On of the biggest fears I had about this challenge was that I LOVE food and there are certain restaurants which have food that I crave All. The. Time....
Panera has soups and sandwiches that I love...
A local family-owned restaurant has the best sausage gravy...
And the list continues on...
Learning how to make some of your favorite foods at home can be a big cost savings. Today I calculated just how much I was saving by making the sausage gravy from home... I was astonished!
But first - the recipe... :)
Homemade Sausage Gravy
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
1/2 pound sausage
salt and pepper
Brown sausage in a pan. Take sausage out of pan with slotted spoon. Leave grease in pan.
Add the 1/4 cup of butter. Melt on medium heat.
As butter is melting, add the 1/4 cup of flour.
Stir. It will be extremely liquid-y. Stir constantly until it begins to boil. Turn heat to simmer/low for 10 minutes and stir occasionally. Add sausage. Stir and serve.
This is a super easy and quick recipe. Almost always we have the ingredients on hand for a quick and easy dinner. We pair it with hashbrown potatoes and eggs. Delightful!
Now for the "break-down":
- 1/4 cup of butter- that is half a $.69 item - we'll say 35 cents! :)
- 1/4 cup of flour - there are 30 1/4 cups in a 5 lb. bag of flour - Bag of flour (not on sale) is $2.99 / 30 is about 10 cents rounded up as well. We are out to 45 cents.
- 2 cups of milk - 16 cups on a gallon - milk is $2.50 around here. $2.50/16 is about 15 cents times 2 - 30 cents - up to 75 cents!
- sausage - We pay about $2 for our sausage where we buy it. We used half. So that's $1 - up to $1.75.
- bread to eat it on - We only get bread when it's on sale. We paid $1 and used half a loaf - 50 cents - up to $2.25.
$2.25!
Now granted a lot of times we have eggs and potatoes with them but the eggs come from the chickens on family farm and are given to us at no cost and the potatoes are raised in the garden so no cost for them. BUT we often have leftovers and have at times just eaten the sausage gravy alone. It's rich and fills my family's tummies! :)
Now let's compare the cost of the sausage gravy at the local family restaurant to that of the gravy made at home. We generally had to buy three plates of the sausage gravy and biscuit plate to feed our crew. Each one of the plates cost $5 and then you add drinks and tax and tip. Let's just go on the sausage gravy - at the restaurant we would have paid $15 plus tax and at home I fed my family for $2.25 and tax free! That is at least a $13.75 savings!
Finding "copycat" recipes of some of your restaurant foods could be a great way to get you back to the family table.
How about you? Do you have any good "copycat" recipes?
I hope you have a blessed weekend and see you Monday!
*This post is linked to Frugal Fridays.*
2 comments:
An easy alteration - once the sausage is browned, you don't have to remove it from the pan. If there is enough fat from the sausage, just add several tablespoons of flour and let it cook out a bit of the raw-ness. (If you need more fat, add a bit of oil and let it heat up - then add your flour.) Once it's sticking to your sausage, slowly add in your milk while stirring. Stir most of the time - but you don't have to stir all the time unless your heat is up higher and it's cooking too quickly, in which case turn the heat down a bit - and it will thicken. I like fewer steps. :) Yum! We LOVE sausage gravy...and I have a gluten-free buttermilk biscuit recipe that I love, so YAY! :) Great job, chica!
Oh! And if I get a great deal on bulk sausage, brown it up ahead of time and freeze it. It's a breeze to toss in the fridge to thaw, or you can just plop it out of the container frozen into a pan on low until it warms through. Just another tip from another busy momma! :)
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