive ingredients are really needed.

Debbie J.

Go to http://www.biblicalwomanhood.com/blog.htm for more frugal tips.

4 comments:

Mary Ann said...

Great post! I'm always changing ingredients to use what I have on hand. It does save a good bit of money this way and builds confidence in cooking and creating your own recipes. It's better to follow baking recipes almost exactly, though. :-)I'll have to try the extra water in lasagna sauce next time instead of cooking the noodles before hand. They are so much easier to handle uncooked, I think!

Carrie J said...

Well, I didn't know that about adding water. Great tip! I'll have to try that. Do you cook it the same length of time?

Debbie J said...

I am going to post the recipe that I used, but I cooked mine covered for 45 minutes at about 300 to 325 degrees. Then uncover and turn oven off for about 10 or 15 minutes. Then take out and let sit on counter 10 minutes before cutting. Thanks!

Sherry said...

I've been thinking about making my own lasagne again. Thanks for the inspiration.

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