Frugal and Quick: Delicious, Easy Homemade Vanilla Pudding Recipe for Pennies (No Eggs!)

My family loves pudding, but the powdered and already-made versions are bland, expensive, and not very healthy. I researched recipes and realized just how easy and economical it is to make. I was looking for an egg-free recipe and ran across this one on All Recipes. I had about a cup of milk left in my fridge before going shopping, so I figured I’d experiment by halving the recipe below. It took all of five minutes to make. What an amazingly delicious recipe! Top with homemade whipped cream (whip some sugar and heavy cream until it forms peaks). You’ve got a frugal, quick, healthier and delicious dessert for pennies!

Here's what the pudding mix looks like when cooking. Looks a bit like white glue! But more delicious than white glue. No lumps because I whisked all ingredients beforehand, poured into pot, then cooked.

Pouring my experimental vanilla pudding into small glasses to be topped later with homemade whipped cream.

Vanilla Pudding Recipe (adapted from All Recipes)

• 2 cups cold milk (I used Trader Joe’s whole organic milk cut with water and I’ll try almond milk another time)
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon butter

Put all ingredients into a bowl, except the butter. This step prevents lumps from forming when cooking. Briskly whisk ingredients in bowl. (Next time I plan to use an electric mixer for this step to eliminate every potential lump.) Then, pour  ingredients into pot on medium high heat, whisk more, then wait for bubbling to start. Don’t boil. Add in butter, whisk. Lower heat, keep whisking (it thickens up quickly). Take off of heat, pour into cups/glasses, chill in fridge. Enjoy!

Enjoy! ~Marilyn, TFF

Related articles

• Homemade Vanilla Pudding Mix (cupcakesandcandles.wordpress.com)
• Banana Pudding (21nogluten.wordpress.com)

Frugal Recipe: Quick and Easy Homemade Granola Bars

Here’s a most amazing, inexpensive recipe for a healthy, delicious snack: granola bars.

The Two Frugal Fairfielders got together and made these homemade granola bars. We used a mix of conventional and organic ingredients. What a hit these were for both of our families! We look forward to making these, again, with different variations.  This recipe is courtesy of Living on a Dime, one of our favorite frugal websites.

Wrapping each bar in waxed paper gave it a special touch! These bars are great for an inexpensive holiday gift, as well.

Below each of the ingredients in the recipe below is a sample price of both a conventional and organic option. Prices will vary in your area and do not reflect sales or coupons. Totals are deliberately not included, in case you decide to mix organic ingredients with conventional ingredients, like we did. The prices in red reflect about what you’d pay for using these ingredients for this particular recipe.

However, we will add that this recipe yields 24 bars that cost on average half the price of the conventional granola bars found in the stores (which range in box counts and non-sale costs from store brand/10 bars for $2.69 to name brand/8-12 bars that cost $3.29 to $3.55 a box). We will also add that the boxed granola bars, which may be inexpensive when they are on sale and with coupon, are still not nearly as healthy and tasty as this recipe below. Our families will agree 100 percent.

Happy baking!

Homemade Granola Bars

3/4 cup brown sugar 


Domino Brand Light Brown Sugar 1 lb box $1.39, $.09/oz. -$.53

organic brown sugar $.13/oz. – $.77

1/2 cup sugar

Stop & Shop Sugar Pure Cane Granulated 2 LB box $1.59 ; $.05/ oz. $1.59 – $ .18

organic bulk evaporated cane sugar $1.50/lb, $.09/oz – $ .32

1/2 cup butter

Stop & Shop Sweet Cream Butter Unsalted Sticks – 4 qrtrs 1 lb box $2.50 –  $.62

Trader Joe’s unsalted butter rBST-free – $ 2.79 1 lb box –  $.70

2 Tbsp. honey

Nature’s Promise Organics Honey Golden 12 oz. jar $3.79; $.32 / oz – $ .32

Trader Joes raw honey 16 oz jar $5.99; $.38/oz – $.38

1/2 tsp. vanilla


Stop & Shop Pure Extract Vanilla 2 oz btl $2.99; $1.50/oz.  - $.12

Frontier Brand organic pure vanilla extract 8 oz $14.70, $1.84/oz - $ .16

1 egg 

Stop & Shop Eggs White Grade A Large 1 doz $2.69 – $ .23

Whole Foods or Trade Joe’s Organic Large Eggs 1 doz $3.69 – $ .31

1 cup flour

5 lb bag of Gold Medal regular white flour $2.99, .60/lb; $.04/oz. –  $.15

organic unbleached bulk white flour $.87/lb – $ .22

organic bulk whole wheat flour  $.99/lb - $ .25

1 tsp. cinnamon

McCormick Cinnamon 3.62 oz btl $2.79; $.77/oz. - $.09

Frontier Brand organic bulk 1lb bag $13.75,  $ .86/oz – $ .10

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Arm & Hammer Baking Soda Pure 16 oz box $.89, $ .06/oz –  $.003

