I have a friend who drinks coffee a lot! She loves flavored coffee syrup, like the ones they use at Starbucks, but it is about $7 a bottle where she lives.

I decided that this year, I was going to make some homemade coffee syrup and send it to her as a gift. When my package arrived, she fell in love! She told me that they tasted better than the real thing and that I was now her official Starbucks replacement!

Here is what you need to be able to to do the same:

~Start with a simple syrup. To make a simple syrup, combine 1 cup water and 1 cup white sugar. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until it has reduced by half, which should take about 5 minutes. Now if you want flavoring, you have to add those ingredient(s) at the same time you add the water and sugar.

Vanilla Coffee Syrup: Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla flavoring to the simple syrup. Taste to see if it is vanilla flavored enough. If not, add an additional teaspoon.

Cinnamon Coffee Syrup: Add about a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the water and sugar mixture.

And to top off the flavored syrups, here is my favorite coffee from Starbucks! I don’t go there hardly at all any more since I have been making all my favorite coffee stuff at home! In fact, It has been months since I have been. I think mine tastes much better (I know, I am biased)!

Pumpkin Spiced Latte

2 cups milk
1 cup very strong coffee
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons sugar (or one packet of Splenda)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (plus extra for dusting)
2 heaping spoonfuls of canned pumpkin

Pour all of the ingredients into a pot and heat over medium-high heat until the coffee is steaming hot. Pour into mugs and top with whipped cream & cinnamon. Enjoy!

This past week while making homemade oatmeal, I began to wonder if making it homemade was a better deal than buying the box of premade packs. Here is the cost comparison, and my recipe, for homemade vs. store bought oatmeal.

Homemade Oatmeal

Ingredients

1/2 cup of quick cooking oats (7 cents)

1 tbsp powdered milk  (2 cents)

1/8 teaspoon of salt (1 cent)

2 teaspoons of sugar  (1 cent)

1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon (1 cent)

1 tablespoon of brown sugar (5 cents)

1 cup of extremely hot water (free)

Directions

Combine all dry ingredients into your bowl. Add one cup of hot water and allow to sit for about five minutes. During that time mix ingredients together occasionally until desired thickness has been achieved.

Now here is my analysis:

The cost of make one serving of homemade oatmeal is 17 cents. Since there are usually 6 packets per box, the cost for one whole box of oatmeal would be: $1.02. However, if you have all the ingredients on hand from making the first batch, you can make several more packets of oatmeal for free. So it is like getting 6 or 7 boxes of oatmeal for the price of one.

Store bought oatmeal can vary in price depending on what brand you buy. Some generic boxes are only $1 where Quaker can be almost $3 a box.

In my honest opinion, homemade tastes SO much better and is better for you because YOU know the ingredients being used and there is nothing hidden in the mix–plus it is easy on your grocery budget as well!

Which do you like better? Homemade or store bought? Do you have any oatmeal recipes using fruit? I would love to hear them!

Last year, I ran upon one of the best deals I have EVER found in my entire life! I have been wanting a food processor, but I just did not want to pay the outrageous price of $30 or more to own one.

One day, while visiting a church garage sale, there sitting on the table, brand new in the box, was a food processor–the BIG one, and for only $2! I snatched it up and brought it home.

After buying it though, it sat on my shelf for several months because I had no clue what to use it for. Then one day, I saw a tv show about all the uses of a food processor. It grates cheese, makes hashbrowns, kneads dough for bread and pastries, chops large amounts of tomatoes, and does a great job grating carrots in bulk quantities. I found this out when I was making a homemade carrot cake and it called for three cups of carrots. Grating that many carrots by hand takes about 30 minutes and some knicked knuckles if you are not careful!

However, if you use the food processor, you can grate three cups of carrots in less than a minute, and your knuckles will thank you!

Since I mentioned carrot cake, I thought I would share this yummy recipe with you. Enjoy!

Who doesn’t love brownies, right? But for those of us who have food allergies, we have to work really hard at finding ways to get those favorite foods back into our diet.

Here is a recipe that I recently made for a friend of mine who has just learned she has Celiac disease. She was upset because she LOVES chocolate and was afraid she had to give up some of her favorite baked goodies. Imagine her surprise when I showed up on her doorstep a few days later with these delicious brownies!

Hope you enjoy.

Ingredients

2/3 cup gluten-free baking mix (Bisquick is now Gluten-free by the way)
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup margarine, melted

The August Digest is all about preserving food and we wanted to share this email from Amy.

First of all, thanks for all the wonderful information in your monthly digests. I LOVE sitting down and reading all of the wonderful articles/recipes/tips/etc.
In the theme of food preservation, my husband, who really is a genius, showed me an easy trick to vacuum packing. It works wonderful and we use this method when we are freezing/storing food items.
It’s hard to see the end result from the pictures, but just try for yourself–I couldn’t believe how simple and easy this was!

Simply fill a large pot with water. Put food items into a Ziplock bag (any size works).

