We spend hundreds of dollars on groceries every month. For many of us, the money spent on groceries is one of our largest bills. This is especially true for those who have large families to feed. With the cost of groceries on the rise, finding new ways to save money on groceries is extremely important.

Sign up for the rewards card offered by your grocery store. Walk up and down the aisles and you will see plenty of sales on the items you need but you have to be a rewards card holder in order to be eligible to receive these discounts. It only takes a minute to sign up for these rewards cards and it will be worth your time to do so.

Using coupons is one of the easiest ways to save money on groceries. Unlike a rewards card, customers can use their coupons at any grocery store that accepts them (unless they are store specific coupons). Coupons are readily available in newspapers and several online sites.

Check out coupons.com. They have an option available to customers that stores coupons on grocery store rewards cards. Not all grocery stores participate in this program but several larger chains do. If you have a store in your area that participates in the program, start shopping there to save money on your groceries. All you have to do is visit the website and select the coupons you wish to use. When you head to the store to make your purchases, your savings will be deducted when your rewards card is swiped!

When most of us think about what we eat in any given day it can range from some vegetables, some fruits, some bread and pastas and probably some kind of meat generally chicken or steak for dinner potentially eggs for breakfast. We wash this down with some milk and maybe some wine maybe even some Orange juice. Lets think about this for a second. Could you provide all of that for yourself. Maybe, maybe not of course depending on where you live. Bottom line is that you can provide most of that for yourself right now I bet.

For breakfast you had eggs, some bacon and orange juice. If you want to live self sufficient try to think about your eating and how it can be made self sufficient. Eggs. Build a chicken coup out back and get some chickens. You can spend a few dollars for chickens and have years worth of eggs for next to nothing. Orange juice. Do you live in a climate that would support oranges? If not still no worries. Buy oranges themselves not orange juice. Making your own orange juice from fresh oranges is much better for you and helps you take one more step to living self sufficiently. Now if you have room, get some pigs. Once a year have one slaughtered and have some bacon provided. Don’t have room for pigs? Go to a butcher shop and buy half a pig and have it cut up the way you want it. This will be much fresher and cheaper than buying at the grocery store.

The same concept I just applied to breakfast can be applied to any of your meals. If you want to eat self sufficiently you need to break down what you eat in any given today and think about where it comes from. Think if you could provide the entire thing yourself and if not, figure out how you can get closer to the root of anything. Keep trying to cut out the middle man and get to the source until you are able to create the source yourself.

So you planted your seeds in peat pods a long time ago and cared for them daily. You watched them grow and transplanted them to a bigger pot when you saw the first leaf. Months passed and you watched it get bigger and bigger until you finally saw a bloom and then you knew… tomatoes were finally coming your way.

Over time you harvested your fresh tomatoes and accumulated a large quantity of them and now you are wondering what fresh tomato recipes are out there for you to use with your hard work. Here are some of top fresh tomato recipes I have come across and hope you enjoy them:

Fresh Tomato Recipes

Tomato Salad: After working hard to create a healthy food supply for you and your family what better way to use up your tomatoes then in a salad. Check out this recipe to make a delicious tomato salad.

Stuffed Tomatoes with rice: While this is not as healthy as the salad it does put together some bacon, jalapeno pepper and cheese to make a tasty meal. Give this a try if you want to have some southern food.

Bruschetta: I love bruschetta, I think it is one of the best appetizers out there. If you are like me, then this recipe might be perfect for you. It makes a nice tasty treat on the grill in only a few minutes.

After all of that hard work of growing your tomatoes, be sure to put them to good use with one of these fresh tomato recipes.

Pizza is a fun family food that is great for lunch or dinner, hot or cold. It does not take long to make either if you have your pizza dough prepared a head of time. Here are the basics to making your own homemade pizza dough.First, ingredients. You will need the following to get started:

1 and ¼ ounce – Active Dry Yeast
1 and ½ cup – Water
1 and ½ teaspoon – Salt
2 tablespoons – Olive oil
1 tablespoon – Sugar
You should also have flour and extra olive oil on hand

Once you have your ingredients it is time to make your own pizza dough! First thing you need to do it mix your water, sugar and yeast in a large bowl. Stirring gently to mix in all of the sugar and yeast until they are dissolved. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes and then add in your salt, olive oil and flour to the mix and again, mix gently until all of the ingredients have been dissolved.

