Fresh, home-cooked meals are a labor of love, but they’re also often seen as a luxury. We don’t all have time to spend an hour chopping vegetables and preparing an elaborate meal after work, so many of us have to pick and choose what we can have homemade. But even in this age of convenience, there are certain foods that, once you start making them yourself, you’ll never want to touch a store-bought version of again.
Redditors have recently been sharing all of the ingredients and dishes they’ve realized are much tastier and more affordable when made at home, so we’ve gathered some of their thoughts down below. Enjoy scrolling through this list that might give you some culinary inspiration, and be sure to upvote the foods you’ll only eat fresh from home as well!
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Coffee…. I want that first thing. I don’t want to put clothes on, drive a few miles, wait in line just to spend $6 on a simple (or complex) coffee. There’s nothing better than waking up to the smell of coffee that turned itself on 15 minutes before I have to get up
Kind of related - "light" coconut milk is more expensive than normal coconut milk and it's generally just coconut milk with added water.
Just buy the normal stuff and add water if you want it light. You effectively get twice as much for less.
this one i agree. A dutch shop sells applejuice from concentrate for less than an euro. I like drinking applejuice with added sparkling water every now and then) BUT you can also buy something thats called "Apple juice with a refreshing splash of water!!" for double the price. Its the same juice with more water. People buy it.
People who don't eat the bread crusts, throw them out, and then buy breadcrumbs.....
Eh I understand that many people don't have the desire, time, skills or confidence to cook from scratch all the time. So whilst I bake my own cakes, make my own pasta and ferment my own kimchi and it is all way better and cheaper, I can understand why it's not for everyone.
I will say though I don't understand pancake mix or bread dough mix. That is literally just flour/sugar/salt/yeast mixed together and you still have to add milk or eggs or water. It saves you a couple of mins of measuring stuff but costs like 10x more than the individual ingredients. You still have to bake it or cook it so doesn't save you time there. Really baffles me!
I cook pancakes once a month and make nothing else that involves mixing yeast, sugar, or flour. That one box of pancake mix lasts a year and takes up a 2"x6" space in my cabinet. Buying the raw ingredients is a waste of money, time and space for me.
I completely understand people buying just about anything rather than making it, especially products like stock, pasta, and bread that are simple to make but take more time than a lot of folks have.
Having said that - buying guacamole confounds me, unless you don't have access to avocadoes, need a ton of guac for a party, or have a good Mexican grocer nearby where you can get quality guac. Making guac at home takes maybe five minutes, and it tastes substantially better than store-bought. Like I can get really good bread and pasta from the store, but any guac I could buy near me isn't gonna hold a candle to homemade.
Sandwiches. I mean standard bread meat cheese veggies condiments.
I refuse to buy subway. They cost too much for something I can make at home in 2min.
There's a thing I remember for a while back where an American asked a French person why they didn't respect American food they replied "You buy croutons"
That always stuck with me.
Croutons are simple to make. Cut up any stale bread (slices, buns, loaves, pita, etc) into approximately 1 inch cubes. Toss with barely any olive oil (& I do mean barely any!), add any dry seasonings you like (or fresh), fresh Parmigiano cheese. Spread evenly on baking/cookie sheets in single layer. Bake at 250 F for about 30 to 35 minutes, stirring 2-3 times. If not cooked completely through, turn oven to 350 or 400 for about 5 to minutes, watching them VERY, VERY CLOSELY so they don't burn. Keep in airtight container in fridge or freezer up to 2 months (longer if no oil is used. Eat as snack or put on salads and soups.
Making popcorn in a wok with coconut oil at home is a game changer. Moist, fluffy popcorn with only 3-4 unpopped kernels. Haven't bought a single bag of microwave popcorn since.
Mashed potatoes, in australia instant mash isn’t super popular but I don’t get why anyone would choose it over homemade mash tbh
ready made rice
Alfredo sauce. It's only like 3 ingredients (minus seasoning), and most people already have them on hand? The jarred stuff tastes like vomit
Not really only 3 ingredients but here there are for you : butter, heavy cream, parmesan cheese, garlic, italian herbs
Hard boiled eggs.
I feel like most people who buy pre-made hard boiled eggs are doing so as an on-the-go snack. If they were at home, they'd likely make it themselves, but they're not at home, they're at 7-11 looking for something to munch on. Then again, I can't fathom eating a non-deviled hard boiled egg, so I could be wrong.