Arm and Hammer Baking Soda Pure 13.5 lb bag $6.50, $ .03/oz – $.0015

1/4 tsp. salt

Stop & Shop Salt Iodized 26 oz $.69; $.03/oz –  $ .0008

Frontier Brand Sea Salt $.09/oz –  $.0025

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

Stop & Shop Oats Rolled Old Fashioned 42 oz pkg $3.39; $.08/oz. – $.46

organic bulk rolled oats – $ .90/lb,  $ .06/oz – $.34

1 1/4 cups  any whole grain type cereal

Stop and Shop multigrain o’s cereal 12.5 oz. box $2.79; $.22/oz – $1.05

Nature’s Path Mesa Sunrise organic whole grain cereal – $.30/oz – $1.72

1/2 cup wheat germ (optional) 

1 cup chocolate chips*

Hershey’s Baking Chips Semi-Sweet Chocolate12 oz bag $2.89, $.24/o. – $1.92

Trader Joes Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips – 16 oz bag $2.29, $ .15/oz – $1.20

Sunspire organic chocolate chips – 9 oz bag $5.00, $.56/oz – $4.45

Directions:

In a large bowl, cream sugars and butter until fluffy. Add honey, vanilla and egg. Mix well. Blend in flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Stir in remaining ingredients. Press firmly into the bottom of a greased 9×13 pan. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes.

To microwave: Press ingredients into a microwave safe dish. Microwave on medium power for 7-9 minutes. Rotate dish every three minutes. Bars will firm as they stand. Cool and cut into bars. Save the crumbs for yogurt or ice cream topping. Makes 24 bars.

*The following may be used in addition to or to replace chocolate chips: 1 cup coconut, 1/2 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter, 1/2 cup nuts, 1/2-1 cup raisins, dried apples or apricots, 1/2 cup fruit preserves.

~ Aimee and Marilyn, TFF

Here's the granola mix pressed into the pan and ready to bake.

Here's the granola bar mix already baked. We couldn't wait to taste it so the photo came later!

A chocolate chip granola bar made by Quaker Oats. Our homemade bars look the same, but may be a bit softer. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Easy Recipe for Homemade Liquid Soap

I love this post from Savvy Housekeeping on how to take all your dried-up bars of soap and make something useful from them–liquid soap! I will try this tomorrow once I get the ingredients. Thank you for the great tutorial!

~Marilyn from TFF

A few days later.…okay folks, this isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do! True, using Dove for Sensitive Skin is not an ideal soap to use–the flakes did not easily melt. Today, I used an old dried up bar of whatever was sitting in the kids’ bathroom. A better outcome, but not sure what I was expecting…at first. I expected a lovely pearly liquid soap to appear right away, but it was sort of clear and too watery when it was hot.

But…I actually forgot that the pot was cooling–and hours later I finally checked it. I was happily surprised to find a pot full of lovely pearly white liquid soap! The trick is to let it cool a long time. It was a bit gloppy until I mixed it a bit and poured it into a bottle. The consistency is just right.

Oh, and I spent $6.00 at CVS for a small bottle of glycerin in the beauty department.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

The ingredients for homemade laundry detergent. Photo: The Simple Dollar

As you may have noticed, we are reporting a bit on new and snazzy laundry detergents. (A post about the ultra-cool Robby Wash Ball is coming, promise…). But, we like this homemade laundry detergent recipe that we saw today in a post on Yahoo Finance. To read the entire (and fascinating) article, click here.

(Disclosure: we have not tried this recipe, but we are tempted….)

The Recipe (for about .2 cents a load…)

(taken word by word from Yahoo’s article, and thanks to The Simple Dollar for the recipe)

A quick search online will show you that there’s no shortage of homemade laundry soap recipes: Here’s one from The Simple Dollar. And we’ve got 10 more at Money Talks News. But below is one that seems to work pretty well. You’ll need:

• 4 cups of water.
• 1/3 bar of cheap soap, grated.
• 1/2 cup washing soda (not baking soda).
• 1/2 cup of Borax (20 Mule Team).
• 5-gallon bucket for mixing.
• 3 gallons of water.

First, mix the grated soap in a saucepan with 4 cups of water, and heat on low until the soap is completely dissolved. Add hot water/soap mixture to 3 gallons of water in the 5-gallon bucket, stir in the washing soda and Borax, and continue stirring until thickened. Let the mix sit for 24 hours, and voila! Homemade laundry detergent.

What Do You Do With Leftover Cabbage from St. Patrick’s Day Dinner? Here’s a Recipe from 1891

Here's a quick photo of what your leftover cabbage will look like when cooking this recipe. It looks simple, tastes amazing. A great side dish that tastes like it came from a chef's kitchen. Photo: Marilyn, TFF

If you’re done cooking your corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day, you may have some leftover vegetables that you don’t know what to do with.

We found a worthwhile recipe a few years back that takes cabbage and turns it into a gourmet side dish (we swear we’ve tasted this same dish in upscale restaurants NYC restaurants). It’s a recipe that we pulled from an old and quirky recipe book called Women’s Circle. It’s just so simple and delicious.

Creamed Cabbage Vegetable Dish from 1891

Ingredients:

1 medium head cabbage

1 gill (1/2 cup) cream

1 ounce butter (walnut size)

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup water

Directions:

Slice cabbage as you would for slaw.

Cook in 1 cup water until tender, then drain.

After draining, melt butter in saucepan.

Return drained cabbage to saucepan that has melted butter.

Add cream, salt, and pepper.

Simmer two to three minutes.

Note: Add more butter for flavor if desired.