Using your hands, work the mixture to ensure all of the ingredients are well blended and mixed. You want to be sure all of the moisture is absorbed and the end result is a solid blob of mass.

Take the dough out now and place it on a floured surface. Begin to fold it over on itself again and again to work out any air in the dough so that when it comes time to cook it rises properly. Eventually the ball will seem smoother and should seem elastic.

Apply your olive oil to the dough and put it back into the mixing bowl you used earlier. Place a cover on the bowl and let it sit for sixty to seventy five minutes. During that time the dough will rise.

Once the time is up, take the dough out and split it in half using a knife. Pat down each half to remove any air in them. At this point you are done with your own homemade pizza dough. Now it is time to add the ingredients you like and get cooking with it!

If you want to cook with your homemade tomatoes or store bought ones you will need to know how to blanch your tomatoes. The reason you need to blanch your tomatoes before you can cook with them is that the process works to take care of the removal of any chemicals applied during their growing. Blanching your tomatoes also allow just the good juicy flavor of the inside to get into whatever your preparing instead of the surface which adds little value.

To get started you will need your tomatoes, a paring knife and a knife you can use for cutting as well as a cutting board. First step is to put water in a large pot on the stove and let it start boiling. While the water is heating take your knife and begin to cut out the stems of the tomatoes. Lightly cut an X into the bottom of each tomato and place them into a blanching basket which is basically a big bowl which looks like a metal strainer. Once all of your tomatoes are in the blanching bowl, place the bowl inside the boiling water. Once your tomatoes are in the hot water, fill your sink with cold water.

Keep your eyes on the tomatoes and you should see after about sixty seconds that the skins will begin to lift off of the tomatoes. Using tongs, remove the blanching basket from the hot water. Remove the fruit from the blanching basket into the sink and leave them there to cool. Once they are all cooled down you should be able to pull at the skin of the fruit around where you made the X mark and remove the skin from all of your tomatoes.

This is all it takes to blanch your tomatoes! Now that you know how to blanch your tomatoes, you have no excuses to go get cooking!

Pasta and sauce is one of the most popular dinners thanks to its quick and simple preparation time. What makes or break the meal is the quality and flavor of the sauce as everyone can make it a little different depending on personal preferences. Here is how you can make your own homemade tomato sauce and overtime start making it your own by changing the recipe and playing with the flavors you like the most.

The first thing you need to do is blanch ten tomatoes. Once they are ready, chop eight of them using your processor. Take the other two and dice them up and save off separately from the other eight. With your tomatoes ready it is time to make up your own homemade tomato sauce!

Take a large pot and heat at medium heat the following: one onion chopped, one green bell pepper chopped, four cloves of garlic, two tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of butter. After about five minutes add in your eight blended tomatoes and stir in your other two diced tomatoes, a pinch of basil and a pinch of Italian seasonings.

Bring the pot to a boil. Once boiling lower the stove to low and cover the pot. Allow your tomato sauce to simmer for about two hours to allow everything to breakdown and work out the flavors. Once your two hours are up, add in two tablespoons of tomato paste and allow your sauce to simmer two more hours and then you are done!

Making your own homemade tomato sauce allows you to create a variety of flavors that meets your specific preferences. You can store your sauce in cans making the process more reasonable as you only need to do it now and again. Congrats, you now know how to make your own homemade tomato sauce!

If you enjoy having a bottle of wine over a nice meal or to relax after a long day at the office, why not learn how to make your own wine so that you always have a supply and can make sure the flavor of your wine is exactly how you like it. To make your own wine you do not need anything that you don’t most likely already have in the comforts of your own home.

The process for making your own wine is (as with most things) pretty easy. All you need is two bags of grapes (you can use black or green) depending on your own preference to taste. You will also need two full bags of sugar and one ounce of yeast in addition to one gallon of water. That is all it takes to make up your own wine and you might have it already in the cupboard.

To get started with your own wine making break apart the grapes from the stalks. Pile them in a bowl and then crush them by hand so that they are all mashed. Boil the one gallon of water and then pour the water in with the mashed grapes. Allow this to sit for about two days.