Maybe less cooking and more drinking, but simple syrup.
The prices for a small bottle at the grocery store were almost as expensive per oz as the rum I was using in my mojitos. It’s literally just water and sugar boiled together in equal parts. Now I make a gallon of it at the beginning of summer and enjoy mojitos with mint from my garden all season.
Those pouches of pre-cooked rice that taste all stale and waxy. or even the frozen cooked rice pouches.
rice is the easiest thing in the world to cook. It takes hardly any time at all, and it's dirt cheap.
Rice is not the easiest thing in the world to cook. Many people think it's easy, buy a good plate of tasty, perfectly cooked rice is tricky to prepare. Most people eat a kind of sticky, overcooked stuff.
Pasta sauce! Alfredo, bolognese, all. Waaay better and far less expensive. I usually make double batches and freeze half, then, when in a pinch, all you have to do it boil some pasta!
Caramel corn. The tubs of Topsy's here in Kansas City are something like $15 for a gallon? I can make twice that for about $3...and do at least twice a year.
Although I do miss the old KaramelKorn shops in the malls, I also miss the malls....and being 12.
But my caramel corn is awesome.
A recipe would have been handy here. I’ll just wait… 👇 thank you…!
Hummus.
Chick peas are super cheap, but hummus is super expensive? Wtf.
I have made hummus at home but it's a lot of work. Peeling each of those chick peas, making tahini from scratch, the amount of olive oil that goes. Also, hummus isn't a staple where I live so I don't mind buying it just for one meal.
quiche is typically pretty expensive out, but really easy to make at home.
Salad dressings. So easy and flexible to make with whatever you have on hand, and exponentially more delicious. I would just as soon not have a salad than have one with bottled Italian dressing.
When you do go back to bottled dressings it’s basically thickened sugar syrup with some dried herbs for looks mixed w some s**t oil
Soup, stew, chilli or gumbo. No can or restaurant can beat the quality, taste or value of making fresh at home.
Don’t know how much cheaper it would be (and only useful during holidays), but cranberry sauce. It’s so much better made from scratch and it takes almost no time.
Cookies!
I am not a baker and I don't have the patience to measure things exactly. So, I will buy the frozen premade cookies for the rare occasion I want them at home.
Pesto. Homemade is literally miles better than store bought, especially when you can customize it however you like, and you can make use of fresh herbs
Do you know how expensive pine nuts are? It's a lot cheaper to buy good quality pesto over home made thrice the price minimum. My husband did a cost comparison and we started to buy a lot of things instead of making them ourselves from scratch as we used to do. It was the other way around, but not anymore in the past 2 years.
Stock. The stuff from the store is either crazy expensive or flavored water.
Chicken noodle soup…quick, simple, makes a lot, you can freeze it, so much better than canned soup.
every soup. I like soup. I used to buy soup in cans. Untill i started making soup myself. Never going back. And way cheaper too!
Homemade Mayo lasts a couple days. A jar of store Mayo lasts months. No way it’s something I’m going to do unless it’s for something special.
Pasta sauce is something I just make myself. Good canned tomatoes, onion, garlic and some occasional additions beyond that. Freeze in containers.
Learned how to make ghee the other day. Way easier than I thought and about 25% of the price of the pre made stuff
Pizza, there is no good pizza place near me, and making a decent pie at home is cheap and easy once you know how. I can make a good pie for like $3 and it's a great way to use leftover anything.
Baby food, it’s so easy to roast a potato or steam peas.
Sure. Have its nanny take care of the baby while you're doing that.
Fruit trays. They're SO expensive and you could just cut it up yourself and have so much more fruit 😭
I do buy them though on road trips with peep if I see a really nice one 😂 (I make her daily fruit salads usually).
I pretty much only eat beans from dry. On occasion I’ll do canned but they’re just so much better when cooked on my own. I even do stovetop and not the instant pot because I like to add things over the course of several hours. But I totally understand people just sticking with canned. Beans take forever on the stovetop.
Hummus is very easy to make at home, but I always buy the stuff already made mostly because I can’t be bothered to clean out my food processor.
