From Scratch...

I have talked before about how much I love Pinterest. It is just so inspiring. So many people comment on how it is a vortex to waste your time, but I have found many useful tips and tricks from the site. My favorite is the Fauxbreeze that can be found on my Frugal Me board. So Simple! I have also found that I am dressing and accessorizing better-- at least in my opinion. I have also created a Pinterest Stuff I Have Really Tried board to not only show other that it is a valuable tool, but also to prove to myself that it is not a waste of time.

Last month, we bought a waffle maker from Target. We used a boxed mix to make the waffles and they were less than appealing. We decided that we would make a batch from scratch. Which prompted a pretty funny conversation with my 6 year old.

Little Man: Mommy can we go to the store tomorrow?
Me: Why? What do you want from the store?
Little Man: Scratch!
Me: What do you want? <insert me confused>
Little Man: You know! Scratch...to make waffles from!
Me: Oh! Scratch isn't a specific thing, it means using ingredients to make something homemade. We have to pick up the ingredients to make waffles.
Little Man: Well, can we do that? 

Sadly, we still haven't made the waffles from Scratch, but I now have a stock pile of baking ingredients (including more bags of flour than I realized I already had). I started thinking while I was pinning recipes to my Food board on Pinterest that growing up, we didn't buy a box of cake mix. There were no cans of apple pie filling. When we wanted to bake something, we pulled out the Watkins cookbook with my grandmother's handwritten notes in the margin. Somewhere in high school, the cookbook was shelved and boxes started to take over the cabinet. I still use boxes, but is my son missing out because of this? It would be cheaper to make stuff from scratch even with coupons for all those box mixes.

I still have my grandmother's cookbook. It is very brittle with age now, but it is nice to have that little bit of family tradition and history. So I have decided there will be no more box mixes in my house. I do of course have to use up the mixes I still have, but I will not be purchasing more. I have quite the collection of recipes now from Pinterest, but do you have any particular favorite boards or blogs to watch for? Maybe a favorite waffle recipe? ;)