I entered this month’s theme with a little trepidation.

I set myself the challenge to investigate homemade alternatives for four (4) popular, and standard packaged good items.  The plan was to create my own recipes for each, and bake them from scratch.  But I truly had no idea how it would all turn out.

As I started this challenge, I was wondering would it require an enormous amount of time to prepare and bake some of these goods?  Would the cost of the ingredients significantly exceed the store bought item, and blow the case for homemade out of the water?  Would some of these items be a little tricky to make, and not necessarily practical for most people?

But fortunately, after creating the four (4) recipes, the case for homemade has been made (well, I think anyway!).  Most items only required 5-10 minutes preparation time, the raw ingredients were a fraction of the cost of buying prepackaged (as low as 1/4 of the cost of store bought!), and all the recipes were pretty simple to put together.

It is no secret the side of the fence I sit on, but if homemade is not your thing, I hope this month has encouraged you to give it a try?

Mrs E.P. – I am very proud of your homemade banana bread effort. :)

  { Buckwheat & nutmeg banana bread } Banana bread is very popular. Not only in children’s lunchboxes, but as a staple in coffee shops and cafes around town. It will certainly make a regular appearance in baby Mélanger’s daycare lunch box – as well serve as breakfast-on-the-run for the busy working mum I know I will soon be!  { Read more here … }

 

  { Homemade milk arrowroot biscuits } Even though these biscuits are not an exact replicator of the biscuit you will find in store, it still imparts a characteristic softness from the arrowroot flour, is only slightly sweet from the small dose of sugar, has a slight crunch but still melts in your mouth like a good arrowroot should. { Read more here … }

 

  { Homemade nut-free muesli bars } After three muesli bar trials, this recipe version was my favourite.  Lightly crunchy, these muesli bars are a snap to make, and stay fresh and crisp for up to 2 weeks in an air-tight container.  Feel free to adapt the combination of seeds and fruit to your own preferences, and include nuts if nut-free is not an issue. { Read more here … }

  { Homemade olive oil wholemeal crackers } Hardtack crackers (made from a simple combination of flour, water and salt) are quite popular and easy to make, but I wanted to mimic the depth of flavour and crunchy texture of a soda cracker.  So enter here some leavening agents, a hint of shortening, and a few rounds of experimentation, et voilà!  { Read more here … }