Perhaps you already know, but... if you put half a cup of warm water in the empty food processor, with a drop of washing up liquid, and you turn it on for thirty seconds as if you were whipping the water, that's it. Then you rinse it and it's clean.
Already roasted beets... beets themselves are relatively cheap and it is easy to roast them. The packaged roasted ones are always way more expensive.
Frosting for cake, that stuff in a can is so subpar. Also, stir fry sauces. The ones at the store are generally loaded with sugar and not as tasty.
Taco seasoning. We make our own in a huge batch.
Every few years, I make up huge batches of taco seasoning, Cajun seasoning, pork, chicken and beef dry rubs, BBQ sauce and several no salt seasoning blends. I package them & give them to family and friends as gifts. Easy to make, I can customize for each and (including the packaging), I generally spend less than $20 per person (usually about $13-$14). Super easy to make and they really like it 😊
Tomato sauce. Much cheaper to buy better quality canned tomatoes and stew for a few hrs
Coleslaw. Just cut up cabbage and add dressing- why buy it already covered in dressing? Cabbage keeps better without dressing on it.
Those frozen packs of pulled pork. Sure, smoking it takes a lot of time and technique. But you can make some damn good pulled pork in your crockpot or countertop roasting pan for about the same price and have enough to fill like five of those store bought packs.
Potato salad, store bought is so sickly sweet, I like how much vinegar I can adjust etc. I can do it with or without homemade pickle/relish. I can make my own mayo for it. I can really get the right texture on the potato.
Apple sauce, apple sauce, apple sauce!!!!!!!
There’s a lot of stuff I didn’t even know about until I saw it in a store, like crunchy chili sauce. Now I can make it at home, but I love trying new things I see in stores. A couple of things I think are awful in stores and fabulous made at home are antipasto in a jar and potato salad from grocery store delis. Those two things made at home are a couple of my favorites, but the grocery store version (that I’ve tried) are awful
One thing I recommend from the South African isle in Woolies - the f*****g peach chutney is so good, it complements the hell out of Filipino spring rolls too (which arnt anything like frozen or home made Chinese ones etc).
Kind of an obscure one but premixed hot mustard/wasabi. Throw a bag of wasabi powder in the freezer and it’ll last you pretty much your whole life, all you need to do to is mix it with a little water and it’ll be far more potent than anything you’ll find in a tube.
Bearnaise sauce. It is so much better from scratch than the grocery store bagged/powdered sauce. And Anthony Bourdain warned people about ordering Bearnaise sauce on eggs Benedict in restaurants once, I think it was something like "only order Bearnaise sauce/eggs Benedict on Sunday, because that's the only day you get it fresh" or something like that.
As far as coleslaw, there never really is much variety at the grocery stores. If you start making it yourself, and you get into it, the different ingredients you can put into a slaw, and the different flavors you can get out of it is mind blowing (truth in advertising: I'm in that stage now, been making 1 coleslaw a week for about 3 months, starting to get adventurous).
Never heard of bearnaise sauce on eggs Benedict. Assuming you mean hollandaise, I've always found it a b***h to make, and I'm an "everything from scratch" type of person. It's been awhile since I even tried, but I remember it being extremely time sensitive, like "blink at the wrong moment and it curdles" sensitive.
Maybe not stores, but I never buy steaks from restaurants anymore. Ever since I learned the reverse sear and sous vide techniques and got a good thermometer, it has ruined steakhouses for me. It just feels like a gamble whether that day the chef knows how to cook a steak correctly. I’d rather spend the restaurant markup money on a nicer cut and do it at home, and I can eat it in my PJs and watch whatever trashy TV show I want.
Edited a word spelling is hard.
Same, very much the same. I don't do the reverse sear, I like mine almost blue, so I turn it very regularly and get it just the way i like it. Deglazing the pan with red wine and mushrooms onions while resting, no restaurant can make an expensive steak taste nearly as good as I can make an average steak. I get the rest of the red wine too,
Minced or pureed garlic. I can whip it on ya faster than you can spoon it from a jar.
Pico de gallo.
Tomatoes, I fire roast mine.
Jalapeños
Onions
Cilantro
Fresh squeezed lime juice
A little Sicilian sea salt
It beats the hell out store bought and is better than most Mexican food restaurants. I can’t make any Mexican dishes without making homemade Pico as well.
