Food On A Budget Part 3: The Sweet Tooth

Image from Nourished Kitchen

A couple of years ago my husband lost his job...just like a lot of other people out there when the stock market went crazy and our economy tanked. I still had my two businesses (in-home salon and daycare) but I knew we had to make changes to our budget. So the first thing I did was slash what we were buying for meals. I am very healthy when it comes to food...but I had to find a cheaper way! I have started a post periodically, sharing my ideas to cut the food budget, save some money, and still feed my family with some healthy and tasty meals. I would love to hear any food budget saving ideas that readers might have so please feel free to share!

This week's money-saving tip is concurring your sweet tooth! I have somewhat of a little sweet tooth (who doesn't?) so I make things ahead of time so that I don’t drop by the local ice cream shop or coffee house. Here are a couple things I do at home to help those sweet tooth cravings without hurting the budget.

• Make an ice coffee and have it in the fridge ahead of time. (No more iced mochas from Starbucks, saves me $3.70 each time I drink one at home!)
• Make cookies and that can be frozen or just refrigerate to bake when needed. (It also helps me stay on my diet if I have only baked enough for one per person or just the kids.)
• I also make scones to leave in the freezer so that when a friend drops by I can bake up a couple different things in about 13 minutes.
• I bake homemade sweet breads and muffins at least twice a week for after school snacks or a fast breakfast. I can freeze bread or muffins for a later time….when I REALLY have no time!
• I use our ice cream machine and make home made ice cream in 20 minutes outside or the frozen deck (in Minnesota) and then freeze the rest for later use.

I probably have never talked about this on the blog, but one of my favorite past times is having tea parties...you know complete with the hats, teas, scones, and crumpets! Well over the years, my family has developed quite the taste for scones. They make a nice treat for the kids and as I said above a nice treat for guests. Here is one of my favorite recipes:

Sweet Lemon Scones

Image from Violetea.com

2 cups Flour
3 ½ tbs Butter - unsalted
½ tsp Salt
4 tbsp Sugar
1 tbsp Baking Powder
2 Eggs yolks
8 oz Low fat lemon yogurt
1 tsp Grated lemon peel
3 tbsp Heavy cream

1. Pre-heat over to 425 degrees.
2. Cut together dry ingredients, flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, with butter
3. In seperate bowl, stir together egg yolks, lemon yogurt, and lemon peel
4. Add flour mixture to bowl of liquid ingredients, stir lightly with a fork
5. Add heavy cream to the mixture – 1 tbsp at a time
6. Knead 3-4 times (on parchment paper)
7. Shape into square area (¾ inch thick ) – cutout shapes. Or shape into round area and pre-score slices
8. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes or until light brown

Tip: You can freeze unbaked scones. When ready to cook - bake frozen and adjust oven temp to 420 degrees and baking time to 15 minutes.

~Luci