Once the time has passed, strain the mixture but be sure to capture all of the juices. The goal of straining is to get any seeds or stems you missed. Now pour the grape juice into a bottle that can be sealed (not the bottle you plan on storing the finished product in). Add the sugar into the bottle and mix the sugar and the grape juice until you are sure all of the sugar has been dissolved.

After the sugar and grape juice has been well mixed and is in the bottle, add in the yeast to the mixture and stir it in. After you are confident the sugar, grape juice and yeast have been well mixed, you are ready to seal your bottle and store it.

Let your sealed bottle sit for about two weeks. During this time, be sure to seal stir it two times a day. This is called the fermentation period of wine making. Once the two weeks have passed, you now have made your own wine! Take the bottle and transfer the wine into the finished bottles for storage.

After you taste it, here are something’s to keep in mind. Was it to dry? Add more sugar next time and it will be sweeter. Did the final product not taste what you expected? Be sure to taste the wine during the process to make sure you are happy with it before moving to the next stage. Make changes as needed.

Who doesn’t love peanut butter sandwiches? They are simple, basic and yet always bring back good memories. Making your own peanut butter is actually pretty simple and rewarding as peanut butter sandwiches might be the most popular lunch for kids (and adults) of all options.

Want to learn how to make your own peanut butter? Keep reading!

First thing you need to do is go get some peanuts. You have two options here. You can buy roasted peanuts (which you basically just paid a little more to do something you could have done yourself) or buy peanuts and roast them yourself. Roasting your own peanuts is easy. All you need to do is crank on your oven to 350 degrees. Crack open all of the peanuts and remove them from their shells. You should have 4 cups of peanuts when all said and done. Take all of the nuts and spread them evenly out across a baking pan and let them bake in the over between 15 and 20 minutes.

Once they have cooled or if you bought roasted peanuts, take ½ of your peanuts, 1 and ½ teaspoons of peanut oil and grind them in a food processor for a few minutes until the blend is clumpy. At this point put in the other ½ of peanuts and another 1 and ½ teaspoons of peanut oil and again, blend. At this point keep blending until you reached the texture you like. If you want chunky peanut butter you may only blend for a little while but if you like to make your own creamy peanut butter then you might blend a little longer. Once you have achieved the texture you like, add 1 teaspoon of salt and blend for one minute to mix it in.

That is it! Doesn’t take long and shouldn’t make a mess out of your kitchen. Keep in mind, your homemade peanut butter that you just created does not have preservatives so it will not stay as long as the store bought kind. It should be consumed within two weeks and keep it refrigerated.

This goes great if you make your own jam as well!

Nothing beats homemade jam and it’s one of the most common things most people use. The best thing is, anyone can make their own strawberry jam. It’s easy! Save yourself some money, some calories and spend some quality time with the family and go make some jam! It doesn’t take all day, just a few hours.

First thing you will need is the strawberries. Ideally you have the ability to grow them at home, but if you don’t go to a farmers market and pick up some. Worst case, go to the grocery store and buy them there. Again, you don’t have to do everything, do what you can, anything you can cut out is better for you in the long run.

Take about six cups of strawberries. Remove the hulls and wash them thoroughly. From there, they need to be mashed up. I use my food processor to blend them up until they are nice and mashed.

From here, you need to blend with your other ingredients, sugar and pectin in a sauce pan. Usually it’s about 6 cups of sugar and the amount of pectin depends on the type you bought so be sure to read the directions on the box.

Now time to heat it up. Turn the stove to medium heat and be sure to stir often. After about five to ten minutes the mix should be boiling. After you have made sure everything has stirred in well and has been at a boil for atleast five minutes, remove the sauce pan from heat.

Use a ladle and remove the foam from the top. It is not needed. Now, test the mixture with a spoon. Does it seem thick enough? Is it the right texture? If not, no worries, put it back on the stove and boil it for another minute or two and retest.

Once you are happy, let it sit for five minutes and then you’re done! Congrats, you have made your own strawberry jam. Homemade strawberry jam is not only great tasting at home, but a nice gift for friends!

This also goes great if you make your own peanut butter!