I have to make my own bread, because the race to the bottom in the bakery industry has produced nothing but overpriced c**p, and independent bakeries are a distant memory.
Another thing is learning to make pro-quality pizza. In the restaurant industry, the food cost in a typical pizza is vanishingly small.
I can't think of a single item that can't be explained through lack of knowledge, time, physical ability, or availability of raw materials.
If I had to pick something, it would be fresh pasta out of the refrigerated section, though. (Says the person whose never made her own pasta, so I guess I better get on that so I can back up my own claims)
Pickles. Pickle prices can be crazy! If it’s something like dill that has a blend of herbs I don’t really want to make, sure. But I pretty much always keep onions, cucumbers, couple other things pickled and ready to go.
Pickling is so easy once I tried it - my first try was a ginger and carrot relish, so good!!
Pasta! Ok so maybe not cheeper but so worth it. I’m still hit or miss on getting the dough just right and getting it to dry right for storing, but when I nail it there’s nothing better. Bread is the same. I’ve got pretzels mastered, working on my bagels. Homemade gravy!!! So easy, sooo good! I’ve already roasted a chicken, why dump all the pan juices out when I can make a big pot of gravy and freeze some for another day?? Also anyone here have canning advice? Asking for a friend lol.
Now that I have an electric pasta maker (mixes the dough, then sends it through the press) it is even easier!
Mustard: I learned how and will never buy it again. Plus, you can customize a recipe to your exact preferences. Mine is a Dijon style, with white wine, fresh local horseradish and a touch of local maple syrup.
Breakfast foods
yeah. Bought ready made oatmeal from the supermarket once. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Pre-cut veggies in a package.
They are so convenient when frozen. Vitamins are preserved and you can use just a little bit and put the bag back in the freezer for next week or newt month. It cut my food waste by a third
There's a fair bit of snobbery in many of these responses. All the "I don't know why anyone would buy ready-made (whatever) - when it generally comes down to convenience, lack of experience/knowledge, and often lack of space (for a pasta machine, as an example).
Lack of time also. Five minutes for this, ten minutes for that. Spend an hour just making the ingredients before you start cooking.
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Depending on where you live I agree or disagree with these. Some things are super easy to make, but cost much more than ready bought. We used to be make from scratch, not so much at the moment. For example pesto. We can buy a proper good pesto for 2,99€ or we can make one for almost 10€ same quantity. Why? Pine nuts quadrupled in price, basil doubled in price (our neighbourhood cats killed everything in our garden), oil tripled in price. Guacamole the same. Two small avocados used to be around 1€, now 3€ minimum. A jar of guacamole is 3,95€.
@YukiChou...Exactly. And for me, it's mostly how often I use a product. If it's an occasional treat like cookies, I'm not going to buy all the individual ingredients for them to get old, when I can spend a little more money and buy the frozen premade ones.
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I'm a pastry chef and spend 60+ hours in a kitchen as it is, if I want / need something premade I'm going for it. The last thing I need is more time spent in a kitchen.
I read an article one time (maybe buzzfeed) that was essentially about chefs using convenience foods when they weren't at work. So this is real.
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Yikes, this felt pretty darn snobby. I adore cooking and baking, however, I don't always have the time to make my own pasta sauce, dressing, bread, or pasta from scratch. People can lead incredibly busy life and unfortunately don't always have the time in their schedules to cook or bake. Sometimes, I have to pay a bit more and spring for that convenience.
yeah please just let me buy nice cookies when i feel like it. If im going to make my own cookies, i'll end up eating all the ingredients before they're in the oven, even then I'll have such a big batch of cookies that is way to much for me but I'll eat them anyway before the week is done. So nope.
I do a fair amount of baking, but I'm not above occasionally purchasing a boxed mix. In fact, I used cake boxed mixes in order to get back into baking after recovering from cancer treatment. Up to that point, I always had store-bought German's chocolate cake. But when I made my first one (by the way: easy peasy) and tasted the homemade coconut-pecan frosting, I was hooked. No more store-bought for me!
Instant food was a game changer. It allowed families (Mom's with their kids because Dads are useless) to spend more time with each other. Homemade is overrated.
