Buttermilk Bliss
Today, buttermilk has me all fired up! Yes, that’s right! I’m not ashamed, I said buttermilk!
Why buttermilk, you ask?!
Well, it just so happens that I scored ten quart sized bottles of it for .99 cents each!!! They are also organic, and feeding my family organic food is a top priority around here! These bottles normally retail for $3.99 a bottle at my local grocery store! That means, ten bottles at regular price would’ve cost me $39.90! Instead, I paid $9.90 for all ten thanks to the discount price. See why I’m so excited?!?!
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“Sell by”, “Best by”, and “Use by” dates?
The majority of grocery stores will discount foods a day or so before the date on the package in an effort to reduce food waste and help with monetary losses for their store. Dates on food packages are confusing and misleading. “Sell by date,” “Best by date,” “Use by date”… Oh my!!! Most of the time, these dates actually have nothing at all to do with food safety, but are simply a manufacturer’s best guess at how long their food will taste its freshest. Confusion regarding food label dates are a huge contributor to food waste.
Thanks to my grocery store discounting the buttermilk prior to “its date,” I was able to feed my family organic food for a lot less! AND as an added bonus, it prevented the buttermilk from being thrown away!
I regularly take notes at the store on many organic food items like eggs, yogurt and milk, as well as items that freeze well such as beef, chicken, cheese, bread, soft tortilla shells and lunchmeat. And you guessed it, I just happen to show up on the dates I know these items will be discounted to scoop up the savings!
But what exactly do you do with ten quarts of buttermilk?
This is precisely the question I called to ask Trisha while standing in the supermarket trying to decide how many bottles to buy! I’m not exactly familiar with uses for buttermilk other than banana bread, so I needed to do some consulting! Please know, I did catch the obvious choice pictured on the package- buttermilk pancakes! Ten quarts would’ve made 20 batches of pancakes to freeze. WOW! But what were my other options? Whatever the answer, it needed to be something I could freeze!
After some minimal searching I was able to find two easy recipes that called for buttermilk: Buttermilk Quick Bread and Pumpkin Muffins topped with Streusel. I’d never made either of these recipes and I already had on-hand three discounted boxes of pumpkin puree (.50 cents each) and about seven cartons of discounted eggs ($1.99 each), all from previous shopping scores. So, I decided to go for it! I’m glad I did!
I was willing to accept that almost two whole homeschool days were simply going to be making Banana Bread/Muffins, Buttermilk Pancakes, Buttermilk Quick Bread and Pumpkin Muffins! The kids weren’t complaining either. My son was put to work flipping pancakes in two large skillets and my daughter was assigned to mixing ingredients for all recipes. I measured ingredients, cleaned dishes and oversaw the kitchen. We spent ALL day making yummy buttermilk laced foods and finished things up another half a day after that!
In total, we made 1 loaf buttermilk quick bread, about 75 pumpkin muffins, six dozen banana muffins, two loaves of banana bread and somewhere around 210 pancakes!!!
Why spend the time making all of these items to freeze?
Well first, to make my life easier! When scout camping trips come up, or family vacations where we need to pack our own food, the work is already done; I simply need to remove an item from the freezer! Who wants to bake or cook in the heat of summer?!?! Not me, but I definitely want to eat such items in the summer for sure!
Second, it helps cut down on food waste, something which I am pretty bothered by. I feel like I’m helping out a tiny bit with the food waste problem by purchasing and using items that are discounted close to the date on their package. That’s pretty much it! Add to those two reasons the fact that I love a good deal, and now you understand why I couldn’t walk away from 10 bottles of buttermilk! Seriously!
Be brave and buy it!
I hope the next time you walk by a discounted item at the grocery store, I want you to be brave and buy it! Even if you don’t know how to bake or cook! Finding recipes and making them with your kids is actually fun (mostly if you take out the arguing over jobs and cleaning up all the flour that usually spills). Batter tasting, spying on the goodies in the oven and chatting about little things with your kiddos will make it all enjoyable! And guess what, if your recipe flops, who cares? You still have all that time spent with your family to show for it! And if you prevail, PERHAPS you too will have a freezer full of yummies!