With keeping the bag open, place the entire bag slowly into the pot of water.  Careful not to let the water get into the top. You will notice as you are placing the bag into the water, it is slowly sealing the bag.

Once all but the top is submerged, simply close the bag and voila!

Thanks Amy for sharing this wonderful tip!

To see more Works for Me Wednesday tips visit We Are That Family

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Building up our pantry staples is a great way to keep our grocery costs down. One of those staples that happens to be my favorite is tomato paste. It is very inexpensive, around 19 cents a can, and can be used to flavor many things.

Recently, I learned that you can take a 6 ounce can of tomato paste and use it to make about 3 cups of tomato juice. I used to buy the big 46 ounce jug of Campbell’s tomato juice which cost me around $2.50.

I was curious which way was a better buy, so here is what I found out.

~Campbell’s Tomato Juice (around 5 cents an ounce)–an 8 ounce glass costs 40 cents.

~A glass of tomato juice using tomato paste (around 3 cents an ounce)– an 8 ounce glass costs 24 cents.

Now with the Campbell’s you do get around 5 and half  8 ounce glasses of juice and with the tomato paste you only get 3 glasses, but you can purchase two cans of paste which would cost you only 38 cents where the big jug of tomato juice costs $2.50. You are still saving yourself $2.12 by purchasing the cans of tomato paste.

I was kind of skeptical at first to try this recipe, but it turned out really good and is a quick way to give my family some juice.

© Marina Kravchenko | Dreamstime.com

Tomato Juice

Ingredients

1 (6 ounce) can of tomato paste

4 (6 ounce) cans of water

2 teaspoons of salt

Directions

Mix together all the above ingredients in a pitcher or large glass. Put in the refrigerator until chilled. Pour into individual glasses when ready to drink.

Makes 3 cups.

This post is linked to Tuesdays at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Kitchen Tip Tuesday, and Tasty Tuesday.

I hope you’re having a great weekend! Here are some great links for you to check out while you “chill”.

Check out this baby food jar spice rack. If you have a baby and use baby food, this is a no-brainer. What a great way to re-use baby food jars, and it looks great!

I’ve read this tip before, but it’s especially helpful if you’ll be making a stop midway to your destination. For instance, we’ll be stopping at a hotel on our way to Yellowstone. Instead of everyone packing in their big suitcases, we’ll just take toiletry bag(s) and ONE bag with the each person’s clothing for the upcoming day. Saves a lot of lugging and frees up a ton of room in your hotel room. And I hadn’t heard of the 2.5 gallon Ziplocs. Interesting.

These “bubble snakes” look like too much fun!

Here’s a great article from Get Rich Slowly on making use of your food dehydrator to extend your harvest. (If this interests you, you won’t want to miss my upcoming August Money-Saving Digest!)

Doesn’t this sandwich look delicious? It is SO super simple and easy to make. Everything I purchased was on sale, so that was also a plus!

Ingredients

2 slices of angel food cake
strawberry slices
whipped topping

Directions
Take your angel food cake slices and place on a plate. Top one piece with strawberries and then place the whipped cream on top of that. Add the other slice of angel food cake and you have yourself a most dee-lightful snack/light supper ever!

I saw this recipe today from Spark People and it sounded like the perfect summertime treat, so I am sharing it here with you!

Watermelon Blueberry Banana Split

INGREDIENTS

• 2 large bananas
• 8 “scoops” watermelong and/or cantaloupe
• 1 cup blueberries (or raspberries or strawberries)
• 1/2 cup low fat vanilla yogurt
• 1/4 cup granola

DIRECTIONS
1. Peel bananas and cut in half crosswise, then cut each piece in half lengthwise. For each serving, lay 2 banana pieces against the sides of a shallow dish.

2. To make watermelon “scoops” use an ice cream scoop to create balls of watermelon. Remove seeds, if needed. Place a watermelon “scoop” at each end of the dish.

3. Fill the center space with berries.

4. Stir yogurt until smooth, spoon over the watermelon “scoops”.

5. Sprinkle with granola.

Serves 4.

Reprinted with permission by Spark People

Hope you enjoy this!

In September, we will be working on an emergency preparedness Digest and I am really excited about this one. Our kitchens can also be a place for being prepared, if we have all the right ingredients on hand. I have a list of essential pantry ingredients that I will be sharing in that issue that will allow you to be able to make many things at home without having to run to the grocery store.

So with that thought in mind. . . .

Here is a tip I thought you all might like to know. Did you know you can make your own brown sugar if you have molasses and regular granulated sugar on hand?

Ingredients

1 cup of granulated sugar

1 tablespoon of molasses

Directions

Measure sugar and molasses into a mixing bowl. Stir with a fork until completely mixed. Your brown sugar is now ready for use! Store in an air tight container, in a cool, dark, place until ready to use.

Makes 1 cup.

Tip: If you want to make a darker brown sugar, just increase the molasses to two tablespoons.

Being prepared in the kitchen works for me!