Yep. It allows kids to help make stuff before parents get home, teen babysitters to feed the kids,etc. Even families without kids, I work 40+ hours and if a bag of pre cooked chicken , frozen peas, and instant mashed potatoes is dinner then so be it. I'm tired! Also adults get sick and need to ear when they're sick. If they have kids then the kids need to eat. My mom&dad would make box scalloped potatoes or frozen stir fry (or whatever) & then we'd do puzzles or watch wheel of fortune & jeopardy. Sometimes they'd cook from scratch, but honestly I remember the stuff we did and time we spent together more than if my scalloped potatoes came from a box.
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Dehydrated citrus slices for garnish - an absolute robbery for them prepackaged but very, very easy to make.
None of my comments were intended to be snobbery. I cook and bake from scratch because (1) I enjoy the process, (2) I prefer the taste, and (3) I have loads of time on my hands. I understand that a lot of people simply don't have the time to make fresh bread or babysit a stockpot. Others aren't interested in cooking or don't know how. That's ok. We're all just doing what we can.
There's a fair bit of snobbery in many of these responses. All the "I don't know why anyone would buy ready-made (whatever) - when it generally comes down to convenience, lack of experience/knowledge, and often lack of space (for a pasta machine, as an example).
Lack of time also. Five minutes for this, ten minutes for that. Spend an hour just making the ingredients before you start cooking.
Load More Replies... Depending on where you live I agree or disagree with these. Some things are super easy to make, but cost much more than ready bought. We used to be make from scratch, not so much at the moment. For example pesto. We can buy a proper good pesto for 2,99€ or we can make one for almost 10€ same quantity. Why? Pine nuts quadrupled in price, basil doubled in price (our neighbourhood cats killed everything in our garden), oil tripled in price. Guacamole the same. Two small avocados used to be around 1€, now 3€ minimum. A jar of guacamole is 3,95€.
@YukiChou...Exactly. And for me, it's mostly how often I use a product. If it's an occasional treat like cookies, I'm not going to buy all the individual ingredients for them to get old, when I can spend a little more money and buy the frozen premade ones.
Load More Replies... I'm a pastry chef and spend 60+ hours in a kitchen as it is, if I want / need something premade I'm going for it. The last thing I need is more time spent in a kitchen.
I read an article one time (maybe buzzfeed) that was essentially about chefs using convenience foods when they weren't at work. So this is real.
Load More Replies... Yikes, this felt pretty darn snobby. I adore cooking and baking, however, I don't always have the time to make my own pasta sauce, dressing, bread, or pasta from scratch. People can lead incredibly busy life and unfortunately don't always have the time in their schedules to cook or bake. Sometimes, I have to pay a bit more and spring for that convenience.
yeah please just let me buy nice cookies when i feel like it. If im going to make my own cookies, i'll end up eating all the ingredients before they're in the oven, even then I'll have such a big batch of cookies that is way to much for me but I'll eat them anyway before the week is done. So nope.
I do a fair amount of baking, but I'm not above occasionally purchasing a boxed mix. In fact, I used cake boxed mixes in order to get back into baking after recovering from cancer treatment. Up to that point, I always had store-bought German's chocolate cake. But when I made my first one (by the way: easy peasy) and tasted the homemade coconut-pecan frosting, I was hooked. No more store-bought for me!
Instant food was a game changer. It allowed families (Mom's with their kids because Dads are useless) to spend more time with each other. Homemade is overrated.
Yep. It allows kids to help make stuff before parents get home, teen babysitters to feed the kids,etc. Even families without kids, I work 40+ hours and if a bag of pre cooked chicken , frozen peas, and instant mashed potatoes is dinner then so be it. I'm tired! Also adults get sick and need to ear when they're sick. If they have kids then the kids need to eat. My mom&dad would make box scalloped potatoes or frozen stir fry (or whatever) & then we'd do puzzles or watch wheel of fortune & jeopardy. Sometimes they'd cook from scratch, but honestly I remember the stuff we did and time we spent together more than if my scalloped potatoes came from a box.
Load More Replies... Dehydrated citrus slices for garnish - an absolute robbery for them prepackaged but very, very easy to make.
None of my comments were intended to be snobbery. I cook and bake from scratch because (1) I enjoy the process, (2) I prefer the taste, and (3) I have loads of time on my hands. I understand that a lot of people simply don't have the time to make fresh bread or babysit a stockpot. Others aren't interested in cooking or don't know how. That's ok. We're all just doing what we can.
