Baking Days and Holes in the Freezer and Pantry.

Baking multiple items at once is a great energy saver. Here we have sweet bread and savory bread sticks.
Today I'm making muffins with whatever I can find in the fridge and pantry that needs to get used up. I also found a new bread maker recipe that uses things I already have in my pantry.
Grandma's Oatmeal Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water, boiling
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon dark molasses
• 1/2 cup oats, old-fashioned
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 3 cups bread flour
• 2 teaspoons yeast, sprinkled over flour

Preparation:

Put oats in a mixing bowl; pour boiling water over the oats. When oats have cooled but are still a bit warm, add remaining ingredients according to bread machine manufacturer's manual. Bake on light setting. Makes a 1 1/2-pound loaf.
(I substituted a cup of whole wheat flour for one of the bread flour.)


The $60 food and household budget (which is more like the $70 dollar budget) doesn't leave much room for stock up so my freezer and my pantry are becoming less and less full. I love using up things that I had forgotten about (like the eggplant I froze months ago and made into Parmesan last week) and seeing what I have at a glance rather than doing a big excavation. A big part of keeping to a budget is that I shop at multiple stores to get the best deals rather than doing one stop and shop. Stores like Aldis and Save A Lot (my favorite because they take coupons) are great for pantry stock ups but nothing beats combining a coupon with a loss leader sale.