The Food Nerd is Born

I have always wanted to cook primarily from scratch, although I have done so with greater and lesser degrees of success. 5 years ago, Dr.O' was working on his Ph.D. at Notre Dame, and we had 2 little boys by that time. I think we lived on $16,000 that year because I was home with the bebe Jedis. We were getting our budget under control, and I had to dramatically change the way we grocery shopped. Since one of the Jedis showed signs of food allergies, we needed to be able to remove certain ingredients from his diet. Add to that my fears about food additives, and there was plenty of reason to make as much from scratch as possible. Just a simple red popsicle could be harmful. My kids showed sensitivity to Red-40, made from petroleum by-products, and fairly recent studies have shown that the HFCS used to sweeten it could have mercury in it as part of the extraction process. Then there was the genetically-modified stuff, which is in all processed food. So I had to feed tiny people with food sensitivities and behavior concerns, and I had to do it very cheaply! We received help from WIC, which didn't offer the healthiest foods, but it helped to buoy our bottom line a bit. Soon I figured out that 2 staples could be made at home for next to nothing! I became a hard-core bread baker, and I used that WIC milk to make